Family Outreach of Amherst honors former diplomat for community service
Thursday October 7, 2010
Family Outreach of Amherst presented its 2010 Helen Mitchell Community Service Award to former diplomat and longtime supporter Lucy Wilson Benson at FOA's 20th anniversary celebration Oct. 7.
Benson was undersecretary of state for Security Assistance, Science and Technology, in the Carter Administration and secretary of Health and Human Services under Gov. Dukakis. She has been president of both the Amherst and Massachusetts League of Women Voters and also served as national president. A resident of Amherst since 1950, she was a member of Amherst Town Meeting and the Amherst Finance Committee. A graduate of Smith College, she now chairs the board of the Amherst Cinema Arts Center.
“Lucy Wilson Benson embodies what it means to be an exemplary global and local citizen,” said Family Outreach Program Director Laura Reichsman. “Even though she has been involved in national and international politic, she has always been active in the Amherst community and has been an especially good friend to our program.”
Read a profile of Lucy Wilson Benson in the Republican . . .
The event was hosted by Amherst College and underwritten by the Amherst Rotary Club. Hors d’oeuvres and cocktails were provided by the FOA advisory board and Friends of Family Outreach.
Family Outreach of Amherst has been serving Amherst’s most at-risk families since 1990 when it was founded by CHD as the Helen Mitchell Outreach Project, to help mothers with young children deal with issues including homelessness, poverty, trauma, domestic violence, and emotional and substance abuse. That support continues 20 yeas later. The Helen Mitchell award is given periodically to an individual or group who best exemplifies a spirit of selfless dedication to helping improve the quality of life for families in the Amherst community.
Family Outreach of Amherst depends on a community of volunteers called the Friends of Family Outreach to respond on short notice to requests for help that FOA caseworkers cannot fulfill through regular channels, such as sending a child to camp, providing furniture for a young family fleeing an abuser, or paying for music lessons to brighten a child’s life.