Michelle Madison (far left) with members of the Dickens Center at their holiday outreach.
Michelle Madison, a patient service associate in the Helen O. Dickens Center, is always willing to help those in need. For example, several years ago, a conversation with her aunt (Lucy Sheppard) steered her efforts to helping residents in My Sister’s Place, a substance treatment facility for women and children. “She’s a caseworker there and we talked about how I could help, what the clients needed.”
It turned out that their needs were often small, but important – deodorants, lotions and toiletries that are “not essential, but nice to have.” Madison filled the need, many times. Then, this past year, she put together a “lady’s day” bag for them, which included shampoos and conditioner to help them look nice. “Many have court appearances,” she explained.
My Sister’s Place was forced to leave their facilities in West Philly because of plumbing problems and other issues, moving to another location on Broad Street. “A lot of things had be to thrown away,” Madison said. This time, she learned, the women’s needs were essential: feminine hygiene products. She used her Penn Medicine CAREs grant to make sure the women had those products – as well as other personal use products. Over the years, “she has given us cases of toiletries,” Sheppard said. “She has a heart of gold.”
Not all of Madison’s outreaches are external, though. In her work at the Dickens center, which provides OB/GYN care to women in underserved communities, she talks with many women who are struggling to make ends meet. One year she gave out hats and gloves to the children who come to the OB/GYN visits with their moms. She’s also organized school supply drives for them. “Each year I try to come up with something different,” she said, adding that her coworkers are always generous “and willing to support me with anything.”
This past December, she brightened up the holidays for three of the Center’s families who were facing troubling times. “I reached out to our social workers in the Dickens Center to help identify families who would benefit from donations during the holiday season.” Working with Laura Lombardo, Community Relations manager, Madison was able to get gifts from IT staff, who had extra gifts from their own annual holiday drive. “I delivered the gifts myself, house to house,” she said. “The kids were crying – it was an amazing experience.”
To learn more about the Penn Medicine CAREs grant, go to PennMedicine.org/CARES.