By Eileen K. McCluskey

Special to the Gazette

It could happen to anyone. A catastrophe strikes: illness; divorce; loss of a job; abuse. And a woman can find herself with seemingly nowhere to turn. But she does have somewhere to go -- Rosie's Place.

"Our philosophy is unconditional acceptance," says Anna Barbara Carter Bruno, senior direct services manager for Rosie's, a shelter for women located in Boston. "Our door is always open."

It happened to "Mary." At 51 years old, she had "been a professional, with an advanced degree. She'd held a very good job in the corporate world, and she'd been married," relates Bruno. "A few years before she came to Rosie's, her husband had divorced her. That was followed by illness and depression and, ultimately, she came to the end of her resources." So she went to Rosie's.

While beds are available, every woman who comes to Rosie's automatically receives a "10-day emergency bed stay," Bruno says. If she works with an advocate each day and sets self-defined goals, she adds, chances are good that she will be granted an open-ended stay, to give her the opportunity to work toward independence.

"Mary needed time to rest and mend, to gradually get her life back on track," says Bruno. "She was with us for about three months, then she moved into our congregate housing." After about a year, Mary landed a solid job and saved enough money to set herself up in her own apartment.

"The women who come to Rosie's Place walk a fine line that runs precariously close to the edge of a bottomless pit of abuse, mental illness, addiction, and starvation," Bruno says. "And the connection is clear in my mind that participants in Harvard's Community Gifts Campaign have helped to save their lives by supporting Rosie's Place." In fact, for many years Rosie's Place has been among the top 12 agencies targeted by Harvard employees for Campaign contributions.

Since the advent of welfare reform, Bruno says "we've seen a 300 percent increase in food needs." Rosie's Place provides 200 meals daily in its dining room. In addition, in a recent three-month period, 741 women who live in private housing received sustenance from Rosie's food pantry.

In addition to monetary contributions from individuals and some businesses, Rosie's relies heavily on volunteers in its day-to-day operations. Chris Hannibal, Rosie's volunteer coordinator, reports, "Last year, four volunteers from Harvard Medical School came one Tuesday a month to work in the dining room. They were very regular, very committed," Hannibal says, "and they connected well with our guests."

In 1996, Rosie's played a pivotal role in helping 128 women establish private living arrangements, or move from the emergency residential program into supportive housing. Forty-one women were able to remain in their own homes with help from Rosie's in meeting utility arrearages or preventing evictions. Five hundred women stayed in Rosie's emergency and short-term housing program.

"In the past three months, our two drop-in center advocates saw over 1,500 women," Bruno exclaims. "This year," she notes, "about 4,000 women in our state who are looking for protection from domestic abuse will not be able to get into a shelter. There simply isn't enough room in shelters statewide."

Domestic violence is a major cause of homelessness among women and children, Bruno says. "We're bursting at the seams at Rosie's Place."

Even so, Bruno is proud to say, "Our funding has no strings attached. We don't take federal, city, or state funds. As Kip Tiernan, Rosie's founder, likes to say, 'We rely on the kindness of strangers.' "