Advocacy for Resources for Modern Survival (ARMS) is a center here at UMass Boston, which assists low-income students by uniting with other advocacy groups to help them overcome welfare, poverty and homelessness. ARMS educates low-income people about their rights and gives them a voice in Survival News. Survival News is a newspaper that branched out of arms.

ARMS reports that every day families go without food, shelter, and medical assistance. A lot of the time families leave the welfare office without assistance. The reason, according to ARMS, is because many families are told that they do not qualify. Members of ARMS are themselves current and former recipients of various forms of public assistance.

ARMS is indeed a haven for many low-income students here at UMass Boston. Ethel Nixon, President of ARMS is very passionate about her job. ” I am a Christian, it hurts me more not to give, so that’s why I give. It’s a fight to keep the center open…the poor seems to be invisible…they don’t exist.” Nixon is a mother of three and graduated from Roxbury Community College in ’98. One staff member joked about Nixon’s salary and Nixon replied back, “My salary is enough for have someone with a roof over their head, food, and clothes on their back. And I would deprive of myself to give them anything.”

During the Thanksgiving holiday ARMS was able to give out turkeys to low-income families. ARMS is so named according to the Nixon, “…we hold you, caress you, we try to help you and go through your pain with you.” The ARMS center is located at Wheatley Hall, on fourth floor, next to Casa Latina.