Local agencies support families and children all year long

By Caleb White | CFP Correspondent

WORCESTER – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designates October as “Respect Life Month.” The bishops encourage the faithful to reflect on the dignity of every human life and to work toward building a culture that respects that dignity.  

In Worcester County, two agencies that live out this work to support families, mothers and babies are Visitation House, a live-in program that creates a home, and Pernet Family Health Service’s maternal and child nursing program, which provides home visits.  

Visitation House

Rebecca Urban is the executive director of Visitation House, a program for women with unplanned pregnancies and their babies. The organization runs a house on Endicott Street in Worcester for mothers to live in community for a period of time.  

“The work we do here on a daily basis is a good model, I would say, for the solution to abortion,” said Urban. “It’s very holistic – it’s important that people work to bring about pro-life policies in the government, but if you don’t show that love to these mothers in crisis and to their children, that doesn’t solve anything. Our work is so important here, and I believe really strongly in it.”

Urban has extensive experience as a childbirth educator and was previously the director of First Concern Pregnancy Resource Center in Clinton. As a Catholic convert with seven children, she sees her vocation as a mother play a central part in the work she does at Visitation House.  

“I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t a mother, first and foremost, so it was becoming a mother that was transformative in my life. And it’s just so amazing to get a front row seat in seeing how motherhood changes the women here,” Mrs. Urban said.

 Sheyla, a mother who lives at Visitation House, expressed her gratitude for how the program has impacted her and her one-year-old son, Ezekiel.  

“Being here has been such a blessing to raise Ezekiel since he was born. He’s always around people that are caring and loving, and they’ve had a great influence on him,” she said.

Through parenting classes and support from staff, the program also prepared her to be a new mother.  

Sheyla said she imparted many of the lessons she learned to other residents.

“Ezekiel was a colicky baby and (our house manager) Laurie really taught me how to have patience with that, since she raised twins. A few months after he was born, the newer moms in the house started asking me for parenting advice!”

The impact the program has for mothers is also spiritual, noted Mrs. Urban. Near the entrance of the house is a Catholic chapel, where they have regular Masses and baptisms. One of her joys is to see the mothers praying there at unexpected times.  

“We see the moms who come here as whole people, and not only do we meet their material needs and their emotional needs, but we also meet their spiritual needs,” she said. “We are firmly rooted in the Catholic faith – Mary being the example, the prime example, to all of us.”
Sheyla felt drawn back to her faith after coming to Visitation House. Growing up, she had gone to church on Sundays and went to Bible studies, but felt disconnected after tragedy struck her life.  

“I came here and I walked in the chapel and there was just this feeling that came over me, like ‘this is where I need to be.’ God was calling me to be in this house,” she said. “So that was coming back into believing and just being a woman of faith. And I just want Ezekiel to know that mom believes in God and he can also have faith that God will always be with him.”

Pernet Family Health Service

Sheilah Dooley is the executive director of Pernet Family Health Service, a home health agency providing in-home care for families throughout Worcester County. The agency was formed by the Little Sisters of the Assumption and named after their founder, Father Étienne Pernet.  

“The Sisters’ mission at their founding was to strengthen families, to go into the home and do whatever needed to be done to support them and keep families intact,” said Mrs. Dooley. “That’s our mission today, too, is to strengthen families. All of our programs are focused around the family.”

One of Pernet’s primary programs is the maternal and child nursing program, which provides home visits for any Worcester County resident who has recently had a baby.  

Pernet also follows the U.S. bishops’ call to respect life with several other services, including an early intervention program for children with developmental delays, a daycare center, a youth program, parent aid services and a group for incarcerated fathers to strengthen their connection with their children. Additionally, the agency runs a food pantry on Millbury Street which opens on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Mrs. Dooley’s journey with Pernet began 33 years ago, conducting home visits part-time while she worked as a nurse at St. Vincent Hospital in the labor and delivery unit. Seeing young mothers in crisis at Saint Vincent’s deeply affected Dooley, who is a mother of four, and inspired her mission to build up families as she took on more responsibilities at Pernet.

“One thing I always noticed was when I worked in the hospital, I would find myself in the room with teenage mothers or somebody who said, ‘this baby was a mistake,’” she recalled. “With those kinds of red flags I knew that a lot of work could be done early on with pregnant women or when new babies were born. That was the beginning point for me, to really try to strengthen families.”

Amie Richard, Pernet’s nursing coordinator for the maternal and child health program, shares similar convictions with Mrs. Dooley.  

“We’re trying to strengthen all kinds of families in Worcester,” Ms. Richard said. “There’s sort of a stigma we’re trying to break with home visits, where some parents feel that maybe they’ve done something wrong and we’re visiting them because we think they’re not good parents. But we’re all about supporting them. They’ve just welcomed a new human into the world, and that comes with a lot of challenges.”

Mrs. Richard has interacted with diverse families in Worcester since starting at Pernet in 2021. One new mother happened to be a funder of Pernet before requesting a home visit during a challenging postpartum experience. She has also learned about various cultures while working with immigrant families and their interpreters. “It’s about molding and adapting and connecting wherever families are at. During our visits we try to respect their cultures however we can. It’s such a gift to be able to have that shared experience with them,” she said.  

Another important part of strengthening families, Ms. Richard stressed, is connecting them to the right resources. “If somebody says to me, ‘call this agency, they’re really great,’ I might not do that as a new parent. You just get home and you’re so overwhelmed. But if I visit and I say, ‘you know, I think this service might be really helpful for you,’ or ‘can I get in touch with these folks for you,’ it really helps,” she explained. “The goal is always to help people be independent in accessing different services. But sometimes in that immediate postpartum period, you just need a lending hand.”

Mrs. Dooley concurs with her wholeheartedly. “We want strong mothers and babies, and that’s the future of our society. That’s what Father Pernet used to say too – the family, that’s the root of society, and we should strengthen it as best we can.”