Matthew's Commitment to Innovation

For the past 40 years, NCS has been looking for innovative ways to help our neighbors. When there are issues that don’t have an existing solution, we create one.  

This go-getter mentality is true of many of our founders, who stepped up to provide services and created coalition where one did not exist. It is also true of Matthew Hughes. 

Today a member of the NCS Board of Directors and Co-Chair of the NextGen Network, back in 2018 Matthew found NCS after attending an event for work. As an Associate Broker for Brown Harris Stevens, Matthew inquired as to what happens with the trays of food leftover after a meeting. When told that it would be thrown out, Matthew jumped into action.  

He googled local charities and got in an Uber with the trays of food. We’re so glad that his search brought him to the NCS Residence.  

A few weeks later he returned for a tour and asked what else he could do to help the residents. When the Program Director mentioned the clients needed bathrobes to walk to and from the shared bathrooms, Matthew stepped up. He shared an Amazon wish list with the robes, asking his friends, family, and colleagues to buy a few. And they did... in time for each client to receive one as a holiday gift that year.  

Less than a year later Matthew joined the Board of Directors. In this new role, he continued ensuring NCS residents receive leftover food from BHS events, connected us with in-kind donations, recruited volunteers, invited friends to fundraising events, and more! When NCS launched the NextGen Network, a group of young professionals in their 20’s and 30’s dedicated to NCS’s mission, he stepped up again, this time to  co-chair the group along with his fellow Board Member Rachael Piltch-Loeb. Matthew has been instrumental in growing the network and getting the next generation of New Yorkers involved in helping their current and formerly homeless neighbors thrive.  

Thank you Matthew for always stepping up and truly embodying our creed that neighbors should help neighbors. 

In honor of NCS’s 40th anniversary, we will be sharing stories about our founders, volunteers, supporters, and staff who make our work possible, and the residents and clients at the center of our mission.
Check back throughout the year as we regularly update the series with new stories from our 40 years here.