February 2024

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes


Date: February 8, 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.

Welcome & Introduction 1:00pm - 1:05pm
Ed welcomed everyone

Penny Dugan: Center for Human Development 1:05pm - 1:20pm
[PowerPoint Presentation]
My name's Penny Dugan, some of you all have heard me talk before or we've met each other before I was working at CHD's outpatient clinic over on Appleton Street, Holyoke. I recently switched to becoming the Youth Services Coordinator and an outpatient clinician over at CHD's Gateway Center, which is over on Granby Road in Chicopee. Maybe some of you are familiar, a lot of times people will call in the Crisis Center. You may have heard it referred to that way, I'm actually hoping to help educate folks on what kind of different levels of care we offer at the center. It's not just a Crisis Center and I think that the more people who are serving kids and adults in the area know they can help them find the right services for them.

As you all know, CHD is a huge organization, a ton of different services. The Gateway Center is a newer program. It was just started last January, so it's about a year in. The State of Massachusetts has been trying to partner with different agencies across the state to create CBHC’s, so there are a number of these. There are a few in our area. A lot of you are probably familiar with BHN [Behavioral Health Network]. Their catchment is down in the Springfield area. We handle some of the areas north and sort of northwest of Springfield. So once again, we're over at 1109 Granby Road.

CBHC, I don't know if all of you heard that term before, it's a Community Behavioral Health Center. It's seen as an alternative to bringing someone who crisis seems imminent. They don't seem like they're safe, they seem like they're having really extreme behaviors. Rather than bringing them to an ER or seeking kind of voluntary hospitalization, this is a place that you can bring somebody, or somebody can go if they have really urgent mental and behavioral health needs and find the right level of care.

So like I said, we have outpatient, that's where I work. We also have over the phone services. We have 24/7 respite short-term services. I'll talk a little bit about those in a minute. We do offer what we see as wraparound services. I know anybody who's in this network, and folks who go to the Hub meetings, wraparound care is something that the Holyoke community is really focused on and building. Even within CHD, we have different levels of care that can coordinate, but we also were really happy to coordinate with service providers, schools, anybody who's working outside of the CHD network as well.

We do serve kids. We serve adults. My youngest client is four going on five. We have clients all the way up through all ages. An important thing to know is that specifically at the CBHC that we offer same day evaluations and referrals. More traditional outpatient clinics where they're not necessarily serving quite as urgent needs; they might not always provide same day services, but if we assess that this is a client who's at the level where they need same day, we can provide that here.


Services that we offer; we’ve got the outpatient clinic, so that's counseling, we also have psychiatry, we also offer case management services. Some of you might be familiar with CHD's community support program. They can help find housing, food, access benefits if people need help getting it, PFL set up, disability services, education programs, and the list goes on and on and on and on. The case managers are fabulous.

We also have recovery coaching which a lot of folks who are in recovery really like having that peer support, not just clinicians. Recovery coaching is available. If they are going to access those types of services they'll need really occasional outpatient. Just check in’s with the clinician, but they don't need to be accessing like weekly therapy to be able to get those services. So we also have urgent psychiatry. We have what we call mobile crisis intervention, and if any of you have ever said “call crisis or the crisis line,” that's what people were referring to when they say that I'm going to talk a little bit more about that. You can get help over the phone and in the community 24/7.

Finally, we have what's called ‘Community Crisis Stabilization.’ That's when people come stay overnight for a few nights. The outpatient clinic; we schedule urgent appointments. So if this is somebody who maybe they've called that crisis number and crisis says, “I think that what you need is to get some outpatient therapy in place,” they'll send you over to us. We'll get you scheduled either that day or at your earliest convenience, and you will begin outpatient therapy, and we can also start psychiatry.

There we do offer walk-in appointments. So 10:00AM to 12:00PM, every weekday you can walk in and you can be seen. If you need a really urgent session just to talk to someone, we can do that. We can also do an intake right there, get you set up with services, and most CHD outpatient clinics do offer walk-in services. So if you head down to Appleton Street over in Holyoke, they're offering those services. I know most people are here in Holyoke, but if you're not in Holyoke multiple other outpatient clinics offer that so you can call them. It is first come, first serve. It never hurts to call and say “I'm coming in,” but you don't have to.

We do individual counseling. We see families. We also offer some group therapy; I'll talk about that at the end. Like I said, we can do referrals. We also can refer to in-home therapy, that's not something we offer, CHD does, so we can get hooked up with that therapeutic mentoring. It's almost like the therapy version of Big Brothers Big Sisters. We can set you up with that too. As I said, we've got some groups. The number is down there below, and I think that's a great number for anybody who's working with clients who might have really urgent behavioral health needs to just grab that number and save it [413-437-8016]. You never know when you're going to need to send somebody to us.

Mobile crisis intervention; this is the Gateway line [413-CHD-TALK]. It's available 24/7, if it seems like somebody is really not safe; you're really afraid they're going to hurt themselves, you're really afraid they're going to hurt someone else, if it's a kid, and you're really convinced you can't go to bed at night and be sure that when you wake up they won't have run away, if you think that there's somebody who's in recovery and you're afraid they're going to have a relapse, or it seems like they're in a dangerous space, you can call this number and they'll talk to you on the phone.

You can also walk right into our Gateway Center here. We have a front door; you can walk and say, “I'd like to talk to the mobile crisis folks.” If you have a situation where somebody wants the support, but they're afraid that they're not safe to drive or they can't drive but they do want voluntarily to see our crisis folks, they can even come out to them in the community 24/7. When you call crisis, sometimes they might do a crisis evaluation if they triage it at that level. They might also say, “Hey why don't you go use the walk in hours at the urgent clinic right now, the outpatient clinic. See somebody like me. I think what you need is a good therapy session, and maybe we set a few more up for the next couple of weeks.”

Or they might say, “This is a situation where we think staying overnight tonight, or for a few nights, might be useful,” so they might also direct you over to our crisis stabilization unit. Save that number as well, 1-833-CHD-TALK. I think this is probably the service we offer that sometimes there's the most confusion. A lot of times we'll get folks especially who work with kids; a kid comes in and they're kind of talking about things that make people nervous or really serious, and they'll say, “Let's call crisis together,” and crisis might say, “Have them come in for outpatient therapy,” and that might be the best response. So it's not always going to be a crisis evaluation, but if they need one, they'll get one.

Finally, we have community crisis stabilization. It's a confusing word, because it's not really in the community, it's here at our center. This is short term overnight crisis care, it's a few nights. It’s not long term; they're not going to be staying for a couple of weeks or a month. That would be a situation where you'd see hospitalization or maybe a partial program or something along those lines. This is definitely less restrictive than hospitalization, and it's voluntary. The client has to want to be here. We have beds, the bedrooms are really nice. The kids get to hang out, there are games, and there are video games. There are all sorts of different things, and so it's like I said, it's voluntary. We do offer 24/7 supervision, there's always a few people on the unit.

We have a separate area, a separate facility for youth, a separate one for adults. They do not interact with each other, but the youth who are all in the unit together, and the adults can have some interaction. During their stay they will get some really brief individual therapy. There's group therapy, and if there is family that wants to come in and participate in some therapeutic sessions, we can do family therapy too.

When they leave, if they want to, we can plan for the future and kind of make a safety plan; what are we going to do next time you're feeling this way? How are we going to stop it from getting to this level again? We can provide referrals to whatever services are going to help them transition back home and stay safe, and we're going to support those transitions so we can continue to follow up afterwards.

Folks over at the crisis unit, they might be calling me, “Hey Penny, somebody's coming your way, we referred them over.” There's a lot of communication across the board within the building. If the client does have a therapist, or in home therapy, or psychiatry, or anything like that the team over at the crisis stabilization they'll reach out to them as well when they're making that transition plan.

I do also want to stress we do have urgent psychiatry for folks who are in crisis stabilization. Sometimes the Meds just are not right, and that's what a dip in meds or something going on it caused this crisis point. We do really make sure that people who need access to psychiatry get it right away, and sometimes it's just helping them out with med compliance.

A new thing I do want to talk about is we are adding a whole lot of groups. We're realizing that we can serve a lot more clients if we get these groups happening. Some people, they don't want individual therapy, but they love a group. So a number of you here have referred to me before for the positive parenting classes. Those are DCF compliance. So if somebody has parenting classes on their service plan, they can get those with us. We provide the certificate. If they can't make our class, I can do it individually.

We just want to help families be reunited, but those are also great for kind of any parents who maybe didn't get great parenting themselves, or they feel like it's difficult. They don't quite get this kid. Maybe they've got a child whose neurodivergent; whatever's going on. If people are co-parenting that can be tricky sometimes, so this parenting class is a great place to come learn some new skills, de-escalation, creating family routines, helping kids who have been through trauma, helping kids who are maybe having a transition like their families getting divorced and they're bouncing around, that's confusing. So it's a great class.

We also have a parent support group that's going to start in a few weeks. We've got teen CBT, that's with me. CBT is a kind of therapy; it's considered a best practice. It's around helping people with anxiety, or anxiety related diseases like PTSD, OCD, to kind of learn some skills to help turn the volume down on that anxiety. We've got a lot of other groups; DBT art groups, all sorts of things coming up.

That is my email right there [PDugan@chd.org]. If you want more information about groups now or ever and once again, that's the front desk number [413-437-8016]. If you have a client who might want these services, they're going to need an intake appointment first with us. So they're going to need to come at some point, and just have that one hour session.

A final note, we're covered by Mass Health from everything we do is covered by Mass Health; some private insurances will cover it as well. We don't charge out of pocket for these classes. Clients just need to make sure that they have their insurance in order when they call us our community support program can help out with figuring out insurance if they need that. So call either way, but to get services they need insurance set up. I'm going to close this out, and I'm going to see if anybody has any questions for me in the chat.

Agency Overview and Updates 1:20pm - 2:25pm
Heather MacInnes: Boy Scouts of America
I'm with Carl Borden, with the Boy Scouts of America. We've been working really closely with the Cub Scouts. We've developed the Cub Scouts and with the troops, both boys and girls, troops in Holyoke. We've also have the development program where it's through partnership with junior achievement. It's free for the youth to join. We meet every single Monday at Tower Square from 3:30PM to 5:00PM. It's for business and entrepreneurship, and to teach the youth about business for middle school and high school ages. We also right now are looking for volunteers to help out as well, because with all the agencies we're working with, not only just the Holyoke units, we're also working with the Springfield units as well in the school system.

We're also looking for anybody who would like to be volunteers, whether it's in a career field, business field, or any of the aspects of the career fields. If you would like to be a zoom guest speaker, whether it's long government, health financing, business, aviation, or any of those fields out there. We would welcome you to definitely speak with the kids from different schools. We're also working with a partnership, possibly with Chicopee schools as well. We're always looking for more volunteers because our programs are starting to stretch our limits. We need a few more people to help us to expand deeper into the flats, into Ingleside, into Churchill, and all the other neighborhoods of Holyoke. Thank you.

Ana Jaramillo: Holyoke Health Center
Hi everybody, I'm Ana Jaramillo, I work for Holyoke Health Center as the Community Partnership Coordinator as well as the ‘Let's Move Hampden County.’ I just want to say that please join us for the farmer’s market. In Holyoke, we have a winter farmer’s market. Our focus is to educate the community about the use of HIP, which is the Health Incentive Program. HIP is a way to increase food accessing Holyoke and also to educate the community around a healthy eating diet.

The Holyoke Health Center also is a partner with different organizations that work with seniors to provide a safe place for seniors to walk. We have one of our providers leading a ceremonial walk at the war memorial every Thursday at 12:15PM. We encourage you guys to please help us to spread their word. It is a safe walk indoors, and hopefully we bring it outside during the spring, and we really want to promote talking to the doctors and nurses while they walk with the dog.

Rosalee Williams: Ward 2 City Councilwoman
Hi everybody, thank you Ed for inviting us. This is my tenth year on the school board. I just got reelected, and I'm sure some of you have seen on TV, and was also in the newspaper that we are not ready yet to get out of receivership. We were not really discouraged, but we weren't too happy about it. But the thing is, we are going back to the drawing board. We're going to work with the Department of Education and Secondary Education, to see what we can do to get the kids out of receivership. As you all know, COVID with Zoom didn't help at all. It didn't help too much with the children, because they're at home.

COVID is happening, how are they going to study? Well, so we think that some of that has something to do with it but we're still working. You guys keep us in prayer because we really want to work with the kids. Y'all know my mantra is you mess with kids, you mess with me. So we are going back to the Drawing board, we're going to do all we can to work with the Department of Education and Secondary Education. We have a pretty solid school committee, and we believe eventually we will get out. Thank you guys for listening.



Yvonne Lomax: Westover Job Corp Center
Good afternoon, Yvonne Lomax, Outreach and Admissions Manager here at the Westover Job Corp. I just wanted to give everyone an update that we are looking for any agencies that would like us to come out and present on Westover Job Corp. We are also willing to come out and assist with any community service that is needed in your local communities. Westover has tours every Wednesday, leaving our gate from 10:00AM to about 12:30PM, based upon questions, comments, concerns.

We also have two great new trades. We have heavy equipment mechanics, and then we have heavy machine operating equipment on campus. Please reach out to us. I have my email in the chat. We would love to service and partner with any of you to assist young people with housing resources, education, advanced training opportunities, and then also we have nonresident for students who would like to come and take part of our opportunities, but live at home. So great to see everyone, Ed, great to see you as always, and anything that we can do in your local communities please reach out to us.

Yadaris Rivera: Holyoke Housing Authority
Hi, I really don't have any updates today other than our ‘First Time Home Buyer’ classes will be held next month. If anyone's interested they can go onto our website, HolyokeHousing.org, and it'll give you a specific date.

Thomas Alimberti: Gandara Center
Hello, how are you doing? This is my first time on, so I appreciate the invite. Again, my name is Thomas Alimberti, I am the Community Based Youth and Clinical Services Director with the Gandara Center. We oversee and provide pretty much all of the CBHI services, so the in-home therapy, intensive care coordination, in-home behavioral services, therapeutic mentoring. We also have an intensive hospital diversion program, and in our Chicopee office we have family support and stabilization. So this is sort of a one stop shop of really any services that a young person and their family might need.

As of right now, as far as wait lists and things like that are concerned, we have pretty much immediate availability in our intensive care coordination program. We have family support and training and we have immediate availability. If anybody wants any more information or some education on the details of what those programs are, we would love to come out. Again, my name's in the chat. We're more than willing to come out to present about our programs. Also, a sort of utilization review type meeting at any time you guys want or anybody wants in order to determine whether or not a certain youth or their family might qualify for the services that we offer. Thanks for having us.

Suzette Gonzalez: Dean Tech High School
Hi, my name is Suzette Gonzalez, I'm a Community Health Worker that works at Dean High School in the team clinic. Right now, I don't have lots to say, I’m just working on what will help with one of the clients. Just so you guys know, if you have any students there or someone who you know, my services are helping them with housing, if they need food, any kind of those kind of basic things. Also, I enrolled them in the clinic for counseling at River Valley. That will be all, thank you, nice to meet you.

Sicry Garcia: Nuestras Raíces Inc
Hi everybody. I just wanted to mention that I put some flyers in the chat. If you had any questions you can reach out. My contact info is in the chat, and thank you for having me.

Sheryl Maldonado: Way Finders
Hi good afternoon, my name is Sheryl Maldonado. I work at Way Finders as a Resident Engagement Training Leadership Coordinator. We have a few things going on with the TDI program and also for the ACP program. We are going to have a meeting in the Holyoke Library the 15th at 6:00PM. It's open to the residents and for stakeholders. So if you can be there, please go and share that soon we're not going to have this program, ACP that helps you with your internet. If you have any questions, any concerns, you can reach out to me and I have my information in the chat. Thank you, Eddie.

Shaundell Diaz: Three County Continuum of Care
Good afternoon everybody, my name is Shaundell Diaz. I am the Coordinated Entry Coordinator with the Three County Continuum of Care. We just wrapped up our appointment time count. We did a lot of tabling across the three counties that we cover, which is Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire counties. We also have a lived experience action board. So if you have someone that's either lived, has lived experience of homelessness, or is actively experiencing homelessness and are just exceptional human beings, and would like to have their voices heard. I will drop those fires in the chat we pay folks for any type of involvement that they have with our COC as we uplift and empower them, to be able to tell us what's working and what's not working within our systems of care.

I also just wanted to put a plug out there, I see that Miguel is here, but we; myself, Gilad Moron from the North Hampton Community Action Hub, Tanisha Arena from Arise For Social Justice, as well as Rose Webster Smith from Springfield, will be presenting at the Foster Inclusion and Equity for Latino/as Children and their Families Conference on the 13th of March. Our presentation is called ‘Building Strong Communities,’ a workshop on individual and family welfare, social fabric, and justice in addressing homelessness in Massachusetts. So if you haven't registered, I don't even know if registrations open, but just letting you know just in case, if you have any questions reach out to me. I have put my email address in the chat, and I'm always welcome to collaborating. I also am co-creator of the Hampton County Resource Network. So I'm always here, and I'm always open. Thanks everybody.

Shannon Burke: Holyoke Pediatrics
Hi, Shannon with Holyoke Pediatrics. I don't have anything to report today, just looking for some resources for our families and patients. I do want to let everybody know that Adair Medina retired, so you won't see her in the chat or the group anymore. If you need to contact over here, you have me or Charlene, and our information is in the chat.

Shakira Guzman: Planned Parenthood
Hey everyone, Shakira Guzman, Community Outreach Specialist for Planned Parenthood. I only have one quick update. Yesterday was Black HIV and AIDS Awareness Day. So I partnered with NCC to host an event to help folks who are suffering from homelessness HIV/AIDS. We kind of just fed the community, which that's something that we're going to be working on again soon. So when I get a date for that I'll be sure to send that in the chat.

Then another quick update is, I'm working with Springfield Pride to host an event for Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and it should be February 24th, and the location is to be discussed. We're kind of just trying to figure out a location. Our original location didn't work but when we situate that I'll be able to send that in the chat.

Sean McBride: Holyoke District Court
Good afternoon everybody, Sean McBride, Chief Probation Officer of the Holyoke District Court. Nothing new, but just happy to be here and thank you.

Sarah Lynn: Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC)
Hi everybody, Sarah Lynn, Intake and Outreach Coordinator for MSPCC Prevention. We have both the Healthy Families and Parents as Teachers Program. They are free voluntary home visiting programs for parents in our area. If you know any parents that could use some support, please reach out to me. My information is in the chat, thank you.

Sandy Ward: Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts
I'm a volunteer with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts, educating consumers about options for death care. We also every two years collect price lists from the different funeral homes around. We're in for 2024; we've just started that just in the last few weeks.

We're also trying to puzzle out that we are hearing some reports about increases in the number of unidentified bodies, bodies in limbo, that when someone dies and there's no next of kin and this seems to be a fairly complicated issue in the State of Massachusetts, with not a lot of clarity about what happens next and who's involved. I'm sure Health Departments Police and a lot of people who may at times have encountered this, and we don't have the answers at this point. But we're trying to gather up and figure out where are the trouble spots and where we could maybe lobby to say, “Hey this needs fixing.” I put the information in the chat about our Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts.

Rafael Santos: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Hello everyone, my name is Rafael Santos. I work here at the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office as the High-Risk Offenders Transition Counselor. I also work with Ed at the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative program supporting the basketball leagues and all the different events that we have going out there in the local areas of Holyoke, sometimes even Springfield. I've recently met with a group of individuals from different agencies. We are working on developing a program to be able to support HP Lawrence School; their children, and the parents who recently came into the city of Holyoke.

We're trying to put events together through the months; like next month we have a bit of carnival coming up, still working out some logistics and things. But the idea is to continue planning events to bring these parents together with the schools, the teachers, and the staff. To work with the children to at least give them some kind of support as the kids are going through the education program, so I'm very excited about that. I'm hoping to be able to connect with some of you for some additional support to get this program off the ground, and try to be as successful as possible. Thank you.

Nia Johnson: Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
Hey everyone, my name is Nia Johnson from the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. I'm the Western Mass Community Engagement Coordinator. Thank you for your time. I just wanted to plug in that we have tons of different trainings that we offer through the Attorney General's Office. We have ‘Internet Safety’ for students and parents. We have ‘Landlord Tenant Rights’ training. We have ‘Savvy Team’ to know your rights as an adult which covers voting, Jury Duty, taxes, and general information about Massachusetts laws. We have ‘Savvy Senior’ for our senior citizens, to let them know about scams and how to prevent them from being subject to scams.

We have ‘Working Rights’ and ‘Working Team Rights’ for any workers in the Commonwealth. Also, we will be partnering with the Center for Social Justice at Western New England University and Ray for ID public renewal associates to host a panel on navigating legal systems and legal systems and assistance, and Espanol on March 13th, at Springfield College. Thank you, Ed.

Miguel Arce: Springfield College
Thank you, Mr. Caisse for providing us a forum where we can share and gather information. This is a critical service that you provide, so thank you. Additionally, I want to thank you for being the keynote speaker on March the 13th, at a conference that is being sponsored by Springfield College, which is titled ‘Fostering Inclusion and Equity for Latinas/Latino Children and their Families.’ There are thirty-seven workshops that have been scheduled. Two people I've already acknowledged that their workshop presenters. I saw two other people on zoom that are also going to be presenting.

Ed is the keynote speaker, so he has thirty minutes where he can share his passion. He's presenting something titled ‘Belief, Support, and a Call to Action.’ Isn't that dynamic? And it fits him so well. So for those of you who are interested, I'll put the information in the chat already. I'll do it one more time, and thirty-seven workshops, and it's really not enough even with that, because segregation and the disparities that exist in Hampden County for Latinos are serious and pressing and dreadful. We're trying to respond, and it's going to take us all of us working together to make it happen. I encourage all of you, if you can, to register, registration is required, and I'll put that in the chat line. Thank you.


Melany Mendoza: Mass Mentoring Partnership
Hello everyone, my name is Melany, I'm from Mass Mentoring Partnership. I am the Manager of Community Engagement for Western mass. Excited to be here, we have been around for many years, and we are looking for ways to continue to bring the work. We have mentoring relationships to the Western Mass area, especially particularly to Holyoke and Springfield.

We have some events coming up. One of them that I want to highlight is our Youth Mentoring Day at the State House. It is crucial that we continue the advocacy to advocate for funding for the mentoring programs throughout the State. That big event will be in March 21st, so for you to remember 3, 2, 1, 24 is this event. We encourage a youth development organizations to not just come and schedule a legislative visit on that day, but also to bring young people for it. We have had in the past, Ed bring youth, and is a great experience for young people to be able to go and understand what is happening at the place where people represent us.

Another event we have is on March 6th. This is my Youth Leadership Council, which has seventy members from throughout the State. These are high schooler’s, juniors and seniors, are working hard on learning a lot about advocacy and not just that. They want to teach young people about advocacy. So they are putting together a peer-to-peer training on March 6th. They will be teaching other young people about advocacy. So we will be reaching out to organizations. You will get a message, probably through Ed to share, so that you could encourage your young people to be part of these particular events. So I put my email and phone number in the chat in case anybody has more questions, but that's it for now. Thank you.

Mandy Goulet: Hope for Holyoke
Good afternoon everybody, my name is Mandy Goulet; I am the Peer Outreach Coordinator at Hope for Holyoke Recovery Center. We also have a parent project group on Thursdays at 12:00PM, which is funded by SAMHSA. It's a more project that I facilitate, so that project supports families that have DCF for criminal justice involvement. It's a certificate program. Participants can get a certificate for thirty days, sixty days, and ninety days. It focuses on trauma, building healthy relationships, sustaining skills, and strategies for healthy recovery. We have some upcoming events which are our Super Bowl party that will be this Sunday 5:00PM to 11:00PM. Then we have a Valentine's party. It's going to be food, dance, and fellowship on Valentine's Day, Wednesday the 14th from 2-5, and then we have a black history celebration on Friday the 23rd from 1-4. We're going to have like podcasts going all day food, fellowship, just good time in recovery. That's all.

Lavagn Claudio: Gandara Center
I'm the Director of Family Support and Training, and Thomas Alimberti already gave our updates.

Laura Jansen: Baystate Family Advocacy Center
I’m Laura Jansen from Baystate Family Advocacy Center. We provide services for those impacted by trauma ages zero to twenty-four and those family members impacted by homicide throughout the life span. We do currently have a short wait list, and we are accepting referrals for both therapy and case management for anybody who might need to know that. And then also, just an early announcement, we are going to be piloting a Coping with Community workshop drop in space for people once a month who have been impacted by community violence, especially due to the rise in both Holyoke and Springfield. We're seeing a lot of people struggling with language, of how to talk to their kids who learn about this in school and might not necessarily be impacted directly in terms of seeing it, but hearing about it, and certainly being exposed. So we are going to be piloting that in the upcoming months, and I'll be sure to share the information when that becomes available.

Julia Popkin- Community Legal Aid
Hi everyone, my name's Julia Popkin. I'm a Staff Attorney at Community Legal Aid in Springfield. We are the providers of free civil legal services in the five counties of Western and Central Massachusetts. I practice in the education law unit and we support students and families around issues with special education, bullying and harassment, language, access, school discipline, and for students and families facing homelessness. And I don't think that have any updates. Thanks.



Josh Colon: Holyoke Police Department
Hello everyone, I'm Officer Josh Colon from the Holyoke Police Department working out of 208 Race Street. I have nothing to report right now.

Jill Gilbreth: Valley Opportunity Council
My name is Joel Gilbreth. I'm the one of the Career and Education Advisors at the Valley Opportunity Council in Chicopee. My colleague Lorraine Caesar is the evening advisor there. I just wanted to give a little bit of an overview about some of the things that we offer. We offer adult basic education, including ESOL and high school equivalency classes and the next GED high set info session is on Monday, February 26, at 10:30 am. We also have a CDL commercial driver’s license program and the advisor for that program is Elena Dixon. We have our Youth Works and WIOA the workforce innovation and opportunity App program, and the Coordinator for that program is Carmen Ruiz.

Youth Works is a year-round program, in-summer work program for ages fourteen to twenty-five in Hampden County. But WIOA in particular, is for out-of-school youth. And lots of things going on there, including helping youth get their GED or high set and gain work experience. There are paid and unpaid position, tutoring and all collaborations with the Hampden County Workforce board provide structured and well supervised, worked experiences for low income and at risk youth between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one. We also have our citizenship classes. It's a ten week citizenship class that meets one evening a week, in the spring. During these classes students practice answering the oral questions or the application form to gain confidence in their interview skills and classes cover essential topics on the 100 US Citizenship and Immigration Services civic study question among other things.

Jessica Lebron: Employment and Education Services, City of Holyoke
Hello everyone, my name is known as Jessica Lebron, but also Jessica Lebron Martinez. I specialize in employment and education services. I work with DTA recipients, benefit recipients and I help them with housing and enrolling into certificate trainings, and GED, high set, ESOL classes and I serve on the board for Latino Scholarship Fund. I'm also one of the city Commissioners for Holyoke for Commissions on disabilities. Again, I'm here just to see what's available resource-wise, and if I could utilize it.

Jennifer Yekel: MSPCC/Eliot
Hi everyone, I'm Jennifer Yekel, and I'm here today with my fellow clinician Devana. We work at MSPCC/Eliot in the Survivor Services Program as VOCA clinicians at the Holyoke Office. We provide individual therapy, group therapy, and case management for survivors 3-21 and their caregivers. We also do trauma related presentations in case anybody wants one; we have one new group starting at the end of the month. It's about grandparents raising grandchildren who have endured trauma. We're accepting new clients, and we're able to assign rather quickly. So please reach out if you would like more information. My information is in the chat.

Melissa Perry: Holyoke Medical Center and River Valley Counseling Center
I'm Melissa Perry. I'm work at Holyoke Medical Center, and I've worked there for twenty-nine years. I'm still an employee there, but I'm contracted out the River Valley Counseling Center, for the past year I worked as the RN on the integrated healthcare team. We didn't get the second round of grants; however, they have found my position so invaluable they've decided to keep me in my role. I work with complex medical and mental health cases, coordinating care, working with health insurance, working with physicians, and health insurance and that kind of stuff. So they've kept me on after they didn't get the second round of grants. I think CHD got the second round of grants for the integrated healthcare team. But it's been very, very successful.

Stephanie Moore: Holyoke Rows
I'm Stephanie Moore from Holyoke Rows. We run the rowing, canoeing, hiking center down at Jones Ferry. We are starting our High School team, March eleventh, and we have an information session for both high school and middle school rowers on February 19th, at 4:00PM for families to come down and see what we do. We are in desperate need of transportation so if anyone who has a van would like to rent it out or has any creative solutions; we need after school transportation from the school down to the boathouse. So any ideas please let me know.

Jenneke Reynolds: Central Pioneer Valley Health District PHE Group
My name is Jenneke Reynolds, and I am a Grant Coordinator for a grant that works for the Health Departments of Holyoke, Chicopee, and South Hadley. Not much to report other than that we're hiring. We're looking for 2 health inspectors and a public health nurse, so if you know anybody who'd be interested, applications are available on South Hadley's website. Thank you in advance.

Jason Comcowich: Nuestras Raices
I'd like to share that we're working on a five year program to establish multi-generational coalition to focus on food systems and environmental policy change. We're especially looking to catalyze youth leadership in this. Any organizations that are doing similar work, we'd like to work with you. We don't want to redouble any community efforts and combine whatever's going on in that space. So I will be reaching out with some of you who shared in this presentation, and if any of you would like to collaborate on such an effort, my contact info is in the chat.

Jac Essing: DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps
Good afternoon everyone, I'm Jac, I use she/they pronouns, and I'm with the Dial South Team. We support members who serve Pioneer Valley from Springfield up to Greenfield, and I oversee the Hampden County members. We are recruiting members for 2024-2025 program year, where members support young people and develop their skills. They serve their community and they learn by doing so while they're supporting young people at various sites, schools, nonprofits, and community centers, we support them in their training and development for personal and professional goals.

If you are interested in hosting a member, you are also able to contact me. I will put my information in the chat as well as the application link for AmeriCorps members. So if you know anyone who'd be interested or know any sites that might want to host, I'm your person that you would reach out to. Members are also in charge of a team service project, and soon enough Ed will receive a flyer for that Field Day event in Holyoke.

Glorimar Irizarry: Holyoke Health Center
Good afternoon everyone, my name is Glorimar Irizarry. I am the Women's Health Program Lead for the Holyoke Health Center. My main focus here at the Health Center is really doing sexual health care and reproductive health services for all ages. But primarily my focus is always adolescence and supporting adolescents and eliminating barriers for contraceptive care.

I'm here, actually today to support some restructuring that the Health Center is actually going through. We're basically trying to be more workforce development for our community. We have a dental assistant program that we are trying to recruit for where we offer free training, and we pay for the individuals that become part of this program. It's a 16 week program where they learn how to be a dental assistant, and then we also help with job placement for the individuals that participate. We host basically 3 cohorts in a year. We're in the middle of our first one. The second one will be beginning now in April, and we are actually hosting 2 open house events so that people can come in and learn more about the program, but also for anybody who's interested in being part of the program we're going to walk through: how do you apply, what's the expectations will be and we're going to do a demo of what to expect through the training program.

The first open house will be hosted on Friday, February 23rd, from 12:00PM to 2:00PM, and the second will be host will be hosting on Wednesday, March 13th, from 4:00PM to 6:00PM. For anybody who has questions, you can feel free to contact me. I'll put my contact information in the chat. The other thing I want to do I know that Anna had spoken about the walk with a doc? I just want to kind of like just reiterate on that. That is a program that was started by one of our pharmacists, who is a doctor of pharmacology, Dr. Melvin Morales. That is really for any individual, any clients or patients or individuals who are struggling with hypertension. We basically do those 30 min walks every Thursday at the war memorial. But he's also interested in collaborating with any individuals have a Rec. Center in downtown Holyoke or community space in downtown Holyoke and you have, like either tenants or individuals who want to host a walk in their area he's also willing to collaborate and get more information on that. So again, anybody who's interested, feel free to reach out. I will connect you with the proper individuals.

Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College
I already shared the information, the schedules for the line cooks for the hotel. We also running a nurse-aid training and will pretty soon are including a new para-educator free training. Nothing as for now, we will have something pretty soon. We are working in some exciting news so we will let you know probably next month.

Gabriel Martinez, U.S Probation
Hi everyone, Gabriel Martinez with Federal Probation in Springfield. There’s nothing to report on my end.

Flor Diaz: Holyoke/Chicopee (Valley Opportunity Council) WIC
Hi everyone, Flor Diaz. I’m the Community Coordinator for the whole WIC department. We are a nutrition and nutritional education program. I have nothing to report for now.

Erica Vasquez: Holyoke Pediatrics
Erica Vasquez, BH Care Coordinator from Holyoke Pediatrics. I’m just here for more information in the community. No new updates, though.

Diosdado Lopez-Martinez: The Support Network
Diosdado Lopez-Martinez, I work for the Support Network. Basically, what we do is we work with families. They have children with mental health issues and disabilities. We are in the area, of Springfield, Holyoke, West Springfield, or Chicopee and have no report.

Charlene Rivera: Holyoke Pediatrics
Hi! I'm Charlene Rivera. I'm one of the Medical Home Care Coordinators here at
Holyoke Pediatrics and the only update I have is that we are looking for another Medical Home Care Coordinator. They can apply at holyokepediatrics.com

Cassie Giardina: Rise Above Foundation
I am from the Rise Above Foundation. I just began as a Community Outreach Manager. We're an organization helping youth and foster care access all sorts of enrichment activities that are going to support their physical, social, and overall wellbeing. These include things like sport team fees, summer camps, music lessons. We really love to say, yes, we have a really simple, accessible application process and so the bottom line is, if you work with youth in foster care or with foster parents, and they need any sort of funding for extracurricular activities. Please, please, please contact me. Look us up. I'll put all my information in the chat.

Candace Chapman: YWCA Holyoke
Hi, this is my first time coming into the meeting. I just became the Program Director for the Youth Parenting program in Holyoke through the YWCA. We do have a campus out in Springfield as well. We serve teens ages thirteen to twenty-two for teen parenting. So they have to be pregnant or parenting teens. We help them with housing resources, if they're not enrolled with school we set them up with schooling. We help them with a wide variety of things, whether its life skills, helping them get their documents, whether it's a Mass ID or things of that nature. And I'm just here to learn more and gather resources so that we can bring it back to the ladies.

Ashley Jediny: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Hi everyone, Ashley Jediny, Hampden County Sheriff’s Office. I'm the Program Coordinator for our post overdose outreach team. I have nothing new report.

Art Lobdell: Boy Scouts of America, Holyoke Rotatory Club
Just wanted to report out Boy Scouts of America that we do have an all genders Cub Scout program running now in Holyoke. It runs on Thursdays at the Public Library. So please do have your young people attend that are in grades. K through 5 that might be interested in being part of the Cub Scouts, again, serving all genders.
We also have meeting at the library, a program, Scouts BSA for female presenting youth that are in ages eleven to eighteen. So that is another program. Again, lots of folks aren't aware that we are engaged in that kind of work. So want to make sure that you all are aware we have an event coming up for those that are in involved in our programs. Again that middle school to high school program. We're going to have Merit Badge University out at UMass Amherst again. Folks will be taking classes in all number of things, learning badges out there, coming up on March first and April 4th

We also have started an entrepreneurship program working with High School age students. Currently, we're operating that in Tower Square, in Springfield. But we're looking for a location in Holyoke to run an entrepreneurship program. We are partnering with junior achievement and using our staff to help deliver those programs. Speaking of staff we do have a growing team, and we do need to hire some more folks. We are looking for part timers to come work for us primarily with daytime availability. And it's a scattered but to be able to help us with our programs whether they're in school or after school. Again, all training is provided. It's not a lot of heavy lifting. So we are hiring.

Switching my hat real quick, I'll speak now as the President of the Holyoke Rotary Club. We're involved tomorrow in the food backpack program that's going on at Donahue School. We're looking to pack fifteen-thousand meals. We'll be there starting at 7:00AM in the morning till about 1:00PM in the afternoon, working on making meals for that program. Coming up on May the eighteenth we're going to be launching the Flag for Heroes Plaza at the Public Library. That will be installing 50 American flags that will be there honoring various folks and folks in the community will have an opportunity to tag those flags to honor specific individuals.
So again, Art Lobdell, from the Boy Scouts of America, I have a lot of stuff going. Usually, I've got a bunch of staff on today to day. They're all out doing programs. And I am also from the Holyoke Rotary Club.

Angelique Rodriguez: Holyoke Community College
Hi, everyone Angie here. I work over at Holyoke Community College as a Community Outreach and Admissions Counselor. There are just a couple of updates for us today over at HCC. We do have late start classes every semester as some of you may know. We have one late start left coming up on March eighteenth. So if you want to get in, or you know anybody who wants to get in and register definitely connect with us.
The second piece of news is that we recently opened a scholarship center on our campus, which is really, really amazing. And that's another resource as well. Helping our students pay for school in different ways. And then, lastly, of course, I've mentioned this a few times, MassReconnect is a new program I've been working a lot with. It's essentially funding the college for adults who are 25 and older, who live in the Commonwealth in Massachusetts. So if you're interested in connecting with me about that interested in doing any sort of community outreach, I would love to come and talk to any of your staff, or any of the people that you work with in our community.

Alicia Thomas: Pa’lante Transformative Justice
Hi all, my name is Alicia. I am the Director of Youth, Organizing and Leadership with Pa’lante Transformative Justice. Pa’lante is a youth led nonprofit. We have a drop in space that's buy and for youth, and that's how most young people find us.

Folks can come hang out, get social-emotional support, meet new people, and over time will encourage them to get involved in community organizing and leadership development opportunities focus really on empowering young people to speak out about what's going on in Holyoke, their community.
I have a very exciting open house coming up at the end of the month that I'd like to invite you all to. Many of you know we've kind of bounced from Holyoke High to Lighthouse. We've really landed in our home now, and we're excited to celebrate with the entire community. We have activities going on that day. We have some raffles, scavenger hunts, games to get you all acclimated into the building. It's also a really great opportunity for other organizations that are looking for spaces for events to check out our community room and our beautiful conference room for meetings. So I just really excited to see you all there, and I will drop the flyer in the chat.



Adlyn Colon: Holyoke Community College
I’m Adlyn Colon. I work on for Holyoke Community College at our education program located at the Picknelly Center on Maple Street. We offer high school or GED preparation classes, and also ESOL classes for students of other languages to learn English. We are currently recruiting people for the March cycle that is staring for the high school preparation and for the ESOL is the open enrollment. That means you could contact me anytime. If you have any candidate, the phone number, flyer, and contact information will be in the chat.

Abbie Germaine: Western Mass MOMS
My name is Abbie from the MOMS program. I just want to give a shout out to Penny; she gave a presentation about the CHD programs. It's a wonderful program.

I'd like to give a quick update about the MOMS program for those of you who don't know yet what the MOMS program is. We provide an opportunity for mothers to have a chance to address what makes being a parent stressful.

So we offer a class for free. It meets once a week for an hour and a half, folks can join on zoom or in person, in English or in Spanish, folks will get paid for their participation, with an opportunity to earn up to $315. We do provide childcare, and we do provide bus passes. We are actively enrolling every single day. Our numbers are rising. But we still have about 5 months to enroll. So the last day to enroll is June thirtieth. So if you're a mom or if you know any moms, if you work with any moms that might be interested in receiving some support around what makes being a parent, stressful. It really is a great opportunity. So we would love to have you. My information’s in the chat.

I also wanted to update quickly that we are going to be partnering up with the Chicopee police and the Massachusetts State Police to have a car seat safety checkpoint event in Chicopee probably in March. So once that deed is final and once that flyer’s final I'll have Ed share it with you all. I come with a whole team of amazing people that support and have love for the families that we work with and I'd love for you all to come and meet the people that I work with.
It will be a public event, meaning anyone can come. It's free. But we're going to do like coffee with a cop and have the car seats checked out and hopefully some resource tables. Once that's finalized we'd love to have you all there.

I'd like to just give a shout out to Springfield College. I know of a couple of people have talked about this already. But I just want to thank Professor Miguel Arce for all the work you're doing on this big event. If you don't have this on your calendar, please put down March thirteenth, the Fostering Inclusion and Equity for the Latin Communities Conference. As was mentioned earlier, there's 30 plus speakers and a lot of resource tables. It's going to really, really, be a great event. So the MOMS program will be there. We're going to have a table. So stop by the table, learn more about the MOMS program. Get some goodies. But it really is an amazing community event. We would love to have you all there. The link is in the chat. So follow the link register today and get that on your calendar. March thirteenth, 2024.

Mike Pratt: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Hi everybody, I'm Mike Pratt. I work at the Hampden County Sheriff's Office as well as the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative. I help Ed, with all a lot of the behind the scenes. Things run in the basketball leagues and everything like that. And I guess. Really, my passion is helping young men develop certain characteristics like integrity and things like that.

John McCarthy: United States Citizenship and Immigration USCIS
John McCarthy, USCIS. Just to give my information I am Community Relations with USCIS Citizenship and Immigration Services. That's the agency in immigration that provides benefits for people who are applying for immigration benefits. And if there's any group or any individuals who would like a presentation on any particular immigration benefit, please get in touch with me. If you communicate with me at boston.communityrelations@Uscis.Dhs.Gov, that's probably the simplest way to get in touch with me.

Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
I just have a couple of things I know I talked last month about the save to date for the Back to School Event. It is definitely locked in for August 24th, I sent out a save the date flyer. I'll be sending it out again. That event's going to be from 11 am to 3 pm. We're going to be bringing 2,500 backpacks to pass out. It's about a $40,000 worth of supplies in those backpacks. So we will be doing a supply drive. We do get some supplies already donated, but we supplement it by doing a supply drive and try to get 2,500 of each item that we collect so stay tuned for that.

The other thing I wanted to say is, last month we did a little poll on the meeting. There was a lot of interest in the leadership teams that we're going to have in 6 neighborhoods. So today, I ended up sending out a link. I'm just wondering if you can click on the link, and consider being part of one of those leadership teams and 6 of the 7 wards in Holyoke. You'll see them listed once you click on that registration form in that link.

I want to thank everybody for assisting with our all-star game at the basketball Hall of Fame last Thursday. I just really want to thank all the agencies that actually work with us on that. And just to give you an idea of how much work it is, we had to over 320 kids in the Basketball League, and we have a hundred volunteers from many different agencies that our coaches and volunteers. We have 32 different teams. And it takes a hundred volunteers to actually run the League, so that'll let you know how much work it is. But we're getting the volunteers and the coaches from all the different agencies that are on this call. So I just want to say, thank you for all the work. Listening to everyone speak today and hearingabout all the work that all of you are doing is exciting.

Our next networking meeting is March fourteenth the day after the conference. Like Abbie said, we are trying to encourage folks to attend the Springfield College, Fostering Equity and Inclusion for Latinas/os that will be held on March 13. I know there's a lot happening in the community, but not because I'm going to be one of the speakers, but just because I know Professor Arce and his team put a lot of work into the conference, so we'll be sending that flyer out and registration form out again. I just asked you to consider being part of that event that day.

Old Business / New Business
Next Meeting is on Thursday, March 14th on Zoom.

CHAT NOTES:

Glorimar Irizarry
Holyoke Health Center

Ellen Broadhurst
Private Social Worker

Areliz Barbosa
Good afternoon, Areliz O. Barbosa with DDS state ops

Abbie Germain
Western Mass MOMS agermain@viability.org 413.561.7413

Jenneke Reynolds
Central Pioneer Valley Health District PHE group

Shannon Burke
Holyoke Pediatrics Medical Home Care Coordinator burkes@holypeds.com

Carla Poulos
Women's Money Matters

Abbie Germain
Western Mass MOMS!!
Abbie *Germain- sorry typo in my own name!

Charlene Rivera
Care Coordinator Holyoke Pediatrics riverac@holypeds.com

Christina Johnson
Holyoke Health Center

Adlyn Colon-HCC
HCC Adult Education - HiSET/GED Program

Jennifer Yekel
VOCA clinician with MSPCC/Eliot - jyekel@eliotchs.org

Jason Comcowich
Development Director, Nuestras Raices, jcomcowich@nuestras-raices.org

Sarah Lynn
MSPCC Prevention-Intake and Outreach Coordinator- Health Families- Parents as Teachers slynn@eliotchs.org

Dallas Clark
Hi, I'm an AI assistant helping Dallas Clark take notes for this meeting. Follow along the transcript here: https://otter.ai/u/M_8pVT2b4rDKHqDxIlyIRNupLVY?utm_source=va_chat_link_1
You'll also be able to see screenshots of key moments, add highlights, comments, or action items to anything being said, and get an automatic summary after the meeting.

Candace Chapman
Program Director of Holyoke Youth Parenting Program YWCA

Erica Vasquez
Behavioral Health Care Coordinator Holyoke Pediatrics vasqueze@holypeds.com

Laura Jansen
LICSW Baystate Family Advocacy Center laura.jansen@baystatehealth.org

Alicia Thomas
Good afternoon everyone! Alicia Thomas, Director of Youth Organizing and Leadership at Pa’lante Transformative Justice

Flor Diaz
Holyoke/Chicopee WIC
VOC/WIC Community Coordinator fdiaz@valleyopp.com

Jill Gilbreth
Valley Opportunity Council

Alexa Piscitello
Boy Scouts of America Western Massachusetts Council - Development Director


Thomas Alimberti
Gandara Center: Community Based Youth Clinical Services 413.507.0752 talimberti@gandaracenter.org

Cassie Giardina
Rise Above Foundation

Heather MacInnes
Boy Scouts of America Western Mass Council- heather.macinnes@scouting.org 413-218-2798.. Holyoke Cub Scouts/Troops meet at the Holyoke Library at 5:30pm to 6:30pm on 2 Thursdays a month- Junior Achievement/Business Exploring meets on Mondays at at Tower Square at 3:30pm to 5pm-

Jessica Marquez
LCSW CPCS Family Justice Advocates jgmarquez@madefenderco.net

Julia Popkin- Community Legal Aid
Community Legal Aid jpopkin@cla-ma.org

Alyssa Golden
Community Legal Aid, CORI/Reentry Unit agolden@cla-ma.org

Nia Johnson
Hello everyone! Nia Johnson , Western Mass Community Engagement Coordinator, Attorney Generals Office , Nia.johnson2@mass.gov 4138671619

Miguel Arce
MSW | Professor
Fostering Inclusion and Equity for Latina/o children and their families wellbeing Conference on March 13, 2024, follow this link:
https://gulick.springfield.edu/fosteringequityconference/
Springfield College

Lavagn Claudio
Director of Family Support & Training at Gandara

Mandy Goulet
Hope for Holyoke
Peer Outreach Coordinator @ Hope for Holyoke Peer Recovery Center/ Recovery coach on the Parent Project/MOAR

Shakira Guzman
Community Outreach Specialist at Planned Parenthood - shakira.guzman@pplm.org

Gwendoly Hardrick
Alianza DV Services Business Manager

Jac Essing
DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps.
Recruiting members for 2024-2025!
Support youth; develop skills; serve community; learn by doing!
Apply by Feb 15: bit.ly/dialselfamericorps24

Carl Borden boy scouts
Western Massachusetts Council, Boy Scouts of America.
carl.borden@scouting.org
We are growing and need adult volunteers to expand

Damaris Lopez
Care Coordinator and Community Health Worker, Boston Children's Hospital. Damaris.lopez@childrens.harvard.edu

Sicry Garcia
Outreach and Event Coordinator at Nuestras Raíces Inc

Carl Borden boy scouts
Today is the 114th Birthday of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America

Diosdado Lopez-Martinez
The Support Network
dlopez-martinez@wmtcinfo.org

Ellen Broadhurst
My apologies...I need to leave. Sorry to miss this wonderful group meeting.😊

Shaundell Diaz
3COC/CAPV
Coordinated Entry Coordinator, Three County Continuum of Care- sdiaz@communityaction.us

Christina Johnson
Holyoke Health Center
I apologize i need to hop off for an urgent matter.

Dallas Clark
Hi, I'm an AI assistant helping Dallas Clark take notes for this meeting. Follow along the transcript here: https://otter.ai/u/M_8pVT2b4rDKHqDxIlyIRNupLVY?utm_source=va_chat_link_2

You'll also be able to see screenshots of key moments, add highlights, comments, or action items to anything being said, and get an automatic summary after the meeting.

Carl Borden
boy scouts
only in Holyoke or all Pioneer Valley?

Ana Jaramillo
Holyoke Health Center

Penny Dugan
CHD Youth Services Coordinator and clinician. pdugan@chd.org, cell: 413-887-2946, Outpatient front desk: 413-887-2946, Gateway Crisis Line: 833-CHD-TALK

Sicry Garcia
Outreach and Event Coordinator at Nuestras Raices

Sandy Ward
Sandy Ward, volunteer with Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Mass. https://funeralconsumerswmass.org
We advocate for consumer rights, and answer questions from the public via email fcawmass@gmail.com and a 24/7 voice-mail service (413-376-4747). No charge for our services.

Art Lobdell
Yvonne can we please meet

Sicry Garcia
My phone number is 413-535-1789 x209, email sgarcia@nuestras-raices.org

Angelique Rodriguez
Community Outreach and Admissions Counselor at Holyoke Community College. I specifically work with non-traditional students and adult learners. I would love to connect with any local nonprofits and social service organizations to do some community outreach. If anyone has questions and wants to connect, please contact me at arodriguez@hcc.edu or 413-522-2243.

Sheryl Maldonado
WayFinders/ResidentEngagement
Hi, my name is Sheryl Maldonado I'm a Resident Engagement Training Leadership VISTA, at Way Finders phone 413-386-6898. smaldonado@wayfinders.org Please send me any flyers for events and programs you want me to send to the resident. Thank you for what you do Have a nice day.

Alyssa Golden
I have to run, nice to see everyone! Feel free to reach out to discuss the legal assistance we provide related to criminal records/reentry post-incarceration. You can email me: agolden@cla-ma.org or by phone: 413-582-1377

Art Lobdell
Now hiring part time workers Art.Lobdell@scouting.org
We also are now operating Cub Scouts all genders k-5th grade at the Library Thursdays As well as a girls identifying program Scouts, BSA age 11-18 also at the Library

Jessica Marquez
I need to leave for a meeting. Nothing to share. Thank you for having me.

Gloria Penagos-HCC
HCC Free Job Trainings - https://www.hcc.edu/courses-and-programs/workforce-development/free-job-training-programs

Miguel Arce
MSW | Professor
For information about the Fostering Inclusion and Equity for Latina/o children and their families wellbeing Conference on March 13, 2024, follow this link:
https://gulick.springfield.edu/fosteringequityconference/
Springfield College

Sicry Garcia
Here at Nuestras Raíces we offer ServSafe training, farmers training, Baking class, Finance literacy class, We also have plots available to rent at our community gardens $30 per plots. If you know someone who might be interested, please reach out and we can give you more info. 413-535-1789 x209

Melany Mendoza
Mass Mentoring Partnership Manager of Community Engagement WesternMass mmendoza@massmentors.org

Jill Gilbreth
ABE Advisor: Valley Opportunity Council
Adult Basic Education, including ESOL and High School Equivalency Classes
Career & Education Advisors
Day: Lorraine Ceaser - lceaser@valleyopp.com
Evening: Jill Gilbreth - jgilbreth@valleyopp.com
Next GED/HISET info session:
Monday, February 26 at 10:30am at 35. Mt. Carmel Ave Chicopee MA
CDL Program Advisor

Helena Dixon
hdixon@valleyopp.com
Youthworks/WIOA (Workforce Innovation & Opportunity ACT) Program Coordinator

Carmen Ruiz
cruiz@valleyopp.com
Youthworks is a year-round and summer work program ages 14-25 in Hampden County.
WIOA Program: out of school Youth, help youth get their GED and gain work experience, paid and unpaid, tutoring etc.
Our collaboration with the Hampden County Workforce Board provides a structured, well-supervised work experience for low-income, at-risk youth ages 14-21.
Citizenship Classes
Contact: (Front desk) 413-612-0206

Stephanie Moore
Holyoke Rows
Looking for transportation from high school and middle schools to boathouse In the afternoons this spring. Wondering if we can share with another nonprofit and share costs of a van. thanks. stephanie moore 413 320-3134 or smoore@holyokerows.org

Jac Essing
jessing@dialself.net; DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps.
Recruiting members for 2024-2025!
Support youth; develop skills; serve community; learn by doing!
Apply by Feb 15: bit.ly/dialselfamericorps24
Do you have youth programming and want more support? Interested in hosting an AmeriCorps member? send me an email!

Jason Comcowich
Thank you everyone. Need to hop off for my 2 o'clock now.

Carla Poulos
Women's Money Matters
Hi all- I have to jump to another meeting. If you are working with any women who could benefit from financial wellness program, please reach out to me Carla Poulos or refer to our website www.womensmoneymatters.org

Shaundell Diaz
3COC/CAPV Thank you all for the awesome work you do....I have to jump for another meeting! Thanks ED!

Areliz Barbosa
Thank you, jumping off for another meeting.

Glorimar Irizarry
Glorimar.irizarry@hhcinc.org

Alexa Piscitello
Hi All, I'm Alexa Piscitello. I am a newly appointed Development Director for Boy Scouts- Western Massachusetts Council and this is my very first week with the organization. I do have to run to another meeting but I have enjoyed learning about everyone's initiatives and look forward to connecting again next time!

Thomas Alimberti
Gandara Center
Hello, I need to jump off for another meeting. Thank you all!

Cassie Giardina
Rise Above Foundation-Supporting youth in foster care! cassie@weriseabove.org, www.weriseabove.org

Edward Caisse
Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Neighborhood Leadership Teams: https://forms.gle/vu37C54t5YXKn6Js5

Penny Dugan
Have to jump off, thanks, all!

Adlyn Colon
HCC - acolon@hcc.edu - 413-552-2927

Laura Jansen
Baystate Family Advocacy Center
Have to go, but thank you all!

Angelique Rodriguez
Have to head out, but thanks so much everyone! Again, feel free to connect with me at arodriguez@hcc.edu or 413-552-2243 to talk about applying to HCC / community outreach.

Miguel Arce
Thank you for your leadership in creating the network

Jac Essing
DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps
Thank you all and thank you, Ed!

Alicia Thomas
Thank you all- have a great day!

Next Meeting is a special meeting on Thursday, March 14th on Zoom.


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