Word: italian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...carefully snapped it into place. Nodding his head, he asserted, "It's to protect it. There's armies in this world, you know." Jonathan sleeps in this large, sunny room, in one of the beds which line the walls. He has lived since he was three at "the Italian Home for Children" in Jamaica Plain. I played, observed and attended meetings there last fall for Psychology and Social Relations 910r, an independent study course on children in institutions...
...Italian Home was originally a true orphanage, founded by members of the North End community in response to the swine flu epidemic of 1918 that ravaged the area. Now it serves as a group care facility, and most of the 38 children, aged four to 12 years, live there for about two years before adoption, or temporary placement with a foster family or in other residential homes...
...State Welfare Department, which supplies the home with most of its cases, has reported that the recent trend has been toward placing neglected children with individual families, rather than in institutions such as the Italian Home. As a result, these institutions receive a rising number of children with emotional disturbances that make them "hard to place" elsewhere. In order to adequately treat these children, the department has recommended that the entire staff be professionally trained. Ideally, cottage-style living areas could be built on the home's grounds, where six to eight children would live and eat with counselors hired...
Although the style of the Italian Home may appear anachronistic to some, conjuring harsh. Dickensian images, the atmosphere is one of warmth and concern for each child's future. A typical scene is one I encountered two weeks before Christmas: two little girls were singing "Good Ship Lollipop" in unison, while others helped arrange chairs for the public performance, intermittently banging on the piano. One of the former inhabitants retains such close ties that upon growing up he moved next door, and now works as the supervisor of maintenance and construction...
Regardless of any unprogressive attitudes at the Home, the children who live there are certain to benefit from the consistent affection they receive. In view of the extreme deprivation which it handles, the Italian Home does a fine job of providing needy children with a stable, protected environment...