Category: Personal Essays
-
Vendor Voices: My Walk for Hunger
On Sunday May 1, I finally got up the courage to go out and participate in the Walk for Hunger. Granted, this year they’d shortened the walk to ten miles because of all the construction that was going on. But that didn’t matter: the point was that I was really doing it. I’d waited for…
-
CCSC Students lead “Empathy Project”
Photo: Cynthia Abatt For the past four months, I’ve had the privilege of supervising two senior interns from the Community Charter School of Cambridge. Yusef Ferhani and Christy Felix have joined me each Wednesday to figure out practical ways to involve millennials in becoming part of the solution for America’s homelessness problem. Athletic, bright, attractive…
-
We’ll be missing you, Nancy
When I was a kid, I loved watching old black-and-white movies with my mom and dad in the winter and doing a 1,000-piece puzzle. We’d sit in front of the fireplace just having fun until around 11, 12 or 1 o’clock in the morning. One person I liked to watch was Ronald Reagan. The one thing I…
-
Flipping the Sheet: Reflections on the 2016 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness
All photos: Andrew Giampa “We’re going to do some ice breakers to help us get to know each other better.” The leader told our group of 17 to all get up, stand on a flat bed sheet on the ground, and flip the sheet without anyone stepping off of it. If someone’s foot touched any…
-
Winter in Boston
I’m tired of winter in Boston this year because it seems like it’s a totally different season from the ones we endured when I was a child growing up in Avon, Massachusetts. Back when I was a kid, winter was fun, but now it’s lost it’s flavor. It’s no longer fun to build snowmen, snow…
-
A Cold Weather Message from C.O.P.E.
Photo: Sushant Bhosale This weekend’s weather forecast looks bleak, especially for those who call the streets their home. Expected windchill factors could be as low as -23 degrees. I’m feeling a sense of anxiety and urgency. Not for me, but for our friends who will not have a safe and warm place to go as…
-
VOICES FROM THE STREETS: At the speed of life
I was late to graduation, just like I was late for everything. Flying down the right hand lane on South Livingston Avenue, doing close to 90 miles an hour with my 1958 Plymouth Belvedere convertible top down when I heard a police car hit the wailers and saw the lights in my rear view mirror.…
-
VOICES FROM THE STREETS: These lives matter, too
On the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown being gunned down in Ferguson, a friend asked me if I was going to the protest in Harvard Square. I somewhat reluctantly said no. When asked why, I didn’t want to get into it. I simply said I was tired and really needed to go home. I just…
-
VOICES FROM THE STREETS: How not to go missing
I was reading an article in the Boston Globe about a homeless man that the police found. Well, actually, they found his legs first. They had been severed from his body and were lying by a Connecticut train station. From DNA testing they found out that the man’s name was Ray Roberson. They’ve found what…
-
Executive Director of Homeless Empowerment Project, Inc. job listing
Executive Director Homeless Empowerment Project, Inc. (part-time position) The Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP) is a not-for-profit corporation with an annual budget of $150,000 and five paid staff positions (all part-time). For 23 years, every two weeks HEP has published Spare Change News, a street newspaper addressing issues of homelessness, poverty, and social justice in the…