Leonard Florence Center for Living Receives the 2025 Gupta Family Endowed Prize for Innovation in ALS Care
Chelsea Jewish Lifecare is proud to announce it has received the prestigious 2025 Gupta Family Endowed Prize for Innovation in ALS Care from the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS. The award was presented to Chelsea Jewish Lifecare CEO Barry Berman and Steve Saling, CEO of ALS Residence Initiative (ALSRI) at the 24th Annual NEALS Consortium Meeting in Clearwater, Florida.
In partnership with Chelsea Jewish Lifecare, ALSRI designed and built the award-winning Leonard Florence Center for Living, containing the Steve Saling ALS Residence. Saling envisioned building a place where people with ALS could live safely with autonomy and real quality of life. The residence features private suites, a deli, a café, landscaped outdoor areas, and most critically, cutting-edge environmental control systems. Using eye-tracking and other assistive technology, residents can independently open doors, control lighting, communicate, and even drive their wheelchairs – all without needing physical movement.
“We were thrilled to receive such a meaningful award,” said Barry Berman, CEO of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare. “Steve Saling and I teamed up in 2007 to build a revolutionary home for elders and people living with ALS and multiple sclerosis. It is gratifying beyond words that the Leonard Florence Center for Living has enabled residents to live full, active and independent lives.”
The Gupta Family Endowed Prize is a global prize awarded to a nominated team who has developed promising new approaches to improving care for people with ALS. The goal of this prize is to encourage idea sharing, innovation, and forward thinking on scalable ongoing projects that have directly improved ALS patient care.
“We honor and respect the incredible research to treat and cure ALS across the country and the world,” said Steve Saling. “The ALS Residences at the Leonard Florence Center for Living have set out to demonstrate that until medicine proves otherwise, technology and compassionate skilled care are the cure. Thank you to the Gupta family, the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General, and the Northeast ALS Consortium for recognizing our efforts.”
The selection committee awarded the 2025 Gupta Family Endowed Prize to the ALSRI and the Leonard Florence Center because of their work in creating the first fully accessible, tech-enabled ALS residence model. This innovation demonstrates ALSRI’s commitment to initiating ground-breaking new approaches that lead to exceptional care for individuals living with ALS.
“The ALSRI has already made a significant impact on the ALS community and will continue to do so by expanding their model to other cities across the country,” said Merit Cudkowicz MD, Director of the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS. I look forward to seeing them continue to pioneer new approaches. I am grateful to the Gupta family for supporting this work.”
