Cambridge, Mass – Heading Home, Inc., one of the Boston area’s largest agencies devoted to helping the homeless, announced today that Anna Gross and student volunteers from Concord High School helped coordinate a recent “Up & Out” move. Up & Out is Heading Home’s signature volunteer program, which pairs groups of volunteers with local homeless families who are making a milestone move from shelter into permanent housing.
The client who received this Up & Out move, a young single mother in her early 20s, was living with her toddler and preschooler at a family member’s cramped apartment. The client is also a full-time student training to be a medical assistant. Because of her commitment to becoming more self-sufficient, she and her family were selected to receive an Up & Out move. Located in Dorchester, the apartment will provide the family with a home of their own and much-needed stability.
Anna and her friends at Concord High School spearheaded this Up & Out as part of Anna’s senior project. The Gross family is exceptionally active with Heading Home, having coordinated other Up & Out moves through their involvement and leadership. For this move, the Up & Out volunteers outfitted the apartment with essential household items, such as furniture, a stocked pantry and children’s toys. The move demonstrates these community members’ commitment to helping Heading Home end homelessness in Greater Boston.
“The Up & Out program provides an invaluable service to families in need, and participating in an Up & Out move is a significant undertaking,” said Emily Smaldon, director of development at Heading Home. “We appreciate the commitment to community service that Anna and her friends have shown. The results of their efforts were seen in the happiness this young mother and her children exhibited as they moved into their new home.”
A non-profit organization, Heading Home’s mission is to end homelessness in Greater Boston by providing a supported pathway to self-sufficiency that begins with a home, together with critical services such as life skills, financial literacy, and job training. The number of volunteers who gave their time to Heading Home has tripled over the last year, due in large part to the overwhelming success of the Up & Out program. Twenty-four Up & Out moves were completed last year and at least that many will be coordinated in 2012, which not only speaks to the extent of the homeless problem locally but to the depth of Heading Home’s committed base of volunteers.
As the recent wave of foreclosures and lack of affordable housing have displaced so many of our neighbors, homelessness has become an unnervingly pressing issue. The numbers are staggering: On any given night, there are more than 7,000 homeless people in Greater Boston, including 3,000 children. Sadly, not since the Great Depression have so many families been homeless. In response, last year Heading Home led the charge against homelessness in Greater Boston, directly helping more than 2,000 of our neighbors find a home and become self-sufficient.