To improve the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities facing systemic barriers.
By 2050, Ascentria aims to shape a healthier, more equitable society by setting a new standard of care, co-created with the communities we serve, that centers on both those receiving and providing care.
We’re here today because of the foresight of a pious brewer by the name of Gottlieb F. Burkhardt, whose summer farm in West Roxbury would eventually become the Martin Luther Orphan’s Home at Brook Farm in 1872. A volunteer organization with a commitment to helping children as well as “aged, weak, and helpless persons,” Brook Farm would soon be followed by the establishment of a Lutheran agency to assist lonely seafarers on the busy docks of Boston. Our social ministry had begun!
Over the years, our pledge to provide help, healing and hope to those in need expanded throughout New England. By 1992, the agency had a new name, Lutheran Social Services of New England. Today, Ascentria Care Alliance continues its legacy.
Learn more about our work across New England and meet the people who help form Ascentria’s vibrant community.
Published: Nov. 08, 2026, 5:35 a.m. Featured image: Advocates with signs outside Ascentria Care Alliance in Worcester, at a press conference on removal orders for unaccompanied immigrant children on Nov....
‘Welcome Home’ tells story of Afghan refugees and volunteers who help By Richard Duckett WORCESTER — When Cambridge photojournalist Jodi Hilton volunteered to document the resettlement of two Afghan refugee...
WORCESTER, Mass. — June 20, 2026 — Sarah DuBard On June 12, community members, elected officials, service providers, and refugee families gathered in Worcester to celebrate World Refugee Day, an...
Over the course of the 2025 – 2026 academic year, the Ascentria Unaccompanied Children Long-Term Foster Care (UC LTFC) Program had the opportunity to develop two photo-based projects titled Imaginarte...
