To the Editor:

Bay Cove Human Services and Kit Clark Senior Services are proud, long-standing members of the Dorchester community. For over 40 years, Bay Cove has delivered Early Intervention services in Dorchester – originally in Fields Corner and, for the last 15 years, in the old Dorchester Pottery Building on Victory Road. Kit Clark Senior Services operates a Senior Center in Fields Corner, along with Adult Day Health services, and provides home-delivered meals throughout Dorchester and the surrounding neighborhoods to our senior neighbors and family members. Ten years ago, Kit Clark became a part of Bay Cove and, since that time, we have served the needs of community members from ages 1 to 100.

In addition to children and the elderly, we provide services to hundreds of adults challenged by intellectual disability and/or mental illness in residential, educational, and job training programs. We provide services to many Boston residents who are homeless or facing homelessness, and we offer treatment to people struggling with addiction.

Andrew House Detox, Bay Cove’s first program, opened in 1974 in a house in Andrew Square. It was later housed in the convent at St. Ambrose Church before relocating to Long Island in Boston Harbor in 1988. Andrew House operated on Long Island for 26 years, until the Long Island Bridge was closed in the fall of 2014. The timing for this closure could not have been worse as Massachusetts was, and is, in the midst of an opioid crisis that is now claiming the lives of close to four people each day across our Commonwealth. The need for detox services has never been greater.

So, we are very pleased that after an exhaustive search, we have located a building in Dorchester to re-site this vitally needed program. We have secured a rental agreement for a building at 43 Freeport Street. Although it will require significant internal build-out, this structure is ideally suited to serve as the re-opened Andrew House.

Andrew House has provided thousands of Boston residents with life-saving treatment over the four decades it has been in operation. Many of you reading this have seen a friend or family member benefit from our services. We are very happy we can once again provide this service to the many people from Dorchester, and other Boston neighborhoods, who are struggling with this devastating disease.

Bay Cove is committed to being a good neighbor. (And we are neighbors—Bay Cove employs 244 staffers who live in Dorchester, including our vice president of addiction services.) Because we care about the community and the people who live in it, we want to answer all of your questions. Thus, we’ll be participating in neighborhood meetings over the coming weeks and months to speak with all who are interested. We look forward to sharing with you our plans for this essential, life-saving program.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact either Charles Hollins (our director of advocacy) at chollins@baycove.org (617-788-1746) or myself at bsprague@baycove.org (617-371-3003) with any questions.

Bill Sprague is the president of Bay Cove Human Services.