Helping Hands: Shirley Purves is building a stronger community, one person at a time

Shirley Purves“It made my heart throb,” says Shirley Purves (BN’97) of her conversation with a young woman who was helped by the organization she is the executive director of, Aspen Family and Community Network.

The young woman came to Aspen a few years ago. She had suffered from tremendous abuse, and many thought she wouldn’t recover from it and move on. Others had said it was completely impossible. Purves spoke to Sarah (not her real name) a few weeks ago and says her healing has been remarkable. Sarah’s finishing school to be a hair stylist and trying to find the right place for her to work.

Purves tells the story: “Sarah went to one place to get her own hair cut. She said the person cutting her hair spent more time talking to the man beside her; she felt she was ignored. And she said to me ‘that’s not the kind of place I want to work. I want to be in a friendly and supportive environment.’ This from a girl who had no self-esteem a few years ago, and now she’s testing the waters in a very positive concrete way.”

It’s obvious what Shirley Purves can find most rewarding in her job. Aspen Family and Community Network provides community services to families at risk. The group of 104 employees offers 18 programs to people living in the XX community. Their programs focus on reducing poverty, connecting families to the community, and they have a focus on youth.

“We focus on a proactive individual approach,” says Purves. One example is their program called “the other 12 hours,” in which a case worker will help a homeless family during the daytime hours, when they’re not in the shelter. They assist with everything from helping the members of the family build social skills to resolving conflicts, and from building a resume to budgeting. From providing spots in group homes to moving people into their own permanent homes, Aspen’s programs offer help to people all along the way, as they move through “the system.”

It can be very rewarding, but Purves says that she had to learn to “train” her focus. She adds, “There are definitely those days when I ask myself what is wrong with society. Mostly become the people coming into the programs outnumber the people leaving them successfully.” When one of those days hits, her trained focus kicks in and Purves thinks of the victories. She thinks of the “Sarah”s.

By Leslie Strudwick