#MiddleburyCT #Homeless #Povilaitis #UnitedWay
Rick Povilaitis, center, is flanked by Michael Broussard, left, and Gavin Titus, right. The three work as a team helping Waterbury’s homeless on behalf of the Brian Gibbons Homeless Outreach. (Marjorie Needham photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
The United Way of Greater Waterbury has chosen Richard “Rick” Povilaitis, 75, of Middlebury as its Community Volunteer of the Year award recipient. He is the executive director of the Brian Gibbons Homeless Outreach program and will be among those honored at the United Way’s 36th Annual Celebration & Awards Dinner Thursday, April 20, at Aria Banquet Hall in Prospect, Connecticut.
Asked how he felt about receiving the award, Povilaitis said, “I was surprised and honored. It was wonderful for us to be recognized, but we are only a part of a big group.” He said some of the many organizations that help the homeless are the Salvation Army, Safe Haven, several soup kitchens, the United Way, and the St. Vincent DePaul Mission. In addition, Sacred Heart Church in Southbury has raised thousands of dollars for the program. Homeless outreach volunteers at the church also stepped in to arrange food donations from the Southbury ShopRite when the Waterbury ShopRite, which had been donating for years, closed its doors.
He also said the Waterbury Police are very good with the homeless. “When they encounter someone who is living outside, they put us in touch with them.”
Povilaitis and his wife, Carolyn, moved to Middlebury in 1973. They raised two daughters here and have been married 54 years. A licensed social worker, Povilaitis retired from the Connecticut Department of Public Health in 2004, but said he wasn’t really ready to retire yet. When he met the late Brian Gibbons, who was then head of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services local program and founder of the Homeless Outreach team, he decided to join Gibbons in his work. “When I met Brian, his love of the homeless was contagious,” he said, “I learned a lot from him and tried to model this program after the way he modeled his program.” He refers to his work with the homeless as his “true calling.”
Gibbons died of a brain tumor in 2014, when he was 61. Povilaitis continues his work with the homeless with the program now named in Gibbons’s memory. It is a 501(c)(3).
Glenn McCabe, vice president of marketing and communications at the United Way, shared some of the text from those who nominated Povilaitis for the award. It says, “Rick’s devotion to the homeless is demonstrated by his great zeal and steadfast commitment to those who are most vulnerable in our community.
“When you are too severely mentally ill or have hit rock bottom due to addiction to make rational decisions for yourself on the coldest night of the year, and you find yourself freezing to death on a park bench, Rick is there to save your life. When you are starving to death and thirsty, Rick is there. When you are ready to enter detox and treatment on a Saturday or a Sunday when many other homeless providers are home, Rick is there. When you and your newborn baby are sleeping in the car because the shelters are full and in need of diapers or formula, Rick is there. When your abusive partner kicks you out of your home and you have no place to go, Rick is there. If you are a homeless youth fleeing from an abusive family or no longer in foster care, Rick is there. For over a decade, Rick has saved countless lives.”
The United Way’s Chief Impact Officer, Jered Bruzas, has worked with Povilaitis for many years. He described him as a “selfless unsung hero in the community who continues to give of his time and his talent to people experiencing homeless” and said, “He should be in retirement but he is in the trenches every day helping people. He does this because he cares.”
Bruzas said the Waterbury homeless outreach program started by Gibbons is unlike many programs in which social workers stay in comfortable offices and expect people to come to them. In the Waterbury program, social workers are out in the field all the time. They provide therapeutic treatment while in the field and use the relationships they build there as a gateway to behavioral treatments, substance abuse treatment, and more.
Povilaitis currently works with a homeless outreach worker, Gavin Titus, 23, a 2022 Western Connecticut State University (WestConn) School of Social Work graduate who served as an intern in the program last year and this years’ intern Michael Broussard, 21, a senior at WestConn School of Social Work.
Povilaitis said their program is based on “housing first.” That’s because an apartment provides people with an address to put on job applications, a safe place to store their belongings, a place to shower, and a place to sleep. It also makes it much easier for Povilaitis to get them into a program or a job.
Povilaitis said a common misconception is that people are homeless because they want to be. Another is they are mostly poor people who just don’t care. “In reality,” he said, “a lot of the clients we serve come from Middlebury and Southbury and affluent families and they come to Waterbury.” Waterbury draws them because it offers resources not found in small towns.
Bruzas said homeless clients he has worked with include former police officers, teachers, accountants, and people who worked on Wall Street. “Anybody can be homeless,” he said. “They are no different from us.” Povilaitis and Bruzas both said a lot of people are just a paycheck away from being homeless.
Anyone who is homeless or about to be homeless can find help by calling 2-1-1. That will get them in touch with trained staff who can assess their situation and find help for them.
To help the team at Brian Gibbons Homeless Outreach, you can mail donations to the organization at 227 Porter Hill Road, Middlebury, CT 06762. If you play golf, you can support the Annual Brian Gibbons Homeless Outreach golf tournament at the Chippanee Golf Club in Bristol in June. The website is briangibbonshomelessoutreachprogram.com.
You also can donate gift cards to McDonald’s, Burger King and Walmart; Waterbury bus passes; socks and hygiene products. Because the team works in the field, storage space is limited. Questions about the program or donations can be directed to Povilaitis at 203-525-3724 or povilaitis@sbcglobal.net.
Registration for the United Way Awards Dinner can be found at tinyurl.com/279fdmyw.
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