Heading Home Site Visit! (Written by Jamie Gobiel)

On Wednesday April 17th, our Non Profit Giving class visited Heading Home in Dorchester Massachusetts. Our trip there was long and we hit a lot of traffic. Once we got there we were shuffled between floors and no one working in the office seemed to know why we were there or where we should go. Once we got settled, they brought us into a nice office with snacks and refreshments. Since we got there so late, they shortened a lot of their PowerPoint and descriptions in order for us to have enough time to ask our questions. We were shown a Presentation of how to handle student debt and loans which was a nice way to relate our lives to the lives of the clients of Heading Home. This was an example of how the economic mobility center helps others.  However, it seemed to me that it was an insufficient use of our time there. They then moved on to describe more of their program and how they help their clients and the types of shelters they provide, which was great. They also showed us a video of a mother and her daughter being moved into a permanent apartment with the help of Heading Home. This was a great way to get us motivated to want to help them and provide them funding. Overall our experience was disheveled at first but as our visit went on I got to see the purpose and passion the three members of the Heading Home team had in helping their clients and really changing their lives for the better.