Building up bones, together

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WEEKLY VOLUNTEER

Building up bones, together

Volunteers lead popular class in Dracut

By Amaris Castillo

acastillo@ lowellsun. com

DRACUT » The trio of instructors greet their students as they amble into the large room with a checkered floor. Together, they make sure the chairs are arranged just so, and that each student wears her name tag. It is Tuesday at the Council on Aging and the 12: 30 p. m. Bone Builders class is about to begin.

The instructors — Mary Horne, 65, and Dottie Cheney, 84, both of Dracut, and Claudette Bernier, 70, of Nashua, N. H. — volunteer their time to teach the senior strength training and balance exercise program. It’s been three years since they teamed up together to lead the class.

Dottie Cheney, 84, of Dracut, works out during the Bone Builders class she helps lead as a volunteer instructor along with Claudette Bernier, 70, of Nashua, N.H., and Mary Horne, 65, of Dracut.

Bone Builders is designed to combat osteoporosis, a bone disease. The disease occurs when the body loses too much bone, makes too little bone, or both, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

The instructors’ volunteer gig at the senior center in Dracut was unintentional, at least in the beginning. Horne, Cheney, and Bernier say they wanted to take the class as students for the many health benefits, but there was a long wait list due to the program’s popularity. Cheney says she had been waiting for a year to get in.

“They called and said ‘Would you like to lead the class? There’s a training starting up,’” Horne recalls. “And so I said ‘Sure. If it means I get to take the class.’ I enjoy it. We always laugh.”

Dracut COA Director Bethany Loveless says Bone Builders has become so well known that some doctors recommend it.

“It is run out of Community Teamwork in Lowell. They’re the ones who train the instructors and it’s at a number of senior centers,” Loveless says. “It is so popular here that we now have four different groups of Bone Builders. Each group meets twice a week, so that’s eight sessions altogether of just Bone Builders.”

It’s now 12: 32 p. m. and several students have sat down on chairs that now form an oval shape in the room. Most have their 2 pound dumbbells beside them.

“OK. Now let’s start,” Horne announces to the small group. “Get up behind your chair.” The women follow. Soon each instructor and student is holding onto her chair with her right hand, for support. They move their left legs in slow circles, counter- clockwise.

“1, 2, 3, 4,” they count in unison.

“And right leg,” Horne says.

They turn around.

“1, 2, 3, 4,” they count again.

“And clockwise hulas,” Horne says.

Now standing behind their chairs, the women move their hips.

Cheney and Bernier later take over the class to focus on different exercises. In all, they hope to improve bone and muscle strength and balance not only for themselves but for their students.

Horne says she likes the abdominal exercises. Cheney likes the weights.

“I have a bad back, so I’m trying to use my arms and my legs,” she explains.

Bernier likes working on her legs and says Bone Builders has helped strengthen them. “I always was afraid to go up and down stairs, so it’s amazing,” she says. “They (students) say that it’s a great improvement.”

It’s been about an hour when the program wraps up with stretches. Betty Anne Richardson, 79, says she feels better now“ I feel like I’m a little bit more flexible,” she says. “I have a tendency to get all stiffened up and it takes me a little bit to get going, to talk. This kind of makes it a little easier, for a while anyway.”

Richardson says she’s been coming to this Bone Builders class since it began nearly four years ago. “They’re excellent,” she says of the instructors.

Virginia Laferriere, another student, says she likes the class because she gets her exercise in. The 72- year- old Lowell resident gets to stretch her right leg. “My leg is really bad. I have no feeling in that leg, so I don’t want to lose what little I have,” Laferriere says. “I want to strengthen what I have left.” Amaris Castillo: @ AmarisCastillo on Twitter

From left: Claudette Bernier, 70, of Nashua, N.H.; Mary Horne, 65, of Dracut; and Dottie Cheney, 84, also of Dracut. The three women are volunteer instructors for a Bone Builders class at the Dracut Council on Aging.

AMARIS CASTILLO / LOWELL SUN

“They called and said ‘Would you like to lead the class? There’s a training starting up.’ And so I said ‘Sure. If it means I get to take the class.’ I enjoy it. We always laugh.”

– Instructor Mary Horne

 

Building community For Youths Without Homes

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Organizers say it will provide low-barrier services to homeless — or at-risk of becoming homeless — youth between 16 and 24 years old. http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_32722606
Community Teamwork, Inc.

Wednesday, 10 July 2019

BUILDING COMMUNITY FOR YOUTHS WITHOUT HOMES

By Elizabeth Dobbins

edobbins@ lowellsun. com

LOWELL » A shower. A washer. A dryer. Services. And, hopefully, community.

That’s what Community Teamwork, Inc., or CTI, hopes to offer at Mill You, a center opening on the first floor of 167 Dutton Street. Organizers say it will provide low- barrier services to homeless — or at- risk of becoming homeless — youth between 16 and 24 years old.

“A lot of times for young people they struggle to connect with other community resources or identify providers that they trust,” said Amanda Mallardo, CTI director of youth services. “ It’s hard for them to go to appointments, or take the steps necessary. … This space gives them the opportunity to have a safe environment.”

Mill You is expected to open as early as the September. Currently, CTI is renovating the space on Dutton Street using a $ 250,000 grant from the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation.

The sum covers a portion of the building’s ongoing $ 699,000 renovation. The building, called the Youth Opportunity Center, already has classrooms and a workshop for teaching construction skills to youth. In addition to Mill You, the organization hopes to add a kitchen for teaching culinary skills, install more offices on the third floor and upgrade the elevator.

Carl Howell, CTI division director of housing and homeless residential programs, said the concept for Mill You developed during a youth homelessness summit last year.

“ We’ve really uncovered that it’s not just homelessness,” he said.“ There’s a lot of other services that are needed for youth in the city.”

The space will provide a place for youth to connect with others in similar circumstances, taking the isolation out situations facing many in the community, Mallardo said. It will also be a way to connect teens and young adults to financial education, housing, food, family mediation, and mental health and substance use services, according to Howell and Mallardo. Some services will be provided through CTI, others will be through other organizations in the city.

Community Teamwork Inc. Director of Youth Services Amanda Mallardo and Division Director for Housing & Homeless Services Carl Howell stand in the space in CTI’s Dutton Street building that will become Mill You.

“ We want to make sure we’re stabilizing these young people so they can transition out of here and have those supports long term,” Mallardo said.

She said CTI is consulting with youth to see what they need and determine specifics, like Mill You’s hours. The space will not be used overnight for housing.

A count of the city’s homeless population conducted this summer by the city found about 75 homeless individuals in the city, according to Kathleen Plath, CTI’s director of development and marketing. Half are under the age of 34.

This school year, a count of homeless students by Lowell Public Schools — which uses a broader definition of homelessness such as students in shelters or sharing housing “due to economic hardship” — found 825 homeless students, or about 5 percent of the district’s population.

Howell said counts may vary, but youth homelessness in on the rise.

Earlier this year, City Manager Eileen Donoghue started a task force to address homelessness in the city. The focus of that program is more on single adults over 24- years- old, but CTI is collaborating on the initiative, according to Howell.

“ I think one of the strong connections will be really linking Amanda’s team ( at CTI) to the Lowell Transitional Living Center to really help provide a youth- focused support to that population and to get them off the streets,” he said. Follow Elizabeth Dobbins on Twitter @ ElizDobbins

PHOTOS BY JULIA MALAKIE / LOWELL SUN

CTI’s Division Director for Housing & Homeless Services Carl Howell, in space that will be a laundry, showers and toilets, as part of Mill You, a new center that will soon open up to help homeless youth.