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How a Springfield agency's mission evolved since its founding after the Civil War
SPRINGFIELD – As a young child, Mary Jo McDonald spent years in foster care and was on the list to be adopted by a new family. That all changed when her troubled mother found the strength to change.
McDonald credits her reunification with her mother when she was 7 to help provided years ago by a social service agency, Helix Human Resources. The agency cared for her and gave her mother support to overcome traumas — and become a good parent.
Helix, formed just after the Civil War, is marking 160 years of helping countless families as the city's oldest nonprofit agency and one of the oldest social service organizations statewide.
McDonald, now 50 and a successful real estate agent, said her mother is a lovely woman who turned to alcohol after facing trauma after immigrating to the United States from Ireland at the age of 18.
New to the country, her mother was raped, got pregnant and gave up that child for adoption. Then a son, McDonald's younger brother, died of crib death. Her mother tried to forget the hurt by drinking and could not care for her only remaining child. McDonald was placed in foster care through Helix.
It was McDonald's foster mother who started the process that changed her family.
She alerted McDonald's mother that her child was on track to be adopted, knowing that was not what she wanted. While McDonald's mom had tried rehab before, this time, with help from Helix, it was a success.
She went to rehab, got counseling and was given job training to become a certified nursing assistant. The agency helped her find a job and an apartment. Mother and daughter were able to reunite.
'My mom has not drunk since I was 7,' said McDonald, who continues to volunteer with Helix. 'I found out if you are willing to accept the help, the help is there.'
In 160 years, Helix has changed names twice and added and subtracted services over the decades but it's mission has never changed, said Mark Paglia, chief executive officer.
'We provide a variety of services for children and family who have experienced some level of trauma in their lives,' said Paglia who had headed up the agency for about 18 months.
The Springfield agency now offers at least 14 programs, with the largest number of clients, more than 1,000, served through outpatient programs such as the Holyoke Family Wellness Center. It provides mental health treatment at its clinic on Lower Westfield Road to anyone who asks.
'We have shifted a lot over the years,' Paglia said. 'In the 50s, 60s, 70s, there were a lot of institutional type services but that has changed over the last 20 years to programs in less-restrictive environments.'
Today, the agency only has 15 people living in a residential setting.
It offers help to families who call with a need. It also connects to clients though referrals from agencies and schools, Paglia said.
The Holyoke Wellness Center serves some of the largest number of people and is designed to be accessible for anyone in need of help, he said. 'One call or email to our clinic through our admission coordinator will connect people with assessment and clinicians,' Paglia said.
One of its biggest programs is a family assessment and mentoring service. That is an individualized program that helps members succeed in the community and at home to improve their lives, Paglia said.
It also works with school departments, which refer children with social-emotional problems, behavioral challenges or learning disabilities that they cannot educate in a regular classroom to one of several schools the program runs.
Helix staff also partner with the state Department of Children and Families, offering programs similar to the one McDonald went through decades ago to help children in foster care and families in crisis turn their lives around so they can reunite, Paglia said.
That program also follows parents after their children return home to ensure the family remains stable and gets any additional help needed, he said.
When Helix employees realized they were coming up on the 160th anniversary, staff started doing research and realized the agency was started to help Civil War widows, many of whom came to Springfield to settle with their children, Paglia said.
'It was a difficult time, nationally over 600,000 people were killed and many were husbands and fathers,' Paglia said. 'Women from different churches came together and said, 'How can we help?'' he said.
The Springfield Home for Friendless Women and Children was formed. Its first president was Rachel Capem Merriam, of Merriam-Webster dictionary fame, he said.
The agency evolved and people started calling it the Children's Study Home. It officially changed its name to that in 2001. That stuck until 2021, when staff, the board of trustees and the community came together and decided to change it to Helix Human Services.
'They liked the idea that the name represents resilience,' he said.
When clients are in crisis, they lack hope. But Helix counselors work to assure them it is just a moment in their lives and they can go forward, Paglia said.
'We feel the trauma the children experience does not define who they are,' he said. 'We believe children can lead happy, healthy lives.'
A lot of children the agency helps have faced abuse, including sexual abuse and neglect. Some have moved from foster care placement to placement. Others suffer from mental health illnesses, he said.
Helix's primary campus is located on Sherman Street in Springfield, where it runs residential programs for boys aged 5 and 11. Its SHARP program specializes in assisting students who are in the LGBTQ+ community.
It also operates the Mill Pond schools in Springfield and Richmond. The schools are designed for students from kindergarten through age 22 who have behavioral or social-emotional problems or learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to achieve in a regular public school setting.
It offers additional programs in the Cape Cod area, Paglia said.
The SHARP program operates to help youth in the LGBTQ+ community who have faced trauma live healthy, happy and independent lives as they move into adulthood.
'We work to provide counseling for our kids to build self-acceptance in the face of a community where they are typically not accepted,' he said.
The program is mainly for older teenagers and includes staff who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. They run support groups, provide counseling and teach clients skills to live independently.
'In many ways we lead from behind,' Paglia said. 'We try to empower them and help them identify who they want to be.'
Paglia calls himself 'the new guy,' having led the agency for less than two years. But he said he is proud of the work the 148-person staff does and is grateful to a strong board of directors and business supporters.
One of the biggest concerns today is the threat federal funding cuts. Paglia said those cuts impact the program directly as well as indirectly, through state and school reduction in the funding that helps pay for children's tuition and therapy.
But Paglia said Helix has survived many crises and changes over its 160 years. He feels it will weather current turmoil.
'I think our strength is in our board, who have, over the past 10 to 15 years, led Helix through some challenging times,' he said.
Read the original article on MassLive.
