Pictured left to right: Jessica Castineiras, NiSHA Executive Director; Jeanne Travers, Rockland Trust Community Giving Administrator; Neil Marttila, NiSHA Board Treasurer
January 12, 2026 – The Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation is proud to award Nantucket Safe Harbor for Animals (NiSHA) with a $50,000 grant to support the construction of its new Animal Resource Facility. The new campus—which will consist of affordable staff housing, a rescue and adoption shelter, and a memorial garden—will replace NiSHA’s current 700-square-foot rented space as its new center of operations.
“Establishing this much-needed animal resource facility for our community will be transformative for NiSHA and the animals and families who depend on us,” said Jessica Castineiras, Executive Director and founding member. “It will enable us to offer affordable workforce housing for staff and allow us to provide more extensive and robust life-saving services for the animals we care for. Rockland Trust has been an incredible partner throughout this process and we are grateful for their support in making this new facility possible.”
Nantucket faces a severe shortage of workforce housing. The staff housing section of the new campus, which, for phase one, will consist of a four-unit duplex, will enable NiSHA to hire and retain highly qualified, talent. There are plans to construct a second duplex at a later time. With the addition of these accommodations, visiting vets, groomers, and other animal specialists will be able to lend their support to Nantucket, delivering crucial services to the community.
The facility’s rescue and adoption shelter will feature spacious and species-specific areas for cats and dogs, dedicated housing for small animals, isolation spaces for safely quarantining sick and contagious animals, and a medical suite for animal treatment and low-cost spay/neuter, rabies, and microchip clinics. Outdoors, the memorial garden will welcome visitors seeking to remember lost pets amid a garden of flowers, bushes, benches, and a central fountain.
“For more than 14 years, NiSHA has been dutifully serving the Nantucket community, making a meaningful difference in the lives of local animals and residents alike,” said Andrea Borowiecki, Vice President of Community Giving and Engagement at Rockland Trust and Executive Director of the Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation. “We are honored to contribute to NiSHA’s mission of providing affordable workforce housing and essential animal health, wellness, and education services across Nantucket.”
Within the new facility, an education and training space will host programs for all ages, supplementing the off-site lessons NiSHA currently offers at camps and schools across the island. Children will learn how animals are cared for, how to enrich their lives, the reasons animals become homeless, and the many ways people can prevent pets from becoming lost, strays, or abused. NiSHA projects that the educational programs will serve more than 750 children per year once the facility is complete.
