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December 2024

Ed Caisse

December 12 2024

Virtual Networking Meeting

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes

Date: December 12, 2024
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.

Introductions: Ed welcomed everyone 1:00pm to 1:05pm
Lourdes Balestier: Western Mass Care Solutions 1:05pm to 1:20pm
I'm Lourdes Balistier, I am the owner of Western Mass Care Solutions. A few months later I founded WMCS Education and Community Services, right under that. It's just the abbreviation of ‘Western Mass Care Solutions.’ I am a long time resident of Springfield. I've been here for 23 years. My oldest child is 22, so I literally came from Connecticut to have a baby on this side.

I was happy about that. I didn't have my kids back in my hometown, but I've been out here for over 23 years.
I went through everything you can possibly think of, from every type of little bit of struggle you can think of.
It took me about 20 years to complete my dream. But, I decided this year that I was just gonna put a name to everything I've been doing for so long. We founded Western Mass Care Solutions. I named it that because I am solutions based. I like coming up with solutions like, I don't like excuses. I've been through it all, and if I got through it all, we can get through it all, right? We are here to find solutions for our health, for our social life, for our professional life, careers, or our family life, and things like that.

Back in May we decided to turn it into an LLC. Not considering the Grant situation, and the money situation, right before we made it into a nonprofit. But what we do and what we started was an organization for our community. It's one of our slogan is built for, created for the community. We created this to be able to help everyone in our community and not say, well, because you don't have this. We can't help you because you don't have Mass Health. We can't help you. We are helping everyone and anyone in every aspect of anyone's life.

We started off doing a back to school event back in August. That was our 1st big event, I organized it within two months. We ended up getting a couple of vendors to come out and donate backpacks and donate school supplies and things like that. And it actually went way better than I thought it would. Being a new agency being that our name was not really known. I didn't think we were going to get that many people we were able to service over 120 children with backpacks we were able to service over 70 children with braids and haircuts.
We were able to serve over 75 plates of food, homemade food that we just decided to cook the day of and bring it over. You know, as it's just an emergency thing, because we wanted people to be able to eat knowing that they were going to be standing there for so long. It was a very successful event. It surprised me, so we decided to come up with another one, and we said, Hey, let's try to get some owners and founders together, and we started the networking event in November that was pretty successful. Also, it surprised me. A lot of people came. It was very nice. We were able to meet new people. We were able to do Raffles again. We cooked the food and we were able to cater our event.

So, from there we decided, you know what we want to keep helping. We want to get people together in our community. We don't want to offer things we can't bring out, or bring people to us, right, or us to bring these programs to our community directly. So, now we are doing some professional development classes. We have notary classes going on right now. We're going on in our 3rd one on December 21st. They are being sponsored by different agencies. At least the venue right they are giving us the space to be able to hold their classes at their conference centers, at their resource, centers at their community centers, and it has been great. We've been getting over 10 to 15 people. The 1st class was about 23 people who signed up and came to the class. Everybody gets a certificate, everybody gets lunch, and we make sure that you are able to send out the application, and that you follow the correct requirements for you to be approved by the State of Massachusetts to become a notary.

This year, now in December, we are actually doing a Christmas pop up what we are calling a ‘Christmas
Pot Luck Pop Up’ at the South Congregational Church here in Springfield. Again, one of those things that we decided to do. I was supposed to do it in November, but you know, a lot of things came up, miscommunications, and we decided to do it now in December, right before Christmas, ‘Potluck Pop Up.’ We decided we were just gonna have a bunch of people come and cook. We have a lot of families, a couple of volunteers, my friends, my mom, my husband, me and, you know, we're all cooking homemade food, holiday style food so we can feed our community. We're going out there. We're feeding over 45 to 50 people and that's just the people that usually go there on Sundays for that lunch that they're expecting. What they don't know is that when they get there they're not going to take a package lunch. They are going to be coming into an event where they are going to be eating a hot lunch and spend time with community members who are there to also provide winter supplies; hats, beanies, hot hands, we have backpacks for them, we have soap, we have hygiene supplies.

It was great to get all of these different vendors to actually donate. We have the Behavioral Health Helpline, YJ Catering, a catering a company here in Springfield that are new. We have Union Capital, who's also a social capital agency, that if you do attend as a member of the community who's just coming to eat or coming to volunteer, you actually get points that will transfer into a gift card for the month. If you're there long enough of 1,500 points, we'll get you a $25 gift card 500 points for every hour that you're there. You're more than welcome to come and eat with your family, eat with our community, or also bring plate right? If you have something you want to cook for that day and bring it over to share with our community. That's also great.
Any food that is left over, we are packaging and bringing it out into the community, and actually driving around to find people who need it because I know a lot of different places are doing lunch for them.

I actually wanted to show you guys a little bit of our website. It has a lot of information in it. Every day I keep working on it. We are like a three woman show right now. It's me, my friend Melissa, who's the executive director, and my friend Jen, who's our community outreach. So, I have her out making sure that we're getting our vendors to come into our events and donating, and she's been great. So, this is our website here. And as you can see, we have our mission, and what I do want to show you, we have a couple of things you guys can look at later on. We do have our available services. We do training workshops, we organize resource fairs, it is winter so we slow down a little bit, since, you know not too many of us like to go out in the winter. We do offer resource fairs, tabling opportunities, whether we are the ones organizing the event or we are the ones collaborating with someone organizing the event.

We are always open to getting other vendors to come into our events and either donate, participate, volunteer, sponsor or come attend. The networking events that we're doing are the same thing. This is our initiative to get our owners and founders, our community members and vendors together, in under one roof and depending on you know what the event is about. The one we just did was called ‘Harvest Your Connections; owners and Founders Networking Event’. So, we invited some of our business owners, some of our nonprofit founders all under one roof to talk about what we do. Pretty much present our agencies and see how we can help each other.

Our next one coming up, we haven't put flyers out yet, but we have a new one coming up in March, which will be all about women's businesses. We're gonna do it the week of International Women's Week. And we'll have an event. For any woman, any vendor, any business owner, nonprofit founder, that wants to come in and show off their agency and come and meet other people.

When it comes to private daycare coordination, we're not taking Mass Health at the moment; we're not working with insurance companies. We're very new; we're still working through the applications and all that. But I do private pay, daycare coordination. I always put this example, if you have somebody coming from another country, from Puerto Rico, from Florida, you know, anywhere else that they haven't been in Massachusetts, and they need any type of care if they need home care if they need their insurance. If they need anything that you can think of to make them stable in their new environment. You can call me. I usually charge about $35 to $50 an hour, depending on the members, depending on the person we are helping and their income. A lot of them are low income, so we don't charge to be able to help. We can talk about that directly on how many things I can do and for how long. We are helping the person's getting the services to be stable in home.

Life skills, workshops, we are working on educating teens and youth. I am actually working on a human rights workshop. I just received my educational package. I will be pulling my lesson plans from there to be able to teach our teens some of our human rights. A lot of them don't even know what human rights are, unfortunately, and you know a lot of them are fighting bullying and combating a lot of things in school, and they're not getting the help they need, considering my personal opinion on our education system. So, I would like to be able to educate not just the teens, but also the parents and the caregivers of our youth, to know what type of things they can help their youth with considering things in school.

I connect people to resources, just me, but my team. We connect people to resources. We've been in the community for so long. We've been in so many agencies for so long, and you know we have the variety and of education, I guess, and professional services that we can offer to connect people to wherever they need to go.

If you go a little lower, you'll find their upcoming events. Most of them will tell you details, some of them, you can RSVP, and they can take you directly to where you can sign up for these classes, as you can see, the 2025 registration for notary class, I have to change because now we do have the two 1st dates for January and February. So, those classes are being offered as of next year, and if you can see here, you can register as a vendor if you want.

If you see any of the events here that we're having, and you want to register as a vendor just to bring some information to one of our events, you can do that. The form actually allows you to put what event it is that you want to go to, and you can call us, and just let us know what it is that you participate in.

This is some of the people that we collaborate with right now: we do Union Capital, Power for Puerto Rico insurance agencies are out of Holyoke, Take the Mic; this is a Ayana Crawford here in Springfield, the ACCPR Media Company. Davi The Partnership Group, where I have my office, and she's over in West Springfield, where she also has a hundred different services that she can also help you with. I like collaborating with people that I can send people to and get referrals for them as well.

We like collaborating with anyone that wants to collaborate, whether it's you want us to bring a class to your to your office, or you want to attend one of our classes or send some of your your employees, participants, anything like that. We are more than welcome to work with you. We're growing so we all need a little bit of collaboration with our community to be able to do so. You guys can go through the rest, but the training and services are here; Training, development care, coordination, and our additional services.

I just wanted to point this out because I got a call the other day stating that they don't have anyone in Holyoke right now, helping out our immigrants with immigration paperwork. I know how to do that. That's one thing I personally know how to do, and I'm teaching my team to do. I just took the training to be fully certified to be able to become an immigration form specialist. I also do taxes. We do a little bit of everything. I think I'm all over the place with service. I do taxes; we do immigration forms, help, and assistance.

I personally do in home visits. We can do visits at my office, and we can do visits in the community, just to talk and see what it is that people want to do, what helps, and what I can assist with without having to get a lawyer. Tax services, I do on the weekends for anyone that wants to take a little bit of time. It's all through a mobile app; you don't have to even meet me in person. I love meeting people in person, so please do if you wanna get some help, but the rest of it can be done through a through the mobile app and I can shoot that email to you guys. I'll add it for Ed to add that out there for people who do need it.

I think that's a little bit of everything that we're doing right now. I'll send in some, and I know Ed shared my flyers yesterday for the ‘Christmas Potluck Pop Up’, and the notary classes, thank you, but we'll be sending more flyers and more information out as it comes in.

One last thing, if any of you want, if you guys have any events upcoming, any flyers, or anything like that please shoot them over. I put my information on the chat.

We have a Facebook page that's been getting a lot of lot of hits. We are growing fast on that page. I thank God for that because I started when I was cooking and making ice cups years ago. I was making then I was making Fritura, then I was making things, as Puerto Ricans like to cook, and I was telling them that's how my page started. I had maybe like 300 people when I changed the name to Western Mass Care Solutions Resolutions the local events it blew up. We have almost a thousand members now as of a few a few days ago. We like to post things there so people know what we're doing, People know have way more access than just us emailing each other and not getting it out into like a Facebook page like some of us do so. That’s all, thank you so much.

Agency Overview and Updates: 1:20pm to 2:00pm

Alex Bernard: Palante Transformative Justice
My name is Alex Bernard. I work with Palante Transformative Justice here in Holyoke. We're located at 220 Linden Street. One of our main goals right now is, well, we have 2 different programs: One is being a drop-in center and also a pipeline for our youth to combat the school to prison pipeline. Our drop-in center is what I coordinate and we have many events this month alone. We've had a generational wealth come in where youth are able to learn how to save money, and what that looks like down the line.

We also have things like mindful rage, which is the court appointed anger management. It's a different environment where youth are able to work with other youth and learn their righteous rage. We also do many other activities, but if you want, we have our Instagram, Palante_TJ, definitely check us out. We always post on there. We will be starting a food pantry that's open to the public. Even though our drop in hours are Monday through Friday 3-7p.m., our food pantry will be open on Tuesdays for the public all ages.

Angelique Rodriguez: Holyoke Community College
Hi, everyone! My name is Angelique Rodriguez. I am the Community Outreach and Admissions Counselor here at Holyoke Community College in our admissions office. I specifically am the admissions counselor who works with any adult learners, people above 24/25 coming back to school, and also anyone who considers themselves a nontraditional student. Maybe you're a young parent, or maybe you're low income first generation college student, all of these things, definitely connect with me if you yourself are interested, or you work with populations who are interested.

Connect with me if you're interested in doing some community outreach. I love going out there doing presentations on how to apply to college and also talking about that free community college program that's going on in Massachusetts. Thank you so much.

Ashley Stackow: Community Resident
No update to report.

Brenda Evans: UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Brenda Evans. I'm from UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences. I do have an announcement that I would like to share. I don't know if you sent it out yet, Ed, but our Dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences is releasing a mini grant opportunity, ‘Food is Medicine,’ and we will be having a info webinar on Thursday, December 19th.

I just wanted to call you all's attention to that Mini Grant announcement opportunity. If you have any questions you can reach out to Risa Silverman and her contact information is within either that email or the documents that are attached. We are targeting small grassroots, community-based organizations to apply for this funding. Thank you.

Carl Borden: Boy Scouts of America, Western Mass Council

Hello, Carl Borden from the Boy Scouts of America, Western Massachusetts. Heather's going to do most of the announcing, but we just want to remind you that this time of year we've got popcorn for sale. We are expanding and growing and want to make sure that any agency that wants to work with us, we're here to help you. Heather has my contact information. Thank you.

Charlene Rivera: Holyoke Pediatrics
Hi, my name is Charlene Rivera. I'm one of the Medical Home Care Coordinators for Holyoke Pediatrics, and I have no new Updates.

Damaris Lopez: Pediatric Physicians Organization, Boston Children's Hospital
Hello! Good afternoon, my name is Damaris, and I'm a Community Health Worker at Pediatric Physicians Organization, Boston Children's. I'm here to just gather resources and information to help assist our patients. I'm happy to see you all and wish everybody, happy holidays.

Dializ Serrano: Rewarding Insurance Agency
Hello, everyone! My name is Dializ Serrano. I am a Health and Life Insurance Broker. I work with Rewarding Insurance Agency. We work with different carriers, including United Healthcare, and CCA, for the convenience of our members in the community. We work with people who are 65 and over that have Medicare, and for life, we work with every age. We are situated at 284 Maple Street. You guys are more than welcome to visit us for more information.

Diana Biagioli: Federation for Children with Special Needs
Hi. I always love coming to these meetings. I'm Diana Biagioli from the Federation for Children with Special Needs. I work in the Transition Department, which is when they age out in high school aging out to adulthood.

I don't have any announcements, but because we have so many programs, today, I listened to a wonderful presentation by my colleagues from Caregiver To Caregiver. It's a new program. If you know of any caregiver that needs support, this is a wonderful new program. They can present in March or April, whenever you decide, but they connect Caregivers according to location, languages, and so forth. They can support each other. It's a wonderful program. We also have parent to parent, and MassHealth support. We have a lot of programs. I'll put our website on the chat, but just wanted to highlight that program.

Dorothy Prieto: Head Start and Early Learning Programs
Hi, everybody! Dorothy Prieto. I'm with Head Start and Early Learning Programs. Our service area is all of Franklin, all of Hampshire, and we do Western Hampden County. If you guys have anybody that you have questions about that needs to get their kids into a Head Start program, and you live in the Springfield/Chicopee area, we can help you out and get you in contact with them as well. I did put some information in the chat. We do presentations. Ed, I will definitely hit you up to get up in there sometime next year. There's lots of different things that we have going on.

Our home based program is always looking for individuals that are pregnant or children that are under 3. We have a very low wait list right now for most of our programs so it's a good time to start getting applications and referrals. Anybody that you refer gets higher priority. You can use the link that I put in the chat to get one of those referral forms if you need it. If you have any questions, email me or call me. I can answer any questions you need.

We also have a job opening in my department, the enrollment department. There's a $5,000 sign on bonus for anybody who's worked previously with EEC, contracted slots, or vouchers. That kind of experience is definitely a plus, because that is basically what the job is about. So, that link is there. Don't hesitate to send me an email or call me. I can answer any questions that you might have.

Elizabeth Veillette: Center for Human Development (CHD)
Hi, my name is Elizabeth. I am the Employment and Training Navigator for the Center for Human Development Shelter System, and I have nothing new to report.

Faith Sarisley: CrossPoint Clinical Services
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Faith, and I'm the Marketing and Community Relations Coordinator for CrossPoint Clinical Services. I left my contact info in the chat as well as our website link for everybody to visit whenever they'd like. At CrossPoint, we continue to provide mental health services and wellness services all across the state.

I also want to highlight two health and wellness events that we have coming up next month start the new year off right. We have an in-person event on January 11th in Chicopee, called Vision and Vitality for 2025. We also have a 13 week online group called the Body Revelation, starting on January 13th. So, you can learn more and sign up for both of these in the event section of our website. They are listed in the chat, and I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Flor Diaz: VOC / WIC Department
Hello everyone, good afternoon. My name is Flor Diaz. I am the Community Coordinator for the WIC Department. I have nothing to report right now. Thank you.

Gabe V: Community Education Project
Hi, everyone. This I'm Gabe from Community Education Project. I just wanted to let everyone know that we have a new day teacher, Mike Surred. We are starting up daytime classes again. If you guys have anyone who is interested in wanting to learn English, we are a free resource for anyone in the area who wants to come by and sign up and learn English. Otherwise than that no new news.

Georgie Brown: OneHolyoke
Hi, Ed! Thanks for having me. I'm Georgie from OneHolyoke. Our main thing, I put it in the chat, is that our community Dinner is on Saturday, December 14th. That is just a couple days away and we are still looking for volunteers. I put the link to the website where you can sign up, and the flyer in the chat. I'd love it if you guys could share that and volunteer. If you know anyone who wants to volunteer, ask them to sign up. It's a huge event. We serve over 500 community members. We need all the help we can get and we're really looking forward to that. It's December 14th, from 4pm to 7pm at Kelly School in Holyoke.

Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College
Penagos from Holyoke Community College. My favorite meeting, definitely. Lourdes, I love that presentation. You are amazing. Oh, my God, a lot of good things that happened there. I already checked the information with you, with the flyer about all the free job trainings for 2025. So, I already shared the information. Thank you so much.

Gerardo Torres: Way Finders
Hi everyone, my name is Geraldo Torres. I am a resident from Holyoke. I am a Volunteer Resident Advocate for Way finders. Thank you, Ed.

Heather MacInnes: Scouting America Western Mass Council
Hi, I'm Heather MacInnes. I am the Membership Specialist for the Scouting Council, which formerly is known as Boy Scouts of America, now with the new name change, it's called Scout in America. I also run the Holyoke units from kindergartners up to 21 years old, all boys and girls. We meet on two Wednesdays a month for the Sea Scouts, which is from 14 to 2. Then we have, on every Thursday, Cub Scouts which is kindergarten to 5th grade. Then from 10 and a half to 18 years old for the troop levels.

We just did last month a food drive for the Kate's Kitchen. This month for our community service project, besides going this Saturday to help with the Christmas dinner at Kelly School, we are actually doing a drive next week in regards to the military and the veterans of Holyoke Community.

We are making Christmas cards for the veteran’s home. We are also making Christmas cards for Walter Reed Hospital for the veterans also who are there. We're also doing a collection drive to give out to the veterans for personal gear and all kinds of materials that we're going to have the flyers put out. We'll be doing that next Wednesday and Thursday for our community service projects. I think that's it. Thank you.

Iohann Vega: Holyoke Media Center
Hello, everybody. This is Iohann Vega, with Holyoke Media Community Access Television Station here in Holyoke. Always looking up to connect with anyone who wants to share information about the programs activities, stories about the work you do or successes, especially.

So, we can put the word out in local television Channel 15, and our local internet and social media spaces. So, always available to connect with you.

Also, to reintroduce Luis Barrios, who is our new digital navigator, who is offering also the opportunity to connect with the community about digital literacy and support for any of our clients or members in your organization. So, if I may, I would like to pass it on to Lee, so he can speak a little bit more about this missing opportunity with Holyoke Media.

Luis Barrios: Holyoke Media Center
Good afternoon, everyone. Part of part of the Digital Alliance, I'm Louis Barrios at Holyoke Media, part of the digital Alliance for equity. There's an initiative started and I'm looking to connect with anybody within the Holyoke community, Chicopee community and any of those others that are looking for a digital navigation help as far as literacy help with devices.

We offer in hotspots, we're offering low cost Internet. And again, just looking for those connections. If anyone is willing to do that. I'll give you my email. Reach out to me. I will be reaching out to those in Holyoke and in the surrounding communities. Thank you for your time.

Jac Essing (she/they; DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps)
Good afternoon, good people. I'm Jack Essing. I use she/they pronouns and I'm with the Dial/Self Americorps Program. We have Americorps members serve 10 months in Hampton, Hampshire, and Franklin County
from August to June.

While they're in the midst, our current members are in the midst of their service, we’re also recruiting for next year recruiting members. So, if you know anyone who would be interested in serving their community, receiving a living stipend, as well as an education award to go towards previous or upcoming student expenses,
we'd be very interested in anyone that you would want to refer. We are also recruiting for sites. If you are a youth serving organization that could benefit from having an Americorps member who is specifically there to expand your capacity, to strengthen community, to bring restorative practices, or social emotional learning, or positive youth development approaches, we are your people.

I'll put my name and email in the chat for you to reach out to me. And, also, to answer any questions that you might have. Happy Holidays. Thank you.

Jailyn Vega: Youth Villages
Hello! My name is Jalen. I'm the program representative at Youth Villages. We have our intercept program, which is our in home family service for ages 0 to 18. It is a DCF contract and service, so the family has to have some sort of DCF involvement. Sorry, I'm having computer issues right now. I'm just gonna put this all in the chat because this is the sound is gonna continue.

Jeffrey Hayden: Holyoke Community College
Good afternoon, everybody. Jeff Hayden, from Holyoke Community College, and Angelique and Gloria covered a lot. I just wanted to mention two quick things; one is, we have the food pantry in collaboration with the United Way that is held out of the Culinary Arts Center on Race Street. More information can be had from Stacey Graves. I'll put her email contact in the chat.

The other thing I wanted to mention is the ongoing effort of the Juntus collaborative to provide adult education and English for speakers of other languages. Not only community education project is part of that,
Holyoke public schools, Mass Higher Holyoke, working with the Care Center, and a number of other agencies. A great opportunity for folks who are working with adult populations to connect them to more educational resources. Thank you all.
Jenneke Reynolds: Public Health Grant
Hi! I'm Jenica Reynolds, and I'm the shared Service Coordinator for Public Health Grant that includes Holyoke, Chickpea and South Hadley. Our public health nurse, this time, is doing this month is doing presentations on COPD, and has some handouts on tips for quitting smoking. If anyone is interested in that, or any of her other presentations, I did put my name and email in the chat, and that'd be great.

And the other thing is a lot of presentations that we are finding in Holyoke; we need presentations in Haitian Creole. We can use Google translate, but only so far. We don't have anybody to look over these flyers and stuff for us. So, if we could have a volunteer, if somebody is familiar with the language, could help us out by just running over those things. I would love it. I got in early on the chat, so you might have to scroll kind of up to the top to find me. But, it's Jenneke Reynolds and I work for the town of South Hadley, that's where my email address is. So, thank you guys very much.

John Mccarthy: USCIS
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm John Mccarthy. I'm the Community Relations Officer
for USCIS Citizenship and Immigration Services and I work out of Boston. My role as community relations is to get out into the community and to provide information on immigration benefits, what the eligibility requirements are, and how you go through the process of applying.

Just yesterday, for example, with the Boston Public Library, hosted a presentation on DED, (deferred, enforced, and departure) and also TPS. (Temporary, protected, and services) for Lebanese individuals who are here in the United States. Next week on Wednesday, through the Boston Public Library, I'll be doing a virtual presentation
on Immigration 101. That’s basically the basics of immigration, and we open up for questions at the end
of the presentation. So, if anybody's interested, I'll put the connect for next week's class in the chat. My information is already in there. Thank you very much.

Keishla Archeval: Way Finders
Hello, everyone. My name is Keisha Archeval. I am the digital Equity coordinator with Way Finders, and I do the same thing as Louis. I do digital navigation services that's advocacy and inclusion with devices, connectivity and digital skills.

Kori Cooper: Choice Recovery Coaching
Hi! Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Corey Cooper, and I'm here on behalf of Paul Alves and Choice Recovery Coaching. We don't really have much report at this point. Just wanted to sit in and be able to network and navigate. Thanks for having me.

Lacy Lebreck: Shine Program: Gandara
Hi, everyone! I am Lacey Lebreck. I am a housing coordinator with the Shine Program at Gandara. We are a housing program for young adults, ages 18 to 24. What we offer is supportive housing and case management to at risk and actual homeless individuals, between the ages of 18 to 24. We don't have anything new right now, either, and we also do have a wait list, unfortunately.

Miguel Arce: Springfield College
Thanks for hosting us, Ed. I have nothing to report.

Millie Ruiz: Way Finders
Hi! Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Millie Ruiz. I work at Way Finders. I'm the housing mobility outreach specialist, and I have nothing to report. Thank you, Ed.

Paula Santos-Young: Achieve Greatness Inc.
Hi! Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Paula Santos Young, and actually my hometown is Ludlow, but I am now living in the Cape.

My nonprofit is based around illicit drugs and the Fentanyl crisis that we are facing in America, mental health, and the stigma with substance abuse. I am a mom who lost my son two years ago to Fentanyl poisoning, and this is what I do now. I go, and I save lives. I was just in Springfield, as Ed knows, we have a lot more events coming up.

We are also passing legislation with many of wonderful Senators and Congressmen here in our State. I look forward to doing a lot with all of you. As I come back into Hampden County, as I mentioned earlier, we have many chapters that are going to be starting. I'm looking forward to working with all of you because we're all here for the same purpose. It's to save lives, and to make everyone's lives better. I hope that all of you have a happy holiday.

Rafael Santos: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Raphael Santos, and I work out of the Hampden County sheriff's office with Mr. Ed Cassie. My position here is more working around transition support and re-entry with a specific group of individuals. And I also support Mr. Cassie on the Holyoke City Neighborhood Initiative Basketball league and activities that he plans out in the community in Holyoke or surrounding areas. Thank you.

Sidney Richeux: Gandara Center
Hello, everyone! My name is Sydney. I am a triage clinician from Gandara Center for the Holyoke and the Worcester area. Currently, I wanted just to notify everyone, If you have any cases or kiddos that could benefit from ICC in the Worcester area, we have immediate openings. I did share the referral in the chat with my contact information as well. Thank you, Ed, for hosting this meeting.

Tonja Paone: Foster Care
Lourdes, yes, I really greatly enjoyed your presentation. I'll definitely be giving you a call in the near future. So, I am Tanya Peony, family resource specialist over at Northeast Center for Youth and Families in East Hampton. We have three offices: East Hampton, Worcester, and Malden.

I work in the Foster Care Department. We are a comprehensive foster care program. We're constantly looking for anybody interested in doing foster care, whether it's respite, short-term, long-term, or emergency.

We also offer services out to the public. We have our clinic, which includes therapy, individual therapy, and family therapy. We have a psychiatry element and we also have in-home therapists and mentoring programs. So, if anybody has any clientele that they feel needs any of those services, child does not have to be in foster care in order to receive those clinical services, feel free to give us a call. I did enter my information in the chat pretty early on, so you need to scroll up, and you can call me directly. Thank you so much. Happy holidays everybody.




Viomil (Milly) Dinzey-Alicea: Hope for Holyoke
Hello! I'm Milly. I'm a recovery coach at Hope for Holyoke. We're a peer Recovery Center. We have a few other things going on here, like we have Highway to Hope, which helps people get into detox, transport them into detox, and we pick them up from the program once they have completed. We also have our gambling ambassadors that do a great job with everything that has to do with gambling.

We have a lot of resources and try to help our members that are working in recovery or want to work in their recovery. That’s all for me. Happy holidays Everyone.

Mike Pratt: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office / HSNI
Hey, everybody! I'm Mike Pratt. I work with Raphael and Eddie at the Sheriff's Office in Hampden County. I work closely with the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood initiative. We just kicked off the Basketball League: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. So, staying busy. That's no Updates at this time.

Ed Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
I know that Georgie from One Holyoke spoke about the community dinner, it’s really is a good event. If you see the link for the volunteering, there's a lot of different slots, you don't have to be there the whole time. They're set up on Friday night. There's some different areas that you could volunteer in during the event from 4 to 7, and then the takedown is going to be from 7 to 9. If we don't get everything done on Saturday night from 7 to 9, there's actually an extra slot there for Sunday. So, if you thought about it, but you haven't yet clicked on the registration link to volunteer, please consider volunteering. We still need at least about 20 more volunteers.

Also, on Saturday, we're doing a citywide food drive with the United Way. We're actually doing a food drive at the Stop & Shop on Lincoln Street and the Stop & Shop on Northampton Street. I'm just asking you to come by. We got these little lists of all the items that we're looking to collect. We really try to make it easy for folks. So, when you come to the door at Stop & Shop. We'll hand you a paper and it's going to tell you what the item is that we need exactly, and what aisle it's in so you could help and be able to support.

All the food that's getting collected for the United Way that day is going to be for the Holyoke Pantry, the Holyoke Community Cupboard, they call it, down on Race Street. I'll tell you this with the Holyoke Hub, we have a lot of people that come through that have food insecurity, so, it's a real thing. We're constantly using that spot to be able to get food to families in Holyoke. So, if you can come out on Saturday, we're going to be there from 9am to 3pm and be able to participate in that just through donating food. We have all the volunteers selected already for that day, but we're just hoping that we can get a lot of community residents to come out, agencies, just people to come out and donate food, so we can fill the pantry up. So, that's all I have. I just wanna say thank you so much for what you guys do individually with your agencies, and we'll see you guys next month.

Chat Notes:
Gabe Vargas-Student advisor with Community Education Project.
Diana Biagioli
Diana Biagioli, Transition Specialist, Federation for Children with Special Needs, dbiagioli@fcsn.org
shannon burke
Shannon Burke Holyoke Pediatrics Medical Home Care Coordinator burkes@holypeds.com
Keishla Archeval
Keishla Archeval, Digital Equity Coordinator under the Community Building and Engagement department with Way Finders'.
Lourdes Balestier
Lourdes Balestier, Lourdes.balestier@westernmasscaresolutions.com, 413-276-6086, Owner of Western Mass Care Solutions and Founder of WMCS Education & Community Services, Corp.
Jenneke Reynolds
Jenneke Reynolds, Shared Service Coordinator for Public Health grant in Holyoke, Chicopee, and South Hadley. jreynolds@southhadleyma.gov
Jeffrey Hayden
Jeff Hayden, Holyoke Community College - Adult Education and Workforce Development
Heather MacInnes
Heather MacInnes- Scouting America (Formally Boy Scouts of America) Western Mass Council- heather.macinnes@scouting.org- Cubmaster/ Scoutmaster in Holyoke- Membership Coordinator Sea Scouts in Holyoke.
Good afternoon! Brenda D Evans, HCRN & UMass Amherst SPHHS/ CCHER, bdevans@umass.edu.
Millie Ruiz - Wayfinders - Housing Mobility Outreach Specialist 413-390-5210 mruiz@wayfinders.org
john mccarthy
USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services John McCarthy Community Relations john.j.mccarthy@uscis.dhs.gov
Laci Labrecque
Laci Labrecque- Housing case manager-SHINE Young Adult Housing, llabrecque@gandaracenter.org 413-472-4690
aleyx bernard
Aleyx Bernard, Drop in and Admin coordinator for Pa'lante Trnasformative Justice, located at 220 Linden Street here in Holyoke my email is aleyx@palanteholyoke.org and our number 413-200-0624
Viomil (Milly) Dinzey-Alicea
Milly Dinzey recovery coach for Hope for Holyoke
Charlene Rivera
Charlene Rivera Holyoke Pediatrics Medical Home Care Coordinator-riverac@holypeds.com
Dializ Serrano
Dializ Serrano
Jeffrey Hayden
Jeff Hayden, Holyoke Community College - Adult Education and Workforce Development jhayden@hcc.edu 413-552-2587 https://www.hcc.edu/courses-and-programs/workforce-development/free-job-training-programs
Dorothy Prieto
Dorothy Prieto 413-834-2564 dprieto@communityaction.us
Head Start & Early Learning Programs
We offer quality early education and care and services to support expectant parents and children birth to five in Franklin, Hampshire, and Western Hampden Counties at low or no cost to families.
Visit HSELP/CAPV for all program options
To apply online
http://goengage.app
For a referral form (which gives clients priority) Downloadable Referral Form
Fax or email completed referrals to hselpenrollment@communityaction.us or
413-387-1224
Please call 413-387-1250
Or email questions to hselpenrollment@communityaction.us
To set up a presentation virtually or in person for your Staff/Parent groups call
Carla Zhingre 413-387-1224 or email her at czhingre@communityaction.us
Kori Cooper
Kori Cooper choice recovery coaching
Paula Santos-Young
Paula Santos-Young - President /Co-Founder Achieve Greatness Inc. Non-profit in Mass our focus is on education/prevention /advocacy around all illicit drugs/mental health /stigma around SUD through sports.
Dializ Serrano
Dializ Serrano (Rewarding Insuramce Agency)
Jailyn Vega
Jailyn Vega, MSW | Youth Villages
Program Representative
95 Ashley Ave
Suite F
West Springfield, MA 01089
Cell: 413-452-3643
Viomil (Milly) Dinzey-Alicea
Milly Dinzey recovery coach for Hope for Holyoke VDinzey-Alicea@gandaracenter.org
Diosdado Lopez-Martinez
Diosdado Lopez-Martinez from The Support Network 413-787-2771
Dorothy Prieto
Hi fellow networkers,
We currently have an opening in the Enrollment Department at our agency. I am including the link to the posting. If you know anyone that may have some experience with EEC (Department of Early Education and Care), strong computer and data base skills, great customer service skills with a diverse range of backgrounds, bi-lingual a plus, and would like to work with a great team for a great agency, please share as you see fit.
HSELP $5,000 sign on bonus
https://recruiting.paylocity.com/Recruiting/Jobs/Details/2843731
Flor Diaz
Flor Diaz WIC Community Coordinator Valley Opportunity Council (413)612-0214 fdiaz@valleyopp.com
Miguel Arce
Miguel Arce, Springfield College 748 3488
Tonja Paone
Tonja M. Paone from Northeast Center for Youth and Families, 203 East Street Easthampton, Ma 01027. We continue to recruit foster parents so if you or anyone you know are interested in doing foster care, please give me a call @ (413) 588-8831. tonja.paone@ncyf.org
Edward Caisse
Eddie Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff's Office, ed.caisse@sdh.state.ma.us
Damaris Lopez
Damaris Lopez, CHW/Care Coordinator at Boston Children's Pediatric Physicians' Organization Damaris.lopez@childrens.harvard.edu
Elizabeth Veillette
Elizabeth Veillette, Employment Navigator for CHD's shelter system. eveillette@chd.org, 413 266 9840
Gloria Penagos-HCC
Gloria Penagos - Holyoke Community College with the FREE Job Trainings gpenagos@hcc.edu - Free Job Training Programs | Holyoke Community College
Faith Sarisley
Chat:
Faith Sarisley
CrossPoint Clinical Services, Inc.
fsarisley@crosspointclinical.org
www.crosspointclinical.org
Angelique Rodriguez
Angie Rodriguez - Holyoke Community College Admissions Counselor. Reach out to me to help applying to college, or to connect and plan community outreach. Contact: arodriguez@hcc.edu / 413.552.2243.
shannon burke
What is the face book page?
1 Reply
Tonja Paone
Lourdes, do you have a direct line?
1 Reply
Sidney Richeux Triage clinician from Gandara Center
Sidney Richeux Triage clinician for Gandara Center. Email : Sricheux@gandaracenter.org
My phone # 413-433-2671
Lourdes Balestier
Here are some of our upcoming events!
Lourdes Balestier
2025 Scheduled Notary Workshops: sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/242824803707155
Georgie Brown
Georgie Brown- Community engagement coordinator OneHolyokeCDC georgianna.brown@oneholyoke.org
shannon burke
thank you everyone for your time and everything you do for our community. I have to step out early today. have a happy holiday season. Shannon Holyoke Pediatrics
Georgie Brown
Our 9th Annual Community Dinner is this Saturday, December 14th from 4-7pm at Kelly School in Holyoke!! We are still looking for volunteers- find more info on our website:https://www.oneholyoke.org/community-dinner-2024/
Lourdes Balestier
Here is our FB page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3673928742832630
Dializ Serrano
dializ@rewardingagency.com
Gerardo Torres
Sorry I had problem getting in zoom. Hi every one.
Dializ Serrano
We do Health and life insurance (Rewarding Insurance Agency)
Diana Biagioli
Federation for Children with Special Needs at fcsn.org. Caregiver to Caregiver program is one of our many programs. Here is their landing page on our website: https://fcsn.org/c2c/
Charlene Rivera
Had to step away with a patient thank you Happy Holidays!
Gerardo Torres
Happy Holiday every one.
Georgie Brown
I’ve got to head out- thanks for having me!
Dorothy Prieto
I have to hop off sorry.
Luis Barrios
Luis@holyokemedia.org
Jeffrey Hayden
Luis - William at the Tech Hub at he Holyoke Transportation Center can help - Will aim is with Tech Foundry in partnership with HCC.
Jac Essing (she/they; DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps)
Jac Essing, jessing@dialself.net, DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps
Jailyn Vega
Im having issues with my laptop I apologize! For Youth Villages we will have openings in the next month for Intercept our in home service for children and families. This a DCF contracted service, a SW would have to submit the referral
Jeffrey Hayden
Stacy Graves - United Way Food Pantry sgraves@hcc.edu
erica vasquez
HI! Erica, Behavioral Health Care Coordinator from Holyoke Peds. I have nothing new to share today. Thank you!
Jailyn Vega
We also have our Life Set program which is for young adult ages 17.5-22, also a DCF contracted service where we help young adults with independent living skills. we have immediate openings for this program!
Jeffrey Hayden
Juntos Collaborative - Adult Education and ESOL kdunkelberg@hcc.edu and amistivar@hcc.edu
Jailyn Vega
Hello! I have to go for IT to fix my technology issue, happy holidays!
Jeffrey Hayden
Transition to College and Career - Crysta Ascolillo cascolillo@hcc.edu
Laci Labrecque
Youth Housing Hotline-24/7 413-316-4979 ages 18-24
erica vasquez
HI! Sorry my mic is not working
Iohann Vega
Thank you Ed, and for all attending for the great work you all do! Happy holidays!
Brenda Evans
Happy Holidays!

Old Business / New Business
Next Meeting is Thursday, January 9th on Zoom

Close Meeting 2:05pm


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

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