Roughly 200 Children Living in Worcester Shelters

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Ashley Klann, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

For Worcester’s roughly 200 homeless children living in shelters, finding safe, kid-friendly zones to play and learn is difficult, and the issue across the state is growing. There are an estimated 100,000 homeless children in Massachusetts.

How big is the issue of homelessness for children in Central Mass and Worcester?

“We estimate fourteen children in each shelter is an average. We don’t take attendance, but we do take it each month,” said Sarah Fujiwara, the Chief Playspace Programs Officer for Horizons for Homeless Children (HHC). “An average stay is often a month, but in domestic violence cases there is more of a turnover. Statewide, there are 2,200 a year.” The HHC’s central region runs twenty-five programs including 350 children, the bulk of which are in the city of Worcester.

HHC is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to serving young homeless children and their families. It runs a program of Playspaces in local shelters that provide homeless children with needed resources, learning material, and comfort.

“According to the National Center of Family Homelessness’ their most recent assessment by state, 1 in 45 are homeless at one time or another homeless, which has increased from a year ago – 1 in 50,” she said.

In January, there were 204 children (1 shelter unreported) in Worcester. February saw 186 children (2 shelters unreported), and in March there was a total of 207 homeless children (3 shelters unreported).

"We're hoping to assist families to move into apartments," said Representative Paul J. Donato of Medford. He emphasized the need for more permenant housing for families and children. "Not only does it help take away the hardship of living in shelters -- which aren’t great for any family or children -- but it gives diginity to families by living in an apartment and being a part of a community."

"The problem becomes that we sometimes try to find an easy solution. They go into shelters and those venues make it hard to raise a family," Donato said.

On the Horizon

HHC helps to provide these children with the resources they need to develop proper social skills while shelters help families get back on their feet.

“We go into the shelter and designate a space for our organization to use. Most shelters in Worcester have a room designated for Playspace. We incorporate a literacy area with books in English and Spanish, an art and craft area with paints, crayons, markers and board games. We have manipulatives – anything they can put together, puzzles, blocks. There’s also a dramatic play area with fake kitchen sets, and an infant area,” said Casey O’Toole, HHC’s Central Region Playspace Coordinator. “They’re able to play which helps their development and prepare them for school. We focus on six and under because they are often neglected.”

Recent Hardships

As if helping HHC’s mission to help the area’s homeless children doesn’t come with enough of an issue with strapped volunteers, the organization recently lost the director at their Worcester site.

“She moved on to new opportunities. We’re now looking to fill that position. We are typically an office of two, and an intern who goes to Clark. It’s a very busy environment,” O’Toole said. “With only having one full-time person, it makes it difficult. With the help of the intern, we’re meeting our shelter needs. We’re hoping to hire within the next two to three weeks, for things to be back to normal.”

“Right now we have a goal to get 230 volunteers to meet all of the shelter’s needs. We are about 30 shy of that now,” she added. This time of year, O’Toole said, HHC is also dealing with many volunteers leaving after colleges let out. “Here in Worcester, we have a great group of closely knit colleges. We see that more here than in other regions. The volunteering is a great help, but keeping consistency and number of volunteers is tricky.”

How Worcester Compares

The organization works with thirteen shelters in Worcester.

“One of those programs has as many as 80-90 living there at any given time. They’re not orphans but are living there, homeless. Those are some of the larger numbers we see; smaller shelters will have 5-10,” O’Toole said.

Many things make Worcester’s atmosphere unique for homeless children and families. Besides the abundance of college volunteers, Worcester has a diverse group of individuals seeking the group’s help.

“I think that Worcester is unique because it’s so centralized and there are so many people living in the city. There are 147 shelters in the state that we work with, so need goes everywhere – the west, central, south, north, and Boston. Boston and Worcester have largest amount of homeless families,” O’Toole said. “People come from all over to get a safe haven. Worcester is a unique spot for homeless families and has a diverse population of homeless individuals.”

Opportunities Here

HHC provides families with necessary stability and aid and are just one source of help with the growing issue of homelessness in Worcester.

“There are a lot of services in the city. Each shelter works with the families to get them what they need. They get the resources to the families – WIC, food stamps, English as a second language classes, typically right on site,” O’Toole said.

O'Toole said HHC need volunteers to be Playspace Activity Leaders.

For those looking to get involved with the organization, the next training for the Central Region will be held at the Hudson Boys & Girls Club on Saturday May 19th, 2012 from 9:30am-3:30pm.

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