SPRING 2021 A Year Like No Other Our President on Making Our Path Together How You Can Help Our Generous Community of Friends
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A Year Like No Other
The past year has been one of challenge and change for us all. But throughout this pandemic, Rosie’s Place’s doors have remained open, and our welcome constant. Every day, we offer comfort, compassion and consistency to poor and homeless women who all too often, but especially this past year, live in uncertainty, wondering: Where will I sleep? What will I eat? Where can I be safe? For these women, thanks to friends like you, Rosie’s Place provides unequivocal answers with unconditional love, sustenance and sanctuary.
food pantry
In response to the dire hunger crisis created by the pandemic, our Food Pantry doubled its capacity. Not only can women now visit our Pantry more frequently—once a week as opposed to once monthly—but we serve more women overall through this program. We provide fresh meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, non-perishable staples, household supplies and face masks to 250 women each day to help feed the more than 700 members of their households. For safety’s sake, we moved our Pantry distribution to the ground-level windows of our Women’s Education Center, where guests can receive their groceries from a healthy distance on the sidewalk. According to the most recent data from Feeding America, Massachusetts has seen the greatest percentage increase in food insecurity in the country due to the pandemic—a stunning 59%. We meet the faces behind these stats every day.
Annette, who has housing but now must work even harder to keep it and get by, relies on our Pantry. With her daughter and two grandsons who’ve recently moved in with her—she’s feeling the strain of feeding a larger family. The fresh produce and non-perishable groceries Annette receives help her to make ends meet for one more week.
overnight shelter
In March 2020, we extended indefinitely, the stays of the 20 women in our Overnight Shelter. This continuity and stability has been integral in keeping our guests and staff well. Should women secure other housing and move out, we have established quarantine and testing procedures to ensure new guests are safely introduced to the established community. Responding to the isolation imposed by the pandemic, we have been sure to provide our guests with engaging activities and outlets, offering them iPads, access to Mental Health Specialists, books, art supplies, online exercise classes and through our partnership with Berklee College of Music, online music therapy classes.
emergency services
Every day we welcome hundreds of poor and homeless women in need and many, in despair—feeling overlooked and overwhelmed during this pandemic. For these women, we are a lifeline, providing help with their most basic and critical needs which include medical screenings, showers, lockers, clean clothing, daytime shelter and healthy meals and snacks throughout the day. After spending the night in a park, Norma Jean is at our door at 7AM. She desperately needs refuge from the streets, a place to wash up, a hot meal to eat. She receives all these things and more at Rosie’s Place—taking solace in the peace, welcome and kindness she finds with us by day. The constancy of our services remains critical, most especially for women like Norma Jean.
advocacy & legal programs
Last March, we ramped up our advocacy efforts and quickly pivoted our services, establishing a remote Call Center so that our staff, who work with guests on wide ranging issues from back rent and utility arrearages to mental health support, legal advice, and job and housing searches—are able to help women with whatever they need, from wherever they are when they call us. Our Legal Program regularly works in tandem with Advocates, to help women with a host of housing issues made even more complex by the pandemic, including those related to the eviction crisis. Often challenged by language and technology, and experiencing harassment from landlords and debtors—our guests feel alone and afraid. In addition to providing financial assistance to avoid eviction, we ensure that they understand their rights, help them with online applications and Zoom court dates and advocate on their behalf with the courts, landlords and debtors.
In this year like no other, you helped Rosie’s Place to remain an essential sanctuary. A community of compassion. A place like no other. Thank you.