History of Primavera

The Primavera Foundation, which Gordon Packard and I founded in 1982, is now moving into its third decade of serving the community. In the preface to a recent history that I wrote to chronicle its evolution over the past twenty years, I referred to our story as an adventure into uncharted territory by rank amateurs who were woefully unprepared for the challenges of creating a non-profit organization to assist the homeless. We immediately got in way over our heads, but we learned more from our miscalculations and our disasters than from our successes, and in the process we sharpened our insight into what it really means to work from a grass roots, volunteer and advocacy-oriented base.

Central to our effectiveness was the Gordon's genius in articulating the growing gap between the rich and the poor. This societal development violated the most basic spiritual and human principles that both of us were attempting to practice in our own faith community. He had a sense of the consequences for our world if we didn't start paying attention and taking action. Fortunately I happened to be within earshot, and through his quiet insistence we started down the path that began with St. Martin's Center Soup Kitchen- slammed shut by a lawsuit filed by outraged neighbors- and reborn as The Primavera Foundation.

As we began to shape our first programs- the shelters, transitional housing projects, job placement services, and later the construction training program- we learned quickly that our desire to help people could not be separated from the need to examine the social and economic systems that created homelessness in the first place. It's one thing to exercise compassion, a fine thing- but something is wrong when the lines for assistance keep getting longer over the years. So we set about the goal of changing the way our community thinks about poverty. First, we developed droves of volunteers (there are nearly a thousand in our meal programs alone), who came down to lend a hand and were changed by what they experienced. We decided not to go for size, our programs are all quite small, but for quality.

Secondly, we spoke out. We were bold in our criticism of bad policies and lazy government, and with all those volunteers and friends around us, we spoke with a strong collective voice. Our efforts highlight a drama that took place on the edges, not at the center, because it included the marginal and left-out, people who were seldom listened to or taken seriously. Our struggle was fueled by the frustration and indignation of hundreds of ordinary people who joined with us in an effort to change public policy, both at the local and national level. As Karin Uhlich and other wise and strong people came along after us, we now can point to some significant changes over the years as a result of our advocacy and their efforts.

Today Primavera seems to encapsulate the changes that have occurred in our community since the early 1980's when we knew very little about homelessness and its causes. Attitudes have changed. We see it in neighborhoods: I live happily in the neighborhood that filed the initial lawsuit against St. Martin's, and I have come to love and admire my neighbors for their efforts to make life better for everyone in the surrounding community. We see it also in the halls of government, where there is much greater understanding of the complexities of poverty, and a growing expertise and creativity in seeking solutions to problems that only a few years ago seemed impossible to solve. Thanks to the support of our many friends, volunteers, staff, and donors, we can look forward to another decade of challenge, learning, and, we hope, success.

by Nancy Bissell