Legacy staff at name change announcement event at City Yoga on Sept. 18. Executive Director Melissa Grove is seated, front left, and incoming Executive Director Brooke Henderson is front center. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
Legacy Counseling, the largest provider of mental health services for people with HIV in North Texas announced its new name at a reception on Saturday night, Sept. 18. The agency is now known as Legacy Cares.
Executive Director Melissa Grove said Legacy had simply outgrown its old name since the largest share of its work is in helping people with HIV find housing through its Master Leasing and its Homebase for Housing programs.
In addition, each year Legacy Cares stages the Grace Project, the world’s largest conference for women living with HIV. The agency also runs Legacy Cottage, a long-term care facility that started its life 25 years ago as a hospice for people with AIDS.
Each of the organization’s program directors gave a brief summary of the program they run. Steven Knight had a special announcement. Knight, who was a Legacy client in the substance abuse program 10 years ago, now is the director of the program. He told the crowd he’ll appear on Kelly Clarkson’s show on Oct. 1.
Then Grove, who began her career with Legacy running the cottage 25 years ago, shocked the crowd. At the Saturday night event at City Yoga in East Dallas, she announced her retirement planned to take effect next summer. She said Brooke Henderson, who ran the cottage for eight years and currently assists Grove in all areas of operations, will replace her as executive director.
The announcement was received with gasps from the crowd of Legacy supporters. Despite having battled a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy for years, Grove continues to be non-stop energy and inspiration and never complains about her own medical condition. Her retirement was unexpected by those around her. Grove asked Legacy supporters to make her last year easier by making a generous contribution.
Legacy won a contest through Content Pilot competing against quite a few other non-profit organizations to cover the cost of the complete rebranding.
— David Taffet
