MassDevelopment

Lifeworks Improves Community Residences Thanks to MassDevelopment Bond


August 6, 2014


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Kelsey Abbruzzese, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086 & 617-448-9077 (cell)
kabbruzzese@massdevelopment.com
Dan Burke, Lifeworks, 781-762-4001 ext. 401
dburke@lifeworksma.org

MassDevelopment has issued a $3.5 million tax-exempt bond on behalf of Lifeworks Inc., a Westwood nonprofit working to provide education, jobs, and homes for individuals with developmental disabilities in southeastern Massachusetts. The organization is using bond proceeds to improve its group homes and facilities in Attleboro, Foxboro, Natick, Norwood, Plainville, Sharon, Walpole, Westwood, and Wrentham. Bond proceeds will also refinance previous debt. Citizens Bank purchased the bond.

“MassDevelopment is pleased to continue leveraging low-cost financing for Lifeworks, which empowers individuals with disabilities and their families,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “These improvements will allow Lifeworks to increase its services and devote more resources to its programs.”

Established in 1990, Lifeworks is a private nonprofit that provides education, jobs, and homes for individuals with developmental disabilities, empowering them to lead meaningful lives in the community. Through its programs, Lifeworks provides residences, cooperative living support, employment training, and skills expansion. Lifeworks supports more than 350 people a year and about half of its clients are employed in the private sector each day. Lifeworks employs 180 full- and part-time staff members as well as more than 80 substitute staff across its multiple southern Massachusetts facilities.

“This tax-exempt financing greatly enhances the ability of our agency to support the individuals we serve and their families,” said Lifeworks, Inc. President and CEO Dan Burke. “With this financing package, Lifeworks will be able to continue to expand our mission and increase our services to our communities.”

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2013, MassDevelopment financed or managed 350 projects generating investment of more than $2.4 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create more than 7,000 jobs and build or rehabilitate 800 residential units.