Early Education and Care Resources as Child Care Re-Opens

At Homes for Families’ June Community Meeting, representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care shared timely updates on the re-opening process of child care centers across the state.

There were some key resources shared including interactive trainings and webinar series available free online; as well as tools and resources for families and providers to use with children. Please see below for these resources that have received positive feedback from providers and came highly recommended by EEC! You can find EEC’s powerpoint here, and an infographic with more about Head Start in particular, a type of child care that all children experiencing homelessness are eligible for, here. In addition, the department is continually updating their Frequently Asked Questions around the re-opening process. You can find their most recent FAQs document here, including information regarding subsidies on pages 16 and 17. 

Supporting Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness
8 interactive modules

Supporting Families Experiencing Homelessness Webinar Series
three-part webinar series features exemplary practices

Five Ways to Protect Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
Experiencing Homelessness During COVID-19 SchoolHouse
Connection (SHC) offers five strategies for young children

https://sesamestreetincommunities.org/topics/family-homelessne
ss/ videos, guides, printable activities

We would also like to share some resources on early education as it pertains to racial equity:

• A report from CLASP on addressing racial inequity in child care and early education policies
• A Resource List for talking with children about race, racism and racialized violence from the Center for Racial Justice in Education

We hope you find these resources helpful as we navigate what Massachusetts’ re-opening process looks like. For more resources and ongoing action opportunities, please stay connected with us via social media: Facebook & Twitter.

Liz and Team HFF

Thoughts, Tools and Resources for Promoting Racial and Immigrant Equity Amidst COVID-19

At our May Community meeting, Policy Action Team meeting, and Consumer Advocacy Team meeting we discussed COVID-19, equity, immigration and race. We learned a lot from a variety of different presenters, including MIRA coalition, HarborCOV and the Massachusetts Public Health Association (the lead agency behind the Equity Task Force on COVID-19). We are happy to share some of our key take-aways, along with resources and suggestions for providers!

Key Take Away #1: The virus is compounding existing inequalities in our society

Some examples from HarborCOV:

• Chelsea, a city with one of highest rates of COVID in Massachusetts, has a large working class, immigrant, and POC population. It is hard to practice social distancing because there is a lot of overcrowded housing. Moreover, these working folks are highly represented in social service jobs. They need to work to continue to feed their families and pay rent, and therefore have a higher chance of becoming infected. But unfortunately, many of these folks are cut out of benefits — they are ineligible for stimulus checks or unemployment, if they have not had a work permit for long enough.
• Decades of racist policing, prosecution, and sentencing have resulted in the gross over-incarceration of POC, particularly black men. Social distancing is impossible in jail, and these folks are often ignored for basic medical care, let alone COVID prevention measures. These injustices compound, so people who have already been over-policed are now over-punished with COVID exposure.
• Similarly, this administration has resisted offering medical care to people in immigration jails. Despite the government’s reluctance to test these folks, approximately 50% of ICE detainees who have been tested are positive for COVID. People in immigration jail often have no criminal charges or, by definition, have likely already served their criminal sentence. The government is unnecessarily punishing them with incarceration and COVID exposure.

Here, an HFF Consumer Advocacy Team member, who is a critical worker, describes some of the added challenges that essential workers are facing right now:“I still had to go to work but was scared to commute to work on the MBTA so I had been taking UBERs/Lyft’s. However, because many people aren’t working right now the ride share prices have gone up and they are not doing their pool option, which makes it expensive to go to work. Then, having to find some ne to watch my kids has also been a struggle because many people do not want people coming in and out of their houses during this time. I had to make the decision to stop working”

Key Take Away #2: Data plus priorities chosen through a racial equity lens are needed to address inequalities

There is important advocacy underway to urge Massachusetts policymakers to collect and report out on COVID-19 related data by race and other key categories (e.g. immigrant status, occupation status). Learn more and take action here! Meanwhile, we can improve our advocacy and services, if we also questions about unintended consequences and who benefits the most by our chosen policies and practices.

Here are some questions that might be used as a guide when deciding on policy and practice changes:

1. What are the racial impacts and who will be most impacted?
2. Who will benefit and who will be burdened; and have we considered unintended consequences?
3. How are affected community members engaged in this?
4. How can we monitor implementation?

Key Take Away #3: Opportunity to shift our frame on “essential workers”

Inspired by MIRA Coalition: This experience with COVID-19 has highlighted the variety of different essential workers in our communities and across our country. They are disproportionately immigrants, people of color, and people with lower-incomes. We need to come to understand and appreciate “essential workers” as essential and valuable not only in times of crisis, but all of the time.

Resources and Recommendations for Providers

From MIRA Coalition: We urge service providers to really think about the ways that they can be flexible in how they provide services to ensure they are inclusive.

• Some barriers to consider include participant’s lack of awareness of scope of services due to a language or cultural barrier.
• Understand immigrants can have fear of exposure. A provider can sit down to fill out an application and may not realize that if they are working with an immigrant family, disclosing a lot of this info can feel really risky.
• There can be general mistrust of authority that is well founded based on what immigrants have experienced in their home country but also what they have experienced here. It’s important to understand that privacy and secrecy can be a strategy that is adopted to keep safe and not necessarily an indication of whether they trust you as a service provider.

Some Resources on Immigrants, Public Charge, and COVID-19:

• Public Charge in the Time of COVID-19 (also available in Portuguese and Spanish)
• Public Charge overview
• COVID resource pages: www.miracoalition.org/coronavirus and in Spanish at www.miracoalition.org/coronavirus-es
• The MA Attorney General’s website: COVID Resources Available to Immigrants and Refugees and Multilingual COVID-19 Resources (on access to care and resources).

We hope you find these resources and insights useful in our ongoing collective work to learn, improve, and get to the root causes of inequities that many families experiencing homelessness are confronting.

In solidarity,

Liz and Team HFF

Homes For Families stands with Black Lives Matter

The horrific murder of George Floyd is incomprehensible. It’s an all too familiar tragic loss of a Black life that is consequential to the systemic racism ingrained in the fabric of our country. Perhaps most bothersome of the recent incidents was the action of Amy Cooper, the White woman who falsely made accusations against a Black man who was bird watching in Central Park. It was a display of racism in its most pernicious form. As a Black person, grief, frustration, and anger are real. And as the mother of a Black son, it’s unexplainable the fear and anxiety that grips my heart every day in the thought of losing him senselessly and prematurely. A quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. says, “ If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, and you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” 

In this moment of darkness that our country finds itself, I’m yet encouraged by the resolute and courageous actions of the thousands of young Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life that have stood up in protest that we must do better as a nation. It is the commitment of Homes For Families to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and take action to address ongoing public policies, institutional practices, and cultural narratives that perpetuate racial inequalities and constrain mobility for the homeless families we serve. Homes For Families will continue to lift the voices of families and boldly and courageously confront racist practices and policies that create systemic barriers for Black and ethnic minority groups.

Homes For Families is grateful and honored to join those who have committed to doing “the work” that needs to be done to move our nation forward.

Nicole Stewart
Chief Executive Officer
Homes For Families

Homes for Families and its Board of Directors has appointed Nicole Stewart as Chief Executive Officer

Nicole Stewart, Homes for Families Chief Executive Officer

On behalf of the Homes for Families Board of Directors,  it is with great excitement that we announce the appointment Nicole Stewart as the Chief Executive Officer of Homes for Families, effective today, April 20^th, 2020.

We are fortunate to have someone of Nicole Stewart’s caliber and experience join the HFF team.  We are at a critical moment in our nation’s history, and we are looking forward to her renewed leadership to successfully implement Homes for Families’ mission of uniting families impacted by homelessness, policy makers, and providers to address the root causes of family homelessness in Massachusetts.  Stewart most recently served as the Program Director for Bridge Home at St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children. Experienced in motivational team-building and staff development, she cultivated a reliable team and established programmatic systems, structures, and practices that significantly improved the quality of programming, care, and treatment for every child served.

A distinguished community leader, Stewart was selected to participate in Boston’s premier career leadership program, LeadBoston. She also served on Memorial Spaulding Elementary School Council and has facilitated multicultural and anti-racism classes for numerous community education programs.

Although her previous experience is very impressive – it is her versatility that caught the attention of the HFF Board of Directors. Throughout the interview process, we were struck by her acumen as a community leader demonstrated range of management experience and skills and passion for advocacy; that could not be more relevant or necessary to Homes for Families success in the years ahead.

Please join us in extending to Nicole the warmest of welcomes.   We are excited to have her on board.  We are looking forward to the future and have the highest confidence in Nicole and the rest of our outstanding Homes for Families team

Sincerely,

Homes for Families Board of Directors

The wrap up as we envisioned it.

Our community certainly knows that things don’t always work out as planned. Visioning Day 2019 ended abruptly and a little sooner than we envisioned. We are grateful that the fire alarm was not indicating a real emergency, that everyone was safe…and that we still received stacks of input forms, ballots, and evaluations.

This is a quick summary of what we missed:

• A report back of the participant feedback and questions for DHCD (we will work on compiling this information to share out)
• A final question to the representatives from the Department of Children and Families and Early Education and share about their take on hope and responsibility
• A quick overview of next steps:
  • Stay engaged on social media (twitter and facebook)
  • Look out for the 2019 Visioning Day Report
  • Invite us for shelter visit; join us at a meeting (Community Meetings are the second Wednesday of each month from 11am-1pm at our office)
  • Advocate!!! Right now our advocacy focus is to the Governor’s office and his cabinet and Federal Government
  • Advocate!!! Much of our advocacy will be focused on the State Legislature starting in January
  • We encourage you to act local! Attend local hearings, meetings, protests…
  • Share your ideas, frustrations, successes with us and share information from us with your networks

 

And then, HFF Deputy Director, Nilaya, was going to give closing remarks and turn it over to Jonathan Burke, the Afro Cuban Cultural Arts Educator who facilitated the Reclaiming our Time: Dance, Joy, and Resistance breakout group.  Instead, Jonathan led some dancing and clapping on the sidewalk to close us out.

Below is an exert from Nilaya’s planned remarks:

I wonder if Visioning Day provided some space in our minds and hearts for hope and possibilities.

I wonder if after seeing the size of the crowd the room made it clear that none of us are on this journey alone.

I wonder if the conversations you participated in rejuvenated your spirit even just a little bit.

I wonder if you left feeling feel a renewed sense of strength and purpose.

HOPE  is necessary, hope feeds our spirits and allows for us to continue in a forward motion.

Hope is essential, that said hope alone will not house families.

We need to act, we need to see ourselves as part what  is necessary to bring about change.

We have a responsibility to shift society until the needs of all of the people in our communities have their needs met and are stable and safe.

We have a responsibility to act.

We have a responsibility to show up for each other.

We have a responsibility to show up for each child and family.

We have a responsibility speak truth to power because silence is complicit.

We have a responsibility to educate our communities the fact that homeless families is not OK, and should never have been normalized in the first place.

We have a responsibility to recognize the humanity in each other & collectively insist and demand the right of each family to have a place to call home.

Thank you for joining us; for giving us hope. And thank you for your continued engagement and taking responsibility with us to achieve justice and homes for all. 

– Team HFF

Immigrant Rights are Human Rights: An Urgent Call to Action

HUD published a proposed rule that would evict ineligible members of mixed immigration status families from living together with section 8 and in public housing, breaking families apart. For more information on the proposed rule, see this fact sheet from The National Low Income Housing Coalition and the National Housing Law Project.

Homes for Families opposes any and all attacks on immigrants and their children, including this proposed change and we are urging our network to join us in submitting public comment in opposition by July 9th.

There is a lot of guidance for how to do this and ideas on what you can say! The KeepFamiliesTogether campaign is a place to go for information. They have put together a website through which you can  submit comments directly to the government. There is also a Template for Submitting comments they created, that you can access here (you can opt not to enter personal information to access the template).

Homes for Families has created a template we thought would be especially helpful for family shelter providers.

We continue to stand in solidarity with all families, and all family members, regardless of immigration status and hope you will too.

HFF Annual Member Meeting and Appreciation Lunch

We held our annual member meeting and appreciation lunch on December 4th at Clark University, bringing together family shelter providers to show appreciation for their incredible work, celebrate success, and build agreement around policy advocacy priorities and questions for the year head.

Providers offered insight and reactions around areas of policy advocacy successes we collectively achieved in 2018 and voted on priority policy advocacy proposals for 2019. We honored both an agency and an individual with inspiring leadership awards: Community Teamwork Inc. and Shani DeSchamps from Citizens Inn.

Agencies had the opportunity to learn about each others’ work in an activity centered around these 5 questions that came from Visioning Day and other data Homes for Families has gathered over the past year:

Today is about appreciating you, our members! To do that, we want to give you an opportunity to brag to each other and share with each other.  Please share a success or your proudest accomplishment in the past year.

With the implementation of diversion, many families with more short-term economic barriers no longer enter shelter, leaving a higher concentration of families with significant barriers and more history of trauma in your shelter programs. What steps has your program taken to adapt your practices as a result of the changing needs and dynamics within your programs?

Children make up around 2/3rds of the people in the EA program.  What specific supports, practices, and/or initiatives do you have for children in your program, who range in age from newborns to teens?

We know family homelessness is a direct result of racist housing policies and that the nature of shelters – as rule enforcers and gate keepers – can perpetuate racism and systems of oppression.  What have you, or your program, done or could you do to be more actively anti-racist and address organizational diversity and issues of race?

We all know that this work is hard and has been getting harder. Share how a family – be it a child or parent – has inspired you, made you laugh, or really validated your work.

We presented this video (we welcome you to watch the video, but note some of the content may be triggering and there is profane language). This spoken word drills down to the intersectional nature and reality that families (and some staff) within shelters are facing, taking the veil off of why families may behave the way they do sometimes: angry, frustrated, impassioned. It exposes the underlying systems of oppression and injustice driving these behaviors and emotions.

The afternoon included discussion around the EA system re-procurement. Participants worked at tables to answer the following questions:

1. What are the top 3 issues that you hope the re-procurement will address?
2. What “vision” do you have for a new system?
3. DHCD has talked about “multi disciplinary” teams as part of their vision for stabilization. What are your top questions, ideas, excitements, and concerns about this approach.

The day ended with a sharing of affirmations, including: “Thank you for your work and commitment” and “You are keeping children safe and alive”.

There is much more to come: we will be continuing to call upon member agencies to engage in an organized, collective response to the re-procurement, and providing opportunities for staff and families to advocate collectively on priority policy proposals through MRVP Cookie Day, advocacy trainings, legislative breakfasts, ongoing work at the Policy Action Team table, Directors/CEOs meetings, and more to amplify provider and family voice.

We reiterate our appreciation for the work of our member agencies and the collective efforts to address family homelessness in the Commonwealth.

Nilaya Montalvo, HFF Deputy Director, honored with the 2018 Community Engagement Award from CHAPA.

On December 4th 2018, Nilaya stood before approximately 1,200 leaders in the housing industry to accept  the 2018 Community Engagement Award from the Citizen’s Housing and Planning Association (aka CHAPA). The award was presented by Sr. Margaret Leonard, the legendary former director of Project Hope and one of the founders of Homes for Families, and by Libby Hayes, who has worked in partnership with Nilaya at HFF for over a decade. Upon accepting the award, Nilaya shared brief remarks:

I cannot thank you enough, especially since so many of you have worked alongside me on so much of the work that I am being recognized for! Mami, Cari, Jessy – thank you

What I have done is not extraordinary,

I know this because every time I meet a family who is struggling to beat back oppression…struggling to shelter their children from the elements…… from systems, from injustice….. I am reminded exactly what extraordinary is.

I want to wholeheartedly appreciate the recognition for my work, while at the same time I want to share this recognition with all of the, moms, dads , grandmothers custodial guardians that swim against the tide in an effort to protect and stabilize their families

I want to share this recognition all of the children who are faced with constant change and uncertainty that is brought on by simply being poor or housing unstable.  I wake up with them in my heart, the astronomical cost of housing is not their cross to bear and yet here we are.

In my tradition, to show support or solidarity with anyone who is oppressed, marginalized or in need, is not extraordinary but necessary for society as a whole. We understand that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Thank you and lets continue to take care of each other.

In the words of a member of the HFF Consumer Advocacy Team,

“Nilaya – Thank you for being the light and force we need in this world to be reminded of our own power and voices.  Your love for the truth is the epitome of a revolutionary!”

Light and love from the Homes for Families, Consumer Advocacy Team

Families, providers, partners, and beloved members of the community… now more than ever,  you are in our hearts.

In these challenging times we may find it nearly impossible to feel hopeful or inspired.

We may doubt whether or not we belong, we may even wonder if there is still good in this world.

It is in these moments that we must remind each other; it is in these moments that we must be the good that we wish to see… and it is in these moments that we can find inspiration in our ability to be resilient, in our ability to lift others despite our feeling down and out, and in our ability to insist on joy and unity.

At our last monthly Consumer Advocacy Meeting (C.A.T. meeting) our family consumer advocates took time to send light, love and hope out to the larger community.

The messages in these photographs are of letters / messages of hope to :

• Future Generations
• Our Undocumented brothers and sisters  in the community
• The world / global community
• Anyone who is wondering if there is hope for us

 

This isn’t the first time we will be faced with struggle and it’s so important to understand that good things have come of past struggles… people have continued to smile, love one another and ultimately move humanity forward.  Let us be the world we want to see, let us lift each other, let us inspire each other.

If you can say or do something kind for someone else … it may be just what they need & it’s certainly what the world needs.

Light and love from the Homes for Families, Consumer Advocacy Team 

 

Visioning Day This Thursday!

We are busy gearing up for Visioning Day 2017 this Thursday August 10th! We are excited for this yearly event when we, in collaboration with key partners, bring together families experiencing homelessness, family shelter service providers, and policymakers to share resources, reflect, and articulate our collective vision for the coming year. In anticipation of the big day, here are descriptions of each breakout group. We ask attendees to select one break out group that they will participate in.

Visioning Day 2017 Breakout Group Descriptions

# 1 Self Care through Poetry and Storytelling

Presenter: Alex Charalambides-Founder, Managing Director, Mass LEAP

Summary:  This workshop will allow participants to explore the idea of sharing in a way that heals as they speak their truth. Storytelling is an effective way to share and work through experiences and trauma. While written testimony and unified messaging are powerful tools we can use to raise awareness and change policies and practices, this approach doesn’t emphasize the self care component. Homes for Families recognizes that raising awareness can mean reliving the triggers and challenges of surviving homelessness and displacement, and we wanted to offer a space for healing in your own words.

#2 Child Wellness

Presenters:  Dr. Megan Sandel, Boston Medical Center; Sarah Slautterback, MA Department of Education; Ileen Henderson, Bright Spaces/Bright Horizons

Translation will be provided in this breakout.

Summary:  The primary concern of any parent is the well being of their children.  Housing instability and homelessness can have impact on a child’s health, as well as their educational performance and behavioral and emotional well being.  We also know that with the right supports, access to services, and strong relationships, children who have experienced homelessness and instability are able to thrive and succeed on par or beyond that of their peers. This group will discuss systems and initiatives that already exist to support and respond to the needs of children facing homelessness and work together to identify how the various systems and community can do more to support parents and children to minimize the impacts of homelessness.

#3: Immigration

Presenters:  Jessica Chicco, DOVE Inc.; Ellen VanScoyoc, Central West Justice Center; and Collin Mickle, Community Action Committee of Cape Cod & Islands, Inc.

Translation will be provided in this breakout.

Summary: The group will include attorneys who each offer a different lens on addressing immigration challenges as they relate to homelessness and intersection issues. On the panel are presenters from a range of agencies including legal aid, community action, and domestic violence. We recognize the unique challenges that families with undocumented immigrants or members of different immigration statuses face. Through this breakout we aim to increase our collective knowledge of resources and supports for families and providers to address these challenges. The break out will include brief presentations by our panel, followed by discussion. We will share best practices and practical tools and tips around accessing housing and important related supports for families with members of varied immigration statuses, especially those who are undocumented.

#4: Landlords

Presenters: Danielle Lariviere, Central MA Housing Alliance; Tom Plihcik, New Lease for Homeless Families; Luis Arzola and Jose Cruz, Center for Human Development

Summary:  Landlords are a key stakeholder in our collective ability to manage and end homelessness.  We need good landlords for scattered site shelter units; for HomeBASE tenancies, for subsidies and for market rent, and to work with tenants and programs instead of evicting. As rents increase and the rental stock declines, landlord relationships are that much more critical. Short term subsidies, like HomeBASE, and state rental assistance policies can be hard for both tenants and landlords to manage. This group will talk about tenants’ rights, increasing access and partnerships with big property management companies, engaging community based landlords, and ways to support families and landlords to build positive trusting relationships.

#4: Workforce Development and Cliff Effect

Facilitators: Molly Richard and Julia Tripp, Center for Social Innovation; Marija Bingulac, Center for Social Policy & the On Solid Ground Coalition; Anne Bureau, Community Connections in Worcester; and Meagan Pedemonti , Way Finders

Summary:  Each year at Visioning Day, participants raise their voices for education, employment and training, and better jobs.  Homes for Families’ recent survey showed that 65% of families in shelter have work experience but primarily in jobs with lower wages and no benefits.  As parents increase incomes, there are policies that cut or lessen benefits, so that even though incomes increase, families end up further behind – we call this the cliff effect.  This group will talk about advocacy efforts and practices to lessen the cliff effect and support families to become economically stable as well as about trends in workforce development and training programs.

Liz and Team HFF