About Our Chapter

The ALS Association National Office, located in Washington DC and the Northern New England Chapter, located in Concord, NH, work together to accomplish our mission, “To discover treatments and a cure for ALS, and to serve, advocate for, and empower people affected by ALS to live their lives to the fullest.”  The Northern New England Chapter focuses primarily on helping local patients and families live with ALS, while the National Office focuses primarily on research and advocacy. The National Office also supports the Chapters by providing up-to-date information and materials. 

The Northern New England Chapter has made a lot of modifications to the work that we do in light of COVID-19 and  to continue to meet our mission  “To discover treatments and a cure for ALS, and to serve, advocate for, and empower people affected by ALS to live their lives to the fullest”.  Here are some examples of the changes that we have incorporated to continue our support for families with ALS:

1. Continue our advocacy work virtually - Every March, Executive Directors gather in Washington DC to learn about the current years public policy priorities for the association and meet with Legislative Aids to begin our advocacy efforts.  Even though we couldn’t meet with each office in person this year, we continued our advocacy efforts.  This year, the Fly In was held virtually and 8 meetings were held with various legislative offices. 
2. Modified connection groups to meet virtually – connecting with others remains critically important, maybe even more important now with increased isolation.  We continue to hold our connection groups, but virtually.  We have also opened them up for anyone to join and connect.  
3. Added connection groups - In addition to our standard connection groups, we have added new groups for caregivers as well as for people that have just received the diagnosis.   
4. Collaborating with multidisciplinary clinics – as each of the clinics in the Northern New England Chapter determines how best to move forward with the clinical care of people with ALS, the Care Services team is assisting in making sure clinical care for those diagnosed with ALS continues.   
5. Continuing the equipment loan program – although we have more limitations now because of COVID-19, we continue to work towards providing equipment that is needed or requested.  
6. Increased contact by phone– all of us have increased our contact with families impacted by ALS.  Whether you are someone that is living with ALS, a caregiver, a walk participant, a sponsor or a donor, we want to check and see how you are doing in this new COVID-19 reality. 

We are working hard to make sure that our mission priorities of Care Services, Advocacy and Research move forward even with the COVID-19 challenges.  If you have questions or need additional support, please contact us at (603) 226-8855.