Welcome New Home & Community Connections Director, Candace Pronovost!

by LaMara HunterKelly | Jul 30, 2018 | In The News

After a thorough recruitment process which included some really impressive candidates, we are thrilled to announce that Candace Pronovost has been selected as our new Home & Community Connections Director beginning on Monday August 20, 2018!

Candace comes to us with over a decade of residential experience, and has a clear understanding of the demands and needs in the “residential world”. It was in her most recent role as a Department of Developmental Services (DDS) Service Coordinator out of the Holyoke/Chicopee DDS that she became familiar with the Consortium, working very closely with some of the people supported in Home & Community Connections. She says it was these positive experiences that actually drew her to our organization! Winde Whitaker, H&CC’s Assistant Director, referred Candace for this role saying that in her experience, Candace has been a “one of a kind” DDS Service Coordinator, who is consistently approachable, honest and resourceful – an absolute “wealth of knowledge.” She also says that Candace has a very straight forward approach and is a “good teacher,” always looking to team with staff to best meet the individualized needs of the people being supported.

In addition to her work at DDS, Candace’s professional experience includes working for ServiceNet in Chicopee as the Residential Program Director of an emergency respite program providing housing for individuals who were experiencing homelessness. She’s also worked as an IHT Case Manager at Clinical & Support Options in Springfield, providing case management on an In-Home Therapy team. Early in her career, Candace served as Sexual Health Educator/HIV Counseling and Testing and Education Liaison for the Western MA Area Department of Youth Services (DYS) in Northampton, MA. In 2004, she graduated with a degree in Psychology from, what was then known as, Bay Path College in Longmeadow.

The Home & Community Connections’ Director of Residential and Community Supports oversees the full range of DDS funded supports in our agency. Executive Director, Marylou Sullivan, believes that Candace’s open and frank discussions throughout the interview process demonstrate what a great fit she is for this role and for the agency. Along with her professional experience, Candace brings insight, strong organizational, and management skills, and a substantial sense of accountability. She believes very strongly in the mission of providing happy, healthy homes for the individuals supported by Home & Community Connections.

Candace has strong local roots. She grew up in Easthampton and currently lives in Holyoke. She enjoys spending time with her two boys and her new daughter along with her fiancé. They all enjoy traveling and sports. Welcome Candace!  

Home & Community Connections’ Spiritual Care Coordination is Awarded a “Becker Trust Grant”

by LaMara HunterKelly | Apr 9, 2018 | In The News

The Becker Trust Grants for Innovation

PICTURED: Rev. Gregory Jones, Spiritual Care Coordinator for Home & Community Connections, and Consortium Executive Director, Marylou Sullivan.

Special Announcement on the Becker Innovation Grants. Read more HERE

About the Innovation Grants

In the fall of 2017, the Trustees and Advisors of the Becker Family Trust in conjunction with the Becker Center for Advocacy received dozens of incredible applications for the Becker Family Trust Grants for Innovation.

From these numerous and impressive applicants, the committee (consisting of Alex Moschella, Esq.; Cynthia Haddad, CFP; and Elin Howe, MPA) selected a total of 20 recipients, awarding a sum of $925,000. Eight recipients will be receiving grants ranging from $50,000-$100,000; other, smaller grants were awarded to an additional twelve agencies.

Grants awarded by The Becker Family Trust are for innovative, high impact projects benefiting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities for social inclusion, self-determination, employment, assistive technology and supported living.

The recipients of the Becker Family Trust Grants for Innovation were announced on March 30, 2018.

Small Grants: Western Massachusetts Training Consortium Expanding Interfaith Option

Home & Community Connections, a program of the Western Massachusetts Training Consortium (The Consortium), has been a pioneer in bringing Spiritual Care Coordination to the people it supports. We currently meet the inter-faith spiritual care needs of over 50 individuals, including people with complex medical conditions, autism, and aging individuals and their caregivers. Our focus area is on “social inclusion” because we believe that exploring spirituality not only encourages the individuals who are examining their life experiences to find meaning and purpose, but also, that cultivating the inherent spirituality of all people has the power to shift public perception and humanize the struggles of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Such a shift creates conditions for truly nurturing and inclusive inter-faith communities. We have already witnessed individual explorations of spirituality leading to strengthened support networks, which include vital connections with compassionate, like-minded people. Our conviction is that these integral connections also foster social inclusion, not only by increasing individual participation in faith-based communities but also by simply illuminating the innate spirituality of all human beings regardless of ability.

The goal of this project is to learn from the experiences of the people who have already benefitted from Home & Community Connections’ Spiritual Care Coordination pilot program. We plan to apply this learning and expand this work by creating a sustainable training model that will open doors for other providers to offer more spiritually sensitive supports. Our objectives are to:

1. Build upon learning of the people served and the inter-faith communities in which they participate
2. Convene experts in the field of providing spiritual care for people with developmental disabilities
3. Offer training that will give voice to the experiences of the people we support
4. Create conditions to shift the mindset of inter-faith communities, students, and professionals who provide care for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities

Leading the project is Reverend Gregory Jones, a licensed Minister since 2002 at Saint John’s Congregational Church in Springfield, MA, who graduated from Hartford Seminary’s “Black Ministries Program” in 2003. From 2003-2007, Rev. Jones served at Saint John’s Congregational Church as Assistant to the Senior Pastor and Minister of Membership Care, gaining experience including visitation of the sick, pastoral care, and counseling. He was ordained in 2005 through the Bible Counseling Ministries in Springfield, MA and completed 1 Unit of Clinical Pastoral Education through Baystate Medical Center. He has studied at Our Lady of the Elms College Religious Studies Program, and has served as Spiritual Development Counselor and Coach with the American Association for Christian Counseling.

After seven years of working with people with disabilities as a direct care professional, Rev. Gregory Jones draws from his personal, professional, and academic experiences to continue developing the Spiritual Care program at Home & Community Connections. He is a visionary whose leadership on this project has already made a profound impact on our community and tremendous advances toward the goal of supporting the inherent worth and value of a group of people who have often been invisible in traditional faith communities. Upholding the Consortium’s mission to “create conditions in which people with lived experience pursue their dreams and strengthen our communities through full participation,” means that our unique communities always reflect the wisdom of the people who participate in them. This project builds on the Consortium’s mission and promotes social inclusion by building bridges and reinforcing the irrefutable truth that an individual’s “spirit” IS the common thread of our shared humanity.