Message from the Interim Executive Director
Gratitude. Every night when I leave Lutheran Settlement House and return to my home, I feel appreciative that I have a safe place for my family to sleep with a roof, nutritious food, beds, and blankets. More and more mothers in Philadelphia are not able to provide these basic yet essential items for their children. Since the end of this summer, the City has seen a steep increase in the number of women with children who find themselves without somewhere to live. Tragically, the City's shelters are full and mothers and babies are being turned away with no alternative but to sleep on the streets.
In early September after learning of this crisis from the City, LSH's Director of Homeless Services,
Marilyn Mock, stepped up to help these families. As a result of her concern about this terrible situation, LSH’ emergency family shelter, Jane Addams Place, is now allowing women and children to sleep in the common areas for the night. Jane Addams Place is currently the only family shelter in the City to take on extra families to prevent them from being left to fend for themselves on the streets until a shelter bed opens up. Obviously, this is not a solution but merely a band-aid. LSH is actively working with the City and with other housing funders, such as the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, to find more long term solutions to this pressing problem, and is engaged in policy efforts to increase resources for homeless families, on the municipal, state, and federal levels.
In this time of such great economic and environmental uncertainty, I am reminded daily that we are all a few disasters or setbacks away from having a home. At night, as I tuck my kids in bed, I think of the moms at Jane Addams Place, tucking their kids into cots on the floor who do not know when they will ever again have a home to call their own. As I think of them, I am more dedicated than ever to making sure that all mothers in Philadelphia can provide their kids with a roof, nutritious food, a bed, and blankets.
With gratitude to you all,
Kelly
LSH’s new Adult Literacy Tutoring Program is off to a great start!
LSH’s new Adult Literacy Tutoring Program is so popular that just one month after tutoring officially started, there is already a waiting list to join. The Program, which pairs volunteers with adult learners whose reading level is between second and eighth grade, offers individualized literacy help that allows the adult learner to set the pace. Adult learners and tutors meet twice a week for two and a half hours until the end of the school year in May.
The design of the new program was coordinated by a team of committed local literacy experts and concerned community members who volunteered to serve as LSH’s Adult Literacy Advisory Board. The Board is helping to guide LSH’s Adult Literacy Tutoring Program after it was forced to discontinue classes when it lost state funding in the drastic cuts to education dollars in the most recent state budget. As a result of the loss of funding, LSH was forced to lay off its teachings staff and look for a new model in order to maintain our commitment to adults who want to improve their literacy skills. Fortunately, these dedicated individuals stepped up, and the Board has been working hard since its first meeting in July to make sure the new program is a big success.
St. Joseph’s University also helped to make the new Program a success through its Service Learning Program, and has provided twenty students to serve as volunteer tutors. These dedicated young men and women have pledged their time over the next year to help fill the gap in adult literacy education for LSH’s community of adult learners. LSH’s eventual goal is to open up our building as a site for additional adult education services with the help of more volunteer tutors from the community.
Stay tuned for updates as we continue to design and implement our new adult education services!
BDVP in High Gear for National Domestic Violence Awareness Month
The first National Domestic Violence Awareness month was observed in October 1987, the same year the first toll-free national domestic violence hotline was created. Since then, local, state, and national domestic violence groups have set aside each October to mourn the lives lost to violence, celebrate the resiliency of survivors, and highlight anti-violence work in the community.
Because domestic violence is often stigmatized and abuse takes place behind closed doors, Awareness Month is an important means to bring the issue into the open and raise awareness of the number one cause of injury to women.
The Bilingual Domestic Violence Program has had one of our busiest Octobers ever. Through our annual Purple Ribbon Campaign, we have increased our public presence with ribbons for sale at area businesses. LSH joined with three other domestic violence agencies in Philadelphia to observe the kickoff of Awareness Month on September 30th with a candlelight vigil outside of City Hall. It was a somber and moving tribute to those victims who are no longer with us. Speakers included the daughter of our very own BDVP Director, Jamaria, a high school student who is already a strong anti-violence advocate.
On October 18 we hosted ¡Salud!--A Celebration of Survivors at Stephen Starr’s Frankford Hall, one of LSH’s new neighbors on Frankford Avenue. The event was a big success as old friends and new gathered to honor the strength and courage of survivors and enjoy Frankford Hall’s chic take on a Bavarian beer hall. Felicia, a BDVP client shared her story, speaking about her experience and how BDVP Counselors provided her with support, information, and advocacy she needed to take control of her life and stop the abuse. State Senator LeAnna Washington also attended the event, and spoke about the silent epidemic of domestic violence in our community and her commitment to help stop the abuse. Purple ribbons, bumper stickers, and t-shirts were sold to benefit the BDVP, and Frankford Hall donated a portion of the food and drink proceeds.
* Pictured above: BDVP Clients and Staff at !Salud!
Jane Addams youth are on the move!
Teens at Jane Addams Place, LSH’s emergency family shelter, are learning about nutrition, health, and getting exercise through the SPARK program. SPARK is an initiative spearheaded by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia which brings CHOP staff and volunteers to the shelter each week to conduct fitness and nutrition workshops that teach the youth at Jane Addams the importance of eating healthy foods and engaging in daily exercise. Each week more than 25 Jane Addams youth go to a local park where the kids participate in fun exercise and outdoor sports that promote physical health and well being. Each fitness workshop begins with a quote that highlights the importance of teamwork and leadership; youth are encouraged to briefly discuss what the quote means and how they can apply it to their lives.
The SPARK program has provided an additional opportunity to further build and encourage a sense of community, social responsibility and leadership in Jane Addams youth. Its been rewarding to see the kids getting safe physical exercise, having fun, working cohesively with their peers, as well as building positive connections with the CHOP staff and volunteers. The success of this program has also had a positive impact on the moms at Jane Addams Place, and some of the moms have started coming to the park as well to join in on the exercise!
Reaching out to hungry seniors
Many seniors live on a fixed income, and too often must choose between buying food and paying for other essentials such as medication or heating. Philadelphia has the largest percentage of seniors among the country’s ten largest cities (17.9 per cent of the total population), and one in five of these seniors live in poverty, according to the Philadelphia Senior Law Center. Moreover, Philadelphia’s seniors experience a higher poverty rate than their peers in other parts of Pennsylvania and the nation. Many experience the additional strain of raising young children, whose birth parents are deceased, incarcerated, ill, or substance addicts.
Lutheran Settlement House’s Senior Center has a number of programs to meet the needs of seniors in the community who are experiencing hunger. The Center offers a daily hot meal to seniors for a $1 suggested donation, although no one is turned away because they are unable to pay. The Center also operates a monthly Food Cupboard for the community, and provides holiday food baskets at Thanksgiving and Christmas for any senior who needs them. In addition to these current activities, LSH has formed a Community Hunger Advisory Committee which is tasked with creating a strategic plan to reduce hunger among our senior population and the general Fishtown/Kensignton community. In addition, the Center hopes to receive funding to hire a “Senior Hunger Advocate” through a partnership with the Federation of Neighborhood Centers. The Senior Hunger Advocate would work to expand our Food Cupboard, coordinate our Intergenerational Gardening Project, and provide nutrition education to seniors and community members alike.
What’s happening at LSH?
• Senator Larry Farnese was at the Senior Center on October 6th to talk to the seniors about concerns they have and answer questions.
• LSH is currently seeking volunteers to serve as computer lab/math tutors. The tutors would monitor the computer lab and offer assistance with basic math problems as needed to adult learners using online educational software for self-guided math lessons. Please contact Arianna Hall-Reinhard, Tutoring Program Coordinator, at ahreinhard@lutheransettlement.org or by calling 215-426-8610 ext. 223 to volunteer or for additional program information.
• LSH welcomes Nelson Troché as the Bilingual Domestic Violence Program’s new Education and Training Coordinator. Nelson comes to LSH from Cincinnati, where he conducted outreach and education to homeless youth. Previously, Nelson was a Bilingual Domestic Violence Counselor/Advocate in New York City, where he served the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-positive communities.
• Interim Executive Director Kelly Davis participated in a Lutheran Services in America advocacy day at the White House on October 28. Kelly and representatives of other Lutheran social service organizations met with White House staffers, including Chief of Staff Bill Daley, and discussed areas of concern, particularly surrounding issues of housing and homelessness.
• Guillaume Stewart, Education and Youth Advocate at Jane Addams Place, traveled to the Harrisburg on October 18th for Afterschool Advocacy Day. This effort, coordinated by the Federation of Neighborhood Centers, was spearheaded by the Pennsylvania Statewide After-School Youth Development Network. The group met with the staff of several state legislators to advocate on behalf of increased funding for education and youth before and after-school youth programs.
