14 minute read
Featured
Milano The Great channels adversity into art
Liz Fay
Advertisement
Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
It took only a few seconds for Milan Scott to understand the nightmare he’d woken up to on March 18, 2014. It was early in the morning when the 22-yearold Worcester resident experienced the scare of his life, after being disturbed from his sleep by two men standing over him holding butcher knives and a crowbar. While struggling to lift himself of the ground, Scott looked down to see himself covered in his own blood, realizing he’d already been dragged from his bed, struck in the head by a crowbar, and stabbed multiple times.
After roughly 30 minutes of receiving brutal beatings and life threats, Scott was left for dead by his two attackers who disappeared from the scene unscathed, after robbing the home of $80,000 in cash, which Scott had spent years saving. After being found by his father, who had left earlier that morning to drive Scott’s mother to work, Scott was rushed to the hospital, where he survived a total of 15 stab wounds throughout his face and body and a sliced tendon, leaving him with an immobile left index fnger to this day.
Having survived such a violent assault, the now 30-yearold Worcester rapper and songwriter has worked to channel the pain and adversity he’s faced into his artistic persona, “Milano The Great.”
“I’m a really resilient person,” he said. “I’ve never let the hard times I’ve been through render me from pursuing a bright future, or discourage me. I never ran in the face of adversity. I didn’t run from the city, I didn’t run from my attackers, I stayed and I fgured it out and still continued on with my life.”
In his most recent single, “Skeye Red,” which was released earlier this month, he vents the pain he’s both witnessed and endured, while remaining resilient by nature. “Pain in my heart, pain in my eyes, look up the sky’s red” and “made it through the door ya ya made it through the war ya ya, built it up from the foor ya ya.”
For Scott, not running away from his problems has been a major factor toward becoming the inspirational man and artist he is now. According to Scott, “If I would’ve left the city I might not even be making music.”
Scott’s 2021 track “Neva Ran” provides another sample of the artist’s fery spirit when he raps “Dark days made me that (expletive) I needed to feel that pain” and “Them boys cut from a diferent cloth they don’t compare to I, I really been all through it deserve my piece of the pie.”
While Scott’s song lyrics only hint at the violence and injustices he experienced, Scott plans to release an emotionally charged and detail flled music video for “Neva Ran” on June 1. Scott’s manager, Happi Hongla, a former executive assistant to Atlantic Records, describes the music video as “a cinematic experience based on true events.”
Scott revealed that music has always been an important part of his life, but it wasn’t until this past year, after meeting Happi, that he began to intentionally develop a musical career for himself.
According to Hongla, “There are so many ways he’s evolving
Encompass ofers support system for Worcester area foster parents
Veer Mudambi
Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
For Sarah Ahola, it was a Friday when she got the call that two girls would be arriving at her place at 5 p.m. Though this was her second foster placement, the incoming sisters were older than the previous child — that was when Ahola realized she didn’t have an appropriately sized bed.
“I really didn’t want them to have to go to an emergency placement just to come to me later. So I spent some of that day just preparing their room but it required a team efort. At that time I had one bed and a crib.”
Having a network for lastminute needs or being able to turn to an experienced foster parent would have been invaluable, Ahola said. Even though friends and family often want to help, she felt, they don’t always know how. While in her case, she had some friends who gave her tips and flled her in on the process, navigating that world is still intimidating.
Aiming to address these issues, the pilot of the Encompass program is underway now in Greater Worcester.
“The Greater Worcester area is very spread out and that makes it difcult to get services or fnd providers who accept MassHealth, which is what kids have when they come into the system,” said Catherine Twiraga, president of the Massachusetts Alliance for Families, which is part of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, in explaining how Worcester was chosen. She lamented the fact that a paucity of providers has created a situation where children have been known to be on an eight-month waiting list for a therapist.
Twiraga says that foster parents are not returning to the system, likely due to the lack of support. To alleviate the demanding circumstances, Encompass connects families to a network, letting them turn to experienced foster parents for help and advice. “While you wait those eight months for a therapist, someone could say, ‘I had a kid just like them so try this …’” she said.
This support network that Encompass provides is part of a two-pronged approach. Volunteer coordinators will connect with community members to ofer services like babysitting (requested by a landslide), yard work, meal deliveries or grocery shopping. On a more personal level, trauma coaches, who may be experienced foster parents or specialists drawn from partnerships with local nonprofts, will meet with families individually, as well as in groups, to help them connect to others in similar situations.
Ahola, who is project coordinator at the MSPCC and a social worker by profession, agrees that a trauma coach would have been a great resource.
“It would have provided ad-
Encompass is a pilot program underway in the Worcester area that offers support services as well as specialists to foster families.
GETTY IMAGES
Encompass
Continued from Page 16
vice on how to use my training as a social worker to understand what fostering would look like in my home,” she said. She says that other services that might seem like a small thing — delivering a meal, helping with homework, yardwork — can be a lifeline for foster parents.
As a coordinator for the Encompass program, she is really excited to provide a welcome box for brand new placements since fosters sometimes only have a few hours to prepare. “No doubt that this would have been an amazing help when I was a brand new foster parent.”
Encompass was initially begun as a response to a survey carried out by the MSPCC in which 50% of foster parents said they only received support from family, friends and neighbors during emergencies, and 17% said they never received regular support at all. This lack of a reliable support system leads to fewer foster parents returning to the program and therefore fewer placement options for kids. In an efort to address the situation, MSPCC applied for a grant from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts in order to better support foster parents.
The pitch was enough to sway Dr. Janice Yost, president of the HFCM, and her colleagues, who approved a $657,735 grant. The multi-year grant will cover fve years, supporting the planning year, the pilot year, as well as three years of implementation. After a year of planning, the pilot began in the Worcester area with the goal of expanding to all of Massachusetts, though some changes have been necessary due to the pandemic.
Yost spoke of the close relationship that MSPCC has with the Mass. Department of Children and Families, so all the organizations involved were looking at the issue of retaining good fosters. Encompass, according to her, will try new strategies and compare the results with Springfeld (where they are not trying new strategies at this time) to see if there is a success rate in retention of foster parents.
“This is not a petri dish in a laboratory kind of thing — you’re dealing with human beings, so what you can do is compare to the most similar subjects that you can fnd,” she said.
They expect to see people foster longer and take on more children — the positive data will go to the administration or Legislature and be used to advocate for changes to the system across the state. Yost pointed out that “in general, you can change policy two ways — administrative or legislative side. On the administration side, the commissioner of the DCF has been involved with this project from the beginning, which is a very favorable sign.” The Worcester East and West DCF helped identify foster families in Greater Worcester who would be interested and could beneft from the program.
While other foster support programs have been set up in other parts of the country, what sets Encompass apart is that it is designed to be preventive in nature. There are programs that help families in distress, but according to Ahola, Encompass is meant to help families get started on the right foot. It is open to all three types of families: unrestricted (no relation to foster placement); kinship (connection, be it family or friend); and pre-adoptive (on the road to adoption.)
“There is a focus on kinship families since the Worcester Child Protective Services offces do a good job of placing children with kin. Kinship families are traditionally less involved with services because they might not see themselves as a ‘foster family’ but they may need the same level of support and not ask for it because they feel they have a responsibility to look after the children without assistance.
A lot of time was spent on planning the roll-out of Encompass, which included examining programs already established in New York and Oregon.
The volunteer aspect of the pilot, which begins next month, will be virtual due to the constraint of limiting face-to-face interactions between families and volunteers but a return to in-person programming will allow genuine relationships to be built. Ahola recalls how they got pretty creative in their attempts to make volunteers feel
Catherine Twiraga, president of Massachusetts Alliance for Families and longtime foster
parent. CATHERINE TWIRAGA Sarah Ahola, project coordinator for the Encompass pilot program and a foster parent, says things like delivering a meal, helping with homework or yardwork can be a lifeline for foster
parents. SARAH AHOLA
SeeENCOMPASS,Page18
Mortgageoptions tomake yourspring evenbrighter.
Spring isa greattime to givenewlifeto yourhome ownershipdreams.AtMillbury Federal CreditUnionandSecurity FirstMortgageFunding, you’ll fndacomprehensiverangeofmortgageoptions— including everything fromadjustable-and fxed-ratemortgages toconstructionloans, jumboloans, frst-timehomebuyer programs,refnancing optionsandmore.Ourexperienced mortgageadvisorswillhelpidentify themortgageproductthat bestmeets yourneeds. Contactustoday at508-853-3000.
MCU NMLS#537519 Your Community CreditUnion!
millburycu.com | 508-865-7600 | @#MCU Auburn | Millbury | SouthGrafton | Worcester
Milano
Continued from Page 15
as a person, I mean, just turning what once was a hobby into a serious career endeavor has been a huge step in the right direction for him.”
Over the years, Scott turned to music creation as an outlet for healthy self expression and opportunity to share his versatile life experiences from the perspective of his lavish character Milano The Great. Scott identifes himself as an artist with a fair for the fner, more luxurious things in life — opulence being a popular theme in many of his lyrics, as heard in his popular track titled “Milano <3”, where he pays tribute to the popular fashion line Milano Di Rouge, rapping “You caught my eye you had Milano on your body, I’m like it must be meant to be I’m on your body ayyy,” and especially in his song “perpetual,” where his boss rapper mentality comes fercely into play saying, “And I know it don’t take too much time to go put in that work, and I know it don’t take too much time to put boy on that shirt, never late I go to work, I’m up now I know they hurt.”
Having experienced an assortment of life’s ups and downs — surviving a violent home invasion, being robbed of $80,000, losing friends, gaining a daughter and developing a career as a music artist — it’s safe to say Scott has acquired a fair amount of wisdom, which is why he feels his mission as an artist is to motivate and inspire his listeners here in Worcester, and cities everywhere.
“I almost lost my life,” Scott said. “So I’m defnitely not wasting any time with anything I’m doing. Anything I do, I do it full fedged and put my all into it. What happened to me was defnitely a wake-up call for how short life can be, you gotta cherish every moment and be serious about what you do, and realize the value of time.”
Follow Milan on social media @milanolvtl and fnd his music on YouTube and all streaming services as Milano The Great.
Worcester hip-hop artist Milan Scott performs as Milano the Great.
PHOTO BY DENZEL DERANAMI
Worcester 31CarolineStreet PlantationStreetarea...BrandnewOne-bedroom apartment...includeswasher/dryer,storage,of-street parking,heatandh/w...Nosmoking,nopets.
Worcester CenterHillApts 503-505MillSt....TeTatnuckarea’snewestapartment homes.large1&2BR,W/Dineachapt,storage,elevator, heat&hotwaterincluded.Nicewalkingarea.Nopets.
Toviewapartments508-756-2147orcathy@botanybayproperties.com
Encompass
Continued from Page 17
like they were part of a team and doing impactful work and new staf coming on board virtually.
The program asks for tangible donations in the form of care boxes, gift cards and weekly meal deliveries. It’s often the most mundane items that have the most impact.
“It’s the things that you don’t expect,” said Twiraga. “The little things that make a diference like a pair of pajamas that ft.” The goal is to provide a child with something that’s theirs, that they can leave with and symbolize some consistency between moving from place to place. “Nothing breaks your heart more than seeing a child come into home with nothing but the clothes on your back,” she said.
Looking back on her own start as a foster parent almost 20 years ago, Twiraga said she would have benefted most from emotional support and education ofered by Encompass. “The best support for a foster parent is another foster parent,” she said. Twiraga remembered that any time she was struggling and talked about it with her sister, the advice was always the same. “She would say ‘just hand in your notice.’ But I couldn’t really do it.”
Though Twiraga said the kids she’s fostered “have given me as much as I’ve given them and changed my family for the better,” she’s currently taking a break from it to focus on helping her son. She wishes she had the trauma training then that she does now. Specifcally, an understanding of the damage that can be done by in utero alcohol exposure. “It reprograms the brain,” she said. “We’re still struggling.”
Though the challenges may make fostering impractical for some, there are diferent ways to help the program, and Encompass makes it easy for community members to fnd these opportunities. Program coordinators will begin matching volunteers with families by next month.
“I hear often that a lot of people would like to be [foster parents] but can’t for whatever reason,” said Twiraga. In her case, she fnished up her fostering career as a hotline home — “the homes you call after 5 p.m. when the ofce is closed,” she explained. A child is usually placed at a hotline home for one night before they are moved to a more long-term placement. “It’s very intense but I think they have the biggest impact,” she said.
Hotline homes have to be ready at any time for a sudden placement, with a child likely arriving fresh from a stressful situation. In recent years, the opioid crisis has been the primary driver behind children being taken out of homes, said Twiraga. “It’s what separates families and takes hold very fast.”
For example, she said, a child may be coming straight from a drug bust by police or an overdose case, so “the very act of coming into care is a traumatic event,” which is why trauma coaching is so vital. “Children don’t put themselves there,” she emphasized, “it is what has happened to them, and teens especially get a bad rap but they are in survival mode.”
The pivotal role that foster parents play in the life of children who have been separated from their biological families cannot be underestimated: They aford children the opportunity to develop healthy relationships, self-esteem, emotional balance and valuable life skills. Encompass refects the commitment to bolstering the lives of foster parents with as many resources as needed to accomplish the mission entrusted to them.
