COURTESY PHOTO
Mark Evans.
By Bridget Turcotte
LYNN — Mark Evans, the new executive director of the Lynn Shelter Association, plans to collaborate with other organizations to improve care for the homeless.
“One of our goals is to really have me highly involved in the community, collaborating with other providers like My Brother’s Table and strengthening those relationships,” he said.
Evans began working with the shelter Monday. Dr. Alison Brookes, president of the board of directors, called him “highly qualified and perfect for the job.”
Evans will fill the shoes of Margie St. Paul, who retired this year. He has worked in social services for 24 years. His experience includes a five year stint at Bridge Over Troubled Waters in Boston, which serves homeless youth, and Heading Home in Charlestown, a shelter.
Prior to that, Evans was clinical director at Lahey Behavioral Health in Beverly.
The Lynn Shelter Association operates the adult emergency shelter downtown in addition to three others on Western Avenue, Green and Baker streets that are designed to feel like homes. It also operates the Osmund, a former hotel, which provides semi-independent living arrangements, and case management for a shelter on High Street.
“The idea is that over a period of time, with the staff that is available and service we offer, people will find solutions and are given help on their journey,” Brookes said. “For many people, this is a very turbulent time in their lives.”
Brookes said Evans and the board want to improve practices and work with other nonprofits who serve the homeless to share the responsibility of taking care of clients. She called the organization “compassionate” and stressed the importance of looking at people as individuals with unique sets of needs.
“We were looking for leadership that would understand that some clients need some types of care and other clients need other types of care,” she said. “We really think Mark is a person who has a clear headed approach.”
Evans said he wants to explore volunteer opportunities. While working with Bridge Over Troubled Waters and Heading Home, he implemented a program that allowed volunteer groups to meet clients who were moving from a shelter to their own apartments.
“They would go to the apartment and buy the furniture and all the items they needed,” he said. “The client would show up and see this beautifully, decorated home that they were exiting homelessness to. It was really powerful.”
The work would be sponsored by churches, families and other groups. Evans said volunteering would be intergenerational and humanize homelessness.
“There’s sometimes an instinct to sort of separate ourselves from people experiencing homelessness,” he said. “The realness of that contact and getting to know that family better is sort of a special, magical experience and it deepens our relationships in the community.”
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte.