Ernest Gabriel struggled to pay his monthly bills and needed a job closer to home. Joanne Parker needed help overcoming depression and getting a job.
For Gabriel and Parker, residents of The Port neighborhood in Cambridge, that future was made possible with the help of Port Arise, a local social services program housed within the nonprofit Community Art Center.
“They really did help me come from a dark spirit into being me now,” said Parker, 57.
Port Arise serves primarily The Port, a historically racially diverse and low-income neighborhood. The program started in 2020 as a collaboration between the art center and two neighboring nonprofits, Tutoring Plus and the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House. Port Arise is now run solely by the art center and family advocate Kosar Mohamed.
Mohamed works with people one-on-one, connecting them to a network of resources for help such as finding housing, medical care or child care. “They set their goals and then you collaborate with them on how they would like to achieve their goals,” said Mohamed, who has run the program since 2021.
Since 2020, Port Arise has graduated four, yearlong cohorts totaling about 70 clients. In September, it moved on from that model and started a “rolling-basis” cohort focused on providing on-demand services, said Erin Muirhead McCarty, executive director of the Community Art Center.
It’s expected families will stay in the new cohort model for six to eight months, but can get services longer if needed.
After clients enroll, they meet regularly with Mohamed at the art center, a comfortable space filled with colorful murals and artwork by students in the center’s youth programs. She dedicates time to each client, sometimes staying at the art center past 10 p.m.
Mohamed’s work is informed by experience. “I’ve lived in shelters. I’ve been homeless in the U.S. I’ve walked into offices to get help. I know the drill,” said Mohamed, who immigrated from Africa in 2003 as a young mom.
“Kosar is really good about making people feel safe, and not just handing someone a sheet of resources,” Muirhead McCarty said. “Literally holding their hand and sitting with them in court or walking with them to a doctor’s appointment – taking them step-by-step when there’s an element of shame or fear involved because it’s something new.”
Joanne and Jasmine
Parker’s story is an example. She came to Port Arise struggling with depression.
“I don’t have family in Cambridge. It was just me and my two sons, and they grew up and they left. I needed someone to talk to,” she said.
For Parker, Mohamed was that person. Mohamed came to Parker’s house and helped her set motivational goals for herself, such as getting a job. After building a résumé and getting technology training through Port Arise, she now works at Head Start in Somerville.
“I thank Port Arise, because they kept my confidence and I thought I was losing it,” Parker said.
Jasmine, who asked to use her first name only for privacy, said she was grateful for Mohamed’s help while going through a separation from her partner. Mohamed came to Jasmine’s court dates for support and helped enroll Jasmine’s daughter in a new after-school program.
“It was pretty overwhelming to suddenly become a single parent of three kids,” said Jasmine, a 39-year-old living in The Port.
She now feels like the “future is bright,” and will graduate from Simmons University with a biology degree next year.
Services and stipends
In addition to providing clients with individualized services, Port Arise offers workshops for clients in collaboration with local nonprofits. Workshops include financial literacy, continued education, health and wellness, and tech skills.
Port Arise is funded by United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Liberty Mutual Foundation and additional fundraising. Until this summer, the program was funded by a city community benefits fund that also allowed Port Arise to give monthly stipends to qualifying clients.
Several former clients said these stipends made all the difference.
“That program was very, very helpful, [it] saved my life,” said Jenny, who asked to use her first name only for privacy.
Jenny, a 48-year-old single mother of three living in East Cambridge and working as a cleaner, said that with the program’s help, she was able to get her driver’s license, get her son needed surgery and use her $250 monthly payments to pay her electricity bill.
Ernest Gabriel’s story
Gabriel, 39 and a Port resident, got $200 monthly stipends that allowed him to take his daughter out and supplement monthly bills. Port Arise helped him write a résumé and apply for a job closer to home.
“I really took advantage of the program,” he said. He continues to work at a local security company – the job Port Arise helped him secure.
Demand for services such as Port Arise offers is high across Cambridge, where the cost of living is about 70 percent higher than the national average, according to a report from the Cambridge Community Foundation. The report found that single mothers and people of color struggle the most.
A changing neighborhood
Port Arise sees clients struggling not just with high costs of living, but also the ongoing effects of the Covid pandemic and changes to local demographics, Muirhead McCarty said. In recent years, the neighborhood has shifted from one of the most racially diverse neighborhoods in Cambridge to being more than 50 percent white, as reflected in a city 2023 Neighborhood Statistical Profile.
“There are families that have been rooted here for generations, and they’ve been pushed a little bit further out,” Muirhead McCarty said. “We still work with those families.”
Those who received services from Port Arise feel the benefits of commitment to helping the community.
“Port Arise speaks for itself,” Parker said. “You’re in The Port and you definitely rise.”
Port Arise is based at the Community Art Center, 119 Windsor St., The Port, Cambridge, at (617) 868-7100 and info@CommunityArtCenter.org.
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