Vinfen History
Since our inception in 1977, Vinfen has built upon a solid foundation of knowledge, a dedication to excellence and a commitment to meeting industry challenges with skill and confidence. The original founders of Vinfen worked for the Mass. Mental Health Center (MMHC) and the Harvard Medical School; relationships that continue today. Long known for our entrepreneurial spirit, Vinfen continues to refine its behavioral health-care and rehabilitation delivery models, therapies, skill development and other technologies to ensure the best care for the people we serve. Vinfen is the largest provider within the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) network, the largest Department of Mental Health (DMH) provider and the second largest Department of Developmental Services (DDS) provider in Massachusetts. Vinfen also expanded its service territory to Connecticut, where we have been providing an increasing array of residential services to individuals with developmental and psychiatric disabilities since 2000.
Promoting System Change & A Growing Consumer Voice
Service-delivery systems were once centered on large, state-operated institutions. In the ’70s, Vinfen and others helped lead the transition from institutions to community systems based on individualized support and family-scale residential settings. The movement away from institutionalization served as a watershed event in the care of people with psychiatric, developmental, intellectual and/or behavioral health disabilities. It rightfully acknowledged that all people deserve humane treatment and that everyone should be given the opportunity to live fulfilling, productive lives.
Community-based services also are more cost-effective than those provided by institutional, state-run facilities, enabling the state and other funding sources to maximize the use of limited resources to benefit more individuals, families and communities. Vinfen has long believed in the power of partnership with the people we serve, a belief that has informed every aspect of our mission and spurred Vinfen’s leading role in developing and promoting Peer Education and Support, Self-Advocacy, and increasing family involvement.
Commitment to Excellence & Innovation
Vinfen takes pride in its commitment to management excellence. It takes a well-run organization to deliver and sustain high-quality services over the long term. Our management team and procedures are highly disciplined, highly focused and highly regarded, earning widespread respect and the trust of our funders.
Vinfen also is proud of its standing among industry leaders. Our senior managers are valued contributors to policy making on critical issues that providers, consumers and their families face. We bring a consistent focus on evidence-based practices, and our willingness to practice innovation to help the Commonwealth solve social problems while delivering the best economic value for the services we provide.
Our Name
Why the name Vinfen? That’s where we were founded, right on the corner of Vining Street and Fenwood Road in the heart of Boston’s Longwood medical community. Today we are headquartered at 950 Cambridge Street in Cambridge’s Inman Square neighborhood.
Vinfen’s founders began as national leaders in psychiatry who established one of the first group homes to help individuals transition to community-based living. The name Vinfen was chosen because it contained no words associated with stigma.