PROVIDENCE, RI Talk to Providence resident Lucy Grant and you might begin to believe the idea that one person can make a difference. For her, it was a neighbor who introduced her to an agency that would become like family.
Lucy is the wife of Joe, the mother of four children, and a Certified Nurses Assistant at Eleanor Slater Medical Center. She is also a survivor of the civil wars in Liberia, which ravaged the West African country for two decades and prompted the mass exodus of families and individuals including by many who have settled here in Rhode Island. However, Lucy did not originally come to the Ocean State; her first stop was New Jersey.
Prior to living in New Jersey, Lucy lived in a refugee resettlement community in Liberias neighboring country, Ivory Coast. It was dangerous there because of political violence that surrounded the former president, Charles Taylor, but another challenge was having to learn French the primary language of Ivory Coast [English is common in Liberia]. It was a sister who was living in New Jersey who sent for Lucy after shed been in Ivory Coast for nine months; when she left Africa, her oldest child, Antoinette, was still a baby.
By the time she left Ivory Coast, Lucy had already met Joe. Joe had family in Ivory Coast that he regularly visited, but he was already living in RI with his brother and his brothers girlfriend. Lucy and Joe continued to date when she moved to New Jersey, and Lucy eventually had a second daughter (Georgia), married Joe and moved to RI.
When Lucy moved to Providence to join Joe, one of the first things they did was look for daycare for Georgia who was almost two years old. Joe was working a job that started at 5:00 am and Lucy was employed from 7:00 am 3:00 PM. Where could they take little Georgia?
At the time, recalls Lucy, they were living in the Chad Brown Apartment Complex near the Providence-North Providence border and the answer came right from her next-door neighbor, Charles, who recommended John Hope Settlement House. Yet not only did Charles voice an option, he also took Lucy and Georgia, himself, on their first visit to John Hope, where they met the former head of the Early Learning Center (and its namesake), Jo-Ann Caffey McDowell.
The connection was immediate and clear, says Lucy, who remembers McDowell as a kind woman who accepted Georgia into her program on that same day. Soon after, Lucy enrolled Antoinette in John Hopes After School Learning Center, but their neighbor Charles he remained in the picture. Charles ended up taking Georgia every weekday morning on the public bus (RIPTA) directly to John Hope in further service to Lucy and Joes family.
Today, Antoinette is 17 years old and Georgia is 14. Both have officially outgrown or aged out of John Hopes programs, but they are still connected, for each of the girls regularly returns to volunteer in different roles. Lucy and Joe have also remained closely connected to the agency, in part because they have since had two more children Augustus and Izaiah who are enrolled in the organizations programs. Augustus is involved in the After School Learning Center, which he plans to enjoy until, like his sisters, he becomes an older volunteer. And Izaiah is moving through the ranks at John Hope as well; this Friday, June 25 hell join his classmates in a ceremony marking their kindergarten graduation.
They teach the children very well, says Lucy praising the staff at the Early Learning Center and referring to some of Izaiahs accomplishments this year. She also says McDowell created a warm environment that is maintained today, under Nancy Lowder, who took over the Early Learning Center as Assistant Director when McDowell recently retired.
The things theyve done, like caring for the kids when were at work thats like what a family does, explains Lucy. Furthermore, she says, they treat everyone equal and all the staff are great.
The older children can now walk to John Hope because Lucy, Joe and the family relocated nine years ago, and their new house is much closer. But Lucy still remembers what her neighbor Charles did for her and she does her part in return. Antoinette, Georgia and Lucy can all name family members, friends, and co-workers who theyve referred and subsequently seen enrolled in programming at John Hope Settlement House.
Augustus says he met his best friend at John Hope, and Antoinette says she refers all her high school friends who say they need volunteer hours to support their graduation requirements. Georgia says she one day wants to work in childcare, thanks to her time as a volunteer.
From daycare, to kindergarten to after school programs, says Lucy, I recommend others go there.
For more information about Fridays kindergarten graduation program or about openings in the Jo-Ann Caffey McDowell Early Learning Center at John Hope Settlement House, contact Nancy Lowder, Assistant Director, by phone at 401-421-4637 or by email at nlowder@johnhope.org.