In the News
Welcome New Salasin Director, Becky Lockwood
We are thrilled to announce that Becky Lockwood has accepted the position as the Consortium’s new Salasin Project Director beginning on Monday January 27, 2020! Becky Lockwood comes to Salasin Project with nearly three decades of social services experience. In her...
Bridging the gap
By MAUREEN O’REILLY and MAX MARCUS Staff Writers Published: 11/30/2019 11:00:52 AM After a recent service at the First Congregational Church in Ashfield, some of the churchgoers gathered upstairs to make herbal medicines and thank-you cards for migrant agricultural...
BASH: A Tapas Style Dinner Raising Funds for the People’s Medicine Project
November 26, 2019 Contact: Abby Ferla, People’s Medicine Project (413) 523-3791 ; [email protected] People’s Medicine Project’s long-time client and friend Peter Hadley is launching a new catering company BASH, making its Pioneer Valley debut with an...
Hampshire Hope: Northampton Recovery Center snags state funding for people in recovery
By KRISTEL APPLEBEE, Consortium Executive Director For the Gazette Published: 11/26/2019 12:01:19 AM The term “opioid epidemic” has become as American as apple pie in our nation’s lexicon. Here in western Massachusetts, communities have been hit hard by the crisis,...
Breaking through bars: New play pulls from the writings of formerly incarcerated women
By LUIS FIELDMAN Staff Writer Published: 11/1/2019 10:01:42 PM Through prose and poetry, women of the group Voices From Inside find a way to express experiences that are often too difficult to talk about, whether it’s life inside of a prison or recovering from drug...
Those left behind: In the aftermath of an opioid death, families find ways to cope
By LAURIE LOISEL For the Gazette On a balmy Wednesday evening in late July, 11 people circled up on comfy couches and chairs at the Northampton Recovery Center for the weekly gathering of Harm Reduction Works, a meeting billed as an alternative to abstinence-only...
Rally protests Baystate’s plan to close 3 mental health units
Tim Ranney-Blake, of Deerfield, said from his experience with depression and substance abuse, he knows how difficult it would be for patients working towards recovery to do so when separated from their community, at a rally held by the Massachusetts Nurses Association...
The RECOVER Project celebrates National Recovery
By MAUREEN O’REILLY Staff Writer Published: 9/19/2019 7:06:44 PM Modified: 9/19/2019 7:06:32 PM GREENFIELD — Steven “Skip” Sommer’s tour of The RECOVER Project’s building led through a kitchen, a meditation room, a colorful family playroom, a computer area and down a...
Former inmates lead support groups for jail
George Ballentine, left, and Larry Thomas, both former inmates, run support groups for people who have been incarcerated and provide one-on-one mentorship. STAFF PHOTO/ANDY CASTILLO By GRACE BIRD Staff Writer Published: 8/29/2019 10:35:39 PM GREENFIELD — After...
Hampshire HOPE: Photo exhibit seeks to smash stigma around addiction, inspire recovery
Photo Credit: Veronika Patty, Project Redemption By LAURIE LOISEL For the Gazette Published: 8/27/2019 9:22:14 AM Inspiration for the Project Redemption traveling photo exhibit came to Ashburnham photographer Veronika Patty two years ago while she listened to a woman...