WINTER 2022 Together for the Holidays: A New Home & New Hope Q & A with our Remote Advocacy Services Manager Our President on the High Costs of Winter Ways to Help this Season
NEWS
Join us for A Christmas Carol on December 20th Get Involved and Give Back
Together for the Holidays: A New Home & New Hope When Nadine arrived at Rosie’s Place, she was completely distraught. She was facing eviction and feared she would lose the home she shared with her young daughter and teenage son. Nadine, like so many other single mothers who are living week-to-week, found ways to get by, but her bills quickly piled up and she fell behind in her rent. She pleaded with her landlord, telling him about her new cleaning job at a nearby hospital and explaining that she would soon be able to pay more. The landlord said she owed too much and would have to leave by the end of next month if she did not come up with the rent.
Q&A
JENNIFER CALDERON
Panicked, Nadine worried that if she lost the apartment and ended up in shelter that she and her daughter may be separated from her teenage son, her worst nightmare. At a friend’s suggestion, Nadine called our Advocacy Helpline, and our work together began.
Jennifer Calderon has been with Rosie’s Place for four years. She first joined us as an Advocate, and since 2021 has overseen our Advocacy Program’s Helpline, staffed by a team of multi-lingual Advocates, Monday through Friday, from 8:00AM to 6:00PM, helping hundreds of poor and homeless women every week with a host of challenges.
Once connected with Rosie’s Place, Nadine met with an Advocate who took immediate action to prevent her eviction, helping with back rent and negotiating a payment plan with the landlord and several utility companies to address her bills. With her current housing stabilized, we worked with Nadine to start the process of finding a more affordable apartment.
Can you tell me how the Helpline started? When the pandemic hit and folks were asked to stay home and stay apart, we created the Helpline so that our housed guests could continue to connect with us for support. And for so many women who were isolated and anxious during that chaotic time, we were a lifeline, helping them with both basic and complicated needs. The Helpline allows us to help even more women, immediately and conveniently with whatever they need from wherever they are. It’s really been a game changer for us!
As our Advocate helped Nadine build a budget, it was clear that her job at the hospital would not cover larger, unplanned expenses, so our Employment Specialist worked with Nadine to find other opportunities. To improve her English skills, Nadine also enrolled in ESOL classes at our Women’s Education Center, grateful she could take the courses online, so that she would not need childcare.
What kind of help do Remote Advocates provide? Everything that we offer a guest on-site, we can offer over the Helpline. Things like help with medical and housing paperwork, groceries and rent and utility arrearages. We are also able to connect them to our Legal Program and mental health, housing and employment specialists.
In time, these steps led to a higher-paying, administrative job in the same hospital where she was already employed. With every step forward, Nadine’s confidence improved, easing her worries and enabling her to see a more stable future for her family.
REMOTE ADVOCACY SERVICES MANAGER
Our Advocates speak multiple languages and we utilize a translation service whenever needed. Women can call throughout the day and talk, email or text with someone in their native language. Or they can leave a message and we’ll get back to them within 24 hours. We know that when a woman is calling us, she is in crisis. So it’s vital to be as responsive and compassionate as we can be, in every call we answer. What are the most common needs you are addressing with guests each day? Many times, the first and most urgent thing a woman who calls our Helpline needs is to be listened to and not be interrupted or redirected. And when there is a silence or a question for us, we know we can answer it because Rosie’s Place has so many different services and resources. In the past two years, the need for rent and utility assistance has soared and thankfully, Rosie’s Place has been able to increase our budget to meet this need. Because we know once a woman is evicted, she faces a long road back to any kind of stability. Why is this work so important to you? When I was growing up, my mother would talk about going to Rosie’s Place and I was too young to know what she meant. Years later, I understood all that Rosie’s Place did for her and my family. Rosie’s Place helped her get our apartment where she raised me and my siblings. Rosie’s Place gave me and my family so much and I always wanted to come back and give back. And now I’m here doing it and I’m so glad to be helping women just like my mother and families just like my own.
www.rosiesplace.org
visit • volunteer • give
As Nadine said, “I thought I would lose everything. But at Rosie’s Place, people cared about me and helped me
make a plan. It was completely different when I knew someone was there to help me keep my family safe.” Within a year of first coming to Rosie’s Place, Nadine secured a new apartment and entered our Housing Stabilization program, where an Advocate now visits her at her home to provide support and address any issues that may jeopardize her new place. She returns often to Rosie’s Place to visit our Food Pantry, which not only provides her family with pantry staples and fresh, healthy foods, but also household goods like toilet paper, cleaning supplies and COVID tests. Because of these critical supports, Nadine was able to keep her home and family together. And Rosie’s Place will help with gifts to make this holiday season, their first in their new home, even brighter. Nadine shared, “We are thankful for everyone at Rosie’s Place. You gave us so much. But most of all, you gave me hope when I thought I had none.”
Advocacy & Stabilization Services at Rosie’s Place Each year, Rosie’s Place helps more than a thousand women stabilize their situations to avoid eviction and homelessness through our Advocacy, Housing Stabilization and Legal Programs. In our lobby, women can access one of our skilled, multi-lingual Advocates through the triage desk. Guests can sign up for walk-in services, speak to an Advocate about urgent concerns, financial problems, transportation needs or to build a plan to work toward a stable housing or living situation. Guests can also reach an Advocate through the Advocacy Helpline open on weekdays, and get the same expert help they would receive at Rosie’s Place over the phone. For women who are newly housed or who are at risk of eviction, Advocates in the Stabilization Program provide in-home services and act as liaisons with property management/landlords to help women retain their housing. Many of our guests struggle with mental illness, physical disabilities, language and other barriers that can jeopardize their living situations. Stabilization Advocates help women develop individualized service plans and check in regularly with landlords to identify anything that might threaten a woman’s housing. Our Legal Program helps guests overcome obstacles that could prevent them from fair and equitable access to the justice that our legal system can provide. Some of those barriers include lacking access to technology, receiving services in a foreign language and requirements that create feelings of intimidation, fear and confusion. In partnership with Greater Boston Legal Services and Rian Immigrant Center, we offer in-person and remote legal services in the areas of family law, immigration, employment and housing, among others.