March 2025

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes


Date: March 13, 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 and Introduction: 1:00pm - 1:-05pm

Guest Speaker: Valeryia Pedersen: Federation for Children with Special Needs 1:05pm - 1:20pm

I'm glad to be a part of this meeting and to talk to you all today about the Caregiver to Caregiver Respite Network, which is an initiative at the Federation for Children with Special Needs.

We are just absolutely delighted to introduce this project to you all today. We are thrilled to be able to share some of the updates since it has been a year since the program has been launched. We have some exciting data that I will briefly go over and the different things that I will share about the project. Basically, Caregiver to Caregiver Respite Network is an initiative focused on connecting our caregivers of children and youth with special health needs, as well as medically complex needs, with one another so that they can provide and receive respite.

This network came out of an idea that was originally planted by a parent with lived experience, who took care of her son with medically complex needs, and found that most frequently whenever she needed some assistance, whenever she needed respite, or maybe needed to run an errand, go to a doctor's appointment for herself, she actually turned to other caregivers for support. It was just so fitting for her to think of how we can make this an actual network, in real life.

You might know of this caregiver, her name is Elizabeth Bostic. She currently works for the Department Public Health. If you have ever crossed paths with her and you know who I'm talking about, this program is essentially her brainchild.

How the Federation ended up launching this initiative is by the grant funding from the State of Massachusetts which we were very fortunate to apply for two years ago. The initiative was specifically around innovations and respite. There were about forty other grantees who also received funding for innovative respite programs, and we were one of them. We ended up creating a brand new team that would be supporting the program, which is something that I will talk about a little later within the slides. And with that, the Caregiver to Caregiver Respite Network was born.

Caregiver to Caregiver Respite Network Program is a network of families who are Massachusetts residents. Right now, we are still just serving the state of Massachusetts, though we're hoping in the future we could be able to expand to other states, as well as increase our age limit. At the moment, for participation, we consider families who have children, ages zero to twenty-six, but we hope that we can expand that age bracket further in the future.

Another participation consideration is that residents of Massachusetts, who have children with disabilities, if they would want to receive and provide respite. Now, a lot of times we get a question about “what if I only want to receive respite”, and to that we say it's absolutely fine, however, it just might take us a little bit longer to match you with another family. With that being said, you can still participate and we would still be able to walk you through the steps of the program.

Now, we will go over how we connect families and match our families. Essentially, how it works is in the terminology that we use and how this program functions. We use three criteria’s that we base our matches on: We look at the child's or youth’s medical needs, support needs, as well as their diagnosis. We also want to make sure that the families we paired together connect with one another and have very similar experiences so their children will be common with one another. For instance, if somebody has a child with autism and they use an assistive technology device. In this instance, we could connect them with another parent who is familiar with autism and specific support needs that come with that, as well as being familiar with using assistive technology.

Another example would be if somebody has a child with medically complex needs or a youth with medically complex needs. We would try to match them with another caregiver who also has a child or youth with medically complex needs so that they're aware about G tube feedings, for example, or other specific needs that that child or youth might have.

We also look at where the family lives. We definitely try to stay as close as possible within a very manageable driving distance, so caregivers aren't stressed out about having to travel too far, or if transportation is a barrier. What we try to do is to match families or connect families within a thirty minute driving distance from one another.

For our other match criteria, we use the cultural preferences and cultural identity of our caregivers. We have multilingual staffs that support our families, who speak other languages. Our staffs speak Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian, Creole, Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese. If we get families for whom, English is not their first language, and would still like to have access to respite support; we can absolutely support them by connecting them with a staff member who speaks their language. In addition to this, we can also match them with another caregiver who shares that similarity in their cultural and language identity as them.

Next, I will walk you through the participation in the program, or more specifically, through the program process steps. One of the first steps to participate is by filling out a match request which lives on our web page. I will be sure to share that information in the chat later on. With this, the caregivers will fill out the application form and it will get sent directly to our program. From there, we then connect them to one another and start walking them through steps in the process.

Next, after the application process would be having an intake call with one of our staff members. We offer a phone option as well as a virtual option if somebody wants to sort of put a face to the name. It takes about thirty minutes. We have a list of questions that we typically ask our caregivers, mainly get to know more about their experience providing care to a child or youth with specialized support needs. We also want to know about their home situation. They are very basic questions and we typically wrap up in about thirty minutes.

After we share our background check form, which you can also see on your screen at the moment, this is what our CORI form looks like. I'm not sure if everybody is familiar with the background check process; however, CORI is the Criminal Offender Record Information form. We do require that it be notarized by a notary public in Massachusetts. It is also important to note that we have notaries within our staff. So, if getting notoriety presents itself to be barriers to one of our caregivers, we always offer to meet them somewhere in the community, or come to their home, and help them notarize that CORI form for them.

Once we have processed the background checks, we also check the references that the caregiver provided. We typically ask for two names such as a neighbor, a family friend, relative, or a coworker; basically, somebody who really knows that person as a caregiver, and can speak to their caregiving experience. Just say a few words about them.

We then invite our caregivers to the orientation that we offer virtually. It is about an hour long, and we offer opportunities to learn a little bit more about different ways to receive and provide respite care for caregivers. We also offer some creative outside of the box ideas. It frequently happens that our caregivers, when they come to our program, they may have had respite before due to having accessed it through an agency, and or locally within their community.

It typically looks a certain way when a professional comes to their home and they're taking care of their child for a certain number of hours. When it comes to providing and receiving through our program, it might not look the same. It might look completely different. so that is why we always share some outside of the box ideas with our caregivers, so they can think of what else this respite opportunity might look like for them.

For example, when we talk about reciprocity a lot of time we'll mention scenarios like if you have a medically complex youth and you are matched with another caregiver who also has a medically complex youth. You can both meet at a movie theater, or perhaps one caregiver stays for the duration of the movie and provides oversight to both young people. With this, the other caregiver goes and does something that they've been wanting to do, and just haven't had an opportunity to like sit in a coffee shop and read their favorite book, or if they have a doctor's appointment to go to. That’s what one of the options looks like. What respite might look like out in the community, or for those in a shorter term scenario, we do provide a lot of these different prompts for our caregivers when we do our orientation session.

We also have a pretty robust learning platform that we offer to caregivers in our program. We have actually built it ourselves and all of the content has been curated by our program staff. You will see a little snapshot of what it looks like further in the slides. But for now, I'll just say that there are a lot of resources. There are videos. There are some short training opportunities. It’s a really great support for those caregivers who want to learn more and are open to more resources and supports.

We do ask our caregivers if they are CPR and First Aid certified. It is not a requirement in the program; however, we do offer them options of taking the training with us. We have a certified CPR and First Aid instructors on staff, and we are planning to have trainings at certain locations where we can access caregivers in different areas of Massachusetts. We offer that training to our caregivers free of charge if they're interested.

Our next step is to start searching for matches for specific caregivers. We have a database where we store all of our caregiver’s data. In addition to this, we also have a map in our database where we can look at where each person is located, check what their child's support needs are, what their cultural preferences are, and identify whether or not these two caregivers might be a good fit.

Once we identify a potential match, we will schedule what we call “caregiver introductions,” which is essentially a thirty minute virtual conversation. We invite both sides. There’s a lot of juggling of schedules, as you can imagine, and both caregivers will be there. One of our staff members, or two, will be there to facilitate the conversation, get introduced, and let the caregivers chat about their children or young people just get to know one another initially and see if it might be a good fit for both of them.

Following the introduction call, we then reach out to each caregiver separately, and ask them if they would like to exchange contact information with the caregiver they were just spoke to. If they do, we let them take it from there, and they can decide whether they might want to meet up in the community first, and to get to know one another in person. They might even take both of their children to the library and meet there and have a conversation, or let their children play together, and get a sense of one another. They might also just jump right into respite. It can look different for each of our caregiver matches. However, we do give our caregivers the freedom to explore what works best for them and their families.

One of the key pieces for the success of this program is really the reciprocity. We do emphasize that when we talk about how caregivers are compensating one another, we emphasize the benefits of reciprocity, which is combating isolation and building a social network. We also offer other options for compensation, which are private pay or PCA hours. Some of you may be familiar with a Personal Care Attendant Program through MassHealth. What PCA hours means is that a child has to be enrolled in a certain plan through MassHealth in order to have access to those hours.

As I've mentioned preciously, our staff speak multiple languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian, Creole, Chinese, and Vietnamese. These languages are provided within our programs, available to provide support. Currently, many of those languages are represented through the match requests with our caregivers. The majority of match requests are in English, about 63%, but we do have, as you can see through this percentage breakdown, all of our languages represented. Spanish is one of the more popular ones. Chinese is also very popular with our caregivers, and there are smaller percentages on some of the other languages as well.

We currently have about fifty-four match connections made to date. This is a snapshot of our learning platform and we have some great resources that we have put together: training videos on fire safety for beginners, CPR training, and then emergency forms that caregivers can print out and provide to the respite provider that would be in their home. This is so they know what the safety protocols are for their child such as medications and other things like that.

Agency Overview & Updates: 1:20pm - 2:20pm

Abbie Germain: Viability
Hi everyone, good afternoon. My name's Abbie, I represent Viability. I work in the communities within Holyoke and surrounding as far as Pittsfield and beyond. What we do is we help individuals with employment. We also have community-based day programs and clubhouses. We also have a mom's program specifically for mothers, and we also work with DTA with specifically DTA clients looking for either education or employment.

We also have a wide range of individuals both with and without disabilities that we help connect to employment opportunities. With that being said, if you have any employment needs, our folks are looking for part-time and full-time jobs. We've got a lot of great individuals ready to work, so stay connected. I'll put my information in the chat, thanks.

Abigail Rix: May Center for ABA Services and the May Center for Early Intervention
Hi everyone, my name is Abigail Ricks. I'm the Program Director at the May Center for ABA Services and the May Center for Early Intervention. We're based out of West Springfield. In regards to our Early Intervention Program, we provide services to children and families from birth to three-years-old who have developmental delays, established conditions, or disabilities that are at risk for developmental delays.

In regards to services we provide; we provide services with developmental specialists, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapy. In regards to our ABA Program, we provide ABA services to children who are anywhere from about one or two, which is the earliest that we get for referrals up to, to about five or six years old. We really focus on the early childhood in our programs, and we provide services in the home and the daycare settings community settings. We also have a center-based program for ABA services as well.

Adlyn Colon: Holyoke Community College
Hi good afternoon everybody, I'm Adlyn Colon from Holyoke Community College Adult Education, the program for GED or HISET preparation classes. We are almost at the end of the year, and our next cycle starts April 28. You still have chance to get any information session. My information is in the chat, you can contact me. After that we're going to take the break for the summer until September and then start calling.

Aleyx Bernard: Palante Transformative Justice
Hey, my name is Aleyx Bernard and I work with Palante Transformative Justice here in Holyoke. I work for Palante, however, the main thing I do is I'm a drop in admin coordinator. Monday through Friday we serve youth thirteen to nineteen in our drop in space, which includes a community closet, where they can get clothes, and ask for clothes if they need to. We just try to provide those resources.

We also have computers, showers, musical instruments, and outside areas so they can play basketball and volleyball. We have a lot of activities that go on throughout the month as well. We also have a food pantry which is open to anyone and there are no requirements. That'll be March 18th from 3:30pm to 5:00pm.

We also have a big Seagate for our end of the year share back event, and a reunion for people who have been supporters of Palante. This event will be held May 1st at 4:00pm to 6:00pm. You are more than welcome to show up.

Angelique Rodriguez: Holyoke Community College
Hi everyone, my name is Angie Rodriguez I work at Holyoke Community College as the Community Outreach and Admissions Counselor, specifically working with our adult learners and nontraditional college students.

Just a couple of reminders about HCC is that we are currently getting applications so students can register for summer and fall classes starting April 7th. If you're thinking about applying for this, summer or fall, we definitely suggest that you get in sooner than later so you have time to get into the classes that you want to take.

Otherwise, feel free to connect me if you'd like me to come visit your institution, or your place of work, I'm always down to go ahead and do some community outreach, whether that looks like a presentation or tabling in your centers.

Areliz Barbosa: Bay Path University
Good afternoon, I’m Areliz Barbosa with Bay Path University Assistant Clinical Professor Project Coordinator and Sampson Initiative. I also work independently. I dropped my website in the chat, so if anyone is looking for collaboration on any group support or education around mental health substance misuse public health, always looking for opportunities to collaborate. Thank you.

Barbara McCoubrey: Holyoke Pediatric Associates
I just want to say that this is my first meeting. I am a new Medical Home Care Coordinator for Pediatric Associates. I'm really happy to be here.

Betsy Santiago: Behavioral Health Network
Hi, I'm Betty from Behavioral Health. What we do is mental health services. We have in home therapy, outpatient therapy, TM services, and we also have a psychiatrist on staff right now. We're looking to hire more clinicians.

Bill Courchesne: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Hi everybody, I’m Bill Courchesne from the Hampden County Sheriff's Office. I'm the Ward 6 Coordinator for the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative. It's great to see you all. I'm currently working with DOC to take over their building at Bowdoin village. So, hopefully, we can do some community type things in that building. If your agency wants to do anything, in Ward 6 specifically, in Sullivan School or Bowdoin Village, please reach out to me. I will help facilitate that to happen.

Carla Zhingre: Community Action Head Start and Early Learning Programs
Hello everyone, I'm Carla I work in the Enrollment Department at Community Action Head Start and Early Learning Programs. We provide early education and care to expectant parents and children, ages zero to five years old in Franklin, Hampshire, and Western Hampden County. We're also going to be holding a virtual info session March 26th at 11am. If you guys want to join us, I'm going to drop the flyer in the chat here.

Carl Borden: Scouting America Western Mass
Hello! Tonight is Scouts at Mount Tom Lodge in Holyoke which starts at 5:30pm for our Cub Scouts and our Scouts PSA Troop for girls. The troop for boys meets on Wednesday nights, and our Sea Scout ship meets on Wednesday nights all at Mount Tom Lodge.

We also are hiring, and I put it in the chat. We're looking for cooks, servers, lifeguards, and a few other things at our summer camp. We're looking for camp counselors at our day camp in Springfield, and also we have a celebrity bartending event next Wednesday, down at the Student Prince in Springfield, March 19th from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. If you want more information email me, my information is in there. Thank you so much.

Charlene Rivera: Holyoke Pediatrics
Hi, my name is Charlene Rivera I am the Medical Home Care Coordinator for Holyoke Pediatrics. I continue to provide support to medically complex children, and refer them to resources and programs that they need.

Corrine Ryan: Community Legal Aid
Hi everyone, Corinne. I manage Community Legal Aid, Springfield Office. CLA is the free civil legal aid provider for Central and Western Mass. We don't do criminal. We don't do personal injury, but everything under the civil legal realm we do such as, eviction defense in the housing context, subsidy terminations, education, law, state and federal benefits, employment, and humanitarian based immigration relief.

Our website is communitylegal.org. That also has information on how to apply. I did put in the chat one update. Thanks to a technology innovation grant, we just developed a new online module on mass legal help. What it does is it helps families who need a substituted caregiver, for example a parent is ill hospitalized, incarcerated, facing deportation or some other immigration situation, and it allows families to figure out what option they need. Whether it's a caregiver affidavit for a temporary caregiver, whether it's a temporary agent, and whether it's an actual guardianship, it can help families figure out what options are and which one is appropriate for them. It guides them through the form so they can fill out the forms. It’s available in English and Spanish. The link to that website is right in the chat. Please check that out and let me know if you have questions about that, thanks.

Damasco Santiago: Tapestry
Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Damasco Santiago from Tapestry Syringe Access Program in the city of Holyoke. Just wanted to point out now that we're the warmer weather is starting back up, my site will be resuming our community monthly community syringe pickup. It's hosted every second Saturday of the month. We meet here at our site, 306 Ray Street, and we go out throughout the community and try to pick up discarded syringes and things like that throughout the community. This starts this month next month, April- coming up second Saturday of the month. That's the only update I have for now. Thank you.

Diana Biagioli: Federation for Children with Special Needs
I'm Deanna Biagioli from the Federation for Children with Special Needs. We are the parent center in Massachusetts for young people with disabilities ages 0 through 26 for some of our programs, and zero through thirty for some other programs.

Val, who presented today, is one of the programs. We have a ton of different programs, and you can look at our website- I have put in the chat. The stipend that's available is for young people born between March 10, 1998, and September 30, 2001. This is free money. Two of my colleagues presented a few months ago, and they fought very hard with Desi to get that. They also have to have stayed, or were supposed to stay in high school through age twenty-two. I don't know if you guys know this, but when a young person has special education they can stay in high school through age twenty-two. Those are the only two requirements, and they have to be a Mass resident, too.

I have put my email in the chat. Somebody asked for Val, and I think she left. Gerardo, I put Val's email in the chat. I will put the Federation for Children with Special Needs information in the chat.

Elizabeth Rogers: Bay State Family Advocacy Center
Hi everyone! This is also my first meeting. A colleague of mine, Laura Jansen, was the one attending previously. At the Bay State Family Advocacy Center in Springfield, we provide trauma focused therapy to children-newborn up to 24- that have experienced a trauma. We also have a homicide bereavement program for any age if someone's experienced a loss to homicide.

We also provide workshops in the community. I did put my information in the chat. We can go to different agencies and provide different workshops around self-care, trauma informed care.

For an announcement, we're actually having our 1st resource fair and recognition of National Child Abuse, Prevention, Awareness Month, next month, at the FAC in Springfield. I'll drop the QR Code into the chat, and the QR. Code is for any agency that wants to come and table at the event. Then hopefully by next time, I'll have the flyer for the clients available.

Elizabeth Veillette: Center for Human Development
Hi, everyone, I am the Employment and Services Navigator for CHD Shelter Program.
Nothing new to report other than the State is throwing a lot of curve balls at us lately. We have to change or end some of our services throughout our division. Which are permanent supportive Housing, Law threshold, and stabilization? Shelter is our biggest piece and one of the biggest in the State, but our challenge from the State is they're shortening the length of stay for residents, which I'm sure you all heard on the news.

My challenge is helping people become employed more quickly, so that they have an income to show landlords when they need to move out of the shelter. That's really about it.

Emi Aleksanyan: UMass Amherst
Hello, my name is Emi Aleksanyan, and I'm the research recruiter and coordinator for the Department of Speech Language, Hearing Sciences at Umass Amherst.

We run a variety of studies. We are looking to recruit kids with disabilities, bilingual kids with disabilities, people with aphasia, and bilingual adults who are older. If you're interested in either the research or in collaboration I have put my email into the chat. All of our labs want to be engaged in the communities that they work with. If you have any events related to any of these populations, we would love to come and support as well.

Flor Diaz- Valley Opportunity Council Program
Hi, everyone! I'm Flor` Diaz. I'm the Community Coordinator for Valley Opportunity Council Program. Our program is a nutrition and nutrition education program for pregnant women, infant, and children.

I Just a quick update that our Chicopee with office is going to be moving. At the end of April-beginning of May, We're going to move to 254 Mcistry apt, Chicopee where the new Dunkin Donuts is next door. I will keep you updated on the date we're probably going to have a ribbon cladding event. You guys are welcome.

Georgie Brown: OneHolyoke Community Development Corporation
Hi, everyone! My name is Georgie. I'm a Community Engagement Coordinator for One Holyoke Community Development Corporation.
We've got a lot of events coming up. I'll try to get flyers out to everyone as I have them.

The one thing that we have coming up is we're starting our cleanup campaign again. That's going to be April 22 we're going to be hosting like a big cleanup event here in Holyoke. I'll put my info in the chat if anyone wants more details.

Gerardo Torres: WayFinders
Good afternoon, my name is Gerald Torres. I am a Resident Advocate from Holyoke. I'm volunteering for WayFinder and I've been working at Morgan school as a crossing guard.

Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College
Hello, everyone. Everyone received the information about the free trainings. Everyone knows about the new schedule for the spring for line cook, and the hotel.

We also have the Para educators and good news we are bringing up the clean energy and we are working on it. We are working on the flyer. We are working to start promoting this free job training. I will provide more information later. Please feel free to invite the community to apply to these programs. We still have a spot open for the March 24th about the line cook and hotel.

Jac Essing: DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps Program
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jack Essing. I'm with the Dial Self Americorps Program.
Our program serves Hampton, Hampshire and Franklin County.

We are now recruiting for our 2025-2026 program term. If you or someone you know is looking for a way to develop professional skills, build community, serve from one's values, and supporting young people, we might be a good fit.

We offer living stipends during the course of the service term, and then an education award that can be used towards previous education costs or upcoming education costs.
My last announcement is that we are hosting a community cleanup event in collaboration with One Holyoke, CDC on April 4th- which is the first Friday in April.

If you are looking for ways to volunteer or get involved, or if you know others who are looking to volunteer, our members will be leading teams to go and clean up around the area of Saint Paul's in Holyoke, Appleton Streets, Locust, and Linden. I'll put the Rsvp form in the chats. It's not necessary the Rsvp but it is helpful for us to make sure that we have enough grabbers and trash bags.

Jeff Hayden: Holyoke Community College
I think we've heard enough from HCC So I will pass. I did want to remind everyone with all the changes going on, especially with pass-through money that we all get is to keep ever vigilant on that, because I think we'll see some changes coming up. So, thanks, Ed.

Katelynn Cruz: Palante Transformative Justice
Hi everyone, it's also my first meeting I'm joining after the Symposium. I'm here from Palante Transformative Justice as well. I am the training manager; I coordinate our Mindful Rage Program, which is an alternative to traditional anger management. We use circle practice are and different activities to really acknowledge that young people have good reasons to be angry. We do that for young people ages twelve to twenty-five.

If you know anyone that that could apply to, we're running a series on April break, but we do some in the future. So I'll drop the community, referral form and email in the chat. Also, we are currently recruiting for our new youth organizers for the upcoming school year. I'm also going to drop that link in the chat, and that's available for young people ages fourteen-to-nineteen.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions, and also, if you have any spaces in which you have young people that we can reach out to come and do a presentation about our work. We're trying to build connections with young people in different ways this year.

Kathy McKean: Holyoke Art
Hi, folks! I'm Kathy McKean. I'm the executive director of Holyoke Art. You may not have heard of us, but we run the artery marketplace on High Street in Holyoke, and we have work from about a hundred artists displayed, and you can come and buy things. It's also the home of the splatter paint room experience. This might be cathartic for everyone.
Everyone who has been on this call and everyone we deal with. I think art is the antidote for chaos. Please take a look at the splattering information.

We also run the print shop down on Main Street, and it's a maker space for everybody who's interested in doing their own work here. We also do workplace training for the Holyoke Public Schools Transition Program. We've been doing that for a lot of years.


So please, if you have that kind program, and you want to talk to us about it. We would love to have you so please take a look@hoyokeart.com, and give us a call if you have a question.

Maggie Herlihy: COH Conservation & Sustainability
Hi, everyone. I'm Maggie. I'm with the City Of Holyoke, the Office of Conservation and Sustainability. This is also my first meeting.

We're working on a couple of projects right now in our department. The first one is updating our open space and recreation plan. This is collaboration with Holyoke's Parks and Recreation Department, as well as the Conway School.

We have a survey out on our Facebook as well as the city website looking to collect feedback on how to improve Holyoke’s open space and recreation areas and how to make them safer. I can put that link in the chat if you're interested in participating.

Another project we're working on right now is Holyoke's Hazard Mitigation Plan. Municipalities have to have an updated hazard mitigation plan to receive Federal Grant funds for hazard mitigation projects for things like addressing flooding in the area.
We are having a public meeting on March 26th at 6:00 pm At the Holyoke Public Library. The info for that is also on our website, and I can also put that in the chat.

If you're interested in attending, you'll have an opportunity to learn more about the hazard mitigation plan and to provide feedback.

Melinda Colon: Rewarding Insurance Agency
My name is Melinda Colon, and I'm the Operations Coordinator for Rewarding Insurance Agency. Our CEO Miguel Rivera says, Hello. He had another engagement, but I just wanted to thank you for these meetings. I've been following Ed's work for a few years now. My late, my late husband, Roberto Sierra used to connect with the community a lot. So, working with Rewarding Insurance Agency, I'd love to be able to connect again on this level.

At Rewarding Insurance Agencies, we help with seniors, particularly those that are sixty-five-years old and older, those that face challenges whether it's MassHealth, and Medicare Advantage. Since we're contracted with various insurance carriers, makes it a little bit easier to provide different options.

We also, under Rewarding Community Partners, the nonprofit, we do provide free workshops from different topics, like personal development, healthcare, and finances.

We will be posting some events that are coming up towards the summertime, and we do believe in the community partnership. If anybody has any events or any resources that they want to be able to provide, we're here to collaborate. Although, we're happy to accept referrals, we also want to be able to help out and support those other organizations in the area.

I did post information about an event that's coming up Springfield Regional Chamber Rise and Shine Breakfast. It has immigrant success stories, and our CEO is going to be speaking on his personal story. If anybody's interested in that event the website is there, you can take a look at some registration information.

Michelle Daries: Department of Children and Families
Hi, everybody! I’m Shelly Daries from the Department of Children and Families. I am a foster care and adoption recruiter for the State covering the Holyoke area.

We offer virtual information sessions on Mondays at 5:30 Thursday mornings at 10:00. We also have Spanish language ones twice a month that I can get you connected with, if that's what the need is.

As you know, there's many children right here in our community that unfortunately have to come into the Foster care system, and we're always looking to recruit foster parents. If you're interested or know anybody that's interested, please, my name and information
Information is in the chat.

We're also looking to do some resource fairs in as the weather gets nicer. I see there's 1 already that we're I just I will be applying to. But we're looking also to table at different events as well.

Nia Johnson: Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
Good afternoon, everyone. There’s a lots of things going on in the world and it feels really good to be in community with you all.

Tomorrow, at noon, I will, in partnership with the Public Health Institute of Western Mass, be facilitating a presentation on the unauthorized practice of immigration law. I just put that link in the chat if you'd want to register for that training

Over the past month the Attorney General's Office did release guidelines on diversity, equity, inclusion, work, and how you can continue that work in the age of the Trump Administration. DEI work is not legal, but there’s general guidance’s for community members and nonprofits interested in continuing that work. There's also guidance for K through twelve and higher institution educators as well.

There was also guidance released from the Attorney General's Office on engaging with ICE agents. What are some best practices to know when engaging with ice agents? We encourage you to follow us on social media. I'll be putting our social media handles in the chat.I encourage you to reach out to me to connect any opportunities for collaboration that you see, I'm happy to engage. We have educational know your rights trainings, and I'm happy to come to your agency and facilitate.

We have workers’ rights trainings, and unauthorized practice of immigration law. We have AGO 101 trainings. We have landlord tenant rights trainings, and many more thanks for having me have a great day.

Sandy Ward: Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts
I'm a volunteer with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts, and we can give presentations to groups to talk about how to deal with the funeral industry. We are not connected with the funeral industry. We just give neutral information about something about the pricing and the procedures, and how the old fashioned methods of doing things at home can be done. You're not required to hire a funeral director; a lot of people don't know that.

We have a comprehensive website that has a lot of information like what to do at the time of immediate death, when you might be really overwhelmed and confused. Our website is there twenty-four-seven even if we, as volunteers, are not. There's a voice message place. You can leave us a message, and within a day or two we'll get back to you. We're a very small group only supported by members and donors, but we have been around for more than sixty years, and a lot of people have appreciated the neutral help that we can give on this difficult subject.

We can do presentations, and we could come also table occasionally if it seems appropriate. We don't want to necessarily push the subject of death into your event, but
We’re not always welcome, but we try to wear funny shirts and make it lighter. I have a shirt that said are the funeral prices scaring you to death, and it has a graveyard on it, so we can try to lighten it up, to let people open their mind to hear about options. We want people to.

It helps the families, if you've told them a bit what you want and don't want at the end, that can really make things easier. If they know that you don't care, whatever I'll be dead doesn't matter, or you want a big fancy something or other, or you really want cremation, or you really want green burial. We would urge you to tell somebody, or at least write it down somewhere, because that will be solving problems when the time comes.

Tonja Paone: Northeast Center for Youth and Families
Hello, everybody! My name is Tonja Paone. I'm a Family Resource Specialist at Northeast Center for Youth and Families. We're a nonprofit agency. We provide a few services: We have a clinical department, foster care department, residential, and day treatment and there’s a service within those departments.

We have an Easthampton office, a Worcester office, a Malden office. I am from the Foster Care Department. We are working very hard, trying to find places where we can go and set up tables and recruiting for foster parents. There's a very desperate need for foster care. We get the majority of our referrals from the Department of Children and Families. We also have a contract with the Department of Youth Services and the Department of Mental Health.

The children that we serve anywhere from birth to twenty-two, and it is a comprehensive foster care program, so their needs require a bit more supervision or intervention and behavioral management. We are a trauma informed agency, so all of our foster parents do receive trauma informed training. Which I think is extremely beneficial for foster parents and working with these kids who come from significant trauma.

We also have some other job opportunities. I can put our website in the chat if you're interested in seeing what we have on the list there. Thank you very much. Everybody have a good afternoon. Thank

Keith Barnicle: Choice Recovery Coaching
Thanks, Ted, and good afternoon, everyone my name is Keith Barnicle. I'm the Community Engagement Specialist for Choice Recovery Coaching. We offer a lot of services, but one of them is no cost: Recovery coaching, workforce development, peer recovery, and support and peer recovery coach supervision. I'm going to put my contact information in the chat in case anyone needs to reach out. Thanks.

Tracy Tavares: Valley Opportunity Council
Hi, everyone! I'm Tracy. I'm the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for Valley Opportunity Council for the early education, and care department. Of course, VOC has a bunch of other departments that can fuel assistance. I'm sure you guys know community resources. We are hiring. I've dropped a couple of flyers into the chat. I'm also always available and looking to collaborate and table at any kind of resource fairs or any kind of collaborations. I've also left my contact information into the chat. Feel free to reach out and looking forward to meeting you guys.

William Hadley: Holyoke District Court
Hi, Ed, thank you very much for everything you're doing, and thank you everybody else for all the great things you're doing in the community. I'm Bill Hadley. I'm the 1st justice of the Holyoke District Court. I just kind of want to focus on one thing. It is very clear to us in the court system that many, many people come to court one way or another, directly or indirectly involved because of substance, use disorders. So over the years I've been here, we've tried to focus on getting people help at the front end of the pro criminal process.

We started with a part-time recovery coach and now we have two peer recovery coaches. We have a Federal grant in which we've expanded this to Chicopee. We have Umass involved in evaluating outcomes. We're trying to develop what works, what doesn't work over three years. We, six years ago, started a community advisory committee which mostly focuses on being connected to the community and getting information from so many of you as to what we could do, what resources there were making sure we're again connected to the community.

On April 11, we're having our next quarterly meeting. It's not invitation, only, so I just want to extend the invitation that anybody who wants to thinks they might be able to offer some suggestions or participate or be involved in. You know how we can get people immediate access to good treatment. You're invited. It's for it's at 1:00p.m. April 11th. I'll bring the pizza and some soft drinks, but just let me know. I sent out my email address in the in the chat notes here.

I'm also, I'm going to ask this committee and Eddie, who has participated in a lot of these meetings, I'm considering whether or not there's a need, or whether an opportunity to ask this committee to sort of expand its goal, its mission, to start looking at whether or not this could be a place where we get together, talk about drug prevention, and try to develop a gold standard. We have so many.

We have such difficulty once people do get hooked on heroin and Fentanyl that I think maybe if there's a central place for a committee or a group of concerned people to get together, we see it in the front rank, the front seats to it in the court system. But, that's the other aspect of this. Everybody is invited. Just let me know if you want to come so I have some idea how many people might want to be there and keep up all the great work I've got to run to another meeting.

Mike Pratt: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Hey, everybody! I'm Mike Pratt. I work with Ed Case at the Sheriff's Department and with the Holyoke Neighborhood Initiative. Mostly we just got some basketball clinics going on for the little kids right now, and that's the only update I have. Thank you.

Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Thank you, Mike. I just wanted to apologize for if you send me an email and it says, “I'm not coming back until 2027.” That was actually a typo. I'll be back on April 7th 2025. While I'm away if you miss my email please send any information that you want forwarded out to our list send o Michael Pratt. Mike's on here. I also put an email, Mike's email, in the chat.

So if you guys need anything sent out, Mike, is there Monday through Friday. Just send him an email, and he'll blast it out for you. That's all I have. I know, Gloria, you didn't mention it, Gloria. I thought you would. We're going to have our next in person networking meeting on May 30th down at the Holyoke Community College, Culinary Arts on Ray Street. If you want to mark that in your calendars for April we'll have a regular networking meeting online, and then we'll do our in-person meeting on May 30th.

I just want to say, thank you for being here today, and thank you for all what you guys do, day in and day out have a great rest of the week and I'll see you guys in a couple of weeks.


Chat Notes:
Gloria Penagos: Free Job Training Programs | Holyoke Community College Gloria Penagos - gpenagos@hcc.edu

Michelle Daries
Recruiter DCF michelle.daries@mass.gov

Bill Courchesne
HCSO/HSNI Ward 6 413-858-0015 William.courchesne@sdh.state.ma.us

Diana Biagioli
Transition Specialist at the Federation for Children with Special Needs, dbiagioli@fcsn.org.

Shannon Burke
Holyoke Pediatric Assoc. burkes@holypeds.com medical home care coordinator.

Carla Zhingre
Enrollment, CAPV-Head Start & Early Learning Programs, czhingre@communityaction.us

Charlene Rivera
Holyoke Pediatrics- Medical Home Care Coordinator-riverac@holypeds.com

Barbara McCoubrey
Holyoke Pediatric Associates mccoubreyb@holypeds.com Medical Home Care Coordinator

Sicry Garcia: Hello everyone, My name is Sicry Garcia, Outreach and Event Coordinator at Nuestras Raíces. We are located at 329 Main St, Holyoke MA 01040. I want to share with you all the upcoming workshops we will be offering at Nuestras Raíces.
Sgarcia@nuestras-raices.org
413-535-1789 209 if you have any questions feel free to contact me
Thanks

Jailyn Vega, Youth Villages Program Representative. Jailyn.Vega@youthvillages.org. 413-452-3643. We have immediate openings for our Intercept and LifeSet program. Please reach out if you have questions or would like to know more!
Elizabeth Rogers, Baystate Health Family Advocacy Center, Elizabeth.rogers@baystatehealth.org , Behavioral Health Clinician/ VOCA Grant Project Coordinator
Ab Germain
Abbie Germain - Business Developer Viability, INC- agermain@viability.org
Corrine Ryan, Community Legal Aid: cryan@cla-ma.org; apply for free civil legal help at communitylegal.org or call 855-252-5342

Ed Caisse:
Hampden County Sheriff's Office. If anyone needs anything sent out over the next couple of weeks, please send to Michael.pratt@sdh.state.ma.us, I will return to the office on April 7th at 8am

Melinda Colon
Operations Coordinator for Rewarding Insurance Agency & non-profit Rewarding Community Partners. melinda@rewardingagency.com

Elizabeth Veillette
CHD, Shelter program Employment Services Navigator. eveillette@chd.org, 413.266.9840.

Emi Aleksanyan
Research Recruiter and Coordinator (Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, UMass Amherst). We are recruiting for language studies for adults and kids! If interested, please reach out: ealeksanyan@umass.edu

Maggie Herlihy
City of Holyoke Office of Conservation & Sustainability, herlihym@holyoke.org 413-322-5615

Areliz O Barbosa
Assistant clinical professor, project coordinator SAMHSA initiative with Bay Path University
Arbarbosa@baypath.edu
Also work independently https://www.oliviasmission.com/ areliz@oliviasmission.com

Angelique Rodriguez - Community Outreach Admissions Counselor at Holyoke Community College. arodriguez@hcc.edu or 413.552.2243. Connect with me to plan a visit or presentation with myself and your staff/populations that you serve.

Adlyn Colon - HCC Adult Education -Intake Specialist. acolon@hcc.edu 413-552-2927. GED/HiSET preparation classes

Corrine Ryan, community Legal Aid: An update from Community Legal Aid: We recently launched an online interactive tool to help families understand their options when a child needs a substituted caretaker. It describes the various options (caregiver, temporary agent, and guardian) and guides families through the forms needed for each. It is available in English and Spanish. https://www.masslegalhelp.org/children-families-divorce/guardians-other-caregivers/caregivers-or-guardianship-choosing-best

Jac Essing - DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps - recruiting for our 2025-2026 program year. If you or someone you know are looking for a way to develop professional skills, build community, and serve from one's values, we might be a good fit! Apply here: https://forms.gle/oGNbmR1qf3b5Jism8
We also are going to be hosting a community clean-up event on April 4 at 1:30 pm. Learn more and RSVP here: https://forms.gle/dUWBJEH6h8Gh2q4SA

Valeryia Pedersen
Director of Volunteer Engagement and Recruitment, FCSN; vpedersen@fcsn.org; 617-399-8360 (direct)

Sandy Ward
Volunteer. Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Mass (nonprofit). We educate about your rights and options for death care. Our website has a directory of funeral homes in 4 counties, and a price comparison chart. Also info re green options. See https://funeralconsumerswmass.org/ or call our voicemail line 413-376-4747. IOr call me at 413-250-8079]

Valeryia Pedersen
FCSN: Caregiver to Caregiver Respite Network at FCSN: https://fcsn.org/c2c/

Abbie Germain
Business Developer Viability, INC- agermain@viability.org contacts me anytime! Let’s talk!

Kathy McKean
Executive Director Holyoke Art, ARTery Marketplace for local artists, The SPLATery paint room experience and The Print Shop makerspace for workplace training for HPS Transition Program and all your Printing needs. Holyokeart.com 413 420-8303

Carl Borden
Scouting America Western Massachusetts. Scouts meeting tonight at Mount Tom Lodge starts at 5:30 pm. Our programs are open to all youths. Cub Scouts are 5-10, Scouts BSA 11-17 and Sea Scouts 14-20. Tonight's meetings are Open to all youths ages 5-17. www.beascout.org

Flor Diaz
VOC/WIC program Community Coordinator fdiaz@valleyopp.com (413)612-0214

Ab Germain:
Aleyx do you have a flyer for the pantry?

Carl Borden
Scouting America W.Mass: Hiring Cooks, Kitchen Staff, Lifeguards at our summer camp in Russell Mass. and Hiring camp counselors for our Springfield Day camp in July. www.wmascouting.org/camp_staff

Tracy Tavares
Marketing & Outreach Coordinator for Valley Opportunity Council. ttavares@valleyopp.com

Aleyx Bernard
Yes, I can attach it here, but we do have an Ingram where we post all updates! @palante_tj

Ab Germain:
Welcome Barbara!!!!

Areliz Barbosa:
Congratulations Barbara!!!

Carl Borden
Scouting America W.Mass: my contact carl.borden@scouting.org 4113-594-9196 x 7003
only one 1 in the area code.

Aleyx Bernard:
Our food pantry fliers

Gerardo Torres:
Valeryia how can I register to take the CPR Certificate can you send me inf in my email thank you my email is gerardotorres586@comcast.net

Carl Borden
Scouting America W.Mass: Celebrity Server March 19th 5:30-8:30 https://www.wmascouting.org/CS25

Shannon Burke:
Jumping off. thank you everyone.
Aleyx Bernard- Pa'lante transformative justice I work as the drop in coordinator, we always update our IG with events and food pantry dates for the month (@palante_tj) feel free to call or text us at 413-200-0624 or email us at info@palanteholyoke.org

Diana Biagioli:
Stipend available for youth born between March 10, 1998 and September 30th 2001 who stayed or were supposed to stay in high school through age 22. Here is a link with more details. https://fcsn.org/transition-support/

Diana Biagioli:
Federation for Children with Special Needs: fcsn.org

Elizabeth Rogers
Baystate Family Advocacy Center, Elizabeth.rogers@baystatehealth.org, Resource Fair in recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month 4/30/25 3-5pm @300 Carew Street, Springfield, MA

Tracy Tavares:
Hi Flor

Kathy McKean:
Hi Gerry

Georgie Brown-
OneHolyokeCDC Georgianna.brown@oneholyoke.org 413-409-2006

William Hadley:
If anyone wants to join the Holyoke District Court's Community Advisory Committee, please email me at william.hadley@jud.state.ma.us

Gerardo Torres:
Hi Kathy

Jeff Hayden:
Hi Ed and All - I think you have heard a lot from HCC - so I’ll pass

Adlyn Colon:
Here is the flyer for the new program Green Energy.

Jac Essing
DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps; jessing@dialself.net- recruiting for our 2025-2026 program year. If you or someone you know are looking for a way to develop professional skills, build community, and serve from one's values, we might be a good fit! Apply here: https://forms.gle/oGNbmR1qf3b5Jism8
We also are going to be hosting a community clean-up event on April 4 at 1:30 pm. Learn more and RSVP here: https://forms.gle/dUWBJEH6h8Gh2q4SA

Katelynn Cruz
training manager @ Pa’lante Transformative Justice
Community referral form for Mindful Rage (alternative to traditional anger management) & Therapy:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mV6I8XvCbsvZOud3rGpucshzQGRv8MhZM3PdKpl8wnI/viewform?edit_requested=true
Peer leader application form (ages 14-19):
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1100uxiO0yumEH8YcVzwViQlKaDxiN25qhHAQwj3B2Ug/viewform?edit_requested=true
Please reach out if you have spaces that work with youth so that we can come in and talk about our work.
Email me at katelynn@palanteholyoke.org if you have any questions, I’d love to connect!

Ab Germain:
Welcome!!!

Melinda Colon:
SRC Rise & Shine Breakfast (Immigrant Success Stories) on 4/10: https://business.springfieldregionalchamber.com/eventcalendar/Details/rise-shine-breakfast-celebrating-immigrant-success-stories-1175797?sourceTypeId=Website or contact us at www.rewardingagency.com

Maggie Herlihy
COH Conservation & Sustainability: Open Space and Recreation Plan Survey- https://www.holyoke.org/holyoke-is-updating-our-open-space-and-recreation-plan/ Hazard Mitigation Plan Public Meeting Information- https://www.holyoke.org/hazard-mitigation-and-climate-adaptation-plan-for-city-of-holyoke-draft-available-for-public-comments/
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/resources-for-immigrants-in-massachusetts
Nia Johnson, Massachusetts Attorney General's Office Community Engagement Coordinator Nia.johnson2@mass.gov, 413-867-1619
AGO Training: Unauthorized Practice of Immigration Law


Tonja Paone:
Northeast Center for Youth and Families
NCYF.org

Jeff Hayden:
Thanks everyone - I have to run to another meeting.

Keith P. Barnicle
Community Engagement Specialist
Choice Recovery Coaching, Inc.
keith@choicerecoverycoaching.org

Juan Anderson-Burgos
Legislative Aide to
State Representative Patricia Duffy
164 Race St., Suite 105
Holyoke 01040

Next Meeting is Friday, May 30th at the Holyoke Community College Culinary Arts Center on Race Street.