Letter: ServiceNet, community are successful partners
To the editor:
As the first clinic director for the Pittsfield ServiceNet Outpatient Behavioral Health Center, I am always delighted to observe the many ways that ServiceNet supports people who experience challenges related to behavioral health issues, addiction and recovery, homelessness and vocational needs.
I write this letter because I believe The Eagle has missed some important connections about how ServiceNet Inc. benefits our community, and how the community benefits ServiceNet.
In June, it was announced in an Eagle article that a Peer Recovery Center was awarded a $400,000 Massachusetts Department of Public Health grant to expand its hiring. Unfortunately, what was omitted is that the grant was awarded to ServiceNet to expand the Joseph R. Botz Living in Recovery Center, and that the grant came on top of, and largely because of, the previous sizable donations from the Darcy family. They worked with ServiceNet to create this center in loving memory of their son, Joseph R. Botz, “who fought a courageous battle against alcoholism.” It is housed in the George B. Crane Memorial Center on Linden Street.
Turning now to another ServiceNet connection: Recently my husband, now retired from Crane Co., was contacted because the Barton’s Crossing Homeless Shelter of ServiceNet was selected to receive a contribution from the Crane Fund for Widows and Children. Given my former role, I was thrilled to receive an invitation to assist David Boino, a Crane currency manager of engineering and an active community liaison, to present a check to my former colleagues, Jay Sacchetti, senior vice president of Shelter/Housing, Vocational and Addiction Services, and Erin Forbush, director of operations. As Barton’s Crossing seeks to relocate and to expand its shelter and service-need capacity, the fund couldn’t have been timelier or more deserving. I wish to express my appreciation to Crane for selecting Barton’s Crossing to be its recipient of this special fund.
No longer an “outsider,” this year ServiceNet celebrates a vital decade of service in the Berkshires. The incredible ways that ServiceNet benefits our community, and the special and generous ways that our community benefits ServiceNet, come from the core of people’s lives and passions. I would implore in life, and in legacy, that they are worthy of the proper telling of their stories.
Debora S. Cole-Duffy, LICSW,
Dalton
The writer retired from ServiceNet in October 2017.
