THE COMMUNITY ADVOCATE
“The Northborough woman helps other live with dignity”
Thank you Community Advocate and Laurie Berkley, a contributing writer to Community Advocate for a wonderful article about Dignity Matters and Rebecca Putnam, Dignity Matter’s Board Director, Treasurer and volunteer! Read about what we do and how Rebecca got involved.
http://www.communityadvocate.com/2017/10/05/northborough-woman-helps-others-live-with-dignity/
Thanks to cooperation with Grace Lichaa, Director and Healthy Lifestyles and Trisha McCarthy, Community Health Registered Nurse at Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (BGCB), Dignity Matters delivered in June over 5500 units of feminine hygiene products for all even of the Clubs in Boston. The Clubs have over 8,000 members and are strategically located in neighborhoods with pronounced need: in Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury, Charlestown, Chelsea, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain and South Boston).
The Clubs provide a safe, affordable place and enriching programs for kids to go when they are not in school and we are proud to be a small part of the solution for the healthy and thriving youth of Boston.
Dignity Matters has been at the forefront of menstrual movement in Massachusetts for a year. The movement is about ensuring that all women, teens and young girls have access to necessary feminine hygiene products when needed.
After serving homeless shelters for several months, in June 2017 Dignity Matters extended its reach to some of the public schools and after school programs.
Tens additional schools are scheduled to be served in September to ensure that girls can restart the school without disruption.
Lack of access to pads/tampons is a serious issue in many states, including Massachusetts, and it can affect girls’ productivity in school. Factor in bulling (bad smell…), necessary daily trips to a nurse for a pad (if available at all), embarrassment that many teens are made to feel about this normal biological process and periods can become a nightmare. We believe that no one should miss school, suffer indignity or risk health because of their period. We hope the entire Massachusetts community will support us in delivering pads/tampons not only to adult women but now also teens and young girls in need.
On May 27th Dignity Matters had a real pleasure of visiting and donating to On The Rise in Cambridge, MA. On The Rise provides safety, community, and advocacy for over 400 homeless and formerly-homeless women per year. Together with the employee of the On the Rise we organized a wonderful and personal event for the women who were given well fitted new bras and panties. Because many of the women at On The Rise are postmenopausal, we also donated 165 pairs of the MUCH-NEEDED incontinence underwear.
‘A big thank you to Dignity Matters for hosting a Bra Day last weekend at On The Rise! Together, we were able to serve 44 women distributing a total of 176 pairs of underwear and 129 bras at this great event. We are so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with this wonderful organization’. Delphene Mooney, Director of Development and Communications, On The Rise.
May was a very busy month for Dignity Matters. As the budgets for social services are getting cut, the costs of housing in Massachusetts are rising and the homelessness in our state is at its peak, the need for our service is rapidly growing. Charley Bokor (right on the photo), the Director of the Framingham Drop in Center for Homeless reached out to us for urgent support and we responded by donating over 2000 units of feminine hygiene products, 100 pairs of new socks, over 200 hygiene products as well as clothes and bras for women. As always, we will be back to help again in the fall. The Center serves chronicly homeless people who are mainly unsheltered and it is on constant need of more assistance. Below is the note we got from Charley after our visit:
“On behalf SMOC, I would like to thank you and your organization for donating to the Framingham Drop In Center with feminine hygiene products and underwear. The disadvantaged women in our community who are homeless and are trying to survive on the street have been neglected for so long as far as having the basic feminine hygiene products and underwear are concerned. Because of your generous donation, our women can now go out boldly to tackle their everyday life with full confidence and dignity. Again, we thank you for your generosity and look forward to working with you again.”
Big thank you to the Milton Patch and the Wayland Town Crier for covering Dignity Matters and LoveJane’s partnership in honor of World Menstrual Hygiene Day (May 28). The date of May 28 is not coincidental. On average, girls menstruate every 28 days and for 5 days. Clever!
Thank you again LoveJane for your donation and your heart!
Thanks to all women who donated to Dignity Matters so far, this week we could support another homeless shelter in Massachusetts. Here is what Dana Lepore (on the left), Program Administrator at Sage House in Framingham wrote to us today:
“Some women are fortunate financially to be able to purchase undergarments and feminine hygiene products. Some women don’t realize that what they take for granted other women desperately need. Dignity Matters allowed our women access to underwear, bras and feminine hygiene products – all items that they would not have been able to afford on their own”.
Below is also a beautiful and moving thank you card we received from the women at the shelter. Thank you!
On April 10th Dignity Matters responded to a need for feminine hygiene products at Family Promise Metrowest in Natick, MA.
Family Promise Metrowest is a local organization supporting up to ten families at a time with both homeless and in-transition housing. Within an hour from receiving an email asking for support, Dignity Matters delivered 600 tampons and pads, which is three-months supply for women currently receiving help from Family Promise Metrowest. We are delighted to partner with Family Promise and we look forward to delivering more supplies of feminine hygiene products and underwear and bras to women in May.
Shadows and Meadows shelters (now one organization) in Ashland, MA provide much needed support for local homeless women. On February 28th 2017, Dignity Matters had the privilege of meeting and supporting women residing at Shadows and Meadows and providing them with bras, underwear and feminine hygiene products (as well as some toiletries). Vanh Phommasinh, shelter Director (on the left), shared with everyone that Dignity Matters is the only resource available for feminine hygiene products and underwear for the shelter’s clients and that in her five years of managing the shelter she may have seen just 5 donated bras… needless to say, the need for support is very significant!
Thanks to Vanh, and generous community giving, we were able to create a lovely ‘Bra Morning Event’ when all women received personalized bags with bras/panties and then they had a chance to try the bras and find the best fit.
Dignity Matters donated 1500 feminine hygiene products to Shadows and Meadows and a supply of bras and panties for 30 women.
Bra Morning with Dignity Matters at Women’s Lunch Place
On March 4th Dignity Matters had the pleasure of delivering a large donation to Women’s Lunch Place in Boston. We spent the morning at the shelter where we fitted approximately 75 women with quality bras. We believe that every woman has a right to have quality bras that fit just right, so we do not drop off the bras randomly at shelters, but rather organize events where women come and can choose and try as many different models until they find just the right fit. In addition to the bras, we also distributed new underwear, and supplied 3000 sanitary pads and tampons to the shelter as well.
Dignity Matters is privileged to serve Women’s Lunch Place, and we’re very grateful for letting us experience the center and meet its community of women.
From the Women’s Lunch Place Facebook page: “Dignity Matters volunteers created a private dressing room in the shelter! Guests enjoyed bra fittings and chose from a selection of lacy and colorful lingerie. Dignity Matters gave away 400 bras and 200 pairs of underwear on Saturday and donated 3,000 sanitary pads and tampons”.
*permission was granted to take and use all the images
Wayland nonprofit helps women with unmet needs
Wayland Town Crier, Wayland
During their annual Ladies Curling Club’s All American Bonspiel, the Broomstones Curling Club selected Dignity Matters as the cause they will champion for 2017. In attendance at the event was Kate Sanetra-Butler, Founder and CEO of Dignity Matters who graciously thanked the organization and those in attendance for their support. READ MORE
Wayland Patch
A staggering number of women (homeless women, single mothers, low-income mothers, or women escaping domestic violence) living in shelters in almost every community within Massachusetts and Rhode Island cannot afford personal hygiene items. Donations collected in January benefited women like these at the Sage House in Framingham, Massachusetts. Dignity Matters continues its strong effort to make a difference, help these women and help to raise ‘dignity’ in all women! READ MORE
Every month, thousands of homeless women are placed in a crisis situation when they get their periods. From dealing with infections to being unable to purchase sanitary supplies, keeping safe and clean isn’t easy on the streets.
WELLESLEY HOMETOWN WEEKLY:
“Dignity Matters inspired us to act. We want to be a part of the solution”, Andrea Schneider, The Wellesley Mothers Forum Community Outreach Director. http://www.hometownweekly.net/wellesley/wcc-mothers-forum-sponsor-dignity-matters/
THE SWELLESLEY REPORT:
The Wellesley Mothers Forum has coordinated with the Wellesley Community Center to team up with Dignity Matters.
THE WELLESLEY TOWNSMAN: “Restoring dignity to women in need”.
