CPCS 2023 Community Leadership Award

The CPCS Community Leadership Award will go to a person or organization dedicated to the work that we do and the communities that we serve. The winner of this award will have undertaken a forward-looking campaign, or be committed to an ongoing mission, that directly benefits our clients and the communities in which they live and embodies the CPCS core values of courage, accountability, respect, and excellence.

William Canavan has selflessly and generously helped formerly incarcerated individuals to navigate the stressful and complicated work of reentry. Bill started by volunteering to help men released from Sexually Dangerous Persons commitment at the Bridgewater Massachusetts Treatment Center and to assist them in their transition to the community. As a formerly incarcerated person, Bill drew on his lived experience to assist others in successful reentry. He first started the Boston Release Network (BRN) as a volunteer organization helping men access housing, state identification cards, public benefits and MassHealth.

Bill later turned BRN into a formal non-profit, Baystate Reentry Network, and connected with community sponsors. Bill developed excellent working relationships with community resources that provide housing and treatment as well as close working relationships with officials in probation, parole, and the Department of Correction. Since 2012, BRN has become an essential resource for the most marginalized of returning citizens and has helped them to successfully reintegrate into the community.

The immense value of Bill’s hard work and unyielding commitment to the community cannot be quantified. Bill, nearly single-handedly, is responsible for reducing recidivism in his support of people convicted of sex offenses – offenders who are intentionally excluded from most reentry services that are available to others. Bill’s community leadership in an area with great need and few resources has transformed the lives of so many.