by LaMara HunterKelly | Sep 8, 2017 | In The News
Greenfield, MA – September 8, 2017
Mary Doherty comes to the RECOVER Project Director’s role with a diverse range of work and life experiences, with recovery at the center of it all. For years she has balanced work, family and recovery, and it brings her great joy to share what she has learned with others on the journey. She is a problem solver and approaches life and work with a sense of adventure and wonder. She earned a Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology as a single mom, which included taking road trips for hundreds of miles to collect samples from the coast of Maine with her young daughter often jumping in as a field assistant. As a scientist, she has collaborated on and taken the lead with large-scale research projects in Oceans, Estuaries and Rivers. Through these experiences, she was able to develop her project management skills, all while having the opportunity to work and live in places with the natural world at the center and building community with other recovering people.
Mary has also been a dedicated teacher. She earned her M.Ed. at the University of Massachusetts through the 180 Days in Springfield Project, and has taught in Holyoke and Sharon Public Schools, as well as at the college level and in Adult Basic Education. As an educator, she has been dedicated to creating academic spaces that are welcoming, inclusive, and encouraging of many means of access to achievement. Her own recovery practice has always been central to her work. It has allowed her to relate easily with diverse constituencies, to view her students from a holistic standpoint, and to help them identify and draw on the strengths they possess.
Mary is a community builder, and has been able to relocate and rebuild a supportive recovery community for herself in rural South Georgia, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and in Memphis Tennessee, but she prefers Western Massachusetts as her home, and it has been so for the majority of her time in recovery. She is extremely excited to serve as the Director of the RECOVER Project, where she can apply her professional strengths and life experience to a cause she wholeheartedly believes in.
Mary can be reached at [email protected] as of September 5th or feel free to stop by 68 Federal Street to say hello!
To find out more about the RECOVER Project, go to www.recoverproject.org. The RECOVER Project is a program of The Western Massachusetts Training Consortium, funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.
by LaMara HunterKelly | Aug 8, 2017 | In The News
By JOSHUA SOLOMON
Recorder Staff
Tuesday, August 08, 2017
GREENFIELD — The Recover Project will soon have a new director to lead its peer-run community on Federal Street.
Starting Sept. 5, Mary Doherty, who has a doctorate in biology and has been in recovery since 1990, will step on as director.
Doherty comes in following the departure of Michael Lewis, who “transitioned from the director role in June 2017 for other pursuits,” according to a statement from The Recover Project’s umbrella organization, the Western Massachusetts Training Consortium. The search began around the start of July for a new head to the Greenfield program that helps people who are in recovery maintain their recovery.
The new director received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Massachusetts, according to a statement from The Recover Project. She completed both her bachelor’s and master’s in biological sciences from Smith College.
“Mary was chosen as the new director primarily for her knowledge of recovery, her compassion for people of all stages in the recovery process and the willingness to embrace multiple paths of recovery,” the consortium said in an emailed statement. “Mary brings with her a confident energy that is bridled with positive enthusiasm and personal experience that will lead the way for a bright future at the RECOVER Project.”
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by LaMara HunterKelly | Jun 21, 2017 | In The News
By JOSHUA SOLOMON
Recorder Staff
Friday, June 16, 2017
GREENFIELD — Dragons from across Asia spoke to moms using the voices of a dozen or so kids.
What was going on was, of course, a puppet show.
Who was presenting? The children of the parents, who gathered in downtown Greenfield to watch a presentation three months in the making.
Thursday evening The Salasin Center’s Family United Network F.U.N. Center, put on a dragon puppet show as an effort for the families to learn about a culture they may not have known.
“We looked at what cultures are well represented in this area and what aren’t and the Asian culture isn’t so we wanted to expose that to our kids,” Salasin Center’s Vickie Hutchinson said, who was a co-coordinator of the project that was funded with a Mass Cultural Council grant.
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![Dragon puppet show teaches Asian culture]()
by LaMara HunterKelly | May 11, 2017 | In The News
The state has awarded some $34 million in contracts each year for the next three years under a competitive bidding process to organizations that provide services to survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.
Some 10 Western Massachusetts organizations received total annual contract determined awards of more than $6.4 million…The Western Massachusetts Training Consortium’s Salasin Project received an annual contract of $327,348 for general community-based domestic violence services.
Read the full article HERE
by LaMara HunterKelly | May 5, 2017 | In The News
MAY 4, 2017, WORCESTER, MA –Lead Staff Cited for Outstanding Work from Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers (ADDP)
Chicopee’s Alyssa Fumo of The Western Massachusetts Training Consortium’s Home & Community Connections program has won the “Direct Support Professional Award” for the Western region from the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers. Fumo received her award at the ADDP Lead! Conference and Expo on Thursday May 4th at the DCU Center in Worcester.
Fumo is currently the Lead Staff at The Consortium’s Home & Community Connections’ home in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Alyssa has taken the initiative to organize the list of expectations and responsibilities for care of
the four women who reside at the home. She has been a great support to the Residential Coordinator and has been a confident, respectful motivator to all. Alyssa has especially become interested in supporting people receiving palliative care, supporting them while continuing to give their lives meaning and joy.
“Alyssa is always willing to learn and keeps up with the ongoing trainings required to efficiently address the challenging needs of the people she supports,” said Marylou Sullivan, Executive Director at The Consortium. “Her stellar teamwork engenders a spirit of trust from her colleagues who can be sure Alyssa will always provide the utmost excellence in her support, skills and care”.
“Direct Support Professionals like Alyssa are the foundation of the human services sector in Massachusetts,” said Gary Blumenthal, the President and Chief Executive Officer of ADDP. “There are hundreds of thousands of people living with disabilities in Massachusetts who rely on Direct Support Professionals to provide a wide variety of critical services that allow them to live more independent lives. Alyssa and her colleagues enable this to happen every day all across our Commonwealth.”
by LaMara HunterKelly | Mar 15, 2017 | In The News
By JOSHUA SOLOMON
Recorder Staff
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Tammy Armstrong is up, getting ready to drive a kid from Athol. It’s not a workday, though — it’s a pancake day. Armstrong headed to the church across the street from The RECOVER Project. It’s not Sunday, either — it’s Saturday and over 80 people in the community had bought tickets in advance for the big day.
By the end of the morning over 150 people, not just from Greenfield but around the community, headed to Saint James Episcopal Church for volunteer-made, freshly-whipped-up pancakes — blueberry, strawberry and chocolate chip — for the first pancake breakfast hosted by The RECOVER Project.
“You may have sat by yourself for pancake dinner,” member Armstrong said, taking a break from cooking in the church kitchen. “But then you might have met someone who’ll save your life.”
The event acted as a fundraiser for the group’s big event. The 14th annual Recovery Jam Sober Music Festival will be Sept. 30 at Camp Keewanee this year. To help throw an even better event, they hosted this pancake fundraiser and sold tickets ahead of time.
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