Kathleen Cannata sat in a chair, draped by a hair stylist’s cape.
She was at Boston Well being Look after the Homeless Program’s important clinic within the South Finish, the place she usually goes for medical care. However on today, she was getting a haircut — one she had actually appeared ahead to.
The final a number of years have been actually powerful for Cannata. She grew to become homeless after a divorce from her longtime husband, she stated. She moved into right into a everlasting supportive housing unit in Boston final 12 months.
She not too long ago reduce her personal hair as a result of she was upset by somebody’s feedback about her grays. However now, skilled stylist Joyce Deliyiannis was giving her a brand new look — without spending a dime.
“I see that glow in her eyes, like, when she simply desires to make the lady look stunning,” Cannata stated of Deliyiannis. “We’d like folks which might be going to elevate folks up, make folks really feel necessary … make them really feel higher about themselves, in order that they’ll transfer ahead.”
Each Saturday, Boston Well being Look after the Homeless runs HER Saturday (which stands for Well being, Empowerment and Assets). The group’s leaders stated it is meant to be a protected area for girls to seek out group, entry well being care and a few primary requirements — and even get a magnificence enhance.
Deliyiannis volunteers reducing hair on the occasion as soon as a month. She stated she sees herself within the sneakers of the ladies whose hair she cuts.
“That might be me tomorrow,” Deliyiannis stated, including that she’s grateful for the expertise.
“Truly, I ought to say, ‘Thanks for the chance.’ I do imagine that [we’re] all a possibility to one another. And if we carry all the nice folks collectively, we actually can transfer the mountains.”
Proper subsequent to the hair-styling station, volunteers moved mounds of clothes — denims and sweatshirts that have been donated, and socks and underwear bought by the group. Ladies sifted by way of the choice and walked away with some new gadgets.
All of the whereas, music — from American R&B to Haitian pop — performed from a speaker arrange within the constructing’s foyer. Ladies sat round tables cluttered with bottles of nail polish, blush and eye shadow compacts, and mirrors. They did their very own make-up and nails, or obtained them carried out by volunteers. At one other desk, ladies labored on craft initiatives.
Melinda Thomas, a doctor assistant and the affiliate medical director at Boston Well being Look after the Homeless, stated the group began HER Saturday about eight years in the past as a result of ladies had requested for a protected area to return collectively. It stopped for 4 years in the course of the pandemic, however began again up once more this 12 months.
Many ladies who’re unhoused have skilled trauma, together with bodily or sexual abuse and home violence, Thomas stated. They face a heightened danger of sexual assault and different hurt whereas unhoused. Plus, homelessness itself provides trauma.
All of that contributes to mistrust of the medical system, Thomas stated, so the occasion is a approach to join folks with care of every kind.
“By creating a spot the place folks can are available in, have enjoyable actions and commune with one another, over time, they get to know the employees very well,” she stated. “And due to that, when ladies really feel protected, they’re extra more likely to entry care or inform us about issues that they will not be telling different folks about.”
That features intercourse work and home violence. Thomas stated this system’s home violence advocate sees extra ladies on the Saturday occasion than she does all the week.
Ladies can get numerous different care on the spot — from sick visits and primary well being screenings to Pap smears and contraception.
Off to 1 aspect, a girl who was clearly in misery talked to a number of employees members. She was upset about one thing that was occurring to her in her residing scenario. The group introduced her to talk with a behavioral well being clinician.
One other lady, a Haitian immigrant named Elaine Joseph who was staying within the ladies’s shelter subsequent door, stated she wanted assist, too.
“[I’m] struggling. [It’s] onerous to take showers and eat on my own,” Joseph stated in Haitian Creole to a program coordinator, Shirley Berard, who translated for her.
Joseph stated she had a stroke a couple of 12 months in the past, earlier than she got here to Massachusetts.
She had already been to Boston Well being Look after the Homeless for some medical appointments, however did not but have a devoted supplier. Berard organized for her to return again to the clinic in the course of the week and get arrange with a main care physician.
Among the 80 or so ladies who confirmed up on today got here primarily for the enjoyable the occasion supplies, although.
“The make-up, the snacking and the woman talks. And … choosing out a brand new outfit,” stated Pinky Valentine.
She sat nonetheless as volunteer Chloe Park swept some blush onto her cheeks with a beauty sponge.
“You gotta, like, make it pop,” Valentine stated as the 2 mentioned coloration selections. “If it isn’t pink, you gotta make it, like, fuschia.”
Valentine stated as a homeless transgender lady, she experiences violence and harassment. So she seeks out areas and occasions like this which might be centered on feminine or trans wellness and group — a vivid observe in her journey to get out of shelter and again into a spot of her personal.
