About Gandara Center

Our Mission

The Mission of the Gandara Center is to promote the well-being of Hispanics, African-Americans and other culturally diverse populations through innovative, culturally competent behavioral health, prevention and educational services.

La misión del centro Gandara es promover el bienestar de los hispanos, afro-americanos y otras poblaciones culturalmente diversas a través de salud mental culturalmente competente, innovador, prevención y servicios educativos.

Our Commitments

To provide the highest quality services as demonstrated by performance outcomes, client satisfaction, and cost effectiveness

To assure continuous improvement through review of policies, procedures and best practices, contractual compliance, and most importantly response to the changing needs of our clients
To ensure the care, welfare, safety and security of all clients and staff
To respect the dignity, promote the human and civil rights and value the ethnic and cultural diversity of all people
To promote the right of clients to make informed choices and meaningful decisions
To promote professional development and offer opportunities for personal growth
To work collaboratively with others and to contribute to the well-being of the communities we serve
To aggressively secure new resources to more comprehensively serve our communities

Our Story

Gandara Center was established in 1977 as a way of providing culturally appropriate mental health services to an underserved Hispanic population in Springfield, Massachusetts. Over the years we have grown into much more than we could have ever imagined, adding services for substance abuse, recovery, prevention and education and serving African-Americans, Vietnamese, and other culturally diverse populations in our region. From our youth group homes, to our outpatient clinic, our recovery centers, and sober houses, to our educational programs, we now help more than 7,000 children and families each year all over the Pioneer Valley, from Greenfield to Springfield and beyond. We have begun to operate in the Eastern part of the state as well and are currently offering services to populations in need in Taunton, New Bedford, Fall River, Fitchburg, and Brockton.

To support our communities we accept many private insurers and MassHealth. Many of our programs are low-cost or free to qualified clients.