Bennett retires from Grace House

By BOB FLAHERTY Staff Writer

Published on August 08, 2008

NORTHAMPTON - Cathy Bennett often uses the phrase "This shouldn't be happening" to underscore the plight of the unfortunate few who fall through society's cracks. The longtime director of the Grace House Center for Human Development, who retired July 1 at 63, has uttered those words many times in the past three decades.

But for Bennett, they were never empty words, accompanied by tsk-tsking and hand-wringing. They were a call to action. She has spent half her life bucking the tide of a society that claims to care about those who are down and out as long as the treatment doesn't take place in its own backyard. She has expressed anger more than once, even directing it on occasion at liberal Amherst. The pregnant, homeless woman found sleeping in the doorway of Hasting's in the early 1980s, who later gave birth to a deaf and blind baby, was the inspiration for a transitional shelter that Bennett and Priscilla White started in 1982 in Amherst's old Drake Hotel.

Jane Banks, who has worked under Bennett for 10 years and has absorbed much of her mentoring, will take over the position on an interim basis.

"Cathy's a remarkable woman, with a very unique and strong spirit, nurturing to both families and staff," said Banks. "There aren't many people who have her skill level. Even when you fall, you're made to feel OK, that failing is just a process in your success."

Bennett recently took time to reflect on her long career in human services and the obstacles overcome.

"We agreed there was a need for family recovery," she said. "We had addicted mothers who refused treatment because they didn't want their kids going into foster care. So we set up programs for families to be in treatment together, one of the first ever funded. State money. Out of the blue, the Department of Transitional Assistance decided to fund it."

Branching out

With White as director and Bennett as housing advocate, the two moved the operation out of the Drake in a year's time, to a location in Northampton in what was to be called Jessie's House, named after longtime friend to the needy Jessie Benoit.

They got a shipment of beds from the federal government - what Bennett called "the ugliest beds possible" - and were in business.

One client at Jessie's House, a heroin-addicted mother of four who would eventually die of AIDS, represented another turning point in Bennett's life, prompting the creation of Grace House in Amherst.

"She'd tried treatment at other shelters, but her children were molested there," said Bennett. "It shouldn't have happened."

When that program doubled in size, it switched places with Jessie's House, which moved to Amherst. Bennett has been the overall director of both programs for more than 20 years.

"I have such a high regard for Cathy," said Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins, whose path crossed many times with Bennett's when they both worked for Hampshire Community Action Commission in the 1980s. "Such a passionate advocate for children and families struggling in their lives. I can't imagine how many hundreds of people she's helped. A 24/7 operation like that takes a special kind of person. It's a big loss," she said about Bennett's retirement.

Bennett says her approach with clients is simple, but firm: "Always be a problem solver, hear what someone's saying, then match the situation with all possible resources. Surround all of these relationships with a loving spirit. These people have been beaten down enough - they don't need more of that. But there are different faces of love, it's not all gushy, gushy. Holding people responsible is part of being a loving person. Try to get them to remember things they dreamed of before they got hurt."

The decision on who will replace Bennett permanently will be left to Rose Evans, the regional program director for Youth and Family Services in Springfield.

Time to take it slow

As for her long career in advocacy, Bennett said she has loved every minute of it. "But when you see people really in pain, you can only take it so long. You have to think, I can't do it anymore.'"

"You've got 12 recovering families, an intense environment. One intense emotional thing after another. You go home exhausted, collapse on the couch and get fat."

But not until heart problems surfaced last year did Bennett even think of making a change in her life. "It shook me up. I needed to slow down. About the first of the year I realized I couldn't do the work with the intensity I believe in.

"A residential program is a tough and complicated environment," said Bennett. "There's a lot of heartbreak in substance abuse, so much relapse. It's hard when people make really bad decisions."

But watching families who really make it, who stay clean and sober, with their children doing great in school, is all the reward Bennett needs.

Bennett intends to spend the coming years making music and quilts, teaching what she knows about spirituality and recovery, "and do a lot of talking about the ways we serve people in need."

If she had it to do over again, Bennett said she'd take more vacations. She has never taken a vacation in all her years in human services, unless you count trips back to her native Illinois to take care of sick parents.

"Take your vacations!" she cried, a parting command to anyone within earshot.

Bob Flaherty can be reached at bflaherty@gazettenet.com.