BHN was a proud sponsor of the 30th annual Springfield Puerto Rican Parade that was held on Sunday, Sept. 18th! After two years of being held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 5,000 registered marchers made their way down the street while tens of thousands of spectators lined both sides of Main Street from the North End to downtown Springfield. 

BHN staff marched to celebrate Puerto Rican culture and to honor Senior Program Director, Dr. Jose Rosado-Medina, who was selected by the parade committee as the Community Ambassador for 2022. A Community Ambassador is someone who addresses issues regarding social awareness in our community, with a focus specifically on the Latinx community.

Dr. Rosado-Medina was quoted in a MassLive article, “This makes me so proud and humble,” he said. “It was unexpected. Knowing that the community wanted me to be part of this as an ambassador is such a great honor for me. It is really important because this is a community that has a lot of needs and needs a lot of support, especially in the native language. My role in this company (BHN) is to bring the voices of my community here in Massachusetts and convey its needs in terms of behavioral health services,” he said” 

His success as a therapist in a culture that typically carries a lot of stigma about mental health needs stems from his roots in Puerto Rico. “It is so simple and easy to connect from the perspective of language and culture. Having someone on the other side who can understand your culture when you are experiencing depression or anxiety is really important to them,” he said of his clients.