Bad Economy Puts Louison House in DemandBy Kathy Keeser
Special to iBerkshires
03:35AM / Monday, July 06, 2009
Photos by Kathy Keeser
 Paul Gage is the new executive director of Family Life Support Center, which operates Louison House. Top, Gage with center staff Sherry Dunne, Sandi LaFountaine and Dickilyn MacKinnon. |
ADAMS, Mass. — The difficult economy over the past year has hit many residents hard, leading them to seek help at the Family Life Support Center's Louison House homeless shelter and its Prevention Center in North Adams.
Sherry Dunne, coordinator at Louison, said it is particularly hard right now to help people to find affordable housing and employment. This means they are staying at Louison House longer; on the average, they are spending five to six months there.
"We teach them to be persistent and encourage them to look for employment, but if there are not jobs available, it doesn't matter if they are out looking six days a week," said Dunne, who's been with the center for 10 years.
Last year, Louison House provided shelter and supportive services to 61 individuals and 14 families, including 26 children. Most times, it is at full capacity with families and individuals waiting to get in.
The Prevention Center on the second floor at 61 Main St. in downtown North Adams offers a wide range of services designed to, yes, prevent the causes that often lead to homelessness. Sandi Lafontaine, after 16 years with FLSC, feels good about her work and believes in guiding people to take responsibility for their actions, not just to receive handouts.
By teaching budgeting and other life skills, the prevention staff helps individuals to avoid being in a position that leads to evictions or their utilities to be turned off. Dickilyn MacKinnon, a counselor for about 14 months, together with Lafontaine aided 175 individuals and families last year.
"We give the client someone to listen to about bills or other problems," said MacKinnon. The Prevention Center staff, after listening to the client, determines with him or her the solution to the problem. That accomplishment can make the individual feel better, and thereby enabling the person to tackle other concerns.
Family Life Support Center was begun by Terry Louison, then director of Community Action in Northern Berkshire, more than 20 years ago to address emergency housing needs and prevent homelessness. Paul Gage, who joined the agency as executive director in April, is concerned about the challenges ahead in securing funding to meet the growing needs of the people it serves.
With traditional funding sources like United Way down about 40 percent from last year, FLSC is looking to the Northern Berkshire community to help meet the gap in funding through the annual fundraising appeal known as the Friends Campaign, which kicked off in mid-June.
Dunne, Lafountaine and MacKinnon help people to help themselves. |
At the same time, Gage is energized with new ideas and is working hard to update the technology of FLSC to bring it into the 21st century and enable the staff to spend less time on paperwork and more time directly working with clients.
The new systems will also enable FLSC to better collect statistics for a clearer picture of efforts. Gage said the agency is also looking into a "housing first model" that centers more on prevention and the avoidance of emergency and transitional housing by helping to stabilize housing for people.
Over the past two years, FLSC has been fortunate to rely on the mostly volunteer services of Jack Gould.
When Gould retired two years ago from the North Adams Housing Authority, he took about a week off, then went over to help Louison House in its interim between directors. His plans were to return quickly to retirement after the new director was in place, but his organizational and administrative skills were so helpful to FLSC, that he couldn't quite leave.
"I got hooked by the incredible work the counselors do and wanted to set up the management and reporting processes to free them up to do their clinical work, not administrative work," said Gould who got involved with Louison House through his work with United Way. His plan is to be the first placement for a newly conceived United Way program called Encore, which will place retired executives with small nonprofits to help with administrative support to assess and put in place technology and other systems that will free up staff to spend more time acting upon their respective missions.
"We could not have done it without Jack, he lifted our spirits and made our jobs easier," said Lafontaine.
For more information on Louison House, at 395 Columbia St., call 413-743-7957 or for the Prevention Center, 413-664-9200. |
