Compassion, Connection and Community

Our President on the Emergency Needs of Compassion, Connection and Community

Dear Friend,

Since Rosie’s Place’s first day, when we opened our doors and invited women to join us for coffee and sandwiches, we’ve always known that food builds community. It brings people together—especially at Rosie’s Place.

So that today, when we see the line for our Pantry stretching down the block and around the corner, and the tables in our Dining Room so full that some meals require two seatings—we don’t only see the great need, but we also see the great opportunities to make important connections.

We realize that our Emergency Services don’t offer longterm solutions to our guests’ poverty or homelessness. But we recognize that they are an important start.

Because, as Irene’s story and our conversation with Orialis Maxwell on page one illustrate, when women learn they can count on us for welcome and kindness, for vital food and shelter and showers, they soon discover we can help them with much more.

Connecting with our guests and connecting our guests to what they need is what Rosie’s Place is all about.

This could mean asking a woman lingering over a meal in the Dining Room if she has a safe place to stay, distributing flyers for our Women’s Education Center’s ESOL and Technology classes in our Pantry’s food bags or putting guests in our Overnight Shelter or our Sitting Room in touch with our Advocate or Housing, Legal, Mental Health and Employment Specialists.

Every day, women like Mona can be found in our Dining Room. Disabled and living on a fixed income, she relies on Rosie’s Place for help stretching her budget. With each visit, she looks forward to seeing friends and she also stops in at our Wellness Center for a blood sugar check. And on Fridays, she makes sure to check out what movie is playing in the Sitting Room.

And women like Chelsea, a single mother of two who is working with our Employment Specialist to secure a new job after being laid off from her job at a call center, depend on our Food Pantry—every week—for groceries, masks and COVID tests.

We aim to alleviate suffering in immediate ways and in doing so, create opportunities for connection and further help. In this way, we are able to make a real difference for women like Mona, Chelsea and the thousands of women who turn to us each year.

Thank you for sharing our belief that compassion, connection and community are the most urgent and important needs for all of us.

With appreciation,

Leemarie Mosca