An Interview with Ashley Galvan, Student Support Specialist at Neighborhood Villages

I have a son, Santiago.  We call him Santi.  He’s one year nine months now.  I didn’t know what it was like to have kids.  I thought I was so prepared for this, but I was not.  I’m not from here.  I’m from Brownsville, Texas.  Most people are young teen moms, single parents, and you have multiple kids. They have these child care programs that are not the most highly rated or have the best reputation. As a first-time mom, I knew I never wanted to put my son in a place like that.  I had my son in COVID, and everything went downhill.  Just when I thought we were getting a good start, a foundation, COVID happened, and I had to start working overnight.  The only person I trusted was my mom.  I worked from midnight to 2:00 pm and felt so guilty when I got home that I just stayed awake.  My mom still had a job, too.  I was so desperate to find something better for my son.  I knew that (Brownsville) was not the place I wanted to raise him. 

I Googled opportunities to leave, to get me away from there.  I didn’t have a plan.  I remembered AmeriCorps and applied.  I was so happy when I got in!  I found Neighborhood Villages’ program with AmeriCorps, to help with pre-kindergarten students at Ellis in Boston.  [AmeriCorps programs] all have different benefits… for me, having kids, I needed something that offered child care assistance and a livable stipend.  Neighborhood Villages’ program did.  I came blindly.  I didn’t have much.  We had only $200 in the bank account when we came.  My partner was still in the military, in the reserves.  He couldn’t come right away when I was accepted. Devin Cole (at Neighborhood Villages) was a life saver!  He literally sent me the best driving route to come!  Everything!  He made it easy, as easy as it could be!  He constantly checked-up on me and my son.  I packed our home in our Jeep… all I could fit was his play pen, a couple toys, and our clothes.  It felt like I was never going to get to Boston.  We stopped every few hours for Santi to stretch his little body.  I wish we could have photographed every hotel we stopped at.  It was difficult to load us in and out of the car for each stop.  When we got to Pennsylvania, I realized it was COLD!  And I wasn’t prepared for it!  I didn’t have winter clothes, just blankets. 

When we arrived in Boston, it was hard for us.  We had all our stuff in a car.  There was no parking.  We were hungry.  By the time we arrived – in the chaos of it all – I locked us out of the car without coats or Santi’s bottle.  Insurance came to help us, and I had to figure out how to get a hotel to get warm.  It was a rough start, but then my son’s dad came for one day to help us find an apartment.  We found the one I’m still in.  We moved in on Sunday and we started at Ellis on Monday.  Ellis figured out a spot for Santi – he was in the infant/toddler building, and I worked with the pre-kindergarten students.  It was my son’s first time in child care – he had only ever been with me or my mom.  I had so much anxiety leaving him.  I was so scared, but the staff made me feel safe.  They gave me a half day so that we could all ease in.  We were all strangers, but Santi was SO happy!  He was only a year and one month.  He didn’t walk… even though all the other kids did.  But by the end of his first week, he walked!  I got updates all day through an app!  It was amazing.  I felt reassured, like he’s in good hands.  I remember being so surprised that there were no TV’s!  At home, most of the daycare's incorporate TV's into their schedule.

Every month I got $600 from AmeriCorps.  I live in Malden.  Its still expensive.  We have bills.  It was not enough.  Ellis’ team of administrators helped me.  Ellis helped me to fill out forms to make child care free for my son.  It’s hard to accept things for free, even when you can’t afford to pay for them.  To have access to this situation for my son free-of-cost is unreal.  He is growing and changing so quickly.  He learned how to ride a scooter.  He’s a year and nine months!  He uses sign language for things he doesn’t know.  He’s now aged up into the toddler classroom.  There’s a Spanish speaking teacher and he understands her.  I never in a million years thought I would trust a child care center coming from home.  

When my AmeriCorps service ended, my job at Ellis was going to end.  I couldn’t find a job – I applied everywhere.  But then Neighborhood Villages called, just as I was desperate and about to give up.  Devin called me about an opportunity at Neighborhood Villages to help with their COVID testing program.  I was scared because I didn’t know about testing, but translating comes naturally to me and I studied it in school.  That’s what I was able to help out doing: translating from English to Spanish to help people feel comfortable with testing, to keep the kids and teachers safe.  It felt good helping people.  And then that job led to another opportunity at Neighborhood Villages - to work with the Professional Pathways program helping teachers, like the ones helping Santi.  Now I have a fulltime role as a Student Support Associate at Neighborhood Villages.  

I’m overwhelmingly grateful.  Santi is still at Ellis.  He’s 2!  And I have a new career.  COVID was the worst time.  But out of this, so many opportunities happened.  There’s always good in bad.  I feel like I was a part of the other side – the side that Neighborhood Villages wants to help. And now working with Neighborhood Villages, I’m on the solutions side.