A Study in Contrasts
This month’s musings are a study in contrast – a lot of wonderful things happening set against a background of fear and anxiety.
- Two long-time young clients are graduating from high school, and will be attending UMASS Lowell. They received tutoring and guidance from LexRAP volunteers, and will be receiving some financial support from LexRAP for those things that full scholarships don’t cover.
- Two other members of the tribe are receiving master’s degrees (one in business, one in science), setting them on a course for interesting and meaningful careers.
- I continue to be deeply awed by, and grateful for, the enormous amount of work done by our volunteers. As president I have a good overview of what’s going on, but don’t know all the details. Almost every day I hear about some efforts that make me proud to be part of this organization.
Also every day at this point, we are hearing disturbing stories about apprehensions of immigrants. One video taken in Waltham showed an ICE agent with a mask over his face breaking the side window of a van in order to pull out someone he believed was undocumented. This sort of scene has played out many times recently across Massachusetts, instilling a deep sense of fear in the immigrant community and incomprehension among those who understand that the vast majority of these folks are hard-working, law-abiding, lovely people we are happy to call friend and neighbor.
Established procedures are being ignored, and it seems certain that in a number of cases individuals’ rights are being violated. We would like to be giving our clients advice, but in a world where normal procedures and policies are no longer in play, we have little reassurance to give.
Due to fewer families needing emergency shelter, the state is closing a number of shelters. While this may be in part due to families finding permanent housing, it is likely also due to the governor’s tougher policies and to increased border control. Local impact includes:
- The Temporary Respite center at the Lexington Armory closed on April 25. Families were reassigned to a shelter in Cambridge. While neither LexRAP or LexShelter volunteers were allowed in for direct work with individuals, we did do several drives, for clothes and toys, and in preparation for the move we purchased a number of inexpensive duffel bags.
- The longer-term Emergency Assistance shelter, where we have been involved since late October 2023 will be closing by the end of June. Remaining families will be moved to other shelters. We have no information about where, or whether they will be together. A number of families have moved to permanent housing, mostly in Lowell and Waltham. Several of these families have joined the LexRAP fold, with LexShelter volunteers committing to ongoing support.