August 2025

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Netwroking Meeting Notes


Date: August 14, 2025
Time: 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Place: Zoom Meeting


Mission Statement: The Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative is a partnership between local, state & federal law enforcement; city & state government; civic & human service organizations; faith based organizations; the business community; education providers; property managers; and residents coming together with a goal to create safe, healthy & economically viable neighborhoods through information sharing, identifying at-risk youth, referrals and community efforts in specific Holyoke neighborhoods.
Welcome and Introduciton 1:00pm to 1:05pm
Dahyanna Pagan: My Ombudsman 1:05pm to 1:20pm
Hi, my name is Dahyanna Pagan, I am the Community Outreach Manager at My Ombudsman, and I'm really excited to be here and share a little bit about our program. We are an independent program and we're a part of the Disability Policy Consortium, it's through a contract with the state with Mass Health. Our mission is to ensure that all Mass Health members understand their healthcare rates and their plan benefits so that they can get the care that they need.
Our team we have community liaisons, we have the ombudsman’s, and they speak either, English, Spanish, Haitian, Creole, and then we also have an interpreter line that can provide interpretation for up to 165 different languages. We all come from a diverse background, so we have ombudsman’s who worked in the criminal justice field, in housing, in public health, and that's something we try to keep in mind when we're assigning someone an ombudsman.
We provide all Mass Health members the tools to know how their insurance works, what their rates are, and who to ask for support. So what that means is we offer information about Mass Health-covered benefits. It could be someone asking if physical therapy is covered under their health plan. We explain their rights, whether that's filing a grievance or an appeal. We also help them understand what type of documentations they may need to proceed with whatever desired outcome that they're looking for. We try to encourage self-advocacy, so during the whole process we're explaining to the member what we're doing in case they're faced with a similar situation in the future and they feel empowered to handle it on their own. But our helpline is always open, so members can reach out to us.
It is a free service and it’s available to anyone enrolled in Mass Health, regardless what type of Mass Health they have. But keep in mind because there are so many different Mass Health plans, not all of them cover the same services. But we also have a deaf and hard of hearing ombudsman, who uses a video phone. And we have an open door policy, so if we can't assist a member we're never going to just turn them away. We're going to try to find a resource for them. And also, we do warm handoffs, so if we have a contact at the organization we're referring them to, we're going to get that contact on the phone and kind of warmly pass them over, and not just give them a phone number.
So the role of an ombudsman is we listen first. A lot of individuals contacting us have already called Mass Health so many times, their doctor's office, maybe their PCA, PCM company, like Tempus, and so we really want them to feel like they can express whatever their frustrations are. We're very proud that we have real people answering the phone, so it's not an automated service. And we try to keep in mind that everyone's stories matter. One thing I found surprising coming here is that we don't really have one way of handling every case. So, for example, if it's a provider search for a primary care doctor, we're never handling those cases the same way because everyone has different needs, so we try to keep that in mind.
One thing we don't do is help members enroll in Mass Health. But we have organizations that do. So if that person needs that, we'll just do the referral. And if they need more one-on-one support, and it's something that we can help with, they get assigned an ombudsman. Some of the situations we help with are durable medical equipment, which is, like, wheelchairs, any, like, shower chairs, hospital beds, and any medical supplies. We also help finding primary care doctors, specialists, and dentists. We help with long-term care services, although there is a separate long-term care ombudsman program and PCA services.


So this specific example, it's a Mass Health member who contacts my ombudsman with concern regarding their care. They explain to the community liaison that they have many complex care needs and they're unsure how to navigate it on their own. The community liaison asked the member if they've ever been assigned a care coordinator and the member says that they don't know how to find out if they have one or whether or not it's something that their plan provides. So the community liaison gathers the member information to confirm their insurance coverage and complete their intake, and that would be a situation where we would open a case. The ombudsman will begin by looking at what insurance plan the member is enrolled in. We also always refer to the plan handbook, so if you're ever come across someone who's looking to see if a service is covered, it's always on the handbook, and that's something that we do use.


If they have care coordination as part of their plan, we're looping in their care partner, we're contacting them, and if for some reason we can't get ahold of them, we're going straight to the plan contact, and we're able to kind of escalate cases, depending on the need. And so, the ombudsman will discuss with the member what the options are and how to go about making such requests. Some of these plans require a request to be made. It's not just a service that a member can get automatically. And then we also confirm that the member feels comfortable making such requests. If they don't feel comfortable doing it on their own, we're able to help them with that, and the case will remain open until the ombudsman has confirmed that the request has been made and that the process has begun.


How are we different? So, we provide hands-on support. When they get assigned an ombudsman, that ombudsman is with them from start to finish. It's not a different person every week. We provide reporting to Mass Health and other stakeholders to identify opportunities for strengthening, clarifying policies, and processes to help improve members' access to healthcare. So we have weekly meetings with Mass Health where we're giving them data showing what type of needs are in the community. For example, if we see that there's a lack of mental health providers that are accepting new patients in a certain area Mass Health wants to know that. Our hope is that we're actually making a difference by helping people.


We do have outreach throughout the state. I cover the whole state, so you might see me in Holyoke, or in the Berkshires, in Cape Cod. We try to publish our events on Facebook or on our website. If you ever are wondering if we're going to be in the community, you can definitely reach out to me, or if you're an organization that's looking for office hours we can have an ombudsman sit at your office for a couple times a month and provide services to members directly.


Our goal is just to reach as many Mass Health members as possible. A lot of people don't know about our service, and it's something that a lot of families can use. So that's what I do. I hope that you all found this information helpful. Our helpline is listed here. Our info box is just as good as our helpline, so you'll get a live person replying to your email, and our promise is to always call the member back within 48 hours. They will get assigned an ombudsman and be reached out to within 48 hours. We're open 9 to 4, and if there are any questions feel free to put them in the chat.


Eddie Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
For those of you, like maybe Dahyanna, that don't really know about what the Holyoke Hub is. Just a quick overview. Any agency that's part of this group, or any agency in the community could actually bring a situation to our table on a Tuesday where they're seeing acutely elevated risk and likelihood of somebody really going down the wrong roads or something bad happening to them, or because they're already on the wrong roads, and we need to intervene in their life.
What we do is have the situations brought to the table, and then we build a Filter 4 team of agencies that have services that line up with the risk factors that an individual or family may be presenting.


I just wanted to throw that out there for the new agencies that are on today, that you might be coming across individuals that really need to get that wrap around services to help them get to better places. That's what the goal of the Hub is, and it's just one more group of people from different agencies coming together to try to help people get connected to the resources and get them to better places. So, I just want to say, thank you for that.


Agency Overview and Updates 1:20pm - 2:25pm
Abbie Germain: Business Developer Viability, INC
My name is Abbie I represent Viability. We service Springfield and surrounding communities all across Massachusetts. We also have programs in other states. But we work with individuals with disabilities and other disadvantages, including living with mental illness or living in low income. There are a lot of different services, including adult foster care, community-based day programs. We work with youth in high schools with special needs as well. We have clubhouses especially in Holyoke.


If you're interested in learning more about viability, or even just to connect, I love to connect and have new community partners, and if you already know me, I'd love to reconnect. It's been a little while since I've been to these meetings, but I'm happy to be back. I also wanted to put another plug in; I work at The Springfield Technical Community College I represent the par educator cohort that meets at night. This is under the Workforce Development, so my program is for folks that are interested in becoming teachers, so we work closely with Springfield Public Schools as well.


There are also other programs under the Workforce Development, not just teachers assistant. But they're non-credit programs, mostly free for those who are eligible, and it leads to a certificate at the end. So it's a very great way to get your foot into the door at a college. Many of our people that complete our program will then go on into an associate's program. If anyone wants more information I am happy to connect. Thank you.


Adlyn Colon: Holyoke Community College Good afternoon everybody! My name is Adlyn Colon, I work for the Holyoke Community College at the Adult Education Program and we offer GED or HiSET preparation classes for adults in the community. We are located on 206 Maple Street, Downtown Holyoke not inside the college. My information is in the chat. We are now recruiting people for September. Thank you.


Aneida Molina Flores: Revitalize CDC
Good afternoon everybody. I'm from Revitalize CDC and for those who don't know, we are a non-profit in Springfield. We're located off of Page Boulevard, off of O'Brien's, so we're a little hidden, but we have a couple of different programs. One event that we are actually hosting is next Tuesday, August 19th is our electric vehicle ride and drive event. We are working with the Green Energy Consumers Alliance to host an event open to the public. If you yourself are interested in learning more about electric vehicles, or if your clients are interested, Massachusetts offers an electric vehicle rebate, so they can take up to $3,500 off the price of an electric vehicle. It's really great to just learn about the rebates, test drive some vehicles yourself. There'll be some refreshments and a raffle. So I really encourage you and to share that within your organization because it ultimately helps the environment as well by switching over to electric vehicles.


We also have a digital equity program for individuals who need help connecting to Wi-Fi, who don't have internet access, senior citizens that need assistance with Google searching or email. We have someone that comes out to the home and sits down with them, figures out what their needs are, and helps them step-by-step.
Lastly, we have our health-related social needs program for individuals who have Mass Health, but specifically have coverage through the Be Healthy, Health New England ACO, as well as the Well Sense Mercy. ACO have a nutrition and healthy homes program for individuals with that specific health coverage. We have those services that we can definitely provide for them. If you contact me, I can get them referred, or just do a couple of eligibility screenings or questions to see if they're eligible. Thank you.


Ariel Garfinkel: Women’s Money Matters
Hi everybody, I’m Ariel. I’m here with Women's Money Matters, and this is my first time with you all, so it's been nice to meet you and to hear from you. We provide financial literacy programs and coaching for women and girls living on low incomes. We are Massachusetts-based, and part of the reason for me being here and colleagues, I believe, on previous calls, is that we are expanding further into Western Mass. The programs that we run are majority virtual but we do offer in-person programs. They run for 8 weeks and we work with girls as young as age 8 and all the way up through folks of retirement age.


If anybody who's interested in learning about a whole variety of topics, from building and repairing credit, to developing a personalized budget and spending plan, to learning more about financial institutions, or even looking ahead for graduates of our programs to retirement and learning more about senior housing options, or, health insurance, as some of you very well know. We've got some experts in the room, whatever it may be; those are some of the topics that our programs cover.


There's also more to it than just the programs because we also are able to offer personalized coaching for every participant, so everybody who participates in program is matched individually and intentionally to a coach for a program, and often those relationships extend beyond just those 8 weeks too. There are several wrap around services that we provide to current participants and also to graduates to try and meet needs wherever people are in their lives, not just strictly through program, but in a more comprehensive way, and to help everybody stay in touch with each other too, for further ideas, resources, guidance and, communication in those ways. So, I'll put my info into the chat too, if anybody is interested in following up at any point.


Austin Bechler: The Springfield Rescue Mission Workforce Development Program Hello, everyone. I’m Austin Bechler with the Springfield Rescue Mission Workforce Development Program. Part of my role is to help the guys get education and jobs. Specifically in Holyoke, we do Operation Sunshine, where we hand out just about 200 meals, Tuesday through Thursday. We have a facility at 10 Mill Street in South End Springfield and, more on the North End, Taylor Street location, so a 60-day program, one-year-long program, a transitional program. We have a donation center where individuals can come, or families can come once every 6 months to get clothes and, household goods and then we have a public breakfast and lunch 5 days a week. So, if there's anything that we can ever do for you guys, please let us know. Thank you.


Brynn Gillis: Holyoke District Court Probation
Good afternoon, I'm happy to be here with everybody. My name is Bryn Gillis, I'm a Probation Officer at Holyoke District Court. My information is also in the chat. Happy to be participating in this with all of you guys, and so many great resources in our community, which we are very grateful for, working with the individuals that we do. Any support that we can give to anyone that you know that might be in need of Section 35 or Section 12, please have them reach out to me, or come and stop into the Holyoke District Court. Love to give any support that we can. Thanks for having me.


Carl Borden: Western Massachusetts Scouting
Hello, Carl Borden from Western Massachusetts Scouting. Some of our big things is that we are hiring. We're looking for someone to work at our store. Right now, our store is only open on Wednesdays. We'd like to open it more often, so we need someone to help us run that store. I did put the link in the comments section. We're also expanding our career development program, so anyone who is working with youth between 10 and the age of 20, please talk to me. We can help you strengthen your pipeline to get kids into careers and to find out what they want to do when they grow up. All my contact information is in the stuff.


Cassie Giardina: Rise Above Foundation
Hello everybody, my name is Cassie Giardina. I work with Rise Above Foundation, we provide primarily funding for youth and young adults in foster care, to access anything, from their basketball team fees, to a music instrument, to summer camp, to college textbooks, to driver's ed. Anything that's a positive experience and that there's a gap in funding for. We have a few smaller projects that also support young adults in transition, whether that's in school, which I'll get to in a second, or moving into their own first apartment. We provide them with a bunch of new stuff.


Real quick, I'll highlight our care package project. That sign-up is coming out in about 2 weeks. We send out about 350 care packages to young adults that are still working with DCF. That are continuing their education in any way, shape, or form after high school, so whether that's college, vocational program, certificate program, something else, we want to make sure to let them know that there's people thinking about them, cheering them on, The care package has study snacks, school supplies, hygiene items, a gift card, some other little treats, like maybe some socks and candy, or hair ties and stickers, and some really awesome like motivational cards and stuff like that. So if you work with young adults, who are still working with DCF feel free to reach out. I'm going to throw my email in the chat. We'd love to send them a care package, or any other questions about how you can help youth or young adults access funding or opportunities across the state of Mass.


Chasity Santiago: HCS Head Start
Hi everyone, my name is Chastity Santiago, I'm with HCS Head Start. We prioritize low-income families or families that are at risk with childcare. We are a resource for not only the child, but the entire family, so if the family needs any services, we refer out. So it's really great connecting with you all here. We are accepting children from 6 weeks to 5 years of age, and we are continuously looking to work with our community and different agencies. Again, because we refer out, so feel free to reach out. My information is in the chat, thank you for having me.


Corrine Ryan: Community Legal Aid
Hi everyone, Corinne from Legal Aid in Springfield. So, for those of you who don't know, CLA is the free civil legal aid provider for all of Central and Western Mass, so we don't do criminal work, and we don't do personal injury, but everything in the civil context. Eviction defense, help getting benefits, whether they're state benefits, federal disability benefits, unemployment benefits.


We have a family law unit for survivors of domestic violence. We have an education law unit that goes into the schools to help, parents advocate for IEPs, 504 plans, keep kids out of exclusionary disciplinary situations, so expulsion hearings, suspension hearings.


We have a new project, well 3 years in, where we help a DCF-involved family, so before the care and protection is filed, so before they have the right to an attorney, when there's an investigation or a clinical case, we will help that family to try to get DCF out of the picture so that the family's stabilized and we're avoiding the foster care system.
We have an immigration unit in our subsidiary, the Central West Justice Center. We have a quarry reentry unit for folks post-incarceration. We have lots of different sort of legal work. Please check out our website, communitylegalaid.org. My information is in the chat. The intake line is also in the chat. I will just say we have 3 new attorneys starting at the end of this month.


So, if you've been calling and you're hearing that our intake is full, we're at capacity, we're like on pause for accepting new cases, which will change soon. So please just bear with us. We've had a huge surge of need, but we are getting 3 new staff, just in a few weeks. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out. Thanks so much.


Dr. Kate Benson: LightHouse
Hi everyone, I'm Kate Benson. I am the new Curriculum and Special Ed Director at, Lighthouse in Holyoke. We're an independent school that serves students who have not been successful in the public schools, and we offer personalized, individualized education. I also run a nonprofit that, shares disability education with the public and teaches how to teach disability history in the schools. And my contact information is also in the chat. Thank you so much for having me today.


Elizabeth Rogers: Baystate Family Advocacy Center
Hi everyone, I'm Elizabeth from the Baystate Family Advocacy Center. We work with young people who've experienced a trauma, up to age 24. We provide case management and clinical services to them. We also have a Lifespan Program, so if people have unfortunately lost somebody to homicide, we have a traumatic bereavement program for them.


Right now, we're running a group for parents who've lost a child to homicide, and we'll probably offer that again in the fall, and we're going to offer one for probably adult siblings survivors as well. We recently launched a emotional support group, drop-in group for caregivers virtually. Ed sends out all of our flyers. Which is a huge list, so thank you. Ben sent out all of our flyers this week, and the next drop-in support group for caregivers is tomorrow. That's for caregivers of children who've experienced trauma.


We're also available to come out to present to your staff if you need to. We were at HCAT yesterday and presented on the FAC, but also about our CSEC program, which is Children at Risk for Commercial Sexual Exploitation or Trafficking. So if people need training around that, we have trainings, like about an hour for Trafficking 101, and also about the programs at the FAC and how, young people can access that too. Thank you.


Heather MacInnes: Western Massachusetts Scouting
I'm Heather MacInnes, I am the membership specialist with our our Scouting America West Mass Council, right here in Holyoke. I also work with the Scouting units in Holyoke as well, from kindergarten up to 20 years old; we have programs for all youth to join. We have anywhere from, kids that can learn about scouting, they can go to, different fields and stuff. We meet at Mount Tom Lodge right across from the Holyoke Library. We have a great program with the kids.


They sit there, and they can sit, learn different leadership skills. We also have financial assistance to help, for those families in need, you know, to get their kids out of the streets, to get them to do something instructional. We also have a program that's called Sea Scouts as well.


That we run also in Mount Town Lodge, and it's to teach the kids many different field work, anything regarding the water, the sea, anything in that aspect. I put the flyers for each of the units in the chat. And then I also have Aviation Explorer, where, we help the kids in the aviation field, to become pilots, and that's a 10- to 20-year-old, for the program, for all youth are accepted. Doesn't matter if it's boys, girls, everyone's accepted into the programs. What we do is we try to give them better leadership skills, we try to encourage and enhance the programs for the youth.


We also do a lot of community service, so our Scouts are always looking for community service to do in our community. They'll be here Saturday at the back-to-school event helping out as well in other forms. And they're also looking for like, cleanup and stuff for the community, and that's part of the rank advancement. So if you guys have anything that you'd like the Scouts to help out with, please feel free. My information's in the chat as well, and we look forward to helping out our community as much as we could.


Jenneke Reynolds: Behavioral Health Network
Hi I’m Jenneke Reynolds. I work with the health departments in Holyoke, Chicopee, and South Hadley, and this month we're very excited because we're launching a Behavioral Health website. It's a self-help website that we are funding for Chicopee, Holyoke, and South Hadley residents or people who work in any of those towns. I will put a link in the chat, but it's really exciting because it has a lot of vetted resources, and then we also have included local resources in there. If you think your organization would be well served, and the populations in our communities would be well-served by having your organization listed as a link, you can email me, and I'll put my email in the chat as well.


The first month that this app that this service is up, or the site the first month that the site is running they are offering $100 gift cards, like a lottery for $100 gift cards for people who do self-assessments, and it's just sort of the reason why they're doing that is because they want people to start using it and see all that it offers, so it's kind of a way to lure people in. If you are interested, check it out before September 6th, and put your name in, and pass it around to your staff and everyone. It could be a great thing if people are using it, so we really hope they do. Thanks so much.


Juan Anderson-Burgos: Representative Duffy's Office
Hi everyone, I’m Juan Anderson-Burgos from Representative Duffy's Office. Thank you for everything that everyone's sharing. I do kind of have an update in regards to if any of your constituents are having issues with unemployment. I'm hearing that there is a shortage happening at the unemployment office department, and they have a new system rolling out, which is delaying a lot of the unemployment cases. So if anyone has any questions or concerns, just let them know they're working on that. Thank you.


Kerry Medeiros: Hampden County Juvenile Court Probation Department
Good afternoon everyone, Kerry Medeiros, Assistant Chief Probation Officer here at Hampden County Juvenile Court Probation Department. So excited to be part of this committee here, I should say, and, just trying to learn about all the new resources that we have in the Holyoke area for juveniles or youth.


L. Scott Rice: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office and WMC Scouting America
Hey thanks for having me here, I work with Ed at the Hampton County Sheriff's Office. I also have a couple of my peers here involved with Western Mass Council of Scouting America, Carl Borden, you already heard from and Heather McCannis. And as Carl said, we're hiring some part-time people to work in our Holyoke office that we have, and as Heather mentioned, we have and we are growing units for youth that develop character, ethics, and leadership. We have funding for those in need for membership support. My information's in the chat so reach out and we'll get you connected. Thank you.


Lavanda-Sofia Probasco: UMass Amherst
Hi, good afternoon everybody. I am a second-year doctoral student working with Dr. Megan Gross as part of the Bilingual Language Development Lab at UMass Amherst. We run a monthly support group for families of bilingual children who are neurodivergent at Enlace de Familias. We have workshops, fun classes, we talk about things like bullying, sleep, behaviors and melt, behaviors, tantrums, and meltdown de-escalation.
IEPs, things like that in our groups. We're also doing scientific research, because we are a research lab. We currently have a study for 4 to 6 year-old autistic Spanish-English-speaking children, whose one of their caregivers, adult caregivers, speaks Spanish. We involve participation of the caregiver in this study. It is about communication for autistic children who have any level of communication, so kids who are non-speaking, kids who are minimally speaking, kids who use AAC devices or pictures to communicate, we would love to work with them if they're interested. We also have another project about siblings of autistic students, and that is for kids ages 7 to 9. I have flyers and interest forms in the chat.


Marissa Chiapperino: Holyoke Medical Center
Hi everyone, Marissa Chiapperino, Registered Dietitian at Holyoke Medical Center. The hospital continues to offer community dinners through our Community Benefit Program. So if you have an organization that might be in need, I can connect you with the coordinator, Lisa.


We continue to host one of the two Holyoke Farmers Markets here in our front parking lot on Wednesdays from 11pm to 2pm. We are SNAP and HIP and we're able to accept those programs too. We have farmers market coaches and an interpreter for those who need it. And finally, I shared in the chat that we are hosting our three-part diabetes series in September at the Holyoke YMCA. There are 3 days, because each week we cover a different aspect of diabetes, and these are completely free, no questions asked, open to the community. You can register, or you can just show up.


They are hosted by a nurse, a dietitian, and a pharmacist. Those are from 5pm to 6:30pm, 3 weekdays in September, and I'm working on setting another one up with Nayroby in the flats for October, and in November we will be at the Chicopee Senior Center. If you have any questions, please email me, and I saw your email, Abby, so I can reach out to you if you need anything else. Thank you.


Nayroby Rosa: OneHolyoke
Good afternoon everyone, Nayroby Rosa, Director of Community Engagement, Resident Services for OneHolyoke, nice to see everyone. It's been a while since I've been able to come. My coordinator has been attending, but I wanted to mention of course, that we have a lot going on, but our cleanups are continuing to happen, and so if anybody wants to host a cleanup in the city, we have all the supplies and we can continue to do that. Our next one that we're hosting will be August 22nd, but there'll be one going down on High Street. I believe it starts out at 10am, and anybody can come at any part of the cleanup. If you're interested in hosting your own in a particular community, let me know I can provide the supplies.


We're also hosting our community walk. Our Holyoke Prague Community Walk will be August 23rd. We go out of Lawler Insurance on Main Street, down through the Flats and back to Race Street. If anybody's interested in walking, grab your organization, grab your shirts, come on down and walk, be proud to be in Holyoke, work in Holyoke, live in Holyoke, and join us. I'm sure Ed will mention the Back to School event, we’ll be at the haircut tent if anybody's kid needs a haircut.


Sandy Ward: Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts
I'm representing the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts. Our website continues to be a good source of information, and with our volunteers we can go out and talk to groups about rights and options for death care. This topic people don't want to think about too much, but 100% of us are likely to die sometime. So it's all-inclusive, and we advise, it's so much better shopping for the funeral services ahead of time not when you need it. Or learning about the alternatives. Lots of things can be done at home. They get tips for saving money. We are not advising any one particular thing. We're respectful of all the different cultures, and there are many home-based family-led things that can be done. There's no law that says you have to hire a funeral home.


We're independent of the funeral homes, but on our website we have a comparative price list and have had success in our last gathering. We got 79 of the 84 funeral homes provided they're price list. I'm the webmaster if we've put those on the website, so that makes it easier to find the bargains and it's a directory too, you can find out which services are around. Thank you.


Sheryl Maldonado: Americorps VISTA / Way Finders
Hi good afternoon, my name is Sheryl Maldonado, I'm a AmeriCorps VISTA member at Wayfinders. I do resident engagement training VISTA, so I don't have too much to say. The only thing that we're gonna start again the CCA meeting, Chestnut Community Alliance, this coming Thursday, August 21st. This meeting goes every third Thursday of the month. This meeting is driving and managed through the resident, so we would like to have more residents to come to this meeting. It's going to be held on 210 Main Street in Holyoke. We gather some information from the residents about what is going on around the community, so we can target it and make it happen, or to make it work better. Then we’re going to hold, again, an UVA agenda. There's going to be a lot of workshops around the leadership programs. If you need more information, you can call me. I put my contact information, thank you.


Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
I just have a couple things. Just like Nayroby said, the back-to-school event is actually Saturday. I sent out a JPEG of flyer and a PDF, I'm just wondering if you can help us get that into the hands of the families in Holyoke.


It is a Holyoke event, we're not trying to market wide net to other cities, but we are trying to get as many of the people in Holyoke that actually need to get connected to some of the stuff that's going to be offered up that day; not just the community service area, but the bag of school supplies, the clothing, and everything else that's going to be offered up. Like Nayroby said, the haircut tent, kids having an opportunity to get a haircut before they go back to school. So if you can just send that information out to the families that you work with in Holyoke, that would be greatly appreciated.


I do too want to say thank you to everybody for all the work that you guys do. It's so encouraging when I hear about families getting connected to services, and they feel like they're in better places. So it doesn't happen without all of you working together and communicating and sharing information, and too having a passion for youth and families in the city of Holyoke. Thankyou for what you do day in and day out. I got to go down and meet Heather down at the back-to-school setup, so I got to go. Thanks again for all you do and we'll see you guys soon, take care.


CHAT NOTES:


Chasity Santiago
Hello All 🙂

Lavanda-Sofia Probasco
Buenas Tardes a todos! I’m Lavanda-Sofía Probasco from the BLD Lab at UMass
bld@umass.edu

Chasity Santiago
My name is Chasity Santiago From HCS Head Start


Dr. Kate (LightHouse)
Hi everyone! Kate Benson, Curriculum Director LightHouse Holyoke kate@lighthouseholyoke.org

Willie Spradley
Willie Spradley representing Bethlehem Baptist Community Church

Abbie Germain
Checking In- Abbie Germain- Business Developer Viability, INC 413-217-0348 agermain@viability.org

Willie Spradley
BBCC.holyoke.trustees@gmail.com

Jason Perez
AISS HCSD hello everyone great to be here.

Heather MacInnes
Scouting America Western Massachusetts Council. heather.macinnes@scouting.org- Cubmaster/Scoutmaster for Holyoke units.

Jenneke Reynolds
Central Pioneer Valley Public Health District, working with Health Departments in Holyoke, Chicopee, and South Hadley.

Corrine Ryan, Community Legal Aid
Hi all. Corrine Ryan, Community Legal Aid, cryan@cla-ma.org. Direct: 413-686-9018. Intake (for applicants needing free civil legal services): 855-252-5342 or communitylegal.org.

L. Scott Rice
413-627-0821. Lsrice1636@gmail.com

Carl Borden WMass Scouting
Carl Borden, Exploring Director for Scouting America Western Massachusetts. If you are looking for ways to teach students ages 10-20 your career field talk to me and we can work together to strengthen Holyoke careers through the Exploring Program. Also check out our new office, the store is open Wednesdays 9-4 at 850 High Street, Holyoke 413-594-9196x7003 carl.borden@scouting.org www.wmascouting.org www.exploring.org

Adlyn Colon
Holyoke Community College GED/HiSET preparation classes. acolon@hcc.edu 413-552-2927

Edward Caisse
Hampden County Sheriff's Office, ed.caisse@sdh.state.ma.us

Aneida Molina Flores
Revitalize CDC, amolina@revitalizecdc.com, (413)472-6852

Julio Torres
Hello everyone. Sorry, I dont have a camera or mic. Julio Torres Hampden County Sheriff's Office, julio.torres-james@SDH.state.ma.us

Elizabeth Rogers
Baystate Family Advocacy Center, elizabeth.rogers@baystatehealth.org

Brynn Gillis
Probation Department
Holyoke District Court
413-493-0221
Brynn.gillis@jud.state.ma.us

Austin Bechler
Workforce Development Coordinator
Springfield Rescue Mission
413-316-7777
abechler@springfieldrescuemission.org

Sandy Ward
Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts (FCAWM), https://funeralconsumerswmass.org
413-376-4747 (Voicemail line 24/7)
fcawmass@gmail.com We are independent of the funeral industry. We educate about rights and options for final arrangements. Our website has a Comparative Price Chart, with price info for 79 funeral homes in western MA.

Abbie- Viability, INC
Thank you@!

Ivelisse Lozada
Holyoke Housing Authority
HCV FSS Coordinator


Willie Spradley
Dahyanna, Thank you for the information.


Aneida-Revitalize CDC
Thank you Dahyanna! I did not know about your organization. Do you have business cards/flyers you can share?


Sandy Ward
Please stop the screen sharing now, so we can see the speaker better

Carl Borden WMass Scouting
Join Our Team!
We currently have a few exciting employment opportunities available:
Full-Time Membership Growth Executive
Part-Time Fundraising Administrative Assistant
Part-Time Scout Store Associates
If you’d like to learn more about these positions Now Hiring www.wmascouting.org

Kerry Medeiros
HI Everyone, Kerry Medeiros Hampden County Juvenile Court- Probation Department

Marissa Chiapperino
registered dietitian @ Holyoke medical center
free diabetes classes at the Holyoke YMCA Iin september

Sheryl/Americorps
Sheryl Maldonado AmeriCorpsVISTA member at Way Finders as Resident Engagement training VISTA, email smaldonado@wayfinders.org phone 413-386-6898. We will start again every 3rd Thursday of the month our Chestnut Community Alliance of Holyoke, on this coming Thursday August 21st at 5:30pm This meeting is driven and lead from residents. We have more events and programs stay tune if you need more information, please contact me.

Cassie Giardina (she/hers) Rise Above


@Abbie- Viability, INC can you share your email?


Aneida-Revitalize CDC
What: EV test drive event
When: Tuesday, August 19th from 3PM-6PM
Where: 240 Cadwell Drive Springfield, MA 01104
Why:
Test-drive an electric car.
List of vehicles available to test-drive coming soon
Learn how to switch to an EV with available rebates and incentives.
Enjoy some light refreshments!

L. Scott Rice
HCSO and WMC Scouting America
413-627-0821
Lsrice1636@gmail.com
HC Sheriff’s Office.
Scouting America Western Mass Council
https://www.wmascouting.org/
We’re developing ethics and character.
We’re hiring.
We’re building units.
Office in Holyoke.

Ariel Garfinkel, Women's Money Matters
Hi all, Ariel from Women's Money Matters. Here is our website and contact info if interested in connecting!
https://www.womensmon​eymatters.org
agarfinkel@womensmoneymatters.org

Cassie Giardina
Rise Above- Provide funding for youth and young adults in foster care for extracurricular activities and positive experiences. Care Package sign-up is going to be ready soon, for young adults working with DCF who are continuing education after high school (college, vocational, certificate programs, etc...). Contact me at cassie@weriseabove.org to sign a young adult up!

Abbie- Viability, INC
Sure! Abbie Germain-Business Developer 413-217-0348 agermain@viability.org


Jenneke Reynolds
Behavioral Health Website: https://413health.crediblemind.com
jreynolds@southhadleyma.gov

Nayroby Rosa
Flyer for Walk: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PNws4eCNNPe8lgWTEodM2UZkHsVf6iyi/view?usp=drive_link
General walk link: (to register) https://www.oneholyoke.org/community-engagement/community-walk-2025/
Volunteer for Walk: https://forms.gle/eGGv92dzZtAgQVHc6
Sponsorship Packet for both events: https://www.oneholyoke.org/community-engagement/2025-community-events-sponsorship/
Flyer for dinner: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l_4HBagdFXGYJ8evdmuO_ULy_yFtUuC6/view?usp=drive_linkVolunteer for dinner: https://forms.gle/cBF9UuXfnMmZ8ug58
Thank you


Contact Information:
Edward Caisse
Hampden County Sheriff’s Department
(413) 858-0225
ed.caisse@sdh.state.ma.us
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