Program Dedicated in Honor of Former Senior VP
Nancy Paradee Improved Countless Lives Over 30 Year Career
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| Nancy Paradee outside the door of the newly-named Nancy Paradee Family Support Center |
Community Care Alliance (CCA) renamed a program in honor of Nancy Paradee, retired Senior Vice President. Nancy’s career spanned 30 years in Woonsocket where she applied her vision and leadership to developing programs that impacted tens of thousands of individuals and families. On October 21st, the Nancy Paradee Family Support Center, located at 245 Main Street was dedicated with a celebration with former colleagues, collaborators, family and friends.
“You can’t put into context the breadth of Nancy’s contributions to this community unless you think about where she started,” said Benedict F. Lessing, Jr., CEO/President. Nancy Paradee, MSW became the Executive Director of the Woonsocket Shelter Community Action Program (WSCAP) on January 2, 1991. Nancy's appointment was an important step forward by the WSCAP Board of Directors to professionalize the City's antipoverty initiatives that offered more comprehensive programming, beginning with the clients of the Woonsocket Emergency Shelter; and a new Transitional Housing program, which was developed through the experience Nancy gained in social services in Seattle, Washington. Other resources followed as Nancy built collaborative relationship with organizations, including NeighborWorks, to build a Permanent Supportive Housing program.
“It was Nancy’s leadership that led to a closer affiliation and eventual merger of WSCAP with another local non-profit known as Family Resources,” said Ben. In 2000, these organizations were formally merged creating Family Resources Community Action, whereby Nancy became its Deputy Executive Director.
At the dedication, Michael Skeldon, Superintendent of Beacon Charter Schools, spoke of Nancy’s role as a longtime mentor, describing his start in the Adult and Youth Employment program that Nancy began, “because she saw that people needed training to be able to leave a cycle of poverty.” Many other employees and former employees expressed gratitude for the chance that Nancy took when hiring them and described how that one choice was foundational to their lives.
Over several years, Nancy nurtured a small "community services unit" that distributed food, addressed other basic needs such as clothing and worked in partnership with multiple local church-based food pantries. From this seed program, Nancy's leadership was instrumental in creating the agency's Family Support Program which today addresses, food insufficiency, utility concerns, housing assistance and provides referrals to early childhood programming, behavioral health resources and other social services across the agency.
With the merger of Family Resources Community Action and NRI Community Services in 2014 that formed Community Care Alliance, Nancy assumed the role of Senior Vice President, continuing to grow the agency's Community Action footprint in Woonsocket. One of her most significant achievements during this period was implementing LIHEAP (Low Income Heating Assistance Program) after years of advocacy at the State level. This program alone has distributed millions of dollars to local families struggling to make ends meet. Nancy retired from CCA on July 2nd, 2020.
“The work Nancy started was never so important as it is today. Nancy has collaborated with so many agencies and faith-based organizations, many of which are represented here to acknowledge her good work,” said Michelle Taylor, CCA VP of Social Health Services. Ben Lessing added, “Nancy leaves a legacy of compassion that has improved the lives of countless individuals and families that will be continued through the Nancy Paradee Family Support Center and other programs created because of her vision for making a path to improve people’s lives.”