Families First
Montachusett Opportunity Council's (MOC) innovative program for families in North Central Massachusetts--and a model for new legislation.
Just eighteen months ago, not much was going well for one 28 year-old woman and her family in a northern Worcester County town.
Andrea (not her real name) was suffering from depression and did not have a job--in fact she had no training or work experience. She had lost a child only two years before, and was going through a divorce. Her three young children--ages 4, 6, and 7--were living with her. The father of her children was involved in the children's lives, but no longer was living with the family and offered no financial assistance. Her mother was living in the household, but she had no income and was experiencing serious health problems.
The family was living in an apartment building that was in bad need of repair and was owned by a landlord who did not maintain it. The stairs to the third floor were unsafe; in fact, the family was often unable use the stairs to leave their building in stormy winter weather. The apartment was infested with cockroaches. It had heating problems and was poorly insulated. To top it all off, the refrigerator did not work properly.
Neither Andrea or her mother had any knowledge of where to turn for help. Even if they had, getting there would have been a problem, since neither woman had a driver's license or a car.
Yet this family had some positive things going for it--strengths to build upon. Andrea had a high school diploma. She and her mother were strong sources of emotional support for one another, and both had a strong commitment to the well-being of the three children. And one of the children had participated in the Head Start program.
What has happened to Andrea and her family in the past year and a half?
"Since that time," relates Pamela Frye, Case Manager for Montachusett Opportunity Council (MOC), "she has been in counseling, had received a Section 8 housing certificate. We helped her locate an apartment that accepted Section 8, and assisted her in getting furnishings for her new home, including a washer and dryer.
"She entered a C.N.A. training program and obtained a position as a C.N.A., a position she still holds. We also assisted the grandmother in applying for disability because of a diagnosis of emphysema. She has recently found her own subsidized apartment, close to her daughter and grandchildren and still stays involved in their lives."
How was Andrea able to change her life from bad to better in 18 months?
In large part, it was Andrea's determination. But it was MOC's Families First program that helped translate her determination into results.
MOC began Families First only couple of years ago as a program for families in North Central Massachusetts who wish to be working partners in shaping a brighter tomorrow and who are willing to work hard to be independent and self-sufficient.
The philosophy behind the program is refreshingly simple. MOC believes that families move towards self-sufficiency when they make decisions for themselves. MOC's role is to offer adequate information, review the pros and cons of possible life choices, highlight potential benefits and consequences, and then allow families to make their own decisions, based on facts.
Families First charges no fee for service. However, those families who get involved must make some commitments:
- Family members must be willing to be active partners in taking steps toward success.
- They must be willing to follow through on action steps and identify where progress is made.
- They must be realistic in their setting of goals.
- They must be willing to make a long-term commitment to attaining both personal and family self-sufficiency.
What does Families First offer in exchange?
The program assists participants in identifying family strengths and support systems. It also helps families identify their specific needs as well as family and community resources to meet them. This includes assistance in developing a "Families First Plan for Self-Sufficiency" which determines both immediate as well as future needs and action steps to reach goals. Information, advocacy, referral, and coordination of services are all part of the package as well. Families First also offers support for families in problem solving. And the program monitors assistance and provides follow-up to facilitate progress toward goals.
MOC's Families First program has been replicated by another Massachusetts community action program, FCAC, based in Franklin County. And Families First served as the model for H. 1749, a bill sponsored by Rep. Kevin Fitzgerald of South Boston now before the Massachusetts legislature. The legislation would help ease the transition for low-income families from welfare to work.
In a January 9, 1999 editorial, The Boston Globe cited MOC's Families First program in its support for Fitzgerald's legislation. "Families First connects recipients to both public and charitable resources, to food stamps and food pantries," noted the Globe.
"Some welfare recipients are tumbling into a twilight zone," the editorial pointed out. "Reform has successfully sent many recipients to work. But Massachusetts' tough, 24-month time limit on benefits is cutting off some families that don't have jobs. What will they do?"
In supporting Fitzgerald's bill, the Globe suggests that intensive case management, such as that offered by MOC's program, would have parents and children devise a sweeping, comprehensive plan for self-sufficiency. "A work in progress, welfare reform needs to move forward," the editorial concluded. "Fitzgerald's legislation wisely prompts Massachusetts to figure out how."
The situation of Andrea and her family eighteen months ago is not unlike those faced by thousands of families across Massachusetts in this period of welfare reform. And it underscores that behind the numbers are families engaged in difficult, uphill, everyday struggles to achieve self-sufficiency--struggles in which they may not succeed without the information, resources and support to make resources that programs like Families First can offer.
"All of these numbers, percentages and statistics have names and faces," MOC's Pamela Frye emphasizes. "They are real people with real families. I am happy to say I have had the privilege to work with them through Families First over the past two years."
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