OUR MISSION

Joan Marie Lynch died of metastatic breast cancer November 12, 2017, at fifty-four years old.  Cancer wasn’t the only battle Joan fought, but it was the only one she lost.  Joan’s army was a posse of women…sober or trying to get sober.  Joan helped anyone who asked; it didn’t matter if it was professionally or because she was a three-dimensional apostle of “in order to keep it, you gotta give it away”. 

Because Joan was herself a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and a survivor, her council wasn’t based solely on theory and books, although she did hold a Master of Social Work and a Harvard undergraduate degree.  In Joan’s professional practice she began to make some powerful observations about women’s treatment modalities; if 80% of all women seeking treatment self-reported sexual abuse and other trauma, she began to ask, why weren’t there any women’s treatment facilities offering treatment for both?  That is when Joan envisioned creating a safe residential treatment program equipped to deal specifically with trauma and addiction for women in Massachusetts; and K’s Place was born.

One day soon we hope Joan’s dream of K’s Place will be realized.  In the interim, to honor Joan’s memory, The Joan Marie Lynch Scholarship has been established to continue Joan’s work as a warrior in the field of substance abuse and trauma treatment for women in recovery.

The world has finally caught up to Joan and her insistence of equity and equality for women in substance abuse treatment or otherwise.  Joan always danced like no one was watching!