The SSDW Mission

Our mission is to provide South Shore families with meaningful opportunities to gather, learn, and grow — strengthening connections within our community and building a healthy relationship with the technology we use.

We are committed to fostering a balanced, informed, and healthy community through our Digital Wellness Speaker Series, Play Days, Digital Wellness Book Club, Outdoor Family Meet Ups, and partner events supporting in-person community connection.

Learn More About Our Programs & Events
Busily engaged children use small size garden tools to dig potatoes with the support of several adults. One potato has been collected in the nearby wheelbarrow.

Meet Our Board of Directors

We are parent volunteers on the Massachusetts South Shore.

  • A smiling adult embraces two young children in a bright room with digitally added raining flowers.

    Katie Scopelleti

    PRESIDENT

  • Outdoors, a woman and child lean toward one another while another child, barefoot, perches and smiles high above them on a rock wall.

    Rachel Bradley

    CLERK

  • A smiling adult with a large bouquet of multicolor flowers leans in toward a small child purposefully hiding their face behind their own set of flowers. They stand outdoors in a field of flowers with trees in the far distance.

    Ngoc Dupont

    TREASURER

  • An adult in a field of purple flowers, face obscured, reaches for a stem to hand the small child sitting in her lap. The sun glows in the distance.

    Heather Quintal

  • An adult, arms spread wide, stands before a painted wall where a large bird's wings have been painted to allow for such a pose. It is as if they have wings.

    Erika Zinsmeister

  • A smiling adult stands before a body of water with the city skyline in the distance. The sun sets over the scene and glows on the water.

    Laura Joyce

Two young people appear to be digging potatoes in a garden plot in a larger community garden. There is a shovel and bag of harvested potatoes nearby.

Our History

The beginnings of South Shore Digital Wellness (SSDW) trace back to a community event focused on mental health and digital wellness. Katie and Rachel, both parents and passionate advocates for children’s well-being, attended the event hoping to learn more about how technology was shaping kids’ lives at home and in school — what they heard moved them to action.

Rachel, a lifelong champion of play, felt a renewed urgency to bring more unstructured play into her child’s school community. Katie, a young mother with two children soon entering elementary school, felt a deep responsibility to ensure that the school they would attend embraced healthy digital practices and prioritized balance.

Their shared concerns led to the first gathering where Ngoc, along with several other parents, joined in conversation. Around the table, concerns poured out — rising mental-health challenges, diminishing opportunities for play, and the need for healthier relationships with technology. Interest grew quickly, as did a collective sense that something meaningful had to be done.

Then one day, Katie sent a simple but game-changing message to Ngoc and Rachel: “We need at least three people to form a non-profit. Are you interested?”

With that spark, SSDW was born.

What began as a few concerned parents attending a local talk has grown into a grassroots organization dedicated to community well-being across multiple towns on the Massachusetts South Shore.

A black and brown fuzzy caterpillar is held gently upon two fingers of a young hand. Image taken during a family hike of South Shore Digital Wellness.
A young person presents the exoskeleton of a molted horseshoe crab to the camera on an Outdoor Family Meet Up of SSDW.
Children of various ages are busy at play on a playground structure that has been covered with loose parts, such as a laundry basket, duct tubing, large pom poms, balls, buckets, and ropes to create games of their own collaborative invention.
See Our Digital Wellness Speaker Series