By Jacky Gerzema
When Bell was in graduate school at the University of Masachusetts, she fostered a dozen juvenile delinquents, and when she was raising her daughter in Co-Op City in the Bronx, she opened her doors to several of her daughter's friends who lost their own parents.
The Baldwin woman continues to care for underpriveleged and at-risk children as the executive director of the Education and Assistance Corporation in Hempstead, which provides educational and social programs and assistance to adults, children and families in all five New York City boroughs and Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
Bell has always lived a slightly alternative life, and that, she said has made all the difference.
Growing up in Ohio, Bell was raised by her mother and her mother's female partner after her father died when she was very young. While her home environment was not the social "norm," Bell said it was a positive one, and that children and families can prosper in any environment.
"I had an unusual childhood, and I realized there were many different ways of living in the world," Bell said. "And there's a lot to be said for that."
Her family moved to South Hadley, Mass. in elementary school and then attended the University of Massachusettes, where she received a bachelor's in history and a master's in English and education.
Through a juvenile justice program, children who had serious family problems and juvenile delinquents were sent to the University to attend a special alternative school on campus and live with "advocates," or foster parents, who were primarily graduate students in the education program.
Bell fostered about 12 juvenile delinquent teens both while she was in graduate school and over a period of five years in the mid '70s.
Foster parenting was a bittersweet experience, said Bell, and she recalled two children who made particularly profound impressions on her.
One foster child's dream was shattered after he was injured in a fight when he went home to Chelsea in Boston one weekend. The 16-year-old loved physical fitness and responded very well to a disciplined life and eventually wanted to join the military, Bell said. He was on the right track until he went home that weekend. He got into a fight and was slit from the stomach to the chest with a knife and hospitalized. After his recovery, the military wouldn't take him because of the severe injury.
"He became very depressed and was hospitalized after that," Bell said. "Some of these kids' lives were so unlucky. It's just bad luck. We sometimes forget how short a step it is from success to failure."
But with the negative, comes the postive.
One of Bell's foster children overcame a delinquent childhood where he was charged with theft to make a successful art career.
"There was a young man named Billy who I really liked," Bell said. "He was a real diamond in the rough. He was very artistic and loved to draw.... he graduated from high school and went to a technical school. Later, he went into a graphics profession and did very well for himself."
Besides fostering a dozen children, Bell met her second husband, Richard Bell, who is an African-American in graduate school and was married in 1980. While Bell said her interracial marriage was accepted for the most part, New York was a more accepting and liberal environment for her family. The couple moved to the Bronx and raised her daughter from a previous marriage and Richard's two children from his previous marriage.
"We moved to the Bronx because it was a mixed community," Bell said. "We wanted to be around a variety of different people and cultures and raise our children in that environment."
While she was raising her children in the Bronx and working with EAC, Bell still opened her door to children in need. Several of her daughter's friends who lost parents or who had unstable home situations received temporary refuge in the Bell home. When her daughter's friend lost his mother after her boyfriend had murdered her, the child stayed with the Bells until he found a more permanent residence.
Bell moved to Baldwin with her husband in 1992, and feels right at home.
"Baldwin has a very diverse and mixed community, which you don't find so much in certain areas on Long Island," she said. "We like our neighbors and friends, and we live in a great area."
Bell began working with the EAC in 1979 as a project director. She worked her way up, and became the associate executive director in 1994. For Bell, there is nothing like helping to mend broken families. In the EAC's supervised visitation program, children can meet with their non-custodial parents under supervised conditions. The program helps children establish a relationship with a parent who recently came back into their life and helps keep a firm relationship between foster children who were taken away from their their biological parents.
"We've had parents and children meet for the first time here," Bell said. "It's a very emotional experience. We had one family where the father became aware that he had a daughter after running into his ex-girlfriend from college, who was with her daughter. After seeing [the girl], he suspected she was his and petitioned the court for paternity tests. Later, he met his daughter for the first time at our offices."
Another EAC program provides services and counseling to non-custodial parents so they can get the help they need to get back custody of their own children.
Dealing with such fragile lives, Bell must deal with frustration and negativity every day on the job.
"I love my job because we're helping provide a positive environment for struggling children and families, but I'm always frustrated with the fact that it seems children who need help the most, seem to be with parents who can't provide that help," Bell said. "Children with learning disabilities, even children who were born with addictions because their parnets were substance abusers....
it's a struggle for many parents just to help themselves, let alone their children. I wish I could do more in those situations, because most of the time the parents are well-meaning, but they can't cope with it all. It doesn't mean they're not trying to do better, they just are not able. And in Long Island, there is so much wealth here. You see so many families who have so little and so many families who have so much, and it's a real struggle for children growing up here whose parents are not wealthy."
But for Bell, the positive experiences far outweigh the negative and reaffirm why she chose a career helping children and families.
"To see just one child overcome social obstacles and a bad home or living environment and succeed in life, makes my job worth it," she said.
