Press coverage
*More recent press will be featured soon. Please check back.
Non-Profit names Somerville resident as Executive Director
Somerville News, May 13, 2009
At On The Rise, the communication of each woman's dignity and value is a common thread running through each program and interaction between staff and guests.
Staff members hope that their organization's unique approach to service, in which women are accepted as is and are encouraged to go at their own pace, will foster an atmosphere of respect. Read more >>
Volunteers - Keeping Things Going
CCTV NeighborMedia, April 2009
We are so lucky to have this place, and to have dedicated volunteers who help us here at On The Rise,” Development Associate Marisa Curran says.
It's Saturday morning, April 4. Marisa is showing two new groups of volunteers around at 341 Broadway in Cambridge. “Our volunteers keep things
going in really important basic ways, and they free up the staff to deal with the emergencies,” she says. Read more >>
On
The Rise: A Safe Haven Of Our Own
Spare Change News, February 2007
There is a local safe haven for women right here in Cambridge. It's called On The Rise, and it's located at 341 Broadway Street. They have
a lot of really wonderful staff members there and they always do their best to help you out. When I first went there about ten months ago I was really nervous,
and the staff made me feel really comfortable. It's not like a staff/guest setting, it's more like a family setting.
On
The Rise Gets $150k
Cambridge
Chronicle, November 23, 2006
Recognizing that
domestic violence program must be as diverse as the victims
who need their services and support, Cambridge-based On The
Rise has secured a $150,000 annual contract with the state’s
Department of Social Services’ Domestic
Violence Unit to provide and strengthen its core services
for homeless women with abuse histories.
Still Rising
Boston Herald, September 24, 2006
On The Rise, a Cambridge
center servicing women in crisis who have slipped through
the other social service safety nets, celebrated its annual “Prepare For Winter Dinner” Tuesday
night at the Royal Sonesta Hotel.
Agency rises up to help homeless
women
Cambridge
Chronicle, August 11, 2005
In an understated, blue Victorian house on Broadway, Logan
emerged fresh from a shower last Friday, rubbing lotion on
her sleek skin. As she explains it, there used to be days
when showers weren’t on the schedule; days when she
couldn’t force herself to leave her broken-down car,
which she sleeps in each night.
Save haven for women remains
on rise after busy first decade
Banker & Tradesman,
May 2, 2005
Unlike traditional service providers, On The Rise, which
celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, receives most
of its funding from private sources.
South ender boosts On The Rise
South
End News, December 2004
The girls spent their day at On The Rise… In the first
hour, the girls talked about homelessness and the connection
between violence and homelessness for women, and took a tour
of On The Rise.
Helping your fellow woman
The
Improper Bostonian, November, 2004
Calling itself “the mortar between the bricks”, On The Rise helps women put together resources- legal, medical
and housing support, and referrals- that they’ll need
to eventually get their lives back on track.
Fels receives honorary degree
Cambridge
Chronicle, May 2004
Katya Fels, founder and Executive Director of On The Rise…received
an honorary degree from the Episcopal Divinity School…Fels
is one of four people who received this honor for her ministries
in social justice.
Women on the rise in cambridge
Spare
Change, June 2003
“Sensitivity to the trauma experienced by homeless
women has been one of the defining characteristics of On
The Rise.”
Life on the streets
Cambridge
Chronicle, December 23, 2002
The [annual homeless] census certainly doesn’t count
everybody: you’re going to miss people because it’s
highly unscientific.” Said Katya Fels… “But
this is a pretty non-intrusive way of getting a handle on
an issue in a city that is not giving its full attention.”
Community Gifts campaign launched
Harvard
University Gazette, November 7, 2002
When Katya Fels ’93 was a Harvard student, she discovered
that the undergraduate women she counseled on the Response
hotline for survivors of sexual assault had a lot in common
with the homeless women she met as co-director of the Harvard
Square Homeless Shelter…What separated the two groups
was that the support systems available to the Harvard students
eluded the women who’d become homeless.
Japan, Hub unite to end domestic
violence
Boston Herald, October 6, 2002
Recently a group of Japanese social workers came to Boston
to learn about American innovations in addressing the problem
of domestic violence…The delegation’s visit
included a morning at On The Rise…The group peppered
Executive Director Katya Fels with questions that revealed
much about what these social workers face in Japan.
40 Under 40
Boston
Business Journal, October, 2002
While some business people look for better times ahead,
these young professionals are doing great work now. Meet
the best and brightest of Boston’s business community.
40 under 40 honors Katya Fels, Executive Director, On The
Rise.
All in a day’s volunteering
Boston
Globe Calendar, July, 2002
10 of the Best Non-Jobs You’ll Ever Love: Cook at On The Rise, Inc.
Defiant Hub stays the course
with benefits
Boston Herald, September
17, 2001
Thursday night, 250 of the 350 expected guests attended On The Rise’s dinner and awards ceremony… "Everyone
needs to feel a sense of safety. We're here for the global
crises as well as for the crises in individual lives," Fels
said.
Innovations: On The Rise, Inc,
Putting Mortar Between the Bricks
Massachusetts
Office for Victim Assistance Newsletter, Spring 2001
“Women may seek help for homelessness, addiction,
mental health issues, physical illness, disability, or court
involvement…In these situations, domestic violence,
rape, childhood abuse and incest and histories of multiple
victimization may go unrecognized.”
On The Rise
Catalogue
for Philanthropy, 2000
On The Rise provides safety, stability, and community to
women who cannot find them elsewhere.
Order Rises from chaos for homeless
women
Boston Herald, September 16, 1999
“One of the primary benefits offered is a sense of
place in a community.”
Activist for homeless women honored
Cambridge
Chronicle, August 26, 1999
Fels started On The Rise in 1995 in response to frustration
felt by homeless women…On The Rise grew out of their
voices-what they needed, what would help them, what hadn’t
helped them.
On The Rise
Spare
Change, March 1999
It seemed obvious that if anytime a woman tries to take
control over her life she gets hit, kicked, raped, or molested,
it’s hard for her to go through a program where they
want to take control over her life. And so what I set out
to do was to create an organization that would provide alternative
services for this kind of woman.
A New Guard Emerges
Chronicle
of Philanthropy, January 14, 1999
On The Rise, which runs a day center where women come to
shower, sleep, chat, or be by themselves, does not impose
traditional rules, such as a curfew or a sobriety requirement.
Daytime shelter from life’s
storms
Boston Globe, February 8, 1998
It is the prolonged individual attention the staff gives
women while helping them find therapy, housing, and medical care, that separates On The Rise from other programs.
Generation EXTRA: They call themselves
social entrepreneurs:
young idealists in business to help
others.
Boston Globe, December 8 1998
Katya Fels was a blue-colored hair, multi-earringed, into
Gothic-punk teenager who grew up to graduate from Harvard
in 1993 with a degree in biology, and instead of going to
medical school she founded a daytime shelter for homeless
women.
A Lot To Lose
A lot to lose: A Call to Rethink What Constitutes "Evidence" in Finding Social Interventions That Work" is
a paper written by Katya Fels Smyth (Founder of On The Rise) and Lisbeth B. Schorr.
An excerpt from the article:
"There are programs that have found ways to help vulnerable and marginalized people, families and communities make and sustain progress
in multiple realms (including health, safety, economic stability and cohesion). These programs view people
through an ecological lens that encompasses challenges, strengths, relationships, and community context, and
they work to craft a response that are “of a piece” with people’s lives. We call these What It Takes programs.”
The Full Frame Initiative is a campaign launched specifically to ensure that over the next decade, thousands of the most
marginalized people across the country have access to programs that practice the Full Frame Approach. To learn more, visit www.fullframeinitiative.org/
What It Means To Be Successful
What It Means To Be Successful:
Lessons from the Lives of Homeless Women is a research
project led by Althea Murray and a group of women from On The Rise. The resulting report is deeply instructive.
It demonstrates that a community of homeless women has
been able to create its own alternative vision of social
success that prioritizes kindness over affluence, work
over salary, and daily decency over bank balance. With
the elusive American dream beyond their immediate reach,
these women define their accomplishments in more than simply
material terms. Four basic themes were found that together
form for women an alternative definition of “success”:
- Working in meaningful ways,
- Achieving small victories,
- Holding the door open for others, and
- Surviving, living, and telling.
Two core needs that run through each of these themes are:
- The need for success to be obtainable, and
- The need to be recognized and remembered as an individual
Read the
full report, What It Means To Be Successful.
Newsletter Archives
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connect with our work and the women at On The Rise. All of
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