Anne M. Nolan, president of Travelers Aid Rhode Island, is keeping her fingers crossed. All signs point to an August opening for the agency’s new home on Broad Street, formerly the downtown YMCA. The move has been in the works for years – delayed time and time again, for one reason or another.
The new digs will represent a godsend to an operation that is now busting at the seams at its 177 Union St. location sandwiched between Weybosset and Westminster streets.
Yes, the sad truth is that the business of homelessness is booming.
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“There are more and more homeless every year,” says Nolan.
Nolan has the numbers to back it up. In 2003, 5,686 Rhode Islanders stayed in homeless shelters around the state – many of them families. There were more single mothers – more men. More of everyone than in any previous year.
“These are not good records to break,” says Nolan.
Nolan explains that 80 percent of homeless people are in fact homeless just once during their lifetime. Circumstance – perhaps the loss of a job, an increase in rent or a health problem – has put them there.
These people, says Nolan, are employable. Some of them, in fact, have jobs
– good ones. But they just aren’t making ends meet. Maybe it’s a single circumstance
that puts them over the edge.
Barriers to employment
The remaining 20 percent of homeless people, however, face serious barriers to employment. It doesn’t mean they’re not smart or capable of working. It means that something has thrown them off track.
“They have multiple problems,” says Nolan.
She is talking about drug problems, mental health issues or maybe run-ins with the law that often coincide with each other.
“They can’t just get a job – because of all the things going on in their lives,” she says. “We need to offer them employment opportunities … in an environment where they can also get support for their other problems.”
Nolan has a blueprint for doing this. And she believes that the new space at the Broad Street location will afford Travelers Aid is going to help make it happen.
Travelers Aid is in the process of forming three separate businesses that will operate out of the new location.
The idea is to provide the agency’s clients with an opportunity to develop jobs skills and to sharpen those skills while running a very real business. It has worked elsewhere and Nolan sees no reason why it can’t work in Providence.
“We’re not inventing this,” says Nolan.
In fact, Nolan and the folks at Travelers Aid have already met with people from Rosie’s Place, a Boston shelter that runs a successful jewelry company. They have also met with the people at D.C. Central Kitchen, a catering business in Washington, D.C.
“They have a phenomenal, high-end catering business,” says Nolan. “They do
a lot of work with embassy parties.”
Honing their skills
The first of the three fledgling businesses will be a copy center that will specialize in bulk copies and offer special rates to nonprofits. Nolan envisions Travelers Aid clients honing their skills there and then taking that experience to established commercial printers or copy centers.
The second business will be a food product, produced in conjunction with Amos House and Johnson & Wales University. Nolan sees a chocolate brownie/ice cream of some sort.
“You know Providence, especially in the summer – you have to have ice cream,” she says.
The third venture will be an entry-level customer service telephone-training center.
The businesses will all be nonprofits; money made at them will be put directly back into the business.
“We don’t expect to be rolling in the dough … but we want to develop these businesses to be self-sufficient,” she says.
Talking about these three businesses, Nolan exudes a refreshing confidence. She has a corporate background, having worked in business administration and human resources at large companies.
She expects this program to work, and not in a handout sort of way or by people patronizing the efforts. No, Nolan is talking about motivating smart people to operate businesses efficiently.
“We have people with master’s degrees,” she says. “I want to capitalize on the education of the population we serve.”
Nolan could not be more serious.
“We’re doing business plans now and we are getting experts to help us,” she says. “We are approaching this very seriously.”
The Travelers Aid board has at least 20 members, including several heavy hitters in the state’s business community. They want to see this program succeed. Nolan says several people have already promised to support the businesses. The more people she tells about the program, the more enthusiasm she feels.
Sometimes it just takes an individual to see – no, to believe – that an idea like this can work. And then others get on board and something very special happens.
“I can’t wait to get started,” says Nolan.
Three new businesses for the capital city – all rooted in a homeless shelter.
That will be something special.
