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NEWS
A Christmas Carol Goes Virtual
A Home for the Holidays
Q&A
TENISHA SAGET
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVES Tenisha Saget’s role has continued to change and expand over the 12 years she has been with Rosie’s Place. Her first role was working with volunteers and, after a few years, she transitioned to the Advocacy program, helping our guests. When our School Collaborative in the Boston Public Schools was launched, Tenisha managed our service delivery in more than 50 schools. She now oversees the outreach efforts of both the School and Court Community Collaboratives and our Advocacy Helpline. What prompted Rosie’s Place to establish the Advocacy Helpline? When COVID-19 hit, it was easy for us all to feel alone and isolated, especially the poor and homeless women who count on our Advocates for support, help and many times, simply a listening ear. We knew we had to find another way to maintain our connection to our guests and to reach the many more women in need due to the pandemic. So we expanded and enhanced our School Collaborative Helpline—which was established as a way for moms to reach us or leave messages with us if they were unable to meet with an Advocate at their child’s school—to create the Advocacy Helpline. With more staffing and advanced technology, it’s become an immediate and effective way for us to be there for our guests at a time when they need us most. What are some of the unique aspects of the Helpline? When a woman calls the Helpline number– supported by a staff of 13 Advocates and three managers–she will reach a call center with features similar to conventional customer service lines. She’s able to choose a language for the call, either English, Spanish, Haitian Creole or Portuguese (which I speak), and she will be directed to the appropriate Advocate. Our guests tell us that they love immediately connecting to someone live. In the event a caller must be put on hold, we let her know what number she is in the queue and frequently update that number. We have found that this helps lessen the frustration of waiting for our callers. After hours, women can leave a voicemail and we will return the call within a day. These upgrades allow us to handle a larger volume of calls and increase our responsiveness to women who may be experiencing barriers to assistance in so many other areas of their lives. What type of services do we offer? Just about every Advocacy service we offered on-site we now provide through the Helpline. And we’re creative with the technology. Many women text us photos of rent and utility bills, documents and notices, so we can review them together and help resolve any issues. Often, we’ll mail paperwork we’ve helped fill out or MBTA passes to guests. Women having difficulty with unemployment benefits are referred to our Job Specialist, who will reach out to them. With so many children learning from home, moms who have lost their Internet access are turning to us for the funds they need to have it restored. In this way, we recently helped a family with five children get back on track for at-home learning. Are you seeing new areas of concern among the women we assist? Women who have never wanted to accept food stamps are now asking for help applying for them. Their families are hungry, feeling the loss of the meals their kids received at school. And maintaining housing, which is always a challenge for our guests, is becoming harder than ever. We’re hearing from women who have lost jobs and are overwhelmed with back rent, owing anywhere from $500 to $15,000. We are able to offer financial support as well as assistance with debt management. Our Legal Program has been looking into letters our guests are receiving from landlords telling them they have to leave without following the proper legal processes. The continuing impact and chaos brought on by COVID-19 has made our guests fearful and even more vulnerable. We are bracing ourselves for a difficult winter.
Grace speaks of her childhood, growing up in a small village in Cameroon, with a nostalgic smile. While her family didn’t have much themselves, they somehow always found they could spare something for their neighbors who had even less. In her home, acts of sacrifice and kindness were commonplace. Years later, Grace carried the lessons of her upbringing with her as she travelled on her own to Boston to reunite with her daughter and grandchildren. Her first time out of Africa, Grace was awestruck by America and grateful for the opportunity to live with her family. Unfortunately, this new home was a precarious one. Just months after she moved in, Grace’s daughter lost her job and, soon after, the apartment they were all sharing. The family had no choice but to separate. Alone in a new country and forced to ask strangers for help in a language she didn’t speak—Grace was overwhelmed.
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No longer was she overwhelmed by the road ahead of her. With the support of Rosie’s Place, she was ready to walk it. When the pandemic hit in March, Grace was staying with us once again and was one of 20 women whose typical three-week stay in our shelter was extended indefinitely. In the midst of so much uncertainty, Grace was relieved to find constancy and comfort at Rosie’s Place. For months, she continued her work with our team to navigate the legal issues of her immigration and the many challenges of securing stable, affordable housing. Together they translated and completed all the necessary forms and follow-up to ensure her place on the waiting list for a housing voucher.
It is with great joy that I am writing this note to you. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to you for your hospitality, patience, kindness and professionalism…finally I have my own apartment and I am overjoyed…I will continue to visit this community that has sheltered me, fed me, and helped me with all my legal and health issues…Please accept my infinite gratitude and I hope you know that I appreciate all the help you gave me. To all of you: Thank you! Thank you!
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- Grace She found refuge in a nearby city shelter. There she met a woman who told her about Rosie’s Place and offered to join her on the bus ride over to visit us. Grace met one of our Advocates, whom she was relieved spoke a dialect she could understand. Asking for help is hard, and asking it of those who don’t speak your native language is even harder. They were able to communicate in French, with Grace explaining her situation and our Advocate in turn explaining how Rosie’s Place could help her. At last, Grace felt like her voice could be heard. For the first time in too long, she felt hopeful. As good timing would have it, the next morning, a bed opened in our Overnight shelter. And by the next night, Grace was settling in for her three-week stay with us. A New Start Without the constant worries about where she would sleep and how she could eat, Grace was able to start working with our team of Advocates and Housing and Legal Specialists on the complex process of finding stable housing. They helped her to fill out the many applications she was required to complete in English. Over the next two years, Grace spent almost every day at Rosie’s Place. She enjoyed the friendly company and delicious meals she found in our Dining Room and enrolled in the English classes offered by our Women’s Education Center. She was delighted to be a part of the classroom community and relished the chance to learn the language of her new home. Grace also took part in meditation and yoga classes through our Wellness Center, which she says helped to ground her during a time of tumult. Advocates connected her to health care and then help with the transportation to and from her visits to her physical therapist. Grace felt like she was claiming control.
In June, Grace got the news she had been waiting so long to hear—housing was within reach—and she could at last make a home of her own in America! Coincidentally, Grace’s new apartment is right around the corner from Rosie’s Place. She took this as an omen because as she says, over the years we’d become family, and it’s always nice to have family nearby. And just like family, we were happy to help Grace move into her new place—providing furnishings and household items she needed to make it a home. From her new address, Grace wrote to us: “It is with great joy that I am writing this note to you. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to you for your hospitality, patience, kindness and professionalism…finally I have my own apartment and I am overjoyed…I will continue to visit this community that has sheltered me, fed me, and helped me with all my legal and health issues…Please accept my infinite gratitude and I hope you know that I appreciate all the help you gave me. To all of you: Thank you! Thank you!” Today, Grace stays connected to her Rosie’s Place family—visiting our Food Pantry and checking in with that same Advocate who first greeted her about any questions or concerns she has with her housing. She looks forward to celebrating the holidays in her new home and plans to cook her favorite foods and visit online with her family and friends. She was thrilled to receive early holiday gifts from Rosie’s Place, but she says the best present is knowing that we will be here for her for as long as she needs us. Growing up in that little village in Cameroon, Grace never dreamed that in America she would make a new family and a new home. Thanks to Rosie’s Place, she found both.