Outreach director serves needy in N.H.
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Anyone who requires help from Operation Blessing is instructed to leave any shame they carry at the door.
The reason? It’s a feeling Tammy Joslyn remembers all too well from her past hardships.
“Everybody I serve, there’s a little bit of me in them,” she says.
Today, Josyln, 63, is a highly respected figure in the New Hampshire social services realm, a person deeply trusted by those in need, those in leadership roles and many people in between. But life before that was a different story.
The Operation Blessing executive director and Portsmouth Housing Authority resident services coordinator was born in Portsmouth, lived in Eliot, Maine, and attended Marshwood, Maine, schools. She grew up in a household suffering from addiction, and she experienced rejection and abandonment.
At one point, after struggling with her mental health, Joslyn said she attempted suicide.
Joslyn credits her turnaround in part to a maternal figure, Atella Chase, an Eliot woman who owned Riverwatch Clam Hut in Kittery and used to sell real estate with Joslyn’s grandmother. Chase hired
Joslyn to work at the restaurant and became so close with her that Joslyn ended up living with Chase’s daughter and her husband in Greenland for a time.
The Operation Blessing leader points to the faith in God she discovered in 1987; her husband, Tim; their three children; and a pastor and his wife in her church as other key reasons for her rebirth. Joslyn has been sober since her late 20s. She has been married almost 44 years, has been a member of Connect Community Church almost as long and now has 10 grandchildren.
Joslyn had been attending church for about a year when her drinking subsided and ultimately ended.
A former Operation Blessing client, Joslyn was named the community recovery and assistance organization’s executive director in April 2017. Operation Blessing oversees Seacoast Adopt-A-Block, a community outreach program, the Greenleaf Recreation Center and a warming center at its Lafayette Road headquarters..
In 2023, across all programming and events, Joslyn estimates that Operation Blessing served more than 6,000 people with the help of 750-plus volunteers.
For her never-ending efforts to tend to people in need, Joslyn has been chosen as USA TODAY’S Woman of the Year for New Hampshire.
The story has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: Who paved the way for you?
Answer: Definitely my faith has paved the way for me, there’s no doubt about it. Obviously there are people that are a part of that, but it’s my faith in Jesus (first and foremost).
What is your proudest moment, and do you have a lowest?
I think my proudest would be (starting) my family, my husband and my kids. I do take pride in that. I’ve got the scars to prove it.
Husband of 43 years. We were rough (in the beginning). Talk about baggage. We’re still navigating some of it because we have time now. You get married and have kids and you don’t deal with baggage. It comes out. But Tim, he’s an amazing man. I don’t even think he realizes what an amazing man he is.
What is your definition of courage?
For me, it was admitting my faith in Christ. A lot of people won’t talk about it. It’s just (about) getting up, facing the day and going for it – not hiding, not isolating. I did that. I spent so many years not (being) courageous that I didn’t even realize that I was so weak.
You’ve just got to get up and get going every day. There are so many people, especially now, (that are) still living in fear and isolation. I think I spend most of my week just helping people not isolate, to not worry about housing and dealing with their depression.