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Children and Family Shelter Program
Shelter Music Boston (SMB)'s Children and Family Program brings musical programming, designed and delivered by professional musicians and specifically tailored for children and families, to children and families who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness in Greater Boston. Music is implemented to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children and families whose lives are filled with the uncertainty symptomatic of homelessness. In collaboration with SMB's team of musicians, Children's Program Artistic Manager Eric Goode carefully crafts each children's concert to explore a range of composers, musical styles, cultures, and historical periods, and sound and movement activities, leaving room for a variety of emotional responses from audiences. This program fosters intellectual stimulation and emotional connection using educational tools to encourage creativity and to inspire hope for children and families in desperate circumstances.
SMB and its Children's Program operate with the belief that all people, regardless of their circumstances or lived experiences, have a right to dignity, respect, and access to high quality musical performances and programming.
SMB and its Children's Program operate with the belief that all people, regardless of their circumstances or lived experiences, have a right to dignity, respect, and access to high quality musical performances and programming.
2024 Partner Sites
SMB musicians perform monthly live concerts at the following sites
SMB musicians perform monthly live concerts at the following sites
Housing Families
Housing Families serves more than 890 homeless families, including more than 1,000 children each year. The organization believes in a holistic approach to ending family homelessness by addressing the concrete housing needs as well as complex circumstances that lead to housing loss and the continuing negative effects that result from homelessness. Housing Families’ case managers and program staff provide one-on-one care and advocacy for all family members. This care begins with each family’s arrival at the Housing Families Emergency Shelter and continues throughout the journey toward stable, permanent housing.
Our Children's Program is delivered to Housing Families' GREAT Youth Program and the emergency shelter at the recently converted Sonesta Select in Woburn. |
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Project Promise
Project Promise is a five-day-per-week treatment program formed in 2017 for pregnant and parenting people affected by substance use and mental health disorders. Project Promise participants receive nurturing support as they navigate their own individual roads to recovery. Promise works with participants in a hybrid model, providing group and individual counseling both in-person in Mattapan and via telehealth to support their recovery and healthy parenting and to celebrate their accomplishments throughout the course of their participation.
Shelter Music Boston serves Project Promise with a combination of our Children's Program and adult programming. SMB's Children's Program at Promise emphasizes musical tools that participants can use in parenting.
Shelter Music Boston serves Project Promise with a combination of our Children's Program and adult programming. SMB's Children's Program at Promise emphasizes musical tools that participants can use in parenting.
Family Homelessness
The crisis of family homelessness in the United States continues to fall heaviest on the nation’s most vulnerable: its children. The number of children without a permanent home continues to grow, with close to 1.3 million students in public schools counted as homeless during the 2014–15 school year. A quality education can be the most important tool to helping children and families lift themselves out of a recurring pattern of housing instability.1
Homeless mothers are more likely than housed mothers to experience domestic violence, mental illness, and substance misuse. A lack of access to medical care results in poorer health outcomes and higher rates of HIV/AIDS among homeless parents.
For these and many other reasons, homeless children are more likely than their housed peers to suffer from:
Homeless mothers are more likely than housed mothers to experience domestic violence, mental illness, and substance misuse. A lack of access to medical care results in poorer health outcomes and higher rates of HIV/AIDS among homeless parents.
For these and many other reasons, homeless children are more likely than their housed peers to suffer from:
- developmental delays;
- chronic and acute health problems;
- and behavioral, emotional, and mental health issues.
- Some facts about family homelessness:
1 in 30 children in the United States experience homelessness annually.
51% of homeless children are under age 5 and, therefore, too young for school and are not counted.
1 in 6 U.S. children under age 18, or 13 million, live in poverty. For every ten extremely low income households, there are only three affordable rentals available on the market.3
Since fiscal year 2008, Massachusetts has experienced one of the largest increases in family homelessness in the nation, and is one of only two states (with New York) where families comprise more than half of the shelter population.4
While new entrants to and returns to shelter have declined in the last couple of years, the length of stay in shelters has increased.
About half of the families in shelter also receive other types of homeless assistance.
“Children are among the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Boston Foundation President and CEO Paul Grogan. “How we serve them and their parents is a reflection not only of our systems and institutions, but our character as a community.”
According to Westat Vice President Debra Rog, “Families and children make up the largest cohort of people who are homeless or on the brink of homelessness in Massachusetts.”
In June 2020, Shelter Music Boston created virtual partnerships with the organizations listed directly below. All of the organizations listed on this page are now receiving our monthly concert recordings.
Click here to view one of these concerts: Dance and Song with Jenny!
Click here to view one of these concerts: Dance and Song with Jenny!
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1. Out of the Shadows: A State-by-State Ranking of Accountability for Homeless Students, Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness, www.ICPHusa.org. Accessed 12 Jan 2018.
2. Effects of Homelessness on Families and Children, Issue 3, Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness, www.ICPHusa.org.Accessed 12 Jan 2018.
3. Homelessness/Poverty Fact Sheet. Family Promise, https://familypromise.org/homelessness-fact-sheet/. Accessed 11 Jan 2018.
4. The Boston Foundation report on challenges of family homelessness, Report prepared by Westat with data from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, (February 2017) https://www.tbf.org/news-and-insights/press-releases/2017/february/homelessness-report-release-february-2017. Accessed 11 Jan 2018.
2. Effects of Homelessness on Families and Children, Issue 3, Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness, www.ICPHusa.org.Accessed 12 Jan 2018.
3. Homelessness/Poverty Fact Sheet. Family Promise, https://familypromise.org/homelessness-fact-sheet/. Accessed 11 Jan 2018.
4. The Boston Foundation report on challenges of family homelessness, Report prepared by Westat with data from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, (February 2017) https://www.tbf.org/news-and-insights/press-releases/2017/february/homelessness-report-release-february-2017. Accessed 11 Jan 2018.
