Chris Bell
Good Counselor
by Molly Mulqueen

When it comes to living out the Gospel's call to Christian charity, Chris Bell walks his talk.

He was in his 20's when he started working at Covenant House in Times Square in New York City in 1979, helping young homeless people, some of whom were abandoned, others runaways. Chris observed that many of them were young women who were pregnant or had young children and had nowhere to go. At the time, there were no long-term programs in existence in that area to help mothers with babies in that area. He shared his concerns with his friend and mentor, Fr. Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Fr. Groeschel told Chris, "Well, if you are going to complain about it so much, maybe you ought to do something about it." Chris recalled, "Then, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, which was to help start a program for single mothers and their children."

 "We found an empty convent in St. Francis Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, and we began to beg and borrow," Chris continued. "We began to take in women and children."

Chris and Good Counsel Homes were off and running. Good Counsel currently has direct responsibility for five homes that are based in New York and is affiliated with an independently run home in Connecticut. Good Counsel also maintains a pregnancy center in New Jersey and a national 24-hour crisis pregnancy hot-line (800-723-8331).

"The majority of our women are pregnant and abandoned. They've been kicked out of their homes by their parents or their boyfriends. They are single, and the fathers of the babies don't want these women to have the babies. Or the fathers are in no position to help the mothers or they don't care to help them," Chris explained. "These women are looking for help and there aren't too many places around to get help. Through a crisis pregnancy center or a social worker or another counselor they may find out about us."

"Sometimes we get women who were on their way in for an abortion, and a sidewalk counselor or the Helpers of God's Precious Infants turned them around through a pamphlet, through a conversation, or through prayer, and then they came to us."

Chris said that these women are desperate and obviously in need. Some of them are involved in prostitution. Half have had an abortion and they don't want to go through that again. So they're looking for ways to get help.

"There's not a lot of competition, " Chris said. "We're a residential program that takes in any pregnant woman regardless of her needs. We even have a specialty home for women who are mentally ill or 'dual-diagnosed,' which means they have a diagnosable mental illness and a drug or alcohol addiction. We're the only pro-life home like that in the country."

Good Counsel's services to single moms do not end when the baby is born—and nearly all of the mothers at Good Counsel keep their babies! Good Counsel recommends that the mother and child spend about two years in residence so that they leave Good Counsel with the skills to care for their children and themselves and to live independently.

"Good Counsel is more than just a shelter. We have life skill programs—nutrition, parenting, child growth and development—we help them form a family while they are here with the other mothers and children in the house. Besides learning how to cook and clean, we encourage these women to go back to school and to find jobs, which has been a hallmark of our efforts. We were doing welfare reform long before that term was popular," Chris said.

Medicaid covers most all of the medical expenses of the mothers and children at Good Counsel. But Good Counsel is on its own to raise the considerable funds for the rest of its operating budget. Over the years they have received some grants from the county and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but for the most part, Chris said that government money comes with too many strings attached, so they seek their funding from private donors.

"Fundraising is a major component because we have staff on duty 24/7. We're dealing with an average of 120 mothers on any given day, plus we're getting three to five crisis pregnancy calls every day," Chris said. " It's very difficult, so we're always looking for help through foundations. We speak at churches, write letters, have special dinners, communion breakfasts, awards ceremonies, and look for any way to put together the $3 million a year we need to take care of the 300 mothers annually in—house, and the more than 3,000 who will be calling us on the hot-line."

The recession and the downturn in some categories of charitable giving since the events of September 11 have had an effect on Good Counsel's fundraising efforts.

"I received several letters today from some very good pro—lifers who said that they can't afford to contribute to us, that they are supporting the pro-life efforts in their own parts of the country, " Chris commented. "It's understandable, but we need a lot of support as well."

One act of Christian charity in Chris' life seems to lead to another. His latest project addresses the emotional and spiritual needs of those who have had an abortion. Because so many of the mothers who come to Good Counsel homes have had abortions in the past (statistics show that as many as half of the women who have had an abortion become pregnant again within two years), Chris has recently put together a program to help them and many others like them who want to find a way through their grief, anger, and guilt.

"Mother after mother kept coming in and they talked about their previous abortion. If they didn't have an abortion, they talked about everyone in their life who encouraged them to kill their child. In fact, I have not met a woman yet who told me, 'Everyone wanted me to have this baby, I just needed a place to go.' I knew we needed to do more and that's when I got involved with Project Rachel, " Chris explained.

"And then, this past year, Our Sunday Visitor gave us a grant to start a program called Lumina which assists in post-abortion reconciliation and healing for men and women. Lumina has a hot-line in New York (212-750-3967) and a web page (www.postabortionhelp.org).

Chris and his wife have seven children, and theirs is an extraordinary family.

"I was married to Joan Andrews in 1991. We gave birth to Mary Louise a month before our first anniversary and we have since adopted six kids," Chris said. "Four of our kids have particular needs—trouble walking, difficulty with their hands, and other ailments. But when most people adopt, they want a very healthy infant. I don't think that's necessarily important. We have been blessed with some very special kids who in every other way are really very healthy. They just don't have all the limbs that everybody else does. So we encourage people to adopt older children and children with special needs because there are so many of them both here and abroad."

"We also encourage other homes like Good Counsel to open up. I've been in touch most recently with groups in Florida, South Dakota, and Tennessee. I really would like to work with other like-minded people, " Chris said.

People like Chris walk their talk!

For more information or to contact Chris Bell, call (201) 795-0637, or email cxbell@aol.com or help@goodcounselhomes.org, or write: Good Counsel, Inc., 303 Madison St., Hoboken, NJ 07030, or visit www.goodcounselhomes.org.

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