WINTER 2017 Making the Holidays Special for Our Guests We Help a Mom in Need Move Forward Ways to Get Involved This Month Our Generous Community of Friends
NEWS
A Winter Wish List An Easy Way to Support Us
Q&A
RACHEL REGIS
ASST. ADVOCACY MANAGER, ROSIE’S PLACE Rachel Regis joined Rosie’s Place in 2015 as Assistant Advocacy Manager. She applies her broad background at agencies that serve low-income populations to oversee the services our advocates provide to guests, such as housing and job search, wellness care, rent and utility assistance, and emergency clothing and transportation. This year she is helping organize a holiday gift program for guests. What is Rosie’s Place’s approach to the winter holidays? Because many of the women we see at Rosie’s Place are not connected with their families or are new to Boston, they will spend the holidays alone. So we work to make them special. We trim a tree and decorate the Overnight shelter and dining room, and we plan a festive day for Christmas. When guests spend the day with us, they are welcomed into an upbeat and fun atmosphere of good company, food, and music. We don’t want the holidays to go by for our guests without some kind of celebration. Through activities and gifts, we try to show them that they are valued and Rosie’s Place is a place that cares. How are we brightening these days for our guests? This year we are planning a Holiday Gift Store in mid-December for guests seen through our Advocacy department. Thanks to donations from businesses and friends in the community, we’re able to offer guests a choice of new gift items, such as bath and body gift sets, hats, scarves and mittens, a gift card, and more. (See Wish List on page 4 to help.) The store concept allows guests to choose which items they would like. We want our guests to have the treat of picking out something for themselves— a luxury they often can’t afford. It also allows women to find items they can give as gifts. Last year we had gifts for 550 women and we hope to serve at least that many this season. Are we reaching women who do not come to Rosie’s Place’s main site for help? We bring gifts to women in our housing stabilization program who we visit at home. And those with children are invited to a party at our Norfolk House location in Roxbury where they can choose toys and other items for the family. School collaborative staff provide gift cards and gifts to women we work with in the Boston Public Schools. At our satellite office at the Franklin Field housing development, we hold a party and all residents who attend receive toys for their families, and hats and gloves for themselves. We also help connect mothers and grandmothers with a community toy program and compile lists of other holiday assistance resources. Is there an impact on staff at this time of year? We all agree that it feels good to be able to have something special for our guests, especially knowing that these may be the only presents they will receive this year. Seeing smiles and happy faces means a lot.
Magdalena
Natalia and her brothers
A New Home—and Hope— For a Family In Need In her heart, Magdalena M. knew this year, things would change. This year she would finally find a new home for her family–a safe place where the days would be easier and her children could thrive.
payments, ensuring that her current housing would not be in jeopardy. “I was so relieved that I could turn to Rosie’s Place for help,” Maggie remembers. “I don’t know what I would have done without them.”
The road to a better life had been long and hard but, with Rosie’s Place at her side, she was hopeful.
Finally, this spring, after 18 months of looking, Maggie found the right apartment, in Randolph. Knowing she would need a sizeable rent down payment, we coached her in creating a household budget and putting her tax refund aside. The new landlord insisted she use professional movers and, again, Rosie’s Place was able to help make that possible.
Maggie, as she is known, moved to Boston from Florida a number of years ago, seeking better health care for her husband, who had been gravely ill with diabetes, and more opportunity for her four children. However, she found that good housing was hard to come by and since arriving here, Maggie’s family had lived in an apartment in such poor condition that it was later condemned, then a family shelter and then a motel for homeless people. When she first came to Rosie’s Place, her family was living in a two-bedroom apartment in Dorchester. Her three sons, ages 5 to 14, shared one bedroom while her daughter, Natalia, 8, slept in a converted dining room. Maggie turned to Rosie’s Place for help with transportation to a job training program she was attending. That training led to a full-time position as a teacher’s assistant and medical interpreter for an early intervention program for developmentally-delayed children. Because it was now hard for her to see our advocates during the day, Maggie was referred for home visits by one of our housing stabilization workers. Life was becoming increasingly difficult for Maggie. Her husband Nathan’s diabetes and depression kept him out of work, Natalia had developed an anxiety disorder and her youngest, Aaron, was suffering severe headaches and struggling in school. Their apartment was not only too small but in an unsafe area and had leaks and other problems the landlord was not addressing. And Maggie’s two herniated discs and leg pain were getting worse, exacerbated by sleeping on an old mattress on the floor. Rosie’s Place stepped in, with an advocate finding Maggie a new bed. We helped her obtain a Section 8 voucher for a four-bedroom apartment, which requires that the tenants find the property themselves. We encouraged Maggie to attend our tenants’ rights workshop and helped with her search, which took quite a while. When she fell short on rent and utilities one month, we were able to assist with the
The Cape Cod-style half-house is bright and tidy, with a yard where the kids “can go outside whenever they want and I don’t have to worry about shootings,” Maggie says. There’s even a small area that Maggie has designated “homework space,” with a desk, bulletin board and shelves of books. After living in so many cramped and unsafe places, Maggie says her kids are amazed at their new home and asked her “Are we millionaires now?” She laughs and says they feel “free,” and are happy and calmer, especially Natalia. This fall, we provided backpacks and school supplies and Maggie will again attend our holiday party where she can choose gifts for her children. Just recently, Maggie learned that a congenital brain malformation is the cause of Aaron’s headaches. Surgery is scheduled for early January at Children’s Hospital. She expects to take a month-long medical leave from her job and is praying that her husband will be well enough to keep at his new full-time job as a machinist. Maggie knows that no matter what may happen, we will continue to be there for her and her family. “Rosie’s Place is a great support to me–emotionally, financially. I can tell my case worker what I’m going through and she is compassionate; everything she does is to build me up and give me direction.” As the holidays approach, Maggie has the space to put up a tree and is looking forward to “a special feeling of togetherness” in her new home. Now that there is a yard where they can play, Maggie says her children’s biggest Christmas wish concerns the weather. “They are hoping for snow–lots of snow–so they can build a snowman. It will be the first time for them and they can’t wait.”