These benefits are adjusted based on full-time or part-time status, and vacation time increases with length of employment. We are excited to bring you the latest issue of Review Granada House’ print newsletter, The Doorway! The Fall edition is packed with inspiring stories and messages of resilience, generosity, and hope from our clients, staff, and supporters who are transforming lives and strengthening our communities. Coping with those deaths, and the prospect that she will likely see more as the state and country continue to grapple with the overdose crisis, Rivera said she relies on belief — and the knowledge that change doesn’t happen overnight. “It’s happening a lot,” Rivera said, emphasizing that there are more dangerous substances being put in the drugs being consumed on the street. Rivera starts each day with a cup of coffee and greets her staff, ensuring the plan is set for the day.
It’s why the 46-year-old loves her job, Review Review Granada House 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 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.
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. 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. Almost half live with HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and/or other chronic health conditions. 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.
She began having dreams about her past, and she was prescribed medications to help with the nightmares. By the time she was 16, she’d been introduced to drugs by one of her mother’s friends, she said. Over the course of roughly the next 15 years, Rivera continued to deal with instability and the effects of her trauma.
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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. 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. Last year, 4,775 people turn to Review Granada House for shelter, sustenance, recovery, care, and professional, compassionate support. 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.
By the time she was 10 or 11, Rivera and her siblings were placed in foster care because of their mother’s alcohol use. By the time that she was about 8, her mother moved the family to Springfield, Massachusetts. 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.
‘I see things in them that they don’t see themselves’
Each day, she and her colleagues at the Connector also do about two hours of street outreach, rotating who stays in the office and who goes out. 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. When Rivera was moved to Casa Esperanza’s new housing on Eustis Street, she again felt flooded with feelings of fear and nervousness about the change, she recalled. “Every time I had an appointment, they had somebody to come with me because it’s how I felt safe,” she said. “We were always left alone, and the violence that was in the house was not normal,” she said of living with her mother.
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- “It’s happening a lot,” Rivera said, emphasizing that there are more dangerous substances being put in the drugs being consumed on the street.
- By the time that she was about 8, her mother moved the family to Springfield, Massachusetts.
- In the years that she’s been working in harm reduction, Rivera has shared bits and pieces of her own experiences with addiction, trauma, and violence with those she works with.
- Rivera starts each day with a cup of coffee and greets her staff, ensuring the plan is set for the day.
They want to know that there are people out there who care, who won’t treat them “like they’re trash,” Rivera said. There were an estimated 1,696 fatal overdoses in Massachusetts during the first nine months of 2022, according to the state Department of Public Health. Fentanyl was found in nearly every opioid-related fatal overdose during that period, according to the state. But once in the foster home, Rivera said she continued to be exposed to alcohol, drugs, and sexual violence. But she said it’s also taken her a long time to feel comfortable sharing what she experienced as a child and teenager, which resulted in her own years-long struggle with substance use, incarceration, and instability. People’s success ultimately depends on their own belief in themselves and their future.
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. The best thing anyone can do to help those who are struggling with addiction, homelessness, or mental health issues is get educated, Rivera said.
