It could be a museum, or at least a Bed and Breakfast. The Wellspring

It could be a museum, or at least a Bed and Breakfast. The Wellspring House in Gloucester, Massachusetts is. 350 years old, and beautifully restored. "In some ...
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Wellspring House

It could be a museum, or at least a Bed and Breakfast. The Wellspring House in Gloucester, Massachusetts is 350 years old, and beautifully restored. "In some ways, it is a Bed and Breakfast, isn't it? It's just that it is a Bed and Breakfast for homeless... homeless families." Nancy Schwayer runs Wellspring, easily America's nicest homeless shelter. Families who stay here are considered guests, they eat the same food at the same time and table as the staff, and stay for as long as they need. Jane Mangaly and her 10-year-old daughter Maggie came to Wellspring with nothing but each other. Jane was fleeing an abusive relationship, trying desperately to make it on her own "I didn't think it was gonna be possible, I just didn't know where to begin." Fortunately, new beginnings have always been Wellspring’s specialty. The house opened in 1981 when Nancy and a few close friends from church decided to buy a house, live in it together and share it with homeless families "and support them, in whatever they needed until they got on their feet." Since then, through donations and grants, Wellspring has expanded its building and its scope. They now offer everything from classes on finding jobs, to clothes for landing them. And perhaps because they are so comprehensive, their success rate is phenomenal: 80 % of people who come to this homeless shelter are never homeless again.