WINTER 2019 A New Job Transforms a Guest’s Life Our President on Our Holiday Spirit Ways to Get Involved This Month The 2020 Census
NEWS
A Winter Wish List End-of-Year Giving
Q&A
SWEENS SMITH
SENIOR ADVOCATE, ROSIE’S PLACE
Lupita, Gianlucas and Andrew Senior Advocate Sweens Smith has devoted her career to helping women in need. Prior to joining Rosie’s Place in 2014, she worked for many years with women experiencing domestic or partner violence at Casa Myrna Vasquez. Fluent in Haitian Creole, Sweens is a resource in the Advocacy department for our Haitian guests, and for all women seeking assistance in the areas of housing and job search, rent and utility assistance, wellness care, and more. She enjoys contributing to an uplifting holiday season at Rosie’s Place. What is distinctive about Rosie’s Place at holiday time? Many of the women we see at Rosie’s Place are not connected with their families or are new to Boston, and they will end up spending the holidays alone. So our staff is committed to making them special. We trim trees and decorate the Overnight shelter and Dining Room, and we plan for a festive Christmas. When guests spend the day with us, they are welcomed into an upbeat, cheerful and fun atmosphere of good company, food, and music. We want to make sure our guests are part of some kind of celebration. Through our activities and Holiday Store, we try to show women that they are valued and that Rosie’s Place cares. What do we offer at the Holiday Store? Again this year, we are planning an on-site Holiday Store in mid-December for our guests. Thanks to donations from businesses and friends in the community, we’re able to offer women a choice of new gift items, such as bath and body gift set, hats, scarves and mittens, toys, perfume, a gift card and more. (See Wish List on page 4 to help.) The store concept means that guests can choose items they would like for themselves, or they can select gifts they will give to others. We provide wrapping paper, too. Last year we provided gifts for more than 500 women and we hope to serve even more this season. What challenges do our guests face during the holidays? The holidays also mean winter is here. It’s cold to be outside but many women can’t afford public transportation to get to appointments, go to work or run errands, so they must walk instead. And of course, there are many women who live on the streets. Guests often do not have enough warm clothing and come to us looking for a coat, hat, sweater and socks. Women face larger utility bills and often have to make hard choices such as cutting their food budget to stay warm. And the winter holidays bring extra pressure to provide gifts and big meals for family, which makes the reality of having little money more difficult. That’s why Rosie’s Place makes an extra effort to brighten the days of our guests at this time of year. What are the best ways to get involved during the holidays? People can review some of the Ways to Give (on page 3) and sponsor a donation drive or make Rosie’s Place the beneficiary of a holiday gathering. Another way to make a difference is to keep us in mind after the rush of the holidays. Volunteering in our dining room and throughout Rosie’s Place is one way to extend holiday giving. We are so lucky to have the generous support of our friends all year long.
A Guest Finds a Career, and a New Start This fall, Shamika’s long-delayed dream started to become reality: She was taking the first steps toward not just a new job, but a career. Finally, she was on her way to true independence, and it felt great. But the road forward was long and hard.
Returning to find hope
Shamika suffered the first in a series of crises and setbacks in her life even before she left high school. A promising basketball player, she got injured her senior year, and was crushed when her college scholarship disappeared. However, going to college was important to Shamika and she was able to piece together enough money for one semester at a school in Virginia, hoping she’d figure out a way to continue. But when she returned home on break, she discovered that her mother had lost their house and Shamika was left to fend for herself. School was out of the question, as she had to focus on navigating her new life of homelessness. “I wanted to cry and hide,” she says. “It was terrifying for me. I was clueless about everything and too afraid to ask for help.”
“I was homeless but for all those years I couldn’t accept that I was a homeless person,” she says. “When I finally decided to stop the denial that this was my life, things started to happen for me.”
After exhausting the hospitality of friends and family, Shamika found a bed at Rosie’s Place. With the help of one of our Advocates, she began filling out housing applications and enrolled in a Certified Nursing Assistant training program we suggested for her. She loved the course, which was paid for by an education fund at Rosie’s Place, but the program unexpectedly closed before Shamika would have graduated. When she learned she couldn’t transfer her course work to any another school, she felt knocked down again. “I went blank for a while, hung out with friends,” she says. “I just lost focus on everything.” Over the years, Shamika tried other training programs but they didn’t lead to the solid job she had hoped for. She went to work for a temp agency, for a while holding down two jobs, seven days a week. She was able to manage this while still homeless, moving between Rosie’s Place and different shelters in the area. With this life wearing her down, Shamika abandoned her goal of building a career and took work as a housekeeper at a B & B in Cambridge. During this time, Shamika began renting an apartment with her girlfriend, finally settling into a permanent home. But, eventually, the relationship became abusive, and she had no choice but to leave and return to the streets. “I couldn’t fathom that I was ending up here again, homeless,” she says. “I told myself, ‘This time, I have to turn this around.’”
Shamika’s life reached a turning point this spring when she came back to Rosie’s Place. She once again stayed in our Overnight Program and started to intently focus on her housing applications.
Shamika had been talking to our job specialist about options for a second job to augment her housekeeping earnings. Meanwhile, the job specialist was looking to fill two jobs with the Demolition Union. She thought of Shamika right away, but it would mean quickly leaving her long-term job and starting an intensive training program. At first, she was afraid to change her life so suddenly, but soon felt that longdormant spark of hope return. This could finally be the career she wished for but had given up on. Shamika (and another Rosie’s Place guest) did take the offer and started their training. There were a number of fees and logistical issues to manage, though, and Rosie’s Place stepped in. We helped with funding for the steel boots and hard hats required for the work, as well as the final test and license fees. Both women passed every requirement and started work this fall, earning a starting hourly rate of $40 hour. With this job opportunity, Shamika has become even more comfortable accepting help from Rosie’s Place. Our Legal Program was able to resolve an issue with her former apartment, which then cleared the way for Shamika to receive her long-awaited Section 8 voucher. We are providing her with budgeting and debt advice; after initial meetings, our mental health counselor connected her with a psychiatrist to address untreated depression; and an Advocate is working to obtain a bed and other furniture for Shamika’s new apartment. She is hopeful about her future. “Everything’s completely new for me—this fantastic job is new, having my own place is new. I feel like I’m a student—of life—all over again, learning the basics of taking care of the day to day. I really rely on my ‘team’ at Rosie’s Place to make sure I’m on point. I’m not going backwards.”