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 NEW BEDFORD - In the Playspace of a New Bedford homeless shelter, a tent jumps and bumbles like a thing alive. Inside, three young girls whisper and giggle, fidget and squeal.
As if on cue, the three burst from the tent in fits of laughter and a neat, middle-aged woman emerges, chuckling, behind them. "It's craft time!" she announces, and the children squeal in delight again.
Nancy LaFrance and her husband, Ray, have been volunteering as Playspace Activity Leaders (PALs) for more than a year. For two hours each week, the Rochester couple plays with, reads to, listens to and encourages children in the New Bedford HarbOUR House shelter Playspace, installed there by Horizons for Homeless Children (HHC).
"We wanted to do something to help," Ray explained.
"Our children are grown and we were looking to give back," Nancy added.
An ad in a local newspaper informed the LaFrances that HHC (a Massachusetts non-profit agency that offers opportunities for education and play for young children in homeless families) was looking for volunteers to "staff" their 140 recreational and education spaces across Massachusetts. Nancy, 61, who has an educational and professional background in early childhood education was immediately interested in volunteering. Ray, 81 and a retired auto body mechanic, was enthusiastic as well.
"The children were a little shy at first," Nancy recalled of their first shift. "But we had another great PAL there who was like a mentor that first night."
Their Wednesday nights since, however, have been completely transformed.
"It's incredible," Nancy said. "The kids look forward to our coming every week. Many of the children are in the shelter for many months and the kids will see us and wrap their arms around our legs."
"They're certainly excited," echoed Ray. "I see them in the window as we're walking up. They're running back and forth, so happy to see us."
Volunteers like Ray and Nancy provide the consistent, positive adult influence that children, especially those 5 and under, living in homeless shelters often lack.
The LaFrances have witnessed the heartwarming results. "There's one little boy, about a year old, who can be a little unsure of leaving his mom," Ray said. "I picked him up one evening, gave him his bottle, and he fell asleep in my lap. He slept for the entire shift. He hung on to me after the shift and didn't want me to leave."
That same child listens intently to Ray's deep voice singing the ABC's along with the rest of the children. Men are, for the most part, absent in family homeless shelters. The young boy's eyes never leave Ray's wrinkling features, as if recognizing and learning to trust his kind smile.
Nancy said she "learned that I can work with Spanish-speaking children. We create our own sign language," Nancy shares. "A new girl came in a few weeks ago and was shy because of the language barrier. I paid extra close attention to her and tried to make her feel welcome. At the end of the night, as the kids were lining up to leave, she jumped out of line and gave me the biggest hug. We hadn't spoken one word to each other, but it didn't matter."
The basic elements of learning through play, essential to the development of young children, are often overlooked in those living in homeless situations. Horizons for Homeless Children's PALs, like Ray and Nancy, seek to give kids living in homeless shelters the chance to just be kids.
A whirlwind two hours passes, and soon, beaming mothers begin to peek in at their children who clutch their arts and crafts treasures with pride. One mother, watching with a smile as her daughter completed a picture, said the Horizons for Homeless Children Playspace provides a service she can't provide for her child. "They can breathe here," she said. "They can play. They express themselves and at the end of the shift, they don't want to leave."
"We don't know much about their lives outside of this room, but it doesn't matter," Nancy said. "We just come and play. Two hours a week, and we have a connection with them. It's amazing."
© New Bedford Standard Times 2011
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