Ilia Chavez

Home Visitor, Nurturing Families Network

Lawrence + Memorial Hospital

For clients who can’t see hope, Ilia Chavez shines an unwavering light on their strengths and possibilities, raising the bar on what they can achieve.

As a family support provider with Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, Chavez works through the state’s Nurturing Families program to help struggling women who are pregnant or who have young children; that’s how she first met Dyamarilis.

Dyamarilis was living in subsidized housing in Groton. She had four children and a fifth on the way. Life was tough enough, but when state health officials found black mold in the housing complex and ordered an evacuation, Dyamarilis – now with four children and a newborn – was suddenly living out of a motel.

To complicate matters, Dyamarilis’s husband was stuck outside the country because of a visa approval delay. She yearned to see her husband and get back to her apartment. Then, just as a mold remediation project was nearing completion, a frozen pipe caused a flood, further delaying their return. Struggling physically, financially, and emotionally, it seemed the family would never leave the motel.

But Chavez had a plan. She took Dyamarilis to Habitat for Humanity and helped her fill out all the paperwork for potential home ownership. Next, Chavez helped Dyamarilis find a lawyer who could effectively negotiate to bring her husband to the United States.

Chavez also helped Dyamarilis find a job at a large retail store where she was able to work full-time and gain benefits.
Things were looking up, but with her new job and five children, Dyamarilis told Chavez that she might abandon the Habitat application. It required “sweat equity” (time spent building other Habitat homes), and there just wasn’t enough time. Chavez knew they had come too far to give up now. She urged Dyamarilis to persevere, and so she did.

Recently, Dyamarilis joined Chavez and other L+M volunteers as they provided “sweat equity” to finish off a very special Habitat home in Norwich – Dyamarilis’s own! Together with her husband and five children, Dyamarilis is expected to officially move in and take ownership this spring. It’s an astonishing turn of events for the entire family.

Every step of the way, shining her unwavering light, Ilia Chavez was there to make it happen.

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