Advocates staff honored at 1st Annual Marlborough Police Awards Banquet

On Saturday, November 4, the Marlborough Police Patrol Officers Association hosted the 1st Annual Marlborough Police Awards Banquet to honor the outstanding achievements and service of its police officers and other staff.  Advocates’ Sheena Mahoney LICSW, Jail Diversion Clinician for the Marlborough Police Department, was among the award winners. Sheena received the “Award of Excellence for Service” for services that have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

Sheena was hired at Advocates in January 2017 and became the Jail Diversion Clinician for the Marlborough Police Department in February 2017. In just under a year, “Sheena has made a deep and lasting impression on all those who work with her,” says Sarah Abbott, the Jail Diversion Program Director.

The Marlborough Police Department has partnered with Advocates to offer a Jail Diversion Program since 2008, and has experienced significant benefits. “Before the JDP, we were ‘on our own out here.’ In the JDP clinician, we have our own ‘in-house’ set of resources as our disposal,” says Tony Evangelous, a retired Marlborough Police Officer.  

Advocates began the Jail Diversion Program in 2003 with the Framingham Police Department. Since then, the Jail Diversion Program has been replicated in Marlborough (2008), Watertown (2011), Hudson and Sudbury (2017) and offered on a regional basis in Ashland, Sherborn, Holliston, and Hopkinton (2015).