2007 Gala

BARCC’s 2007 Champions for Change Gala

Champions for Change Awards

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
A teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is renowned for excellence in patient care, biomedical research, teaching and community service.  Located in the heart of Boston’s medical community, it hosts nearly three quarters of a million patient visits annually in and around Boston.  BIDMC is known for excellence in surgery with minimally invasive approaches to many procedures.  The Center is also known for treatment of cardiac conditions, cancer, and pulmonary and thoracic disorders; and for expertise in neurosciences, gastroenterology and liver disease, obstetrics and women’s health, podiatry, and emergency and trauma medicine.  BIDMC has been recognized as one of the nationss top hospitals in the US News & World Report “Best Hospitals” edition, placing among the leaders in 6 clinical specialty categories.  BIDMC is a nonprofit health care institution that provides care for patients of any race, creed, color, or nationality.

Sherin and Lodgen, LLP
For more than 60 years, Sherin and Lodgen LLP has been known for performing outstanding legal work in its chosen areas of practice, principally Transactional Law and Litigation.  Sherin and Lodgen’s forty plus lawyers have developed an excellent reputation for representing clients with the precision and innovation that achieves outstanding results in complex business transactions and disputes.  Sherin and Lodgen contributes to the community by undertaking significant professional leadership positions and pro bono work.  The attorneys of Sherin are active in the American, Massachusetts, and Boston Bar Associations, and participate in many industry trade associations.  Sherin and Lodgen serves the community through the New England Legal Foundation, the Appleseed Foundation, City Year, and many other pro bono and professional activities.

Laurie Holmes
Laurie Holmes is Executive Director at Harbor Communities Overcoming Violence (HarborCOV), a community-based organization in Chelsea that works to end sexual and domestic abuse, and injustice through community development.  Under her leadership, HarborCOV this year opened Massachusetts’ first permanent affordable housing.  The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence recognizes HarborCOV as a model and, in 2006 published HarborCOV: One Community’s Effort to Build Comprehensive Solutions to Domestic Violence.  Laurie has worked with survivors in Boston to create economic development programs such as the Women’s Business Opportunity Program and PEP(c), the Personal Economic Planning economic literacy project.  She has trained facilitators in 9 states and the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance currently contracts HarborCOV to bring PEP to homeless shelters across the state.  Laurie teaches graduate level courses in community organizing and community economic development at the Boston campus of Springfield College School of Human Services.

Survivor, grandmother, and always community activist, Laurie has spent all her adult life in and around Boston working in direct service, neighborhood organizing, housing advocacy and economic justice.  But really, Laurie says, she is nothing but a crazy woman on a mission of love, who totally believes in people’s capacity for brilliant, compassionate, transformative action.

Volunteer Awards

The Lois Glass Award
Presented to the hotline counselor who shows exemplary compassion, vision, and commitment in honor of Lois Glass, whose longstanding rape crisis work has encouraged growth and innovation in BARCC clinical services.

The Melissa Gosule Award
Presented to a medical advocate in memory of Melissa Gosule, a volunteer who lost her life to the violence she tried to combat.  This award honors her passion for social justice and helps ensure that this work will continue.

The Janet Yassen Award
Presented to the public educator who displays great sensitivity and leadership in honor of Janet Yassen, a founder of BARCC, longtime volunteer, and inspiration to many.

 

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