Safe Harbor Receives the Charles H. Bracken Award for Board Excellence in Nonprofit Governance

ERIE – Safe Harbor Behavioral Health received the Charles H. Bracken Award for Board Excellence in Nonprofit Governance from the Erie Community Foundation at their Annual Meeting on June 18th. This annual award honors a nonprofit organization that has demonstrated a sustained commitment to excellence in governance and received a cash grant of $5,000 to be used for governance and management support purposes.

Safe Harbor showed a commitment to the following areas:

• established commitment by the Board to the mission of the organization;
• demonstrated leadership by the Board of Directors;
• conscientious recruitment and orientation processes of new Board members;
• focused attention to policy an planning by the Board of Directors;
• engaged participation by Board members in fundraising an agency events;
• maintenance of a professionally and demographically diverse Board of Directors;
• effective governance practices (for example: meetings, committees, retreats, etc.); and
• responsible fiscal management.

"On behalf of the Board, we want to thank the Erie Community Foundation for this award. We are honored to receive this award named after one of the true community leaders in the Erie region," states Jonathan Eans, President and CEO, Safe Harbor Behavioral Health.

Safe Harbor is a private, non-profit human service agency that provides intensive outpatient psychiatric and counseling services to individuals and families and offers 24-hour-a-day crisis intervention to any individual in Erie County who is experiencing a disturbance of mood, thought, emotion, behavior, or social functioning. Safe Harbor has been recognized as a "Model Program" statewide in the development and implementation of crisis services and the delivery of innovative outpatient services to individuals and families.

Safe Harbor’s 2006-2007 Board of Directors:
John Jensen, Chairperson
Mary Yakish, Vice Chairperson
Timothy Trott, Treasurer
Bette Lou Christensen, Secretary (12/9/30 - 11/7/06)
Frank J. Benes, III, DO
Jonathan Evans
Carmen Ferranto
William Flaherty
Mary Ann Gold
Michelle Hammond
William Hilbert, Jr.
David Kruszewski, DO
John Monocello, Jr.
Susan Simon
Gayle Wright

On behalf of the Board, Safe Harbor wants to thank the Erie Community Foundation for this award. We are honored to be named after one of the true community leaders in the Erie region.

For additional information on Safe Harbor Behavioral Health, call Julie Sorrentino Kresge at 814-451-2206.

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