Maverick House Overview is a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals and families who are homeless and may have substance use disorders, often accompanied by chronic health issues like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and mental illness. Providing a welcoming environment, our compassionate and inspiring team is committed to helping them regain their health and restore their hope through immediate access to safe and stable housing. When individuals and families are safely housed, they’re much more likely to address their physical and mental health, addictions, and other issues. Our housing stabilization services, including emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, and case management, move people off the street as quickly as possible, with as few barriers as possible.
By the time she was 16, she’d been introduced to drugs by one of her mother’s friends, she said. But once in the foster home, Rivera said she continued to be exposed to alcohol, drugs, and sexual violence. But she said it’s also taken her a long time to feel comfortable sharing what she experienced as a child and teenager, which resulted in her own years-long struggle with substance use, incarceration, and instability.
Organization Profile
The Jamaica Plain Recovery Center (JPRC) is a peer-led community center in partnership with Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Our goal is to create a safe, welcoming space for individuals from all backgrounds who are navigating addiction recovery. We established a nurturing community where every member finds belonging and plays an active role in shaping their journey toward recovery. Maverick House Overview operates various programs throughout Boston, all built on our strongly held belief that no person who is struggling should be asked to do the hardest thing first, on their own, before they are offered the fundamental support they truly need. Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Remembering her own experiences — of sleeping in cars or under a bridge, of wanting to end her own life — and the moments when people helped, or failed to help, Rivera said she continues to find herself wanting to do more to aid people in similar need.
Program Management Team
She ended up working as a staff member at Casa Esperanza for almost 12 years, becoming first a peer recovery coach, then a house manager, then a treatment coordinator, a senior Maverick House Overview Overview treatment coordinator, and a supervisor. We are excited to bring you the latest issue of Maverick House Overview’ print newsletter, The Doorway! The Fall edition is packed with inspiring stories and messages of resilience, generosity, and hope from our clients, staff, and supporters who are transforming lives and strengthening our communities.
- “Sometimes I feel so happy that my heart — I feel like I’m having like a big, good pain in my heart,” she said.
- It’s why the 46-year-old loves her job, working as a harm reduction specialist with individuals experiencing addiction, homelessness, and mental health issues in the area of Mass. and Cass in Boston.
- Our team of more than 200 staff across 19 programs works with people to develop and execute creative, safe solutions to the very real challenges they face.
- We focus on what a person is doing “well,” with a nurturing effect that fosters continued effort from the first steps toward progress and growth.
- In March of 2012, the BLC became a part of Maverick House Overview, ensuring their vital services continue to be available for adults with HIV/AIDS.
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By the time she was 10 or 11, Rivera and her siblings were placed in foster care because of their mother’s alcohol use. By the time that she was about 8, her mother moved the family to Springfield, Massachusetts. People’s success ultimately depends on their own belief in themselves and their future. We focus on what a person is doing “well,” with a nurturing effect that fosters continued effort from the first steps toward progress and growth.
The hardest moments are when Rivera and her colleagues learn from members coming into the Connector that someone has passed away from an overdose, she said. Rivera starts each day with a cup of coffee and greets her staff, ensuring the plan is set for the day. When Rivera was moved to Casa Esperanza’s new housing on Eustis Street, she again felt flooded with feelings of fear and nervousness about the change, she recalled. “We were always left alone, and the violence that was in the house was not normal,” she said of living with her mother.
They want to know that there are people out there who care, who won’t treat them “like they’re trash,” Rivera said. “It’s happening a lot,” Rivera said, emphasizing that there are more dangerous substances being put in the drugs being consumed on the street. Each day, she and her colleagues at the Connector also do about two hours of street outreach, rotating who stays in the office and who goes out. When people come in, she and her colleagues offer hot meals and find out what their needs may be. They make sure people have clean needles and talk to those who are engaged with sex work, asking how they are keeping themselves safe. “Every time I had an appointment, they had somebody to come with me because it’s how I felt safe,” she said.
