LEICESTER, Mass. – The state’s first supportive living community for divorced women and their children could be coming to central Massachusetts. Local non-profit, The Sparrow Collective, is eyeing a former elementary school in Leicester. Founder Susan Tripi said 44 percent of all women end up in a position of divorce-induced poverty within a year from legal separation. Tripi said while short-term shelters do exist, a medium length housing community providing a wide range of wrap-around support services on site is lacking for women navigating divorce.
“When we look at the data, when we look at the lived experience of the impact of divorce on women and children, we know that statistically women in Worcester County end up in a position of poverty at a higher rate than in other county in Massachusetts,” Tripi said. “This facility in Leicester at the former elementary school is the perfect place to launch the first supportive living community for The Sparrow Collective as a resource for women in Worcester County.”…