WBZ Cares: "St. Mary's Center" in Dorchester Helps Women and Their Children
BOSTON (CBS) - The WBZ Cares Campaign continues for the month of July.
Each month, WBZ Newsradio 1030 highlights a worthy non-profit organization, and tells the story of what it does for the community.
For the month of July, WBZ profiles St. Mary's Center for Women and Children, located on Cushing Avenue in Dorchester. St. Mary's Center provides housing, education and services for young women and their children.
The Center supports more than 600 women, children and their families by giving them a safe place to live, along with educational and employment training. They've been providing help for more than two decades.
"We don't know their past, nor can we create their future," said St. Mary's President Dierdre Houtmeyers, when talking about the women they serve. "We can just help them along that journey. And when you are respectful and you treat people with dignity, that's when people make it, because they believe in themselves."
Kaylee Neslusan is among those who have been helped at St. Mary's Center. She left hone at 14, and didn't have parents to guide her in life.
"Nobody ever taught me to be a mother, " said Kaylee.
"Nobody ever taught me how to clean house, nobody ever taught me how to do dishes. I was a teenager, and you don't care about that stuff."
Kaylee is the mother of twin girls, and lived at Margaret's House at St. Mary's for a year-and-a-half. Now, thanks to the training and support she received at St. Mary's, she and her kids are living on their own, and she'll graduate from the Center's Women @Work Plus program in December.
"Moving her and realizing there is so much more that I need to learn other than just changing diapers and playing with them (her kids), "said Kaylee.
"St. Mary's provided me with a lot of the skills you need to succeed as a parent in today's society. "
If you'd like to donate, you can go to their website at www.stmaryscenterma.org.