Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places/ Third Place Stories
The Haley House is my favorite third place! It is a soup kitchen in Boston’s South End founded in the spirituality of the Catholic Worker movement associated with Dorothy Day. Little did I know that making regular weekly early morning treks to volunteer there would allow me to build a relationship with George, a homeless man who would dramatically change the course of my life in unimaginably profound ways.
I was a student in the Boston College PULSE program and I was lucky to have this placement. It was simple enough. Haley House opened its doors and welcomed everyone to a hot meal and good conversation about the things in life that matter and nobody felt rushed: hallmarks of a great third place environment. At age 18, I developed a very special relationship with George whose home was Boston, where he slept under the Massachusetts Pike.
My relationship with George did not end when I left the PULSE program. I knew where he stemmed for change and we accompanied each other for coffee and meals all over the city for at least ten more years post graduation. George invited me to join a spirituality program where I eventually found employment greatly expanding my spirituality community and my professional skills. We also lived in close proximity for three years- close enough to play cribbage and share a meal every Thursday at various third places in our neighborhood. We always attended Haley House community events together and George came to my wedding. I’ll never forget the day he told me that for the first time in 20 years, he had his own room in his own house!
But I never could have anticipated that George would be there for me when I needed him most. When I became separated from my family during part of the pandemic with a tight budget and no place to go, George offered me a room in his house which would lead to signing a lease and eventually becoming his roommate! My relationship with George is one of the most special I hold in life. And it came from the Haley House soup kitchen: in a third place Catholic worker environment that placed so much emphasis on developing meaningful relationships like ours. And to both George and Haley House, I am eternally grateful.
-Steve Cote