August 2026

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes

Date: August 20, 2026
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 Introduction:
My name's Eddie Case. I retired in March, but I still work part-time for the Sheriff's Office. I work 16 hours a week. Even though we don't have a big group, I'm just going to get started. I just want to welcome everybody.

Thank you for coming to the networking Meeting. For us, the networking Meeting is about hearing about what resources agencies have. It also is an opportunity for us to continue to see people and try to develop deeper relationships, so when we work on projects like the back-to-school event, we can get a lot of agencies working with us to help make it a successful event. And that goes for other events that other agencies are putting on. By developing those relationships, we could better support each other's work.

Today we're going start at the beginning of the alphabet. As I said earlier, we don't have a speaker, so I'll just go around the room the way you guys show up on my computer. So, today I'm going to start with, Abbie Germain.

No Guest Speaker:

Abbie Germain: Viability, INC
Hi, everyone! Hi, Eddie! I just joined, so I missed the first 2 minutes. I apologize for being a little late, but I'm so happy to be here. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Abbie, and I represent Viability. We are a non-profit in the Holyoke, Springfield, Chicopee area, is where I work out of. However, viability is available in other states, and in Central and Eastern Mass as well. But we work with individuals with mental illness and disabilities. We also have a youth program for youth ages 18 to 22 with disabilities. We help place them into internships.

Our program helps people in a variety of ways. We have, a model called Clubhouse that's for our folks with mental illness 18+. Safe space for them to go. We have career readiness, and we connect to employment opportunities for folks with an employment goal. We also help folks that might have an education goal. We help them get into GED or HiSEP programs, or even college, if that's what their goals are.

So that's just one program. We also have day programs for people with disabilities. We have adult family care programs. We also have a contract with DTA working with folks, receiving benefits that must have a work or education goal to come to these meetings to hear what's going on. Not only do I like to share about what viability is, I also like to hear about what your services are, so I can bring them back to our participants. Love to table at events.

Love to invite you all to any of our open houses or our mental health awareness events that we have throughout the year as well, but it's just great to collaborate.

If you don't know me, I would love to schedule a call with you just so we can get to know each other better and see if there's a way for us to collaborate. Sometimes that means having you come in and doing a presentation for our people, or having us come to one of your community resource fairs and sharing our information. So, it really just kind of depends, on what that collaboration looks like, but all collaboration is good as far as I'm concerned. If you're new here, I just want to welcome you. I hope you come back, and if you've already been here, great to see those familiar faces. I know my camera's off, just for today, but, I don't think I have any updates. I'm going to drop a flyer in the chat. I would love for you to download it, share it with some folks, and please reach out if you'd like to learn more. Thanks, Eddie.

Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Thanks Abbie, and thanks for the reminder. So, I do, ask folks that when you're talking, to try to keep your camera on, if you can. Some people may be driving, or you may not be able to, and that's fine. I just ask if people can keep their cameras on as often as they can, so we can get to put the name to the face. The other thing is, for those that are new, I know I said it earlier, but a couple more people recently joined the meeting.

We didn't have a speaker for today, so, we're just doing the round robin. So the second portion of the meeting after the guest speaker comes, we do a round robin. One month we start in the beginning of the alphabet, the next month we start at the end of the alphabet. Today, we're starting at the beginning of the alphabet. I do ask folks to put their name and contact information in the chat, and when we do the notes, we will copy that.

Art Lobdell: Rotary Club of Holyoke
Hello there! I'm glad to be here. I'm representing, particularly the Rotary Club of Holyoke, South Hadley, and Granby.

We have a great number of programs that we offer to the community. We just finished up last night, our third of three concerts that we brought to Heritage State Park. That's a major undertaking. We raise all of the funds to be able to bring in the bands and support all of that.

So, the folks of Holyoke and beyond can enjoy some music. We have coming up, our next, project that we're working on is we are teamed up with, Source2Sea, which is a group that, is concerned with the Connecticut River, working on it, from its, headquarters up in Canada all the way down to where it goes into the Sound. So the on Saturday the 19th, is the day that we'll be out, cleaning along the riverbank, and we invite individuals either to join us, or to set up their own, group. Source to Sea is an umbrella organization that provides, plastic bags, rubber gloves, t-shirts, all of that, and you can go directly on their side and sign up a group.

A group can be as few as 2 or 3 people, or a dozen, whatever it is. You select a section of the river that you're interested in cleaning up. The section that we're doing is based at the American Legion, so you can join us there and that section, or you can sign up for your own group. The environment is one of seven areas of focus that Rotaries work on bettering the world.

Rotary Club, meets for its, monthly meeting the, third Tuesday of the month at the library, and folks can join us then. We also meet on the second and fourth, we just have an informal breakfast meeting where we get together and have a coffee and just, talk and fellowship. That jumps around, so you would have to grab that from either our Facebook or our website, what the location is. You know, we patronize various, places in the city.

So, we hope that you'll join us, coming up, bigger projects, into the fall, we'll start working on our, holiday, adopting families. We adopt about 20 families, for holiday gifts and meals, as well as participate with the Salvation Army in, bell ringing at the mall. So those are some of the things that are coming up. So, Art Lobdell, Holyoke Rotary Club. And I'm also the District Governor-elect for all of Western Mass and Connecticut. And I'm also currently seeking employment, if anyone is looking for an executive director or a chief operating officer.

AJ Beatty: Hope for Holyoke
Hey everybody, good afternoon! My name is AJ; I am the Outreach Coordinator for Hope for Holyoke Peer Recovery Support Center. Upcoming events, we have our Overdose Awareness Vigil in Holyoke, and that's going be taking place on August 31st, so very soon, that's a Monday, it's going be from 4 to 6 in the evening. If you haven't been before, it's a beautiful event. We do speakers; we have a flag rising at City Hall, we light, candles. In memory of those that have passed to overdose, and this year we're going to have, some art making.
You know, people can make art in memory of their loved ones.

We are going to have several really great speakers sharing about the themes of this event, and we will also have a resource fair with tables from a variety of different local organizations that
offer supportive services for the community, and this is going to be in Veterans Park, so right by the bus station.

I hope to see everyone there. I did put my email in the chat, so if any of your agencies are interested in tabling and haven't communicated with me yet about it, you are welcome to reach out via email and let me know.

Ben Abbott: Community Legal Aid
Hello, I'm Ben Abbott, case manager for the Family Preservation Project at Community Legal Aid. Community Legal Aid provides civil legal assistance in a number of different areas, primarily housing. We do a lot of education. We do some family law work. We have a distinct partner organization that does immigration and my team is the Family Preservation Project. We work with families who have DCF involvement and have custody of their kids. To help them get those cases closed out and retain custody and deal with whatever the concerns are in the case.

So we are taking people for that, and many units for CLA are open. I put information in the chat about making referrals, including my direct email if anybody has questions about Family Preservation Project. Thank you.

Beth Ziemba: Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
Hi, everybody! I'm Beth Ziemba, I'm the SNAP Program Manager at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and so we, help people apply for SNAP, and we also can answer questions about people's cases, help them recertify, do interim reports, and in the chat, I've included our phone number, and also, a link to our website, so people can get connected with us, so we can assist them with their SNAP case. They know a lot of people are having trouble getting, benefits at the moment in terms of being able to get through, to DTA, so if you do know of anybody who's struggling or needs help, feel free to give them our phone number. And the Food Bank has a number of other sites in the community,

We have our mobile food banks, and you can see a list on our website there if you're curious about where people can go and utilize those programs. And then also we have a food finder tool on our website that allows folks to be able to find a program within our network to receive food.

I think that about sums it up, but feel free to reach out to me, if you have any questions.

Caleb Cruzado: Hampden County District Attorney’s Office
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Caleb Cruzado. I'm from the Hampden County District Attorney's Office, part of their Community Safety and Outreach Division. I serve as a Community Safety and Outreach Specialist. This is my first meeting. It's a privilege to see everyone today, and I look forward to working with you all in the future.

Carlos McBride: Lighthouse School
Good afternoon, everyone. My name's Carlos REC McBride. I am the Director of Restorative Culture and Belonging at Lighthouse school here in Holyoke. New to the group, and new to the school, but not new to the work. My work spans the last 20 years working in the world of education on a college level and high school level, primarily working with young men that are incarcerated and intersecting with, you know, I have a lot of history working with folks grappling with mental health and, folks in recovery.

So, I'm just, you know, I'm excited to be here to offer what it is that I'm capable of being a part of to, to kind of move forward, I feel like we all share similar goals in reference to, like, serving people and really trying to fill in the gaps for folks that are underserved. And, I'm here, and I'm on deck, and I'm a warrior for the work, if you will. So, thank you all for letting me be here, and I look forward to making the connections. Thank you.




Cassie Giardina: Rise Above Foundation
Hello, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Cassie, I'm with Rise Above Foundation. We are a nonprofit that primarily provides funding for youth and foster care. So any youth or young adult from 0 to 23, and that is in the care and custody of DCF, or voluntarily working with DCF still at 18 plus, 18 to 23, And there's anything they want to do with their education, extracurricular activities, camp, birthday parties, you name it, something that DCF is unable to pay for, and there is no other community resources, it probably falls in our guidelines, and we will provide funding for it. We want to make sure youth in care have all the same access to experiences and opportunities as their peers.

We also will provide brand new apartment kits full of new, small appliances and items for young adults transitioning into their own first place. So maybe that's from a foster home, or a group home, or a residential placement into their own first apartment or independent living program or something like that. Big ol' bin full of brand new stuff and we also, lastly, last thing I'll mention, one of our other projects is we provide care packages for young adults who are still working with DCF and are continuing education after high school. Every fall and spring, we send out about 350 packages to young adults across the state that are in college, vocational programs, certificate program, whatever it is, full of goodies like hygiene items, school supplies, snacks, gift cards, all that good stuff.

I'm going to throw my name in the chat. If anybody here does work with youth in foster care or young adults, I'd love to connect and see how we can… we can help support your, your kiddos, or the young, young folks that you're working with.

Durga Giri: CHD: Safety Zone Program
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Durga Giri. I work for Center for Human Development, located at West Springfield, and I work for Safety Zone program, where we serve the young person between age 12 to 17 who are homeless, are at risk of becoming homeless. We provide them with the temporary housing and help them to get back to their family, or reunite them with their family and if you have any… someone…You can just, contact us. I will drop my email and phone number in the chat. Thank you.

Gabriel Rodriguez: Union Capital
Hi everybody, my name is Gabriel Rodriguez. I'm a Network Coordinator for Union Capital. I work in partnership with Ed's Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative here in Holyoke.

Union Capital connects residents with local events, programs, volunteer opportunities, and community resources. We like to recognize and reward people for getting involved in the community and building stronger connections. If you'd like to connect, my information is on the chat. Thank you.

Gabby Alicea: Way Finders
Just call me Gabby. Hi everyone, I'm Gabby Alicea, I'm the Community Engagement Coordinator for Wayfinders here in Holyoke. We basically, focus on community building and engagement, building, developing job readiness, getting people prepared. Right now, the project that we are working on is a resident-driven initiative. It's called the Civic Ambassadors Program. As you all know, our community members are right now very worried about interruption in services, resources, and have decided to, launched this, civic engagement campaign to address the lack of civic participation in elections, and so they have decided to launch a two-part training led by Neighbor to Neighbor. We will be having, this training next week. It'll be Monday the 24th and Wednesday the 26th. It's completely free. It will be in Springfield, because this is a regional initiative. However, it does include leaders from Holyoke. So, if you need any more information, if you, want to sign up or have anybody that you feel might be good for this program, I'm going to link, the, registration in the chat, or you can just reach out to me. I put my information in the chat as well.

Gina Anselmo: Hampden District Attorney's Office
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Gina Anselmo, I'm from the Hampden District Attorney's Office. I work in the Community Safety and Outreach Unit, or CSO, so if anyone is unaware of CSO, CSO is the prevention and education arm of the District Attorney's Office. We offer many
presentations to young people on a lot of different topics, from internet safety, impaired and distracted driving, healthy relationships, substance use.

And we also have some really great opportunities for young people as well, such as our Youth Advisory Board program, Future Lawyers of Springfield program, and our Horizon program, which is all about girls' empowerment. 3 programs, although they're not in session, we are currently recruiting, so applications are open. So if you know of any young people in Hamden County who might be interested in learning more or applying. I'll put my information in the chat, as well as some, as well as a full list of CSO programs. You can see all that our unit has to offer, and everything is free of charge.

Gladys Lebron: Alianza
Good afternoon, everyone. You all enjoy the beautiful day today. I just want to also give, kudos to Ed Caisse and everyone who volunteered last weekend for the event that took place, amazing backpack distribution. I have gone, of course, in the past, but this one, I was taken back. It's gotten better and better, I mean, up to his, what is it, 15 years? Wow, what a freaking event. But anyways, it was amazing. Thank you, Ed, and God bless you for the work you do.

My name is Gladys Lebron Martinez, and I am a Community Engagement Specialist with Alianza, a domestic violence organization located in Holyoke, although we served all, throughout Hamden County, Franklin, Hampshire. Any calls that come through the hotline, we would respond and support.

I am actually working on a prevention project. They have been in assistance for the last 35 years, doing, direct service intervention, assisting those survivors, or victims. And, I am now, working on a project called Basta Ya Enough, which has to do with prevention of domestic violence. As I do talk about this project, and as a school committee member, also, I want to let people know that we have as much trauma in our school system. That's probably never been looked at in the sense of what kind of trauma some of these children might have lived at home if they have ever witnessed and saw domestic violence happening at home. And we are the ones actually addressing these kinds of issues within the school systems, right? They act out, they can share, and then they grow up, and they also kind of act out in their ways of communicating by utilizing harmful actions. But, our project is more to do with prevention work.

We finished doing a survey, thank you to all the networks that have been participating, in particular, the network with, the Holy Safe Neighborhood, who has shared some of this, surveys for people to respond, and then we also did thirteen focus groups. The last one is going to be completed this the August 26th with the LGBTQ plus community that, was the last one to be finished, and it's still here from the community about domestic violence, and it's a lot of information has come out of it, that people are sharing ways that we can get this message and education in the community. Thank you so much, and my information, I already had put it on the chat. and I can be reached at that location. Thank you very much.

Halie Matthew: Hampden DA’s Office
Hi everyone, Halie Matthew from the DA's Office, Community Safety and Outreach Unit. I work alongside Caleb and Gina, who already went in the chat. I'll elaborate a little bit on the programming that I focus on in the office.

HERizon, the girls' empowerment group that Gina had mentioned, is a group for any high school-aged girl throughout the county. I would love if we had some Holyoke representation in the program. The program runs from October to late April, early May. We meet bi-weekly in Tower Square, and it's a great opportunity for any girl to come in, participate in workshops and interactive activities, community engagement opportunities, and to develop their sense of confidence while establishing their sense of purpose, whatever it is they're kind of meant to do.

My goal is for every girl to leave the program knowing that they can do anything that they
set their mind to, and to give them all the tools and information they need to really be instilled with that level of empowerment. So, I will put a flyer in the chat if you guys can spread that
throughout your community. Our application will probably close mid-September because the program will start early October. So, I also coordinate the Hampton County Addiction Task Force, which is a shared coalition between the DA's office and the Sheriff's Office.

HCAT's main goal is to unite everyone that works in the substance use field. As you guys know, substance use involves law enforcement, healthcare, coalitions, schools, residents, and families, so we have a monthly meeting that we get everyone in one room, we have a lot of presenters, and it just serves as a great network for everyone in substance use to connect, share resources, ask each other questions, give updates on their programs, things like that.

Within HCAT, the Sheriff's Office has a team of 3 that are amazing, and they do post-overdose outreach. So, if you guys know anyone that's struggling with substances, and you fear
that things could progress and get worse, and you don't really know how to help them, you can call our Rapid Response and Connection team, and they will go to that individual's house, meet them with love and care, and kind of walk them through their recovery journey, whatever that next step is for them. Whether it's detox, CSS, TSS, counseling, anything like that, they kind of meet them where they're at and hold their hand through their recovery journey, so I will put
information for those two programs in the chat, and my email is also there if anyone wants to reach out and ask more questions. Thank you.

Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College
Thank you, Ed. I want to first echo what Gladys said. That was amazing, Ed, like always.
I would say how you can measure the love that people has for somebody is when all these volunteers respond to your call that was incredible. We don't have even to move from the table, because they are bringing water, ice cream, popcorn, some calories there for me.

It's okay, because I was very, very thirsty and hungry, but that was incredible. Thank you so much, again, and a really good one. I actually have to say thank you so much for promoting and help us to, share the information that we offer, which is the free job trainings. Actually, the job is so beautiful that we are already full, have the full program from the Clean Energy Program. It's already full. Usually paraeducators always say it's the busiest one, so, that probably clean energy and paraeducators will be even safer, probably will be for the 2027. So, we have openings from the Linecook and Hospitality that will start in September. So, I will send the information pretty soon, giving the dates, and try to invite people from that. Will be one in September and one in November.

Hunter Acconcio: New Growth Recovery
Good afternoon, happy Thursday, Ed!

Hey everyone, I hope you're all having a blessed day. I do have to echo what everyone is saying. It was an honor to be in attendance at the back-to-school event. This was my second time, and it's just unbelievable. Everything that is available to the community, all the people that came out, all the people who came to support. I'm deeply grateful to be there. I'm also so humbled to be here, and just taking a second to stop and marvel and reflect on all the work that you're doing, beyond the formality of gathering here today, let's reflect. These are real lives that we're servicing. These are real people that we're trying to help and change lives, so I genuinely want to just share the sentiment from my heart. Thank you all for what you're doing. For those who I have not connected with. Please let's get connected.

My name is Hunter Acconcio. I have the privilege of being a treatment advocate, a clinical outreach coordinator, with a program right here in downtown Springfield. We're near the MassMutual Center, we're near the City Hall and the Court, right in the heart of everything going on, but I service all of western Massachusetts. And we have a program here in the Mass Live Building called New Growth Recovery.

And my job is to help provide engagement and access to our program. We offer services for addiction recovery. However, if you know someone who needs any support that is beyond my scope or within my scope please reach out to me. I've included my info right here in the chat.
I can even pretend for a second that I don't work for New Growth, and just me personally, I am happy to be a placement specialist. We can investigate what other levels of care might work, but if you do have an individual in mind that might be a good fit for our therapeutic environment that offers tools to have maintained sobriety and recovery. Then that would definitely be a great fit. Otherwise, I'm just happy to chat and see if we can work together and provide some care for your people. If you have not had the opportunity to see our facility, please text me, email me, call me, messenger pigeon, whatever method of contact is viable for you. Let's get connected, and let's get to work. It's an honor and a blessing. God bless you all. Thank you so much for your time.

Christian Carde: CORE (Center for Opportunity, Resiliency, and Equity)
Hello, everyone. I'm sorry, I got here a little bit late, I was in another meeting. I guess we're talking about, like, the activity from Saturday?

Edward Caisse: Well, actually, Christian, if you want to mention your name, the agency you belong to, and what resources your agency has, any upcoming activities or events, it's just a networking meeting.

Christian Carde here from Holyoke. I, represent CORE, which is,
Center for, Opportunity, Resiliency, and Equity is a baby nonprofit here in Holyoke that we are, launching. A few, folks from the community, and pretty much is to help people, homeless people, people with addictions, and also to create an environment, for people to, gather, neighbors to communicate with each other. And also, to, tackle isolation, because we have many adults living alone, and then we are also, you know, like, trying to, work with those people, you know, in terms of. Getting them together in the community. So, depressions and mental health decrease, and we can live in a more vibrant community with more, healthy adults.

So, again new nonprofit. We're working, and this is a great opportunity, for people to know what we're doing. And right now, we don't have activities coming up, but we do have a program. We got a little bit of money, from a small grant, to help people, homeless people who are looking for a job, if they don't have, an identification, so we are providing them with the resources to get identifications, specifically the real ID.

We're just doing real ID, because it's a little bit more expensive, and we are also helping, if they need the birth certificate, if they need to change their names, if they need to get a social security card, whatever it is, not allowing them to get their real ID, we'll help them with that. So, if you have anyone that needs to get a real ID, and think that they meet the qualifications of being from Holyoke one of the qualifications is be from Holyoke, currently homeless, which can be living with someone else, but not permanently or currently in the streets, those are the ones who, will qualify. I know there's one more or two more, but I think those are the two most important requirements to participating in that program. I will share the information and again, Christian Carde from CORE Community here in Holyoke, and, I will send my information.

Jean Corbin: Tech Foundry
I am with the Tech Foundry. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this. You're going see me look off just a little bit, just to make sure that I don't miss any of my talking points to share with you all. Thank you all so much for the great information. I've been over here copying and pasting all the wonderful information that you all are sharing in the chat, so I look forward to connecting with you all.

But for those of you that are not familiar with the Tech Foundry, we are located in Springfield at 1350 Main Street on the 5th floor in Suite 500, and we are an IT-focused workforce development and digital literacy organization, so we do provide 3 different programs that individuals can participate in. We actually have the Tech Hub, which is for the general public, and individuals can take classes with us. We have 29 classes that individuals can sign up for. There's some that are in person, there are some that are online. For residents of Springfield, Massachusetts, after 6 classes, they can get a free device, a free laptop.

We have TechBridge, which we are currently enrolling for. That's for individuals that are young adults between the ages of 18 and 22. They may very well have, graduated most recently in the year of 2026, but we also take individuals going back to 2022. It is a 9-month program where these individuals can get training for IT, audio-visual, and low voltage. They get 5 certifications, and what else? They get a stipend, $300 per month. I mean, who doesn't like free money? And it is absolutely free, and so we're currently enrolling for that. It's for residents of Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, and Westfield. We're taking applications up until the end of August, and classes start, I believe, September 9th. And then we have Tech Launch, which is an 18-week program, which just started this week also for individuals that is 18 and up. And, I actually just graduated from that this year, and it was a great program that's also stipend. You can get an IT support certification for that as well. So please check out our organization. We do like to do tabling events. We don't mind coming and sharing our information with organizations, so please, please, please

Jenneke Reynolds: 413 Health
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Jenneke Reynolds, and I'm the Shared Services Coordinator for 413 Health, which used to be the Central Pioneer Valley Public Health District, which had far too many letters, and as fond of them as we are in public health, we thought enough was enough, and we simplified to 413 Health. Anyway, I work with the health departments, of Chicopee, Holyoke, and South Hadley, and today I would like to advocate for you getting your organizations, if you're interested in the Community Health Equity Survey that just was launched by the state a couple weeks ago, and it's running through the beginning of November.

And what the Community Health Equity Survey does is, select a whole lot of information on people from 12 years old up to, like 100. They're slightly different surveys for the children. They don't ask quite as many questions from 12 to 14, and then there's another survey that's from 14 to 18 to make it age-appropriate. But the information that is gathered from these surveys is very, very useful to the state, to cities and towns, and to individual organizations if you have enough, people do the survey. So, the… what the survey… I just wrote in my notes here, people, get people to share their values, their needs, and their hopes for the future, so it's a very broad survey. It's not… it can take a long time.

But you can also stop answering questions at any single point, and the survey data helps organizations advocate for equitable policies and tailor their programs to best serve their communities. So, who doesn't want that? The state has supplied some flyers that you can ask. There's a clearinghouse that the state has. The state can send you flyers in any of 20 different languages. The survey itself is in 20 languages and the state also has supplied some social media posts, if you want to do that, and I will put the link in the chat to all of these tools that the state has supplied. The survey is anonymous, and it's super valuable to our community, and to organizations, too, so I hope, you can find a way to do that, to advocate for that within your organizations, and I will put my, contact information also in there if you want to get any, more information from me. Thank you.

Kamalis Santana: Holyoke Health Center
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Kamalis Santana. I was actually referred here by Tito, Union Capital. I'm the new network coordinator for Holyoke Health Center. I am also the Vice President of the Vanguards, a resident-led community board with 500 units at Colonial Estates.

I'm always looking for resources, events coming up in the community. Resources for any of the youth, addiction services for any residents that may need them. We are always, open to having events, resources, table talks up at Colonial Estates. I have provided my information on, in the chat. I am always happy to welcome any and every one of you. I heard very great things this afternoon. Please, please, please reach out to me, do not hesitate. Like I said, we have 500 units, over 2,000 people here on the property. The word will get out fast here.

Thank you for the opportunity of having me join on this meeting, and I look forward to connecting with you. Thank you.

Karla Figueroa: River Valley Counseling Center
I work for River Valley, and I'm stationed at Dean High School. I'm the community health worker, and normally what I do is get the researchers for, like, our clinicians and the students, so normally what I get is referrals from the clinicians, the therapists, that they see students, whatever needs they have at home, let's say food, or clothes, or, you know, apartment search, or they want to work, get a part-time making appointments with doctors, anything that they need, that they feel that they have that need, they…tell the therapist, they do a referral for me, I communicate with the parents, and then I take it from there. Whatever they need, I go out to the community, gather everything that they need, I drop it off to, their homes. I go to pantries, whatever they need, basically. So I look for all researchers that the community has that I can help them with. Once I link them with that, I keep them open, so that way they can use me for the whole year.

Kartia Frazier: Choice Recovery Coaching
Kartia Frazier: It's okay, thank you for pronouncing my name right, that's very new to me. My name is Kartia, I go by Diamond, because I usually think it's hard to pronounce my name. I am with Choice Recovery Coaching; I am their new Operations Coordinator. We help coach recoveries and, offering… as well as offering the training to become a recovery coach for individuals, through our RCA, which is a Recovery Coach Academy, which I am currently just finished today, actually. It's a 5-day training. We provide the training as well as the materials at a cost. We are located on Maple Street, and because recovery is not linear, we meet you where you're at.

Laci Labreque: Gandara: Shine Program
Hi, everyone! It's been a little while since I've been on, so I'm glad I was able to hop on today, because I see a lot of new faces, so that's really good. I'm a housing coordinator. I'm speaking on behalf today of Gandara Shine and, Young Parents Program. Young Adult Housing, we service the population of 18- to 24-year-old, homeless or at-risk youth we service them with is housing and stabilization resources, so, like, getting credentials so that they're able to, work on their credit, they're able to, get vehicles, they're able to get jobs, so that would include, like, birth certificates, IDs, the real ID is a really big one for us right now. So, we don't have any updates at this moment. However, I did put in the chat our housing hotline that you can contact to get onto our waitlist. What you would do is call, and you'll speak to a navigator, and then you go from there. I also put my personal email in there as well, so if you have any questions, you can reach out to me. If it's for networking, or you just want to share resources, feel free to reach out to me. Thank you.

Lisa Carbonell-Correa: Alzheimer's Association
Hi! My name is Lisa, I work for the Alzheimer's Association, and I put a link in the chat. Because we need some support related to sign a petition letter for NIO to support the ASAP Act. What that means is that Medicare can provide some support for the people that have Alzheimer's and dementia. So, if you can, if you're living in the Western Mass area and you can sign, that would be great. If you can share that link with your networks, that would be great, too. So, my role with the Alzheimer's Association is providing support to the family and the caregivers when they get the diagnosis for dementia. We provide the service in Spanish, English, and Haitian Creole. And our service is free to the community.
So I put my email in the chat, so if anyone has any questions, you know, you can email me.

Nahiomi Pagan: Baystate Family Advocacy Center
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Naomi. I am the CSAC coordinator for Bay State Family Advocacy Center, as well as Hampton County. We provide therapy services, case management, and groups for youth up to age 24 that have experienced trauma or are… have been victims or advocates of commercial sexual exploitation. We also have a homicide bereavement program, which is for any families that have had a loss of a loved one due to homicide; we also provide therapy groups and case management for them. We are always out in the community doing outreach, so if you have any upcoming events and you need the Family Advocacy Center to come out and table, we're more than willing to do that. We also provide trainings for providers, community faith-based leaders as well on commercial sexual exploitation, child abuse, how to identify it, as well as trauma-informed care. So, my contact is in the chat. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Robin Siniaho: Holyoke Public Library
Hi, I'm the teen librarian at the Holyoke Public Library. We always have something going on at the library. Tomorrow at 1 o'clock, we have a really interesting children's program called Among Dinosaurs, where the Vermont Natural History Museum brings in live animals to show different adaptive physical characteristics of animals that are still today.
And, September is, Library Card Sign Up Month. So, we are very willing to come and table at any of your events, or come meet with any of your patrons or clients and get them signed up for a library card. Library cards, do not just allow you access to books, movies and entertainment, but also job-seeking resources, lots of online resources, and we're always willing to partner, so my information is in the chat, and please reach out. Thank you.

Edward Caisse: Thank you, Robin. Steven Dinh. Valley Op
Steven Dinh: Valley Opportunity Council
Good afternoon, my name's Steven Dinh, I'm with Valley Opportunity Council. I'm the Career and Education Advisor for Adult Education. We work with students of all ages, get their GED or HiSET. We also offer ESOL classes and CDL classes.

Upcoming events, I have an info session on this Monday, on the 24th at 11am, for all ages looking to get their GED or HiSET. You just have to, email me your name and number, and I can sign you up for that. I'll drop my information in the chat, too. Thank you.

Veronica Garcia: Cruzado Puentes
I'm Veronica Garcia, founder of Cruzado Puentes. We would like to invite you to a Domestic Violence Leadership Summit for Community Leaders on October 3rd. We want to bring people together, pastors, community leaders, professionals, and organizations. So we can talk about domestic violence, learn from each other, and find better ways to support families in our community. We are doing this in partnership with Alianza DV Services. And we are inviting leaders from the area to be part of this conversation. It will be… have a free breakfast, and there will also be the, you know, be the time to network and meet other pastors and leaders from our region.

So, at Cruzado Puentes, our goal is to connect people with information, resources, and opportunities. So, I will really love you to join us on October 3rd, we start at 9am. The event going to be at Bethany Church. They also sponsor this event. So, thank you very much, and I already shared the flyer, so you can have more details about this event. Thank you!

Edward Caisse: Folks, our next meeting is going be on Thursday, September 10th. It's going be a little earlier than normal. We'll probably start it at 1130, so we're working on all the logistics. I talked to Ramona today, so Ramona and Melinda from MassHire Holyoke is putting together our next in-person networking meeting. Again, it's going to be Thursday, September 10th. We haven't sent out any information, but that's going be sent out either tomorrow or early next week. We are going have a cap on it of 100, so we typically get over 100 when we do these meetings, so when you see the information go out, please consider registering at your earliest convenience, as it likely will fill up.

That's all I have. I just want to say thank you so much for all of you that came out to the Back to School event and supported what we were trying to do in terms of getting information to youth and families and just providing a good day. We really appreciate your partnerships. Lastly, I just want to say this, I know I've been so busy over the last month trying to get everything ready for the back-to-school event, but I really want to put a lot of energy into developing relationship with leaders out there, and really expanding this team, this networking team of people working together in the community to support all the agencies that are doing big things in the community. So I just ask you over the next month, as I really try to build the networking up and get more people coming to these meetings, please consider passing on the information about our monthly networking meeting, as well as our in-person meetings when we do them.

Thanks again for the work that you guys do, day in and day out, and hope to see you at our in-person meeting on September 10th. Have a great day. See you guys.

Chat Notes:
Robin Siniaho: Robin Siniaho- Teen Librarian Holyoke Public Library-rsiniaho@holyokelibrary.org

Durga Giri: Case manager at CHD
caleb Cruzado: Caleb Cruzado. Hampden DA's office, Community Safety and Outreach Specialist. caleb.cruzado@mass.gov

Hunter Acconcio: Hey everyone! This is Hunter Acconcio with New Growth Recovery in Springfield Ma (aka the MassLive Building on the 15th floor.) Please reach out to me for al things relative to behavioral health. Specifically, anything in the addiction recovery space. We offer outpatient services; HOWEVER, I can help any person requiring any level of care like detox or inpatient services. I'll work with the other organizations to ensure they get the care they need. Please call or text anytime: 413-885-6997. Be blessed, Hunter

Beth Ziemba: Beth Ziemba, SNAP Program Manager, The Food Bank of Western MA. Here is a link to our SNAP Page SNAP Benefits Help | Apply for Food Assistance – WMA folks can also call us at 413-992-6204.

Abbie Germain: Abbie Germain, Business Developer- Viability, INC 413-217-0348

Abbie Germain: agermain@viability.org

Jenneke Reynolds: Jenneke Reynolds, 413health (formerly CPVPHD) with health departments of Holyoke, Chicopee and South Hadley

stephen dinh VOC: Stephen Dinh- Valley Opportunity Council. Career and Education Advisor in Adult Education

Ben Abbott: Ben Abbott, Family Preservation Project Case Manager, Community Legal Aid. Civil legal assistance for housing, education, and other areas. Family Preservation Project works with families who have DCF involvement and custody of their kids to help resolve cases and retain custody. We're open for referrals right now. http://communitylegal.org or (413)781-7814 for referrals. babbott@cla-ma.org can reach me directly for any questions about the Family Preservation Project

Gabriel Rodriguez: Gabriel Rodríguez, Network Coordinator with Union Capital, in partnership with the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative.
If you would like to connect or learn more, you can reach me at gabriel2679@gmail.com or 413-461-6994.

Veronica Garcia: Veronica Garcia 413-...

HCC - Gloria Penagos: Hola Beautiful People Gloria Penagos - FREE Job Trainings with HCC Free Job Training Programs | Holyoke Community College

Nahiomi Pagan: Nahiomi Pagan- CSEC Coordinator for Baystate Family Advocacy Center- Email: Nahiomi.Pagan@baystatehealth.org

AJ Beatty: AJ Beatty - Outreach Coordinator, Hope for Holyoke Peer Recovery Center, abeatty@gandaracenter.org

AJ Beatty: Thanks Halie!

Halie Matthew: Reacted to "Thanks Halie!" with ❤️

Carlos REC McBride: Reacted to "Holyoke Overdose Awareness Day.jpg" with 👍🏽

Jean Corbin - The Tech Foundry: The Tech Foundry
Jea...
[Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Abbie- Viability, INC: Love Tech Foundry! Everyone should learn more if you don't already know about this program!

Kartia Frazier: Kartia Frazier(Diamond)
Choice Recovery Coaching, Operations Coordinator
Home - Choice Recovery Coaching
4134637853 ext.1

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Holyoke Overdose Awareness Day.jpg" with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Welcome Caleb!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Halie- great flyer. I will share!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Welcome, Carlos!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Veronica Garcia 413-..." with ❤️

Kamalis Santana: Kamalis Santana Vice President of The Vanguards : vanguardscolonialestates@gmail.com 413-821-5101 Also the new Network Coordinator with Union Capital at Holyoke Health Center

Art Lobdell: Dg.7890.2728@gmail.com
Art Lobdell
District Governor Elect.
Past Pesident Holyoke Rotary
Meets Holyoke Library 3rd tuesday

Exchange Students
High School Youth Programs
Scholarships
Community Service
Holiday Support
Seeking members

Personally seeking employment

Gabriel Rodriguez: Reacted to "Kamalis Santana Vice President of The Vanguards : vanguardscolonialestates@gmail.com 413-821-5101 Also the new Network Coordinator with Union Capital at Holyoke Health Center" with 👍

Lisa Carbonell-Correa: https://alz-ma.quorum.us/campaign/167470/ Urgent: Sign Our Letter Asking Rep. Neal to support the ASAP Act!

Lisa Carbonell-Correa: Lisa M Carbonell-Correa PhD CCHW, CDP, CMDCP
Dementia Care Consultant
Alzheimer's Association, MA/NH Chapter email :lccorrea@alz.org

Art Lobdell: Source to Sea River Clean Up
9/19

https://www.ctriver.org/source-to-sea-cleanup

Cassie Giardina (she/her) Rise Above Foundation: Cassie Giardina- Rise Above Foundation- Funding for youth in foster care, apartment essentials for young adults transitioning into their first own apartment/living space, and care packages for young adults working with DCF continuing education beyond high school. cassie@weriseabove.org

Abbie- Viability, INC: Replying to "Veronica Garcia 413-..."

Hi Veronica, this is great! Wow, looks like a great time!

Durga Giri: Durga Giri
Case worker (CHD)
4135743431
EMAIL: dgiri@chd.org

Gabriel Rodriguez: Reacted to "Holyoke Overdose Awareness Day.jpg" with 👍🏽

Gladys Lebron: Thank You! Gabby please encourage people to vote on 9/1/2026.

Gabriela Alicea: Civic Ambassador Training: Civic Ambassador Registration

Gabriela Alicea: Reacted to "Thank You! Gabby p..." with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Go Ed!!!!

Gabriel Rodriguez: Reacted to "Veronica Garcia 413-..." with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Hola Beautiful People Gloria Penagos - FREE Job Trainings with HCC Free Job Training Programs | Holyoke Community College" with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Nahiomi Pagan- CSEC Coordinator for Baystate Family Advocacy Center- Email: Nahiomi.Pagan@baystatehealth.org" with 👍

Gina Anselmo: Hampden District Att...
[Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Kartia Frazier(Diamond)
Choice Recovery Coaching, Operations Coordinator
Home - Choice Recovery Coaching
4134637853 ext.1" with ❤️

Nahiomi Pagan: Reacted to "Hampden District Att..." with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Gina- really great flyer- I will share with my network!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Civic Ambassador Training: Civic Ambassador Registration" with ❤️

Jean Corbin - The Tech Foundry: Reacted to "Love Tech Foundry! Everyone should learn more if you don't already know about this program!" with ❤️

Carlos REC McBride: @Gladys Lebron Thank you Galdys, here is a link to check out that works with folk who are ‘abusers in their relationships. https://acallforchangehelpline.org

Abbie- Viability, INC: HCAT is a great network!!

Halie Matthew: Replying to "HCAT is a great network!!"

Thanks Abbie! Happy you join us!

Gabriel Rodriguez: Reacted to "26.27 HERizon Flyer.pdf" with 👍

Gina Anselmo: Replying to "Gina- really great flyer- I will share with my network!"

Thank you so much!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Gloria, yes, send the flyer and I will share it!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Yes, Hunter! That was so kind!

Hunter Acconcio: Hunter Acconcio, Clinical Outreach Coordinator, New Growth Recovery in Downtown Springfield. call or text: (413)885-6997, email: hunter@newgrowthrecovery.com for inquiries or referrals

Abbie- Viability, INC: New Growth is top notch.

Abbie- Viability, INC: Welcome Christian!

Gabriela Alicea: Can you share your contact info, Christian?

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Can you share your contact info, Christian?" with ❤️

Christian Carde: www.corecommunityma.org
c.carde@corecommunityma.org

Hunter Acconcio: New Growth Recovery is SO GRATEFUL for the Tech Foundry. Thank you Jean!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "New Growth Recovery is SO GRATEFUL for the Tech Foundry. Thank you Jean!" with ❤️

Robin Siniaho: Teen Clothing Swap d...
[Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Hunter Acconcio: Reacted to "New Growth is top ..." with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Great flyer, Robin- I will share

Abbie- Viability, INC: Welcome, Kamalis!!

Jenneke Reynolds: Community Health Equity Survey Promotion Toolkit | Mass.gov Please let me know if you'd like more information! jreynolds@southhadleyma.gov

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Community Health Equity Survey Promotion Toolkit | Mass.gov Please let me know if you'd like more information! jreynolds@southhadleyma.gov" with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Colonial Estates is very kind to the community! Thanks for that!!

Kamalis Santana: Reacted to "Colonial Estates i..." with ♥️

Kamalis Santana: Replying to "Colonial Estates i..."

Your welcome

Hunter Acconcio: Replying to "Colonial Estates i..."

My number is 413-885-6997. and my email is hunter@newgrowthrecovery.com I would love to connect and provide resources for behavioral health! Let me know when you have time. Thank you!

Edward Caisse: ed.caisse@sdh.state.ma.us

Edward Caisse: we are working on the link and information for the 10th

Jenneke Reynolds: Reacted to "we are working on th..." with 👍

Abbie- Viability, INC: Welcome back, Laci!

Laci Labrecque: Gandaras SHINE YAH/YPP. Our program serves the 18-24 year old homeless or at risk population with housing and stablization resources. You can access our waitlist by contacting our 24 hour Hotline to speak with a housng navigator at 413-316-4979. Please feel free to contact me directly if you are interested in resource assistance or networking at llabrecque@gandaracenter.org.

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Gandaras SHINE YAH/YPP. Our program serves the 18-24 year old homeless or at risk population with housing and stablization resources. You can access our waitlist by contacting our 24 hour Hotline to speak with a housng navigator at 413-316-4979. Please feel free to contact me directly if you are interested in resource assistance or networking at llabrecque@gandaracenter.org." with ❤️

Timothy Powis: Timothy Powis, Probation Officer, Hampden Superior Probation Timothy.Powis@jud.state.ma.us

stephen dinh VOC: Stephen Dinh VOC 35 MT Carmel Ave Chicopee MA 3rd floor 413-612-0206 ext. 219 Sdinh@valleyopp.com Info session Monday August 24th 11am any Referrals or Inquiries please feel free to reach out.

Abbie- Viability, INC: Wow, those in-person meetings are great!! Can't wait!

Jean Corbin - The Tech Foundry: Reacted to "Wow, those in-person meetings are great!! Can't wait!" with ❤️

Gabriel Rodriguez: Reacted to "Wow, those in-person meetings are great!! Can't wait!" with 👏

Carlos REC McBride: Thank you. Great to meet folks.
Thank You!