Boosting a shared mission: $300K influx will expand work of Tapestry, Craig’s Doors

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office. Tapestry and Craig’s Doors in Amherst have partnered to receive a $150,000 grant to expand and enhance harm reduction initiatives in 14 Hampshire County communities. The grant is being matched by Easthampton, Northampton and Amherst.

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office. Tapestry and Craig’s Doors in Amherst have partnered to receive a $150,000 grant to expand and enhance harm reduction initiatives in 14 Hampshire County communities. The grant is being matched by Easthampton, Northampton and Amherst. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office. Tapestry and Craig’s Doors in Amherst have partnered to receive a $150,000 grant to expand and enhance harm reduction initiatives in 14 Hampshire County communities. The grant is being matched by the Easthampton, Northampton and Amherst.

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office. Tapestry and Craig’s Doors in Amherst have partnered to receive a $150,000 grant to expand and enhance harm reduction initiatives in 14 Hampshire County communities. The grant is being matched by the Easthampton, Northampton and Amherst. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office. Tapestry and Craig’s Doors in Amherst have partnered to receive a $150,000 grant to expand and enhance harm reduction initiatives in 14 Hampshire County communities. The grant is being matched by the Easthampton, Northampton and Amherst.

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office. Tapestry and Craig’s Doors in Amherst have partnered to receive a $150,000 grant to expand and enhance harm reduction initiatives in 14 Hampshire County communities. The grant is being matched by the Easthampton, Northampton and Amherst. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office.

Liz Whynott, director of the harm reduction at Tapestry Health, in the agency’s Northampton office. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

By SAMUEL GELINAS

Staff Writer

Published: 04-03-2025 8:53 PM

NORTHAMPTON — Homelessness and substance abuse are often two sides of the same coin — and a grant distribution of $150,000, matched by three municipalities, signals a focused effort to combat both in 14 Hampshire County communities.

Tapestry Health, which focuses on substance abuse prevention, as well as Craig’s Doors, a homeless support nonprofit in Amherst, have together received the grant through the Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership, which has awarded funding in 75 municipalities in the state. The money is coupled with $150,000 more in contributions by Amherst, Northampton and Easthampton, which all gave $50,000 for the fight against the impacts of the opioid epidemic.

The two Hampshire Country organizations have already had a partnership with a common goal, but the new funding solidifies that shared mission.

“Craig’s Doors just has so much knowledge and expertise when it comes to supporting people facing housing insecurity,” said Liz Whynott, who has worked with Tapestry since 2008 as the director of harm reduction. “And Tapestry has a lot of expertise providing services to people who are actively using drugs and not ready to stop using. So the idea is to bring our agencies closer together to provide more comprehensive care.”

Tim McCarthy, executive director of Craig’s Doors, gave a shout-out to Tapestry, saying the partnership will prove to be “evolutionary.”

The funds will support a new staff member at each organization, as well as enhance programming.

“It’s bringing together Hampshire County towns in kind of a new way,” said Whynott. “It’s an intentional grant to collaborate across town borders.”

The two organizations will expand their outreach in 14 communities thanks to the funding: Amherst, Chester, Chesterfield, Cummington, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Hatfield, Huntington, Middlefield, Northampton, Plainfield, Southampton and Worthington.

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A new van purchased with the influx of funding will replace a van that broke down last year, said Maya Elsner, director of advancement at Craig’s Doors, allowing the agency to expand its efforts in “towns that are more rural.”

Remaining funding at Craig’s Doors will be used to provide hotel vouchers, which McCarthy said has been an extremely effective way to cut down on exposure deaths, which result from unhoused people sleeping in the elements during the worst months of winter.

Much of Tapestry’s outreach is through a secondary education course in which clients share educational materials and resources with people they know. Whynott described it as “a way for drug users to bring those they know that are suffering to a facility.”

This, she said, both “educates people who are accessing our services while also paying them, and honors their time, expertise and allows for more resources to go to very underfunded towns.” Outreach also includes distributing the overdose reversal treatment naloxone, the generic name for what is commonly known as Narcan.

According to Whynott, the greatest strengths of the two organizations lie in their ability to reduce stigma while focusing on harm reduction, as opposed to mandating people become entirely sober.