The Heartwing Center Embraces and Empowers the Community
By Melissa Karen Sances
Community Corner | Sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank
Published in Northampton Living | April 2026
For more than 30 years, The Heartwing Center in Turners Falls has provided safety and stability to the community. After two local women lost their lives to domestic violence in 1993, several churches banded together to rent a small room where women could discreetly seek support. Today, that room is open to everyone.
Originally named “Montague Catholic Social Ministries” and rebranded in 2024 to reflect a continued commitment to serving an evolving community, the nonprofit provides individuals and families with more than 5,000 trauma-informed, diverse and equitable (TIDE) services per year, including a women's center; a family center; and basic needs like housing assistance, food access and utilities support.
“One of Heartwing’s most notable skills is building resilience,” said Executive Director Heather Wood. “You will never come and feel like you’re just some file we pulled out of the drawer and that we gave you what you needed and sent you off.”
Holding Space
Wood, who has worked at the organization for 24 years, said that rather than being shooed away, every participant is introduced to wraparound services.
“Someone might come in because they need diapers,” she said, “and then we find out that they can’t afford daycare, so we invite them to our playgroup. Once families are in our door, we’re going to come around from all directions to hold them up.”
Their support is grounded in empathy.
“Everybody who works here brings lived experience, which I think is what allows us to be tuned into the community,” said Director of Development Mary King. “We know what it’s like to go to an agency where they make you feel like you’re an inch tall, because [the system] is set up to be humiliating.”
‘Ready to Launch’
King, who has been in her role for 10 years, said that the employees’ lived experience can be galvanizing, because participants see that while struggling is human, healing is possible. Participants are welcome for as long as they need, until “whenever they’re ready to launch.”
While launching looks different for everyone, King recalled that during the pandemic, the agency held a ServSafe certification program to train participants in food safety.
The nonprofit presented its cohort with laptops.
“One person opened it upside down and didn’t know how to use it,” she recalled. “Another didn’t know how to make capital letters.”
The training was more involved than expected, but the results were extraordinary: “All of them have careers now, and one opened two restaurants.”
And launching isn’t limited to one generation, said King.
“We can watch a family start out with nothing and wind up in a place where they’re trying to prepare their kid for college.”
Heart to Heart
Wood noted that through Heartwing’s efforts to build bridges, participants feel “seen and worthy of something special happening.”
Last Thanksgiving, in partnership with ILoveBostonSports.com, the nonprofit hosted Patriots’ kicker Andy Borregales, who brought 200 turkeys.
“I’m not a huge football fan, but this year I was,” said King.
The organization will hold its fifth annual Heart to Heart fundraiser on April 30 at Terrazza’s in Greenfield, where they will honor the Bete Family Foundation and technology company Judd Wire.
“Our essence is that instead of giving a handout, we’re trying to empower people,” said King. “And everybody’s included.”
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