Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP David Tille, left, regional administrator for the New England region of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Peter Kelleher, president and CEO of Harbor Care, display the certificate naming Harbor Care a designated EnVision Center at Monday's event announcing the designation.

NASHUA – Harbor Care, the Nashua-based social services agency formerly known as Harbor Homes, on Monday became the first agency in New Hampshire to be designated an EnVision Center, a multi-pronged program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The designation adds a key program to the various services Harbor Care provides for low-income residents, those struggling with homelessness, physical and mental health issues, substance use disorder and HIV/AIDS, and supporting military veterans and their families.

HUD officials visited Harbor Care’s High Street headquarters Monday to announce the designation during a roughly 30-minute program.

David Tille, administrator of HUD’s New England region, said Envision Centers are designed to connect HUD-assisted families “with the tools they need to become self-sufficient and flourish.”

With its series of established programs in place for some time, Harbor Care is an ideal agency for an EnVision Center, according to HUD officials.

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Scott Slattery, executive director of Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity and a former longtime employee of Nashua's Harbor Care, speaks briefly at Monday's announcement by HUD officials that Harbor Care has been designated an EnVision Center. At left is Harbor Care president and CEO Peter Kelleher.

Establishing a center at Harbor Care will take to the next level its “unique range of well-established, comprehensive services and community partnerships,” and “address socially determined disparities in health, housing and success,” according to HUD.

Tille noted in addressing the group, which was split roughly 50-50 between in-person and on-line attendance, that Harbor Care became New Hampshire’s first, and New England’s third, EnVision Center. There are roughly 60 centers in service nationally.

“Nashua is a community that cares, and everyone should have access to whatever opportunities they need to live their best life,” Mayor Jim Donchess said.

Having an EnVision Center come to Nashua makes “even stronger” the city’s “existing support network for individuals and families in need of not just housing and financial support, but actual tools to guide them on a brighter path,” Donchess added.

Longtime Harbor Care president and CEO Peter Kelleher said those connected with the agency “feel honored and privileged to be selected” the state’s first EnVision Center.

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP David Tille, regional administrator for the New England region of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, addresses in-person and online participants in Monday's announcement that Nashua's Harbor Care has been designated an EnVision Center.

“Thanks to our essential community partners, the fundamental means to improved health and stability will be provided to our underserved populations,” Kelleher added.

EnVision Centers base their operations on what HUD officials call “four key pillars of self-sufficiency: Economic empowerment; educational advancement; health and wellness; and character and leadership,” resources for which are all located in one central hub, in this case, Harbor Care.

Scott Slattery, executive director of Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity, who worked at Harbor Care, and its predecessor Harbor Homes, for 25 years, said he was pleased to have the opportunity to support the effort to bring the EnVision Center to Nashua.

“This hub of services for folks of low and moderate income is such a welcome addition to what we already provide here in our community,” Slattery said in brief remarks.

Until its leadership adopted the name “Harbor Care,” the former Harbor Homes was one of several companion agencies that operated under the Partnership for Successful Living.

According to its Website, Harbor Care is “the new shared name” of those agencies, which include Harbor Homes, Keystone Hall, Healthy at Home, the Harbor Care Health and Wellness Center, and the Southern NH HIV/AIDS Task Force.

The new name “honors where we began, and gets us to where we are heading,” according to the Website.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.