Knitting Group Knocks Down Stereotypes

A recent story in the Boston Globe intended to be a saccharine human interest gloss on homelessness might actually, and quite indirectly, do something more than warm hearts. Reporter Milton Valencia covered the experiences of the homeless members of a  knitting group at a medical respite shelter in South Boston. It's a nice story, complete with sweet quotes from down-and-out mothers who've found a kind of "therapeutic community" in this unexpected fellowship.

But forget the sentimentality for the moment. What's absolutely wonderful about this story isn't so much the human interest and pathos, though I certainly hope the emotional story turned the heads of those otherwise indifferent to the homeless. What's great about this piece is its prominent, full-color picture of a homeless, black man knitting together with an elderly, white woman. I don't know about you, but I find the juxtaposition of multiple broken stereotypes in the image to be startling and not a little bit refreshing. You'll excuse me if I'm making a mountain of the proverbial mole hole, but this small gesture to the unexpected does heaps to fight stigma against the homeless. Kudos to the Globe for the perhaps unintentional boon to homeless advocacy in the Boston area.

But let's not forget about the group itself. Secondary to the picture, this really is a story worth considering for all those knitters and crafters anxious to get involved in their community. From the Globe, "At the Barbara McInnis House in the South End, where people dealing with homelessness also suffer the pains of medical illnesses, a surprising sort of therapy has brought them together with volunteers in what has become a curative social group. Young and old, men and women, a grandmother and a young pregnant woman all use arts and crafts to ease their minds of struggles ranging from disabilities to kidney disease to drug addiction." Not many shelters out there have the capacity to care for both the body and the heart.

And that's a shame. There should be more shelters like the Barbara McInnis House. Respite medical care for the homeless is a deplorable service gap in most communities. Scraping together enough resources for the creation and maintenance of a strong shelter system is hard enough. For many areas, providing staffed medical care for those who remain sick and without shelter during the day-- it's impossible. When the average chronically homeless individual dies more than 20 years earlier than the general population, that's criminal public neglect.

Yet another reason why we should keep our eyes trained on the current wrangling over health care reform on the  hill.