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Saint Francis House (Boston)
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Saint Francis House is a nonprofit, nonsectarian, ecumenical daytime shelter
Homeless shelter
Homeless shelters are temporary residences for homeless people which seek to protect vulnerable populations from the often devastating effects of homelessness while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact on the community...

, primarily for the homeless
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...

, located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, and founded in the early 1980s. It is the largest daytime shelter in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 and serves as an early model of such a center.

Mission

Its mission, has been stated early on as:

It serves and helps poor and homeless people in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...

 who was dedicated to helping the neglected.

History

Saint Francis House was formally founded by the Justice and Peace Committee from the Saint Anthony Shrine on Arch Street in downtown Boston in 1984, but its origins date back to 1981, when the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

s at Saint Anthony's had opened a soup kitchen
Soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, a bread line, or a meal center is a place where food is offered to the hungry for free or at a reasonably low price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, they are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church groups or community groups...

 and some accommodation for the homeless.

As the need for services increased, Boston community and religious leaders called out for the establishment of a center where existing and additional services could be offered to the poor, the homeless, and the otherwise disenfranchised. It was the visionary, Father Louis Canino, O.F.M.
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

, a Franciscan friar and then Rector of the Saint Anthony Shrine, who was the driving force in its founding and the necessary purchase of a building on Boylston Street, the historic Boston Edison Electric Illuminating Company
Boston Edison Electric Illuminating Company
Boston Edison Electric Illuminating Company is a historic utility company building at 25-39 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts.The building was constructed in 1906 by Winslow & Bigelow and Bigelow & Wadsworth as the headquarters of the Boston Edison Illuminating Company...

 building.

Ira Greiff, a veteran social worker and former Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

 at New York University School of Medicine
New York University School of Medicine
The New York University School of Medicine is one of the graduate schools of New York University. Founded in 1841 as the University Medical College, the NYU School of Medicine is one of the foremost medical schools in the United States....

, was also instrumental in setting up Saint Francis House with Father Canino, using the model of a settlement house
Settlement movement
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement, beginning in the 1880s and peaking around the 1920s in England and the US, with a goal of getting the rich and poor in society to live more closely together in an interdependent community...

 (possibly and additionally combining community center
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...

 or clubhouse
Clubhouse Model of Psychosocial Rehabilitation
The of Psychosocial Rehabilitation is a comprehensive and dynamic program of support and opportunities for people with severe and persistent mental illnesses...

 models) for the day center shelter. He also shared a vision for "rehabilitative services and a permanent multiservice center for the homeless and that homeless shelters and programs should and could collaborate, and participate in joint public policy and budget advocacy".

Its early historical responses to help the homeless focused primarily on emergency services such as food, clothing, shelter, and medical care.

However, the problem of homelessness
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...

, in general, turned out to be more complex and could not be solved by emergency measures only, so its scope and services broadened.

Over the years of its operation, St. Francis House has dealt with barriers that impede people in overcoming poverty and homelessness, by offering an upward framework of opportunity. This includes teaching the skills needed to obtain jobs, housing, further education or, at the very least, how to have lives independent of shelters and institutions.

In 2001, Millennium Partners and Ritz-Carlton
Ritz-Carlton
The Ritz-Carlton is a brand of luxury hotels and resorts with 75 properties located in major cities and resorts in 24 countries worldwide...

 who built the Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Towers just around the corner from Saint Francis House, funded the construction of a large atrium in Saint Francis House so that the homeless would not have to stand in lines in the street waiting to get in. Saint Francis House had originally approached the developers to build the atrium out of an unused outdoor parking lot, so that homeless guests would not have to wait on the street in long lines.

In May 2009, a guest was stabbed critically by another guest. The Executive Director of Saint Francis House, Karen LaFrazia, said that this was a very rare occurrence and that in her tenure of more than a decade, she had never seen anything like this and that the environment is safe and a haven for many hundreds of people every day. The people involved in the incident were not regular guests of Saint Francis House.

In October 2009, Fr. Louis Canino, the founder of Saint Francis House in 1984, visited on its 25th anniversary reflecting on how much had changed in those 25 years.

Operation

St. Francis House is open seven days a week, 365 days a year and it provides its guests with the basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, showers, telephones, mail, medical care, and emergency assistance. There are also rehabilitative programs (employment, housing, mental health, substance abuse counseling and lifeskills training) to help those who are able to move themselves out of poverty and homelessness, to achieve lives of independence, self-respect, and hope.

There is also some transitional and permanent housing in the building for the formerly homeless, living in recovery, and employed.

It also has a very active expressive art room, the Margaret Stewart Lindsay Art Center, where homeless artists create and are given a chance to express themselves, and many of the works are displayed and sold. Saori style Japanese weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...

 is especially therapeutic and useful for many of the artists. Every year, guest artwork is featured in the Art from the Heart Calendar.

In 2004, the Carolyn Connors Women’s Center was opened, recognizing the special vulnerability of the smaller population of women who are homeless.

Being a daytime shelter model, it is a critical part of caring for the poor and homeless, since most nighttime shelters for sleeping typically put their guests out during the day, early in the morning after wake-up call. Rather than being left to the streets, which can be harsh, the day center provides a place to go and be cared for and also be part of a community, typically much more wide-ranging in services and scope than the nighttime emergency shelter scheme.

The in-house medical clinic is run by Boston Health Care for the Homeless.

Moving Ahead Program

In 1995, the Moving Ahead Program (MAP) was founded as a 14 week course in life recovery, job assessment, skills, and placement. Participants work in internships in companies and many graduates go on to fully regain housing and careers.

Awards and recognition

St. Francis House is recognized as a National Model Program by:
  • The United States Department of Health and Human Services
    United States Department of Health and Human Services
    The United States Department of Health and Human Services is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America"...

  • The United States Conference of Mayors Committee on Hunger and Homelessness
  • The Social Security Administration
    Social Security Administration
    The United States Social Security Administration is an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits...

  • The United States House of Representatives
    United States House of Representatives
    The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

     Speaker’s Task Force on Homelessness

Statistics

In 2009, Saint Francis House:
  • Provided:
    • 382,588 meals
    • 8,700 showers
    • 13,000 changes of clothes
    • 16,000 counseling sessions
    • 9,000 medical appointments with Boston Health Care for the Homeless
  • Advised guests in more than 10,000 sessions on substance abuse, housing, employment, legal matters, and other issues
  • Trained 156 people in their First Step Employment Program
  • Graduated the 94th class from the Moving Ahead Program (MAP), the vocational rehabilitation program
  • Housed 62 men and women in the Next Step Housing Program


Comparative figures published show the number of meals served steadily increasing:
  • 2005: 270,702
  • 2006: 292,565
  • 2007: 305,923
  • 2009: 382,588


Typically, more than 700 meals are served each day for breakfast and lunch, and more than 5,000 hours of volunteer help are received each year.

Demographics

As reported by Saint Francis House in 2008, a brief summary of their guest population demographics:
  • Ethnicity
    • 38% African American
    • 30% Caucasian
    • 25% Latino
    • 7% members of other ethnic groups
  • Gender
    • 80% male
    • 20% female.
  • Age
    • Two-thirds are between the ages of 25 and 44
  • Special populations
    • 70% suffer from major mental illness, substance abuse, or both
    • Common health issues include attention deficits, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and HIV/AIDS
    • Women, young adults aging out of the Department of Youth Services system, and former criminal offenders

Further reading


Multimedia


External links

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