Community Partner: Franciscan Center Intern: Olivia Chan Site Supervisor: Meg Ducey
What is the Franciscan Center? The Franciscan Center offers a continuum of care, including emergency services, health services, counseling and technology training to help persons who are economically disadvantaged become as self-sufficient as possible and realize their self-worth and dignity.
This summer, I helped out with a variety of services that the Franciscan Center provides, but mainly focused my time in the Responsive Services Department. It was my favorite aspect of the summer because it allowed me to have one-on-one conversations with individuals and understand what they’ ve been going through. I’ ve been able to meet and connect with folks from all walks of life. One of the interviews I did on my own was with a man facing issues with housing discrimination. Throughout our conversation, I was nervous about being unable to address his issues and kept searching for a way that I’ d be able to help. However, he told me,“ it feels so great just to be able to share this with somebody. I’ m scared that if I tell any of my neighbors, the landlord will make our lives even harder.” It was then when I understood that the most important role for the Center was to be a support system. While that support is typically thought of as our physical resources, it’ s largely about humanity. Sometimes people just need someone to listen and treat them like human beings.
Despite the burdens that people have held, the spirit of the Center is typified more by the love and rapport that the clients and employees have for each other. I will always remember how clients would hug when meeting with their friends during our daily lunch. And how I would bump into them on the way to work and we would laugh about their struggles with technology or whatever was new with them. And how my coworkers knew all the clients by name and had inside jokes with them.
Baltimore is fundamentally a city which struggles with resources and the Center strives to bridge the gaps by providing basic resources— such as food, clothing, housing and employment assistance, and transportation— to families and individuals in crisis. It’ s so common and easy for Hopkins students and those outside of Baltimore to caricaturize the city as one of poverty, crime, and decay. Although those issues demand attention, the Franciscan Center has allowed me to look more deeply and truly feel the hope, faith, and resilience that characterize Baltimore residents in the face of institutional betrayal.
• Interviewed and registered clients on the ClientTrack software in order to understand their background and needs
• Conducted responsive services including applying for identification( birth certificates, MVA IDs, MTA IDs); providing dental, eyeglasses, and prescription assistance; registering for pantry bags; and opening mailboxes for individuals at the Center
• Assisted with various services and operations: organizing volunteers, serving food in a commercial kitchen, packing pantry bags, taking in and distributing donations, working at the reception desk, helping clients learn to use the computer to create resumes and search for jobs
• Compiled and organized a list of 1300 organizations and individuals networked with the Center
I’ m incredibly grateful for this opportunity to engage and build relationships with people in the Baltimore community and to learn about the city’ s institutions through these experiences and our discussions at the Center for Social Concern. There is compassion and empathy through understanding, and I will take that with me onwards.
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