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WELCOME
 Dear
Friends,
The current economic crisis means that this is a difficult
time in America. These tough times take a toll on us all,
but even more so on our neighbors who are just getting by
from paycheck to paycheck.
What if that paycheck should stop, due to a lay-off, or
shrink, due to a decrease in hours?
What if one of these families faces an expensive repair
to a car that provides the only way for the main breadwinner
to get to work?
L ife
quickly becomes unmanageable and these families. They – and
their children – can easily end up at risk of losing their
housing, or homeless. The consequences of the economic
downturn are apparent: family homelessness in suburban and
rural Connecticut is up 33% in 2009. The trauma and
dislocation of homelessness is difficult for anyone who must
experience it. Studies show that homelessness is
particularly damaging to children, impacting their well
being, ability to learn, and physical health.
Since 1999, MASH has provided emergency shelter for homeless
families with children. In 2009, our 10th year of work in
the Mystic area, MASH continues to serve as the only
provider of emergency shelter for families with children
between New London and Westerly. We help the families who
come through our doors to find their way through a rough
patch, and we provide some amount of normalcy in the midst
of turmoil for the children. Our services are needed now,
more than ever.
If the bad news is the increase in need because of the
economic downturn,
there is also good news to share!
MASH continues to provide emergency shelter services in our
five, scattered-site units. We are also focusing on new
programs that allow us to stretch every dollar as far as
possible to provide urgently needed help to families who are
homeless and at risk of homelessness.
How does this work?
We are shortening families’ stays in emergency shelter
through a program called “Rapid Re-Housing.” Through this
program, we help homeless families exit emergency shelter
and return to permanent housing as quickly as possible.
Through a second new MASH program (“Homelessness
Prevention”), we use modest amounts of targeted assistance
to keep families at risk of homelessness in their own
housing and out of the shelter system.
These two programs allow us to serve more families with
children through our emergency shelter program without
expanding our number of shelter units! At the same time,
both these programs make better use of resources than
shelter alone, reducing the time that families spend in
emergency shelter while minimizing the damaging effects of
homelessness on children. Please visit our “Programs and
Services” tab to find out more, and to read the stories of
some of the clients we have served.
Thank you for visiting the MASH website. Please consider
making a contribution to help MASH help families who are
homeless or at risk of homelessness. We make every dollar
count!
Thank you!
Lisa Tepper Bates
Executive Director
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