Page 48 - Healthcare News Sept.-Oct. 2020

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
region have been largely spared, thanks to the quick — dare we say heroic — work of the team at Friends of the Homeless.
“People have to gather here, so we’re potentially a hot spot. All the credit goes to
the people who kept it from being that,” Miller said, adding that “there wasn’t one person who backed out, who wasn’t going to show up for work. We have a dedicated team who have been here for a long time. It was just incredible how everybody showed up.”
It wasn’t lost on Miller that many people working at Friends of the Homeless fall into high-risk categories when it comes to COVID-19. “To have people come into work anyway is just striking.”
“Everyone came in and suited up and did the work,” added Delphine Ray, manager of Case Management Services. “They didn’t hesitate. This is our home away from home, and, by the grace of God, we managed to pull through.”
Dave Ware, men’s shelter manager, said
he had many concerns about to manage the social-distancing aspect of the pandemic at FOH. “They really came together to figure out how
to manage that in the dorms and kitchen. They came up with a good strategy to handle the social-distancing part.”
It wasn’t always a top-down strategy, Miller added. “There was a fad in business management some years ago — idea-driven organizations.
That meant the ideas came from staff at all levels. That’s what we saw here. ‘What if we
try this?’ ‘OK, let’s do that.’ Because this was something we’d never seen before, and we didn’t know what to do. And it ended up going well. Everybody was on high alert, and everyone had ideas.”
O’Brien also praised clients of Friends of the Homeless for taking the pandemic seriously and getting tested in the early days, before much was known about the virus
He didn’t have to finish that thought to register his point, which is, the tougher a community’s social and economic challenges, the more necessary FOH becomes.
“I like the fact that we work in an environment that cares about people,” Ware added. “When you look nationally and globally, you see so many people suffering, homeless, without food. We’re
and they were already preoccupied with some very real concerns, from mental health to lack of housing. “COVID wasn’t a primary concern for a lot of people. But they jumped on it when informed.”
“Everyone came in and suited up and did the work. They didn’t hesitate. This is our home away from home, and, by the grace of God, we managed to pull through.”
He recalled warm
moments, too, among upsetting ones
— “incredible moments of humanity, seeing people come together in a time of crisis and fear. It was very genuine.”
That said, the need for the broad array of services provided by Friends of the Homeless to hundreds of people every day remains persistent, as does COVID-19 itself, as the cold weather approaches — not that those needs go away in the warmer months, Miller said.
“There may be peaks and valleys of needs; it’s not predicated only on cold weather. We used to see more of a lull in summer, but not so much anymore. And when times are hard economically...”
just a small place that takes care of those needs, but nationwide, so many people are suffering in this way. I’m proud to work in a place that takes care of people who need it. We’re one of the only places around here that does it on the level we do.”
As noted earlier, this is not an organization that can just shut its doors to the ‘invading army’ of COVID-19.
“We’re home for many people,” Miller said.
“And if we don’t do it,” O’Brien added, “who will?” n
To all of you, for what you do...We Salute You.
Holyoke | Hadley | Southampton Indian Orchard | Ludlow
413-538-7444 • dowd.com
Congratulations
2020 Healthcare Heroes! Thank you for your hard work and the impact
you have made in the lives of others.
www.skoler-abbott.com | (413) 737-4753
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