Recent News
Healthy Communities System RestructuringAs many of you know, our Western Massachusetts Center is one of six such centers in the state's Regional Centers for Healthy Communities system. Since early 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has been in the process of reorganizing our system; it has accepted proposals from organizations to deliver services under one state-wide contract that will begin on July 1, 2012.
WMCHC decided not to apply for the state-wide contract because we felt it would be difficult, if not impossible, to provide high-level services to the Boston area and points beyond from an organization based in western Mass.
Therefore, our Center will close for good in June. We are incredibly thankful for the time you have taken to advocate for regionally-based technical assistance services, and we are touched by the overwhelming expression of support that we received.
We anticipate hearing which agency will be the new state-wide technical assistance provider in a matter of weeks, and we will keep you updated about the selected organization and what that will mean for the region.
For now, we would like to keep you informed about several issues associated with our closing that you may find useful:
- Our library will be officially closed to public borrowing starting May 4, 2012. In the interim period between now and May 4th, we strongly advise you to call ahead to make sure someone is in the office if you are interested in checking out items.
- We anticipate a good portion of our library collection will be relocated to the Holyoke Community College library.
- We are planning a "good-bye" cookout for sometime in June. We will send an announcement out when we have finalized the date.
- We are hoping to find a way to maintain our website so that it continues to provide vital information about news and jobs related to public health in our region.
Sincerely,
Jeff Harness
Janet Grant
Gail Gramarossa
Miriam Jusino
Sarah Bankert
Posted 5.3.12