Baker Champions Plan for Homeless Children

Later this week, Massachusetts First Lady Lauren Baker will kick off a 4-year, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute-funded community-building plan to improve services for Boston’s homeless children.

Baker will headline a reception for one hundred civic leaders hosted by Boston College’s School of Social Work. At the event, Baker will introduce the plan being spearheaded by FamilyAid and a consortium of its partners including the United Way, Horizons for Homeless Children, Boston Public Schools, Heading Home, Boston Children’s Hospital, New England Community Services, City Year Greater Boston, the Massachusetts Executive Office of the Trial Court, and Boston College.

“Solving family homelessness will take much more than just providing housing to struggling families,” says FamilyAid president Larry Seamans. “Numerous academic studies show that the best way to break intergenerational family poverty and homelessness is to ensure that children get all the supports they need to be successful adults. Vulnerable children need better access to daycare, afterschool care, mental and physical healthcare, and social supports like mentoring, camps, and athletics to have a better life. We’re hopeful that this effort will ultimately balance our community’s housing response with support for vulnerable children. We are honored to have Mrs. Baker champion our cause.”

Dana-Farber is funding the initiative, which will bring expert national facilitators to work with Boston community leaders in mapping current service gaps and opportunities and implementing improvements over the next four years. Plan to read updates on the plan in upcoming newsletters!