By Bill Forry
Managing Editor

St. Mary's Women and Childrens Center (St. Mary's) on Jones Hill, a pivotal Dorchester human service provider presently affiliated with the Caritas Christi Health Care Network, is making plans to split off from the network this year as Caritas finalizes its own sale to a national chain of Catholic hospitals. The move will make St. Mary's a more independent charitable organization, while maintaining its affiliation with the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

The decision, made last week by St. Mary's president Judy Beckler and her board of trustees, comes after a series of meetings between officials of Caritas Christi and Ascension Health, the St. Louis-based company that is preparing to buy the Caritas system in a deal that could be complete by July 2007.

"When it became clear that it would be a national Catholic health network (that would purchase Caritas Christi), it made sense for us to consider the future," Beckler said this week. "St. Mary's has become much more clearly defined as a human services provider, as opposed to a health care provider.

"I think this decision is a statement of our own strength and growth. It's an opportunity to clarify our identity," Beckler told the Reporter.

Housed in a 120,000 square foot complex of three inter-connected buildings on the top of Jones Hill, St. Mary's has been part of the Caritas Christi system since 1993, but has its origins in a 19th century asylum that took in abandoned infants and unwed mothers. For much of the 20th century, St. Mary's existed in the shadow of St. Margaret Hospital, a Catholic maternity hospital that came to dominate the hilltop campus. That changed in 1993, when Caritas closed St. Margaret's and moved its maternity wards to St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton.

Since that time, St. Mary's has redefined the mission of the Jones Hill campus, revamping old hospital exam and operating rooms into a residential complex for teen mothers, abused youngsters and homeless, distressed families. The organization also leases space to several other human service agencies that specialize in programming for poor, underserved people, most of them from the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods. St. Mary's owns its campus, which was deeded to the organization in 1993 when the Caritas transfer was completed.

"We couldn't have done all that we've been able to do without the safe haven of Caritas," Beckler said this week. "We feel lucky to have been a part of it for 13 years. Now we are fortunate to be in a place of saying that we belong in a social service spot within the Archdiocese of Boston."

Beckler, who was present at recent meetings in which Ascension Health officials met with Caritas staff in Dorchester and elsewhere, said that Ascension Health was not averse to assuming control of St. Mary's as part of its purchase.

"I think they would have been happy to have us," Beckler says.

Next steps in executing the transfer, Beckler says, include meeting with a small group of board members who will help her make the transition out of the Caritas system in the next few months.

"It's not all that complex," says Beckler, who has run St. Mary's since 1996, "I have told my staff the same thing. They have asked me, 'How will we feel this change.' I've told them, 'You won't.'"

Meanwhile, Beckler continues to oversee a step-by-step renovation project that has been underway almost since the day St. Mary's took ownership of the Jones Hill facility. Transforming an old baby hospital into a modern building with handicapped-accessible bathrooms and classrooms for GED classes is a constant backdrop to the real, day-to-day mission of helping young families in distress.

"The homeless story continues to be the saddest part of what we do," Beckler said. "In 11 years, we've never had one vacancy. We have room for 32 moms and the children and we are at capacity every day. When a family leaves in the morning, there's a new family in that afternoon."

Beckler says that the length of stay in the homeless transition program has gone from 30-45 days a decade ago to an average today of nine months, an indicator, she says of the increased pressures on families, almost all whom come from Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan.

"We don't want to just want to put a roof over their heads and give them three square meals a day," Beckler says. "With that amount of time to work with them, we really see it as an opportunity to educate and really respond to the needs of this neighborhood in particular. I hope we have been true to that promise."

In addition to St. Mary's Home, the city's largest residential program for pregnant and parenting teens, the St. Mary's facility houses a number of other related programs, including:

• Margaret's House, the largest family shelter in Boston, serving 32 homeless women and their children.

• Bridge Home, an 18-bed emergency shelter for children newborn to 12 years-old who have been neglected or abused.

• Women @ Work, a job skills training program for homeless and low-income women.

• The campus also houses several tenants, including a Head Start program run by Dimock Community Health Center; Parker Street, a homeless shelter for women with chronic mental illness; Horizons for Homeless Children's Schoen Family Community Children's Center.