A Brief History of CHD

CHD was founded in 1972 as the Center for the Study of Institutional Alternatives. Its focus was to provide community-based residential and educational alternatives to persons institutionalized by state agencies. In 1976, it changed its name to The Center for Human Development, Inc. CHD actively sought state-funded contracts to expand programs to core constituencies of children in need of services and adults with mental illness. In the early 1980s, it developed social enterprises to offer meaningful employment opportunities to adults with mental disabilities. In the late ’80s, CHD expanded its service areas in Western Massachusetts and into Hartford, Connecticut. The ’90s were a decade of program expansion coupled with growth by merger. Numerous smaller programs secured the continued existence of their services by merging into the larger, more fiscally secure, CHD. Some of the agencies that became part of CHD in this period were: