Success Stories
Grant Recipients 1999 - 2019
Dismas House - Family and Youth Hunger Initiative
In 2019, thousands of pounds of fresh, organically grown produce has been distributed to families in the Pleasant Street - Piedmont Street neighborhood of Worcester, a low-income neighborhood lacking in food infrastructure for fresh local food. One local woman, Maria, was able to feed her family as a new member of the Farm-Worcester collaborative effort. She has received twenty weeks of the freshest food from the farm in a weekly box, and with staff support to explain the best uses of the food for her and her children. As a result, she has received nutrition for her family from food grown exclusively by people in need who became farmers after being homeless or incarcerated.
2020:
The Pernet Family Health Service Maternal Child Health Nursing Program conducts home visits to new parents and their newborns. Our caseload has numerous premature babies with medical issues such as g-tubes, reflux, failure to thrive, and other challenges. The Pernet nurse provides instruction, support and supervision to young, inexperienced parents who often have medical or social issues themselves. In one particular case, a young immigrant family with no social supports was struggling with the premature infant’s care. A Pernet nurse was assigned to this case. In working with the young mother, the nurse discovered that this young woman was in end stage renal failure, and was supposed to be receiving dialysis three times a week for three hours at a time.
Because this family was low income and struggling to get by, the father had to work. The young mother was home alone all day. The mother told her Pernet nurse that she had to skip her dialysis sometimes because she had no one with whom to leave the baby. She said she could not just leave the baby with an acquaintance because of the baby’s medical issues. The focus then turned on the mother and what we could do to alleviate this situation.
The nurse told the mother, “This is not just getting your nails done! This could be a life and death situation.” The nurse and her supervisor spent hours calling MassHealth and social workers at the dialysis unit to no avail. One person told the nurse that they don’t do “babysitting”. Finally a social worker on Pernet’s Board of Directors told us about a special case management unit through DPH. They were astounded at this situation and jumped in to rectify it. Baby and mother are now both receiving the care that they require. Who knows what would have happened to this family if Pernet did not go above and beyond.
Community Chaplaincy Council Inc. - Visiting at the Claypit Hill Elementary School
Angela was a first grader last fall. Her family had moved a lot, and she was frustrated and angry to be in a new house. Her parents were fighting too. Her older brother Alan was a third grader at Claypit, and struggled with sadness.When school started Angela acted out in class. She yelled, refused to work, broke crayons, and shouted “rude things.” Her teachers were very concerned. She kept asking about seeing Jeannie and Fran and was told we wouldn’t be in until the following Monday. When it was Angela’s time to visit, she came in with a smile, gave Fran a big hug, and looked at Jeannie and said “Tummy Time!” Jeannie licked her face, and promptly rolled on her back with her tummy up. I heaved a sigh of relief.
Angela sat beside Jeannie and slowly, gently patted her tummy. She said “Now Jeannie, let me tell you about my summer…” and began to talk about the difficult time she was having. Angela shared things that Fran and the guidance counselor could follow up on.
Suddenly she asked “What does Jeannie do when she feels angry?” When told Jeannie barks to let people know something is going on that makes her angry Angela said “That’s what I’ve been doing but no one does anything!” Ah! We told Angela that sometimes it was hard to understand what barking meant, and now that we knew she was barking like Jeannie we could try to listen in a different way. “Should we ask you if you are barking when we can’t understand what’s going on?” She smiled.
Angela did find new ways to talk with Ms. McManus and her aide, and an important family intervention happened. Jeannie kept getting wonderful tummy rubs all year, and Fran and Angela had fun barking and drawing animal pictures together.
Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance - Donations Clearinghouse Success Story
A recent client, a woman in her late 60s, was referred to us by her Nurse Care Manager at a local hospital. The client was a registered nurse herself, who had recently retired. She owned her own home, but once she retired she realized her Social Security income would not be enough to pay her bills; her home went into foreclosure, and she lost everything. Treasured furniture items were given away, and she moved in with her son. Unfortunately, that arrangement did not last long, and she was forced to move into a rest home for more than a year while she waited for elderly housing to become available.
Finally, at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, she was offered housing. Since she had no furniture, she was referred to the Donations Clearinghouse, which was shut down at the time. An acquaintance gave a sleeper sofa, which she appreciated, but it was old and uncomfortable, and she was not able to sleep on it. Her case worker again reached out to the Donations Clearinghouse, expressing the client’s dire need, and we were able to arrange an appointment - one of the first after the shutdown.
The client came to her appointment, during which she was able to pick out the items she needed: a full bed, a dresser, loveseat, recliner, and end tables. The furniture was delivered to the client the next day, and the fee was waived to alleviate financial burden.
Shortly thereafter, we received a thank you note from the recipient, reading:
“I would like to thank you for the furniture I received from the Clearinghouse. It has really helped me very much. My apartment looks great! Thanks once again.”
I followed up with the woman, to ask if I could share her story, and she told me that she would do anything she could to support this program and ensure it is available for other people facing a similar situation to hers. She said that she learned a valuable lesson - to appreciate what she has - and that she was so very happy the Donations Clearinghouse was there to help make her house a home.
2020
We have learned over the years just how many gaps exist in the affordable housing system, through which people like Stacy* are all too likely to slip. A single mother with two young children, Stacy came to us asking for help after she learned she would soon be evicted from her residence. For several years, a state-funded program helped Stacy stay home and pay her rent. This program is time-sensitive, and Stacy’s eligibility for this assistance expired in January. This kind of program, where a person taking part is also entitled to job training, works well for an able-bodied, mentally stable person. For anyone with a disability, like Stacy, this program is bound to fail. Without much hope that things would get better for herself, she wanted the chance to tell her story, to inform legislators about the flaws in the program, and perhaps to change the lives of others like herself for the better.
We were blessed to work closely with Stacy, helping her to form her experiences into a letter and setting up an appointment between her and our local congressman Jim McGovern. Knowing Congressman McGovern’s commitment to alleviating poverty in his district, we knew he would be receptive to the story. We did not expect him to immediately jump into action, calling the heads of various organizations personally on Stacy’s behalf. He even drafted a letter of support for Stacy, which she brought with her to her appointments. All of this more than surpassed our expectations. This meeting has begun a new relationship with Congressman McGovern and his staff members, who have since attended several of our other events during the week.
Armed with the letter from McGovern, Stacy and I traveled to many different offices together. I was able to sit with her in the meetings with case managers. In truth, I “did” very little, but Stacy shared that our presence in the room totally changed her experience. She believed that because she had someone visibly supporting her, the case managers were less likely to shrug her off, speak disrespectfully, or rush her meeting. I was also able to tend to her youngest child during the meeting so that Stacy could focus without being distracted by the child’s needs. We were also able to take copious notes, and reported our experiences back to McGovern’s office. Stacy told us later that it was the most respected she’d ever felt in meetings with her case managers.
Thankfully Stacy has received her Section 8 within a month of our meeting with Rep. McGovern and is stable in her housing.
This example of Cathedral in the Night’s work on the systemic level has been both inspirational and educational. We know there are a number of members of our community with similar issues, and are working to help people tell their stories to legislators as a means of systemic change. *name changed, permission given to share her story
Faigy, age 19, took the HiSET in May 2019. She has been notified that she passed her test, and wrote a thank you letter to the Greenfield Site Director/Advisor to share how her experience has impacted her.
This organization has been nothing short of life-changing for me. This place was able to provide the support and strong sense of tight-knit community that I needed so desperately when I first started coming here. When I began classes here, I had the mind that I was here because I had made a horrible mistake that was irreversible and I felt inferior to all my former peers in high school.
People here gave me the opportunity to see the situation from multiple positive perspectives and hearing the life stories of some of my peers gave me a better understanding of what education looks like for different people and it made me realize how not alone in my situation I was. This organization does an amazing job motivating students and combating the stigma that the GED unfortunately is associated with.
… I will always be grateful for this experience and I that hope that someday, I will be able to do something to support The Literacy Project. I totally admire the nobility and hard work that is put into the place every day. Anyone who ends up in my shoes will get a very positive and lengthy review of The Literacy Project from me.