LYNN– Centerboard, a nonprofit human services organization, has received a $15,000 grant from the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals to assist families and individuals with their rent through their HOPE initiative.
The HOPE initiative uses grant money, mostly from the Mass. Office of Victim Assistance, to provide rental assistance to families on the North Shore who have been impacted by COVID or who’s head of household has, at any point, been a victim of a crime, according to Centerboard’s program director Marissa Speranza.
“The majority of our heads of households were women, a lot of percentage women of color head of households, and most commonly had at some point experienced domestic violence,” Speranza said.
“So, we were able to utilize the Beverly and Addison Gilbert money to include in our HOPE initiative funding.”
Centerboard was able to pay about $3,000 directly to the landlords of multiple families to assist with their rent, and anything leftover was carried over to the next month.
Many of the families who were given assistance are new to the program, according to Speranza, and were referred from an internal Centerboard provider or a community partner. A referral form is included in this process to see if the family qualifies for the assistance.
Speranza said Centerboard applied for the grant mostly because the pandemic has presented many obstacles regarding rent money and housing costs, noting that the HOPE initiative has helped over 40 families since it began in December.
“I think one of the good things about the HOPE funding for those folks who were new, I would say that we’ve gotten them sort of hooked, so to speak, so they’ve come back with any sort of additional needs or other questions,” Speranza said.
“I would say that was a very successful piece of it, that those referrals from new clients, we were able to help in different ways.”
Centerboard has been providing assistance to families and individuals in the North Shore through multiple programs including their adolescent group home, three team-parenting programs, a pre-independent living program for youth 16 to 18 years old, and an independent living program for youth up to 21 years old who have voluntarily remained in Department of Children and Families (DCF) custody to work on their independent living systems.
Speranza said Centerboard’s resources are mostly housing related, noting that their housing sector runs family homeless shelters.
As a family resource center, Centerboard also offers parenting classes, space for supervised family visits for children in foster care, youth mentoring programs, an English as a Second Language (ESL) program, family workshops and literacy events. Speranza said all of these programs have transitioned to fully remote since the pandemic began, and said the engagement and clients have pretty much remained consistent.
“We were able to transition all of our programs virtually,” Speranza said.
“But particularly with our youth programs, kids are Zoomed out. They’re exhausted and over it.”
She said the parenting curriculum has continued nicely, and the HOPE initiative has been very successful, given the tough year it has been for everyone.
Speranza said Centerboard is excited to return to in-person programs in stages, but does not have a definite date yet.
All of Centerboard’s programs and workshops are free thanks to the support of partners, donations and DCF funding, according to Speranza.
Speranza said the HOPE initiative is out of its funding but hopes to be able to apply for more grants like the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals in the future.
“It’s huge when partners like Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert are able to support us in that,” she said. “It was amazing that we were able to help this many families at this point in time.”
