Photo: Volunteers Carolyn Ofria (left) and Kate Gilbert studied On The Rise’s 1995-2011 timeline poster display at the organization’s Second Annual Community Meeting and Luncheon April 5 at Christ Church, Cambridge.

“I was homeless myself for awhile, when I was young,” Carolyn Ofria said. She was one of some 40 guests—staff, board members, volunteers and program participants—at On The Rise’s Second Annual Community Meeting and Luncheon at Christ Church, Garden Street on April 5.

Ofria was looking at a series of timeline posters showing how On The Rise developed after it began in 1995 as a graduate student’s project to assist homeless women in Cambridge. Although Ofria’s experience of homelessness is in the past, she knows what a difference the program can make.

“Now I’m looking for opportunities to give back,” she said enthusiastically. “I love everything On The Rise does.” Her recent activities there have included participation in service days and a Moving Home collection drive for a recently housed woman.

Located at 341 Broadway, On The Rise (http://www.ontherise.org) is a day program that assists some 350 women each year in Cambridge and Greater Boston. Many are living on the street or sleeping in shelters; often they are grappling with other challenges that underlie homelessness, such as alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence, poverty and ill health.

Attendees at this year’s meeting on April 5 heard news and reports by Board President Carol Goss, Program Director Charyti Reiter, and Martha Sandler, the program’s Executive Director since 2009.

Carol Goss welcomed the noon-time crowd and spoke briefly about the “relational aspect” of On The Rise’s work with homeless women.

“By this, I mean the idea that through community and relationships, people can heal very deep, long-standing wounds that are the genesis of much of the homelessness that we deal with at On The Rise,” she said. “As we provide basic necessities to them, we are also working to create long-term, trusting, and healing relationships which emphasize each woman’s dignity and capacity to grow and change.”

Charyti Reiter chronicled the program’s progress with Danielle, a woman On The Rise has worked with—with numerous ups and downs—for seven years. Reiter said the approach is special in that it is long-term and “low-threshold.” That term means that women are eligible and welcome to participate even as they continue to struggle with issues like addiction, violent relationships, and mental illness, which would disqualify them from many programs. They set their own pace in determining what help they need as they move forward with the support and advocacy of the professional staff.

Executive Director Martha Sandler discussed the past year’s events at On The Rise, which has a staff of 12 full-time and 2 part-time workers. The budget for Fiscal Year 2010 was $1,014,000. Volunteers number more than 200 annually. The program is primarily supported by contributions from individuals, businesses, and foundations; it also receives funding from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families Domestic Violence Unit and the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance.

Sandler’s report for 2010 included notes on the numbers of program participants over the previous three years.
--350 women were served at On The Rise, up 20% since 2007.
--116 women were new visitors to the Safe Haven, up 10% since 2007. (Note: Safe Haven is defined in Priority II, below.)
--27 women relied on the Safe Haven each day, up 17% since 2007.
--47 women obtained housing with assistance from On The Rise—up nearly 50% from the previous year. Sandler termed this number “modestly encouraging,” but noted that it had fluctuated between 25 and 50 since 2007.

“We’re concerned about funding in the housing sector generally for the next fiscal year,” she said. “It’s going to be affected by the $2 billion state budget deficit, declines in tax revenue and the uncertainty over the federal budget.” However, since On The Rise is more than 80% privately funded, the effect of cuts in federal funding is expected to be indirect.

Sandler listed the four priorities in the organization’s Strategic Plan for 2010-2012, discussing progress during 2010 and steps projected for 2011:

Priority I. Reaching Unserved Women: Women will be sought through street outreach and other forms of outreach, since many of them lack the resources and connections to find On The Rise on their own.

Progress in 2010: On The Rise Community Advocates began accompanying CASPAR’s (Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcoholism and Drug Rehabilitation) First Step street outreach team on some Cambridge-Somerville rounds.

Next Steps for 2011: With added staff capacity On The Rise will increase the range and frequency of outreach activities and will begin to assess the impact.

Priority II. Providing Safe Haven: The Safe Haven is a safe place where homeless women can fulfill basic needs, build relationships, work intensively with staff on self-defined issues, and be part of a community.

Progress in 2010: Safe Haven participation held steady in 2010, but fewer new women joined the program compared to 2009. Women who obtained housing almost doubled in 2010 over 2009. A position was added so that advocates could broaden their participation in street outreach and housing stabilization activities.

Next Steps for 2011: With a larger team of advocates engaged in a broader range of activities, On The Rise will build systems and practices that enhance their ability to communicate with each other and with the women they serve. This will help them to be more proactive in building and sustaining Safe Haven relationships and community.

Priority III. Supporting Housing Stabilization: As women move into housing they are invited to remain part of the On The Rise community, helped to stabilize in their changed circumstances and build new connections with new communities, and invited to give back and “hold the door open” for others.

Progress in 2010: Through the Keep the Keys program, On The Rise continued to provide supportive services to Safe Haven women who move into housing. Housing retention held steady near 80%. On The Rise began moving toward new technology to record activities and results in order to inform the next stage of program design.

Next Steps for 2011: The statewide shift towards a “Housing First” approach means that On The Rise should build its ability to work with women who are already housed in order to sustain their gains. The program will continue to develop the Keep the Keys curriculum and collaborations to address the need for relational programming in this milieu.

Priority IV. Influencing Policy and Social Attitudes: Staff and program participants are encouraged to learn from experience, build knowledge and communicate it to others, and promote broader understanding of matters affecting women living in crisis and homelessness.

Progress in 2010: Community outreach included the first Annual Community Meeting in April, 2010; monthly “Strong at the Broken Places” tours of the Safe Haven; and creation of a Community Relations position. Social media presence was increased; more exposure to traditional media was sought.

Next Steps for 2011: On The Rise will use its growing ability to analyze trends in the community, and to advocate for policies and collaborations that give women the safety, relationships, and resources they need to obtain and sustain housing.