Helping others a calling she always answers

GIVING HOPE: From left: Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic Vida Sana Director Lavinia Velazquez, Medical Assistance Program Center case manager Luz Betancur and Together We Insure A Safer Tomorrow Assistant Program Manager Angela Amaral. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
GIVING HOPE: From left: Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic Vida Sana Director Lavinia Velazquez, Medical Assistance Program Center case manager Luz Betancur and Together We Insure A Safer Tomorrow Assistant Program Manager Angela Amaral. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Lavinia “Vinnie” Velazquez has spent a career in the human-services field working with the homeless who might have chronic mental-health issues, working with those battling abuse problems or advising prostitutes to straighten out their lives. Some might find it difficult, but not Velazquez. “I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity,” she said.
She is a woman with many hats, working at the Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic, 60 Valley St., Providence. There she leads their Vida Sana, or clean-living, project, where volunteers organize health fairs and advocate for members of their community. The volunteers, or navigators, help guide people through the health care system, and the clinic provides free, high-quality medical care and preventive services to Rhode Islanders who don’t have health insurance or cannot afford to purchase it.
“I love this field, it’s great to get people the treatment they need and help them,” Velazquez said. “When they come back, you can see that glow in their eyes that is priceless. It’s a great feeling to plant a seed in those people’s lives. I am very blessed.”
At a young age, Velazquez saw the need for better health care services for those in poverty or simply unable to speak in English. “I knew right then what I wanted to do,” she said.
Velazquez is originally from Puerto Rico, and moved to Lawrence, Mass., when she was 6.
“I was there with my parents when they were going through some medical problems. I had to be an ‘old’ child and learn to navigate my way through the system because there was nobody there to help me.” With that in mind she saw the need to help those who would be in a similar position in the future. By the age of 16 she was on her own but became involved with a YMCA-sponsored health program. By the time she was 17, she was working with drug addicts and homeless women through the YMCA program.
At the Medical Assistance Program Center at 66 Burnett St. in Providence, she served as program director for 11 years, focusing on addiction and overall preventive health with high-risk minorities, including those in danger of becoming infected with HIV.
She works at Progreso Latino in Central Falls as the director of its wellness center. “At Progreso, it’s a whole different kind of poverty with its own issues. It’s poverty that’s not about drugs – although in some cases it might – but immigration and other circumstances,” Velazquez said.
As she gained experience, Velazquez worked to get a college degree. The process took years, with Velazquez taking sporadic classes at the University of Rhode Island, before receiving a bachelor’s degree in human services from Springfield College in 2007. She quickly followed that with a master’s degree in organizational management and is pursuing a doctorate in education from Cambridge College.
“Springfield allowed me to put all my life experiences in a framework that made sense. It gave me a sense of fulfillment but also helped me to understand and work in a system that at times can be difficult,” she said.
Despite the workload and the emotional toll it can often take, she says she has the best career she could have imagined.
“It’s one thing to do it if you have to; it’s another thing to do it because you want to,” she said. “It’s a great process to see some of these people blossom.” &#8226

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