Page 6 - Healthcare Heores 2021

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
child development and advocacy, and more.
“Jim has led CHD to step in and provide services where many others would not, including to people
involved with the justice system, the homeless, people with severe mental illness or disability, and many others,” said Ben Craft, CHD’s vice president of Community Engagement, who nominated Goodwin for the award.
“Jim has led CHD to step in and provide services where many others would not, including to people involved with the justice system, the homeless, people with severe mental illness o”r disability, and many others.
One recent example Craft cited is Goodwin House, a 90-day residential program providing substance-use treatment services for male teenagers. The facility and its staff work to help clients not only maintain their sobriety through proven recovery strategies, but also reconnect with their families, education, and job opportunities.
“Jim has quietly built an organization that is racially and culturally diverse and one of the region’s most highly rated employers,” Craft added, “one that has grown with the needs for its services
and remained nimble and innovative to keep up with the turbulent environment in which it operates.”
Expanding on an Idea
When Goodwin considers CHD’s impact over the years, he’s quick to include the organization’s 2,000 employees as well as its clients.
“These are good jobs
with good benefits that
allow people to have good
lives and do work that
they’re proud of,” he said,
noting that the broad
diversity of his team reflects
the makeup of CHD’s clients, most of whom access services in a geographic region spanning from Amherst and Northampton to Hartford and Waterbury, Conn.
It’s an impressive footprint for an agency born from a desire by its three founders — Bill Seretta, Kathy Townsend, and Art Bertrand — to offer community-based care. In the 1960s, Goodwin noted, community services were hard to come by, and people struggling with hunger, homelessness, or simple healthcare needs easily got lost in the system. Young people, particularly those with mental-health issues, were shuffled into state
Jim Goodwin addresses those gathered to celebrate the 2018 opening of Goodwin House.
training schools that were more like prisons than centers of care.
“CHD took kids from training schools and served them in foster-care and group-home models,
and started to have a lot of success,” he added.
“It grew from there. These community-based models started to take off because they were so successful; then we started doing it with adults.”
Today, community-based care remains the heart and soul of CHD’s mission, but the breadth
Congratulations to all the Healthcare Heroes. Visit mbkcpa.com/health-care for more information.
413-536-8510 | mbkcpa.com
A6 OCTOBER 2021
2021 HEALTHCARE HEROES