Humans of Cranston is a recurring column showcasing the stories of Cranston residents’ community involvement, diversity, and unique life perspectives.

Grace Swinski (she/her) is the co-coordinator for the Cranston Family Center/COZ, the Archdeacon of Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, and an active and dedicated advocate for her community.

I’ve been working for the Family Center for 21 years. … What’s been really good about it is because I say I work for the families, when I call them it’s like, “how can I help? What can I do?” because we really care about making sure that the people are comfortable, that there’s wrap-around services, and that we can make sure they have someplace safe to live. If they need heating assistance or food assistance, then we just help them find the right resources. We don’t have money, but we can get them to the right people. And then we want them to be involved in their children’s education, we want them to feel comfortable going into the school, getting involved in the parent groups, taking some leadership courses that we offer, and then we follow them up until eighth grade, because we service K-8. But there’s still some families, because I’ve been here awhile, that I am friends with, either on Facebook or social media or whatever, and if I see something I think their child might like, I might call or check in how families are doing, because I care; they’re my community.

The other part of my life is I’m an ordained Episcopal deacon … I have always been very spiritual. My father was an Episcopal priest, so I was always in a church setting, and there again, you’re working to help people, and that’s what I always did. I lived next door to the church and there’d be people coming to the house all the time who were needing stuff – seeing my mom, how she’d help, and my dad, it was just a natural progression of things. … I decided to go to what’s called Deacon School; I was ordained 7 years ago, and I work in different churches in the state. Then in November, I became what’s called the Archdeacon of Episcopal Diocese, and that’s the person who oversees the other deacons in the state, and I spend a lot more time meeting with the bishop and just being involved in church things, but it’s been great because I do this work all day, y’know? … I’m not a social worker, but luckily, I have common sense, and I have years of experience of just, life.

I spend most of my time in Ward 3, which is a very blended area, and I’ve learned a lot. I mean, I put my privilege in check, and I just would like to see more of an awareness of what this city is and can be. … I love culture, because I just love to learn from other people. I’m not a book learner, I’m more like an in-the-middle-of-it learner … I’ve found things out that I need to grow on, and most people have been supportive and if I say something and it offends a person, then at least we have that conversation, because that’s not what I meant, but I don’t know where that person’s coming from, you know what I mean? And I think that you just have to accept people how they are. … Going back to the Diaconate, [I believe] we’re all made in the vision of God; whatever you think God is, it’s how we’re all created. But that is my firm belief, so that’s it, man. If we’re all made in the vision of God, we all have our dark sides, and our light sides, and any sides, and we all have to learn. But at the heart of it is what we have to work on – it's like a newborn baby. A newborn baby is just a newborn baby, it’s their surroundings that decide.

This project has been made possible by a Rhode Island Foundation Community Grant and the efforts of the OneCranston Health Equity Zone of Comprehensive Community Action, Inc. in partnership with the Cranston Herald and Timothy McFate. The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Humans of Cranston participants do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the aforementioned parties. The presented stories are voluntarily provided, unpaid, and given verbatim except for correcting grammatical errors.

Want to nominate a Cranston resident to be featured? Email JB at jfulbright@comcap.org.