Laid off from Community Healthlink.

Previous rounds

Community Healthlink layoff history

Community Healthlink is closing, and the notices telling people so arrived in waves that kept getting bigger. Our tracker holds 12 all-time Community Healthlink filings, and 8 covering 1,760 jobs since the start of 2025, all of them Massachusetts notices filed this year. Through the spring one notice kept being rewritten, 78 in May, then 84, then 127, then 231 by late July, each revising the one before it against a September 16 date rather than adding to it. An August 10 notice covering 639 jobs arrived separately, with an August 31 notice covering 131 behind it, and nothing on record sets out how those two overlap with the earlier four. So 1,760 is a sum of filing figures rather than a count of people. GBH put the outside figure at up to 701 workers in early August.

Community Healthlink has been an affiliate of UMass Memorial Health since 1977, serving more than 22,000 adults, children and families a year. It announced in April 2026 that it would shut down after years of financial challenges and hand its programs to other providers. UMass Memorial has cited workforce shortages, inconsistent referrals and declining demand across several years, and in January 2025 its president and chief executive, Eric Dickson, put Community Healthlink's losses at $49 million over the prior three fiscal years. SEIU Local 509 represents the unionized staff, and a union representative counted roughly 450 employees there in April.

Which program you worked in decides most of what comes next. UMass Memorial said on August 7 that six nonprofits had signed on, Behavioral Health Network of Springfield, Clinical and Support Options of Northampton, Open Sky Community Services and the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance of Worcester, Eliot Community Human Services of Lexington and Mentor South Bay of Brockton. The parent's program page lists every program with its incoming operator and start date, and those dates scatter. Clinical and Support Options takes the Leominster crisis, counseling and developmental disabilities programs on September 17, and PACT 3 in Fitchburg on October 1. Behavioral Health Network takes the Community Support Program on September 17, ACCS, PACT 1 and 2 and STAR on September 24, and the Worcester crisis, counseling and STEP programs on October 1. Others closed rather than moved, among them Beryl's House, Orchard Street, the Juvenile Court Clinic and Together For Kids, all as of June 30.

Two things the employer has said pull in different directions. UMass Memorial says most programs will keep operating and that many affected employees will likely find work with the new operators, and it told the Worcester Business Journal that a number of them would be able to transfer to the new administrators. In an earlier staff memo, Community Healthlink president Gordon Benson said the new operators would begin hiring processes and that Community Healthlink caregivers would be eligible to apply. Eligible to apply and hired are separate things. The July filing lists 158 union and 73 nonunion positions against a September 16 date, which is the employer's report to the state rather than your terms; those sit in the written notice you receive, the offer an incoming operator makes you, and your union agreement if you have one.

That difference carries into the law. The Labor Department's worker guide to WARN says an offer of a transfer within a reasonable commuting distance means you haven't suffered an employment loss, whether or not you take the job, and that the distance is measured from your home rather than your old worksite. Refusing an offer from a buyer counts as a voluntary departure unless the job differs enough in wage, benefits, working conditions or job description to be a constructive discharge. The same guide sets the floor at 60 days of written notice, with back pay and benefits for up to 60 days when notice falls short, and it covers private nonprofits of 100 or more full-time workers. Massachusetts requires employers of 50 or more to file 60 days out with the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Severance has no terms on record here. Nothing in the program updates reaches an amount, and nothing in the reporting we track does either. What you were handed to sign is what governs, and a union member's contract may carry more than WARN alone. Before you sign it, get three things in writing, your program's transition date and incoming operator, your own separation date, and what that operator is actually offering. Our filing tracker shows the notices as they land, and MassHire Central Career Centers cover Worcester and 38 surrounding towns with free job search help and training funded through the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act.

Reporting on previous Community Healthlink layoff rounds

• August 2026, the largest notices of the wind-down · An August 10 filing covering 639 jobs across Worcester and Leominster, far larger than anything before it, with an August 31 filing covering 131 jobs behind it

  Terms not published. UMass Memorial said the transfers were built to minimize the impact on patients and caregivers, and that a number of employees would be able to transfer to their programs' new administrators.

• May to July 2026, four notices revised upward · Notices covering 78, 84, 127 and then 231 jobs across Worcester, Leominster and Webster, each revising the one before it rather than adding to it. Our tracker holds the 231-job filing dated July 15, which the Worcester Guardian read as 158 union and 73 nonunion positions against a September 16 date

  Terms not published. Gordon Benson told staff the new operators would begin hiring and that Community Healthlink caregivers would be eligible to apply.

• April 2023, admissions suspended at three programs · After a Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Addiction Services review, Community Healthlink suspended admissions to its Detox, Passages and Thayer Transitional Support Services programs, and more than 80 employees were told their positions were no longer needed. Our tracker's all-time total reaches back to that year; the eight filings since 2025 don't include it

  Terms not published. Employees told a Boston television station they got under 24 hours' notice, an unverified account; that report said most were in SEIU Local 509 and would keep work elsewhere at UMass Memorial.

What to do after being laid off from Community Healthlink

1. File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Community Healthlink's biggest hubs: Massachusetts. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
2. Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Community Healthlink's hub states run: Massachusetts, and every other state is here.
3. Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
4. Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
5. Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.