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It’s why the 46-year-old loves her job, working as a harm reduction specialist with individuals experiencing addiction, homelessness, and mental health issues in the area of Mass. and Cass in Boston. Since 1989, the Boston Living Center (BLC) has fosterered the wellness of all HIV positive people and respond to the changing needs of the HIV/AIDS community. In March of 2012, the BLC became a part of Review Hope House, ensuring their vital services continue to be available for adults with HIV/AIDS. But now, with 24 years in recovery, the Dorchester resident hopes that by talking about her own experiences, others might be encouraged to speak up. She’s also hopeful that people who are quick to judge the unsheltered individuals, still in the throes of their own crises of addiction and mental health, living around Mass. and Cass might gain greater understanding from hearing her story.
Organization Profile
- The annual acquisition of significant unrestricted funding through donations, grants, and special events is vital as a response to this reality.
- Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro.
- We provide high-quality, evidence-based services based on individual needs, offering flexible, strengths-based solutions to people’s biggest challenges.
Our team of more than 200 staff across 19 programs works with people to develop and execute creative, safe solutions to the very real challenges they face. On the streets, at our Boston Living Center, and across programs, we work to prevent chronic conditions and overdoses. We provide HIV, Hepatitis C, and STI testing and counseling; a healthy meals program; syringe and naloxone distribution; and an array of education, navigation, and support services. Review Hope House provides recovery, health, and housing services through thirty-three buildings in Boston, Cambridge, and now Topsfield, fourteen of which we own. Maintaining these units in the manner that those in our care both need and deserve is a great cost to our organization. This combined with surging healthcare costs for employees results in a very narrow profit margin on an annual basis.
“I just want to continue.” Giving the individuals that she counsels at The Victory Connector, a low-threshold navigation center in the neighborhood run by the nonprofit Review Hope House, a feeling of care, a sense of calm and peace, is what she aims for each day. We provide high-quality, evidence-based services based on individual needs, offering flexible, strengths-based solutions to people’s biggest challenges. Giving the individuals that she counsels at The Victory Connector, a low-threshold navigation center in the neighborhood run by the nonprofit Review Hope House, a feeling of care, a sense of calm and peace, is what she aims for each day.
Serve the person
Fiscal year’s 2018 margin for a 13 million dollar budget is approximately half a percent. The annual acquisition of significant unrestricted funding through donations, grants, and special events is vital as a response to this reality. The Victory Connector, where she is a harm reduction specialist, provides a range of services to women, transgender, and nonbinary individuals who are at high risk of overdose and who are reluctant to engage with other care systems. For many, Review Hope House represents the last possibility for hope and the first chance for sustained success in their battles with addiction or illness. We provide individuals and their families with the education, tools, and ongoing support they need to help them regain their health, prevent and manage relapse, and maximize their independence. “Sometimes I feel so happy that my heart — I feel like I’m having like a big, good pain in my heart,” she said.
Review Hope House: Housing. Health. Recovery. Hope.
Review Hope House is a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals and families who are homeless and may have substance use disorders, often accompanied by chronic health issues like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and mental illness. Providing a welcoming environment, our compassionate and inspiring team is committed to helping them regain their health and restore their hope through immediate access to safe and stable housing. When individuals and families are safely housed, they’re much more likely to address their physical and mental health, addictions, and other issues. Our housing stabilization services, including emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, and case management, move people off the street as quickly as possible, with as few barriers as possible.
When people come in, she and her colleagues offer hot meals and find out what their needs may be. They make sure people have clean needles and talk to those who are engaged with sex work, asking how they are keeping themselves safe. “Every time I had an appointment, they had somebody to come with me because it’s how I felt safe,” she said. By the time she was 16, she’d been introduced to drugs by one of her mother’s friends, she said. But once in the foster home, Rivera said she continued to be exposed to alcohol, drugs, and sexual violence. Being able to provide that respite and getting to see individuals who have come in from the street smile (she calls them “members”) is the best, she told Boston.com.
We focus on what a person is doing “well,” with a nurturing effect that fosters continued effort from the first steps toward progress and growth.
The individuals and families we serve are homeless or precariously housed —but their challenges are even more complicated. The great majority have histories of trauma, chronic substance use, and mental health issues. It’s why the 46-year-old loves her job, working as a harm reduction specialist with individuals experiencing addiction, homelessness, and mental health issues in the area of Mass. and Cass in Boston. When individuals and families are safely housed, they’re much Review Review Hope House more likely to address their health, addictions, and other issues. It’s a “housing first” approach that includes stabilization services, emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, and case management.