By Zoe Pilla
On any given day at Pine Street Inn, hundreds of homeless men and women stream through the doors for a hot meal, a bed, health check-ups or appointments with counselors. The South End campus is an overwhelming, busy and stark environment. Pine Street’s goal is to find a permanent home and community for everyone, but the search starts on Harrison Ave, where for over 30 years, Pine Street has served the community of Boston.
Approximately ten years ago Pine Street Inn realized that their mission to end homelessness needed a more comprehensive approach. Individuals needed a source of income to maintain their housing once it was secured. Out of this need, the workforce development program started to re-train guests of Pine Street Inn in food service, housekeeping and woodshop so that they might reintegrate into society more easily. The transition is a tricky one. The homeless population exists beyond the parameters of most people’s day to day. To most people living in America’s cities, a homeless person is just as inconspicuous and earns as little thought as another street corner.
It is within that transitional step that my co-op exists. Functioning primarily as an administrative assistant, I work at Boston HandyWorks, a social enterprise of Pine Street Inn. We handcraft cutting boards and provide cleaning services. All of our employees are receiving services from Pine Street Inn. Since August, I’ve had the exciting privilege of expanding my role past just administration. Partially due to need and partially due to my own desire, I’ve become an event planner, social media guru, human resources department and most importantly, employment counselor and liaison for the trainees.
There is nothing more exciting than joining a company and realizing you have the ability and opportunity to carve out a position for yourself where there is need. This was especially exciting for me because I had just gotten back from South Africa in August and had found incomparable meaning, inspiration and motivation during that experience. Coming home, I was unsure of how I would assimilate back into a regular, mundane routine. However, it only took a few weeks to realize that I had already found an opportunity to make my life just as meaningful in Boston.
I’ve now spent countless hours talking and working with people experiencing homelessness and trying to understand their needs so I might better serve them. I’ve picked up necessary listening skills and valuable life advice along the way. Something that’s especially interesting are the parallels I can draw between the homeless in Boston and the populations living in informal settlements in South Africa. Both groups are almost completely excluded from the normal economy; they are regarded as neither consumers nor producers, simply something to be dealt with. They struggle with many of the same human dignity issues, especially lack of privacy and independence. They put up with the same stigmas: that they are lazy drunks or addicts and if they were only motivated their situation would improve.
These similarities have helped me greatly when assisting the trainees in their job searches and career development. For them, it’s more than an application and an interview. It’s setting up an email account, slowly one-finger typing on the computer, finding a way to obtain interview clothes and learning to talk about large gaps in employment on their resume. Assuming nothing and asking the right questions are essential in this situation. Although I’m still learning, I am grateful that my past experiences allow me to be so valuable to trainees navigating this transition.
Reflecting on the first half of my final co-op, I am so happy that I landed at Pine Street Inn. Every day I am challenged to rethink how the system operates, evaluate my judgments, and assess if I am functioning to both increase profit for the company and optimize impact for the trainees. I am also able to use a skill set that I honed while abroad in South Africa. Finally, I am reassured every day that I made the right choice when I took the Global Social Entrepreneurship course four years ago, setting myself on a path that inspires and motivates me no matter the location.
