November 2022

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes


Date: November 10, 2022
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

Liza Hirsch: Attorney General’s Office 1:05pm - 1:15pm

Including juvenile justice, child welfare, education, and immigration, just to name a few our unit engages in policy work, investigations, and litigations relative to those in other fields, subsequent field affecting children. As some of you may now we have a civil rights children’s justice complaint line. Anyone including a parent or community member can file a complaint regarding civil rights violations you believe, you, a member of your community, or a family that you are working with has experienced and there is an online complaint form that can be completed in a matter of minutes. I can share the link so it can be circulated to everybody. All of the complaints filed with the civil rights division that relate to children do get directed to the children’s justice unit. Just to give you some examples of the kinds of complaints that we handle in the children’s justice unit, we often receive complaints regarding bullying and harassment of students in school on the basis of race, disability, or LGBTQ status. We work on issues related to hate and bias in school sports. Sometimes we address disparities in school discipline and other kinds of issues affecting kids, equities affecting kids, discrimination affecting kids in schools and outside of schools. That’s just to give you a sense of complaints that we handle. We oftentimes, in terms of which types of matters our office tends to get involved with, its usually the matters that are more pervasive and systemic in nature, where there is some kind of protected class, whether that be on the basis of race, gender, disability, LGBTQ status, et cetera. Those are the kinds of issues we would be looking for but we really encourage folks to file complaints anytime you feel like your, a family, a child your working with civil rights have been violated because we do keep a record of all complaints that we receive and that helps to inform the broader systemic work that we do in the children’s justice unit.

A couple other examples of some of the work that we have done in our unit, that may be relevant to some of the work that you all do, we have partnered with law enforcement, the state department of education, and other stake holders through a commission focused on developing a model MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) between the school district and police departments across the state. Out of the commission that we participated on, a model MOU was developed, which really serves to better clarify and define the role of school resource officers in schools. That model has now been posted and school districts are required to meet the elements of that model MOU, in creating their own MOU’s for their district. That’s also an issue that we have been involved with, which I think has been helpful for school districts, police departments, just for everybody to get on the same page about the role of SROs (School Resources Officers) in school. We work across so many different issue areas. Our office is also currently engaged in a multistate investigation of social media companies, related to the harms associated with social media on children and youth, and their mental health. That is a huge multistate investigation that our unit is working on, so we work on a broad range of issues. But all of the issues we work on relate to advancing justice, equity, and positive outcomes for kids in Massachusetts. So, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions. I am going to check in the chat in case there any questions right away, I am going to circulate the link to the civil rights division hotline as well as the online complaint form and encourage folks to file those as appropriate and as needed. Thank you all for the work that you and your agencies are doing in Holyoke and Western Mass.

Link to the Civil Rights complaint form: https://www.mass.gov/how-to/file-a-civil-rights-complaint

Joanne Gillman: MSPCC 1:15pm - 1:25pm

MSPCC a Division of Elliot, this is a presentation about the Holyoke Regional Services. MSPCC is one of the oldest non-profit organizations in the country, established in 1878. MSPCC stands for Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. MSPCC has a long impressive history and ongoing active role in pursuing that rights and treatment of children. In 2016 MSPCC combined with Elliot Community Human Services to further strengthen the agency’s services and better address the needs of children and families. By joining forces a comprehensive continuity of care was created for all ages and stages within the lifespan. Services are available statewide with some variation depending on region. We have a variety of Services in Western Mass, we have a Homelessness Prevention and Outreach in Hampshire county, We have Prevention services for young and new families in Hampden county and that varies by town, we have the Kidsnet program; support for foster families and youth all over Western MA, and we have clinical wraparound services in Hampden county. Our Child Youth and Family Division embrace a Wraparound system of care in our behavioral health service. By focusing on the strengths and needs of each individual family, our wraparound approach increases a family’s sense of confidence, helps them acquire new skills for supporting their child’s special needs, and accesses the necessary resources to build a supportive community network.

Our clinical services ages birth to 21. The In-Home therapy program provides short-term family therapy to assist the family in stabilizing children in their homes during times of crisis. Services are delivered by a clinician and, in some cases, a Therapeutic Training and Support staff member. Services can be in the home, school, or community. Therapeutic mentoring offers one on one support for daily living, social, and communication needs. Therapeutic Mentors work in conjunction with an Intensive Care Coordinator, In-Home Therapy Team, or and individuals therapist as part of a Care Planning Team to help youth meet their personal goals and reach their full potential. Therapeutic Mentoring services are provided in the home and community. Survivor services provide specialized trauma-focused treatment, support, service coordination, consultation, and education to child and adolescent victims of crime and their non-offending caregivers. Service options include individual trauma treatment, therapeutic groups for youth, and caregiver education and support groups. Clinicians are trained in Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC program) and Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).

Services are provided to children and non-offending caregivers who are victims of physical abuse or neglect, sexual abuse, violent crimes, community violence, or survivors of homicide victims. Survivor services are offered in Boston, Holyoke, Walden, and Worcester MA. Survivor Services are funded by the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and administered through the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA). Our outpatient services for children, youth, and their families includes a variety of short to long-term interventions for conditions ranging from depression, trauma reactions, attention deficit disorder, disruptive behaviors, reactions to stressful or adverse personal or family circumstances, interpersonal conflicts, anxiety disorders, and much more. Involving families is a key element of our outpatient therapy. To make a referral for wrap around services, please use the link, https://www.mspcc.org/child-family-counseling, or call our office and that phone number is (413) 532-9446. If you are interested in services such as prevention, kids net, or homelessness outreach, please refer to our MSPCC and Elliot websites, or you can contact us at the office number that we gave above. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call us. Thank you for your patient listening and please put any questions that you have into the chat and I can forward this slide presentation to you as well. Thank you.






Agency Overview and Update 1:25pm - 2:25pm

Rondey Allen: CrossPoint Clinical Services
Hey good afternoon everybody. I'm the director of CrossPoint Clinical Services. Our main office is located in West Springfield. We also have an office in Worcester and in the Boston area. We specialize in Christian Faith-based counseling services, but we have very professional licensed staff that is open to seeing anybody. We get a lot of referrals from schools and crisis centers. We also really try to educate the base community to try to reduce stigma regarding mental health issues. We have a great event coming up about that today, where our promoting and mental health coaching curriculum is administered by an organization called the ACC. It is basically 40 hours of training in mental health first aid, so the average person who encounters a mental health crisis will feel equipped in order to provide some short term intervention and help people get to a higher level of care. Tonight's event is actually an overview, the national director of this program is going to be presenting in person and online, and registrants will get a recording of that presentation later if they want to share. Anybody can benefit from the training because it's very clinically empirically sound, but especially the faith-based community, we want people to know that that that it's an organic illness. I think sometimes in the faith community it can have a stigma to it and so we want to try to reduce stigma and promote healing. So, I'll put the link to that in the chat. Thank you very much.

Abbie Germain: Western Mass Moms
Hi everyone, good afternoon I'm happy to be here. I'm going to use my 2 minutes to do two things today. The first thing I need to do is give a couple thank you’s and shout outs to some folks. The Western Mass Moms program has been attending a lot of events. We've been invited to several community engagements and I just want to say thank you to a couple of people, Nayroby from one Holyoke, Frank from Enlace De Familias, Jody from the Ludlow Boys and Girls Club, Roxanne from Mount Marie Rehab, Chloe from the city of Chicopee,. Liz from the Holyoke Public Schools at Kelly School, Jen from the Thrive program at United Way, Kashawn from Follow My Steps; this is a special thank you because although our calendars have not lined up and I haven't been able to get to any of Kashawn’s events unfortunately, he still remembers us, he still invites us. I know that I will be there hopefully at the next one, so thank you for that. Also, a special thank you to Eddie for inviting us to all those summer youth sports programs, and now again, we've been invited to the Fall youth sports, so I just want to thank you all. The moms program has been ramping up for a while now, but now, because of this meeting, now people are starting to recognize us, know who we are, and see us out in the street, so for that I thank you. The second thing I want to do is just a quick update so the Western mass moms provides opportunities for mothers and caregivers. A chance to receive our services our services include an 8 week stress management course for moms. We provide childcare for the in person class and we also offer zoom class options. We are still looking for a Spanish speaking clinician to help facilitate the class. So if you know anybody who's Spanish speaking, even if you already have a job you, if you want a part time, you could teach one or one or two classes, perhaps in the evening. Just let me know, but again, just full of gratitude today and just thank you for those who have invited us to trunk or treats, Boo Bashes, and the Chicopee Spooktacular, it was great to be out there in the community, and thanks again.

Aida Rivera: Holyoke Public Schools
Good morning everyone. My name is Aida River and I work for the Holyoke Public Schools Enrollment Center as a clerk. I also work with Jennifer for McKinney Rental Homeless Student; my position is as a homeless student service assistant. I want to put out there that we are offering coats for every student that is a resident in Holyoke. We have tons of coats, hats, and gloves. If anyone knows any kids that need coats you are more than welcome to e-mail me or Jennifer. I’m going to put down the McKinney Rental e-mail, so you can reach out to us. Or you could come by the main office which is 57 Suffolk St in Holyoke.

Alison Schoen: Hope for Youth and Families Foundation
Hi everyone, my name is Allison showing and I work for the Hope for Youth and Families Foundation. We are out of Springfield but hoping to work with Holyoke eventually. So I'm just here to listen and learn. Thank you for including us in this.


Amy Karangekis: Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office
Good afternoon everyone, I’m Amy Karangekis from the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office in Western Mass. We are located at 1441 Main St. I have nothing else to report beyond what my colleague, Lisa presented today about our children justice unit. I hope you all enjoyed that and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Lisa or me on that. Thank you everyone for all your incredible work.

Bill Courchesne: Hampden County Sheriff’s Department
Hello everybody, Bill Courchesne from the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department. I’m the Ward 6 Neighborhood Watch Coordinator for HSNI. Only new thing we have going on is that we are in the very early planning stages of our food drive partnered with Mont Marie. So if anybody would be willing to host a box to collect cans for us you can reach out to me, my info is in the chat and hopefully we'll have another successful food drive this year, I hope.

Corrine Ryan: Community Legal Aid
Hi everyone, Corrine Ryan, I’m the Managing Attorney of Community Legal Aid in Springfield. For those of you that don’t know CLA is the legal aid program for all Central and Western Mass. In Springfield we have an office in Monarch Place; we also have satellite office space at the Holyoke Health Center. We have about 150 staff across our program. We specialize in all the civil legal aid core areas, so that includes housing, eviction defense, access to affordable housing programs, and fair housing work. We have a family law unit that helps survivors of domestic violence and sexual assaults in their divorce, visitation, custody, child support matters, anything that comes up through the Probate and Family Court. We have a robust education law unit, mostly helping kids with special needs get services in schools and also helping kids with discipline issues like suspension and expulsion. We have an elder law unit for folks above 60. We have benefits and employment units that help folks get steady income so Social Security benefits, benefits administered by the Department of Transitional Assistance, and Food stamps.

We also have an immigration unit in our subsidiary called the Central West Justice Center that helps people that are seeking asylum, unaccompanied minors, and victims of certain crimes, so all sort of humanitarian based immigration relief. We have a new initiative called the Family Preservation Project that takes referrals from community partners like you and also from DCF of Hampden County families that have opened clinical cases or investigations with DCF, where the issue is not abuse but rather of poverty related problems; so, inadequate housing, lack of benefits, and the team at CLA provides legal services and other resources to stabilize those families so that the kids can remain with their parents. We also help veterans. We have a Quarry Reentry Project that helps formerly incarcerated individuals overcome barriers to housing, employment, and medical legal partnership with Commonwealth Care Alliance right in downtown Springfield. So I'm going to put our referral information in the chat. Please feel free to ask me any questions. I will put my e-mail in there as well, but you can also send clients directly to us. They can apply online at communitylegal.org or call our intake number. Please let me know if you have questions or if you have any clients that are having trouble accessing our services, thanks.

Francis Jarusiewicz: Community Education Program
Hi everyone, my name is Frances. I am the new community engagement specialist at the Community Education program in Holyoke. I appreciate you guys for having me. I'm here to learn, I'm here with my colleague as well. She'll be introducing herself shortly, but I'm here to recruit and train volunteers, tutors and mentors for our program. We're out here doing adult ESOL classes and opportunities for folks to earn their GED. So we would greatly appreciate that, thank you so much for having us.

Freddy Hernandez: ALANA Men in Motion
Howdy everyone, my name is Freddy Hernandez. I'm with the ALANA Men in Motion program here in Holyoke Community College, our support program for men of color here on campus. I think one of the biggest things here as a mentor that just started last week, it’s really important for us to understand all the resources that we have available to us in Holyoke, Springfield, and all the greater areas around us. So thank you so much for having me here. My colleague is also here, which you'll hear a little bit from him as well. I'm really grateful to be here and I'm so happy to learn.

Gabriel Martinez: US Probation Springfield
Hi everyone, I'm Gabe Martinez. I'm from US probation in Springfield, at this time I don't really have anything to report.

Greg Graustein: Recovery Connection Centers
Hey, it's Greg Graustein, business director for Recovery Connection Centers. We are a Suboxone, Sublocade, and Vivitrol program. We have one location at 281 Cottage St in Springfield, and there are 16 others across the state of Massachusetts. We are a small outpatient for opiate addiction and alcohol dependency; we provide a service to in a very small and quiet environment. There are no more than two or three clients in our office at any one time to give that comfortable approach with counseling on every visit. We take every insurance offered in the state of Massachusetts to provide that care. I also do presentations, if you don't understand what buprenorphine, Sublocade, or Vivitrol is, feel free to contact me Greg at drughelp.com and I'll be happy to speak with you about what type of what treatment is now available for people. Thank you.

Jamie Jang: UMass Amherst
Hi everybody, my name is Jamie. I'm an architecture student at UMass Amherst. We're doing a project in Holyoke and as a newcomer to the area; I want to get to know the area better. I’m going to focus my project on you folks, people working for community organizations. I have a survey that's out that's going to really help me create a compelling case and design. Of course it's just academic, but we are looking at a real site in Holyoke and we are developing our own program. So I'm going to put that survey in the chat here, and if anybody feels like responding, that would really be great. The more responses I get the more compelling I can make my design and my case for serving you guys, so that's all. Thank you.

Jason Comcowhich: Nuestras Raices
Hi I'm with, Nuestras Raices. My work is in community engagement, specifically related to food equity, food skills, and nutrition. We are doing a large community gardening effort this spring. We're starting at least two new sites, well, reworking old sites and getting them operational again with Mass in Motion. We're looking for anyone interested to join in. We're also offering a servicing training course, coming up next week, from the 16th through the 18th and we're offering some entrepreneurial training courses in March. We are also looking to do some work around the city investigating legacy industrial contaminant sites, and doing a bio remediation effort this spring in regards to those. That's all, thank you.

Jeana Burke: Interim Mental Health Services
Hello everyone, I'm Jeana Burke project and coordinator for Interim Mental Health Services and I am looking for youth that are struggling with substance use, alcohol, and any type of mental health challenges that they may face. I am the mentor, so I will help them with coping skills, strategies, and how to deal with what they're going through. We do use a curriculum: Mindfulness Motivational Interviewing to help with that. We support their needs and refer them to other services that they may need. We are a brief intervention service, so we help segue them into further therapy that they may need, even if it's just services around mental health and resources.

Kashawn Sanders: Follow My Steps
How you doing everybody, it’s Kashawn Sanders from the Follow My Steps organization. What we do is we put youth in front of their future selves, so we try to connect the youth with an adult that's doing what they want to do. On top of that we try to take it a step further and teach youth about professional development, literacy, and community engagement. One of the things that we try to do, and we've been relatively consistent with, is put on at least one community event every month. So just last weekend we gave out free groceries at Bumpy’s natural organic store to kids and their families. We actually partnered with Fleet Feet and provided free running sneakers to over 80 individuals. Just like a number of other people were going to be doing a food drive, so if there's any organization that wants to collaborate, please let us know. We're always looking for additional ways we collaborate and get more integrated into the whole community, so feel free to reach out to me. My information is in the chat. I look forward to connecting with you all. Thank you.


Kevin Noonan: El Colibri
Hi Ed, thank you again for organizing this network experience, it’s very informative. Shout out tomorrow to all the veterans as well. We are still trying to put together a plan for a women shelter or a shelter in general if that is desirable, but right now nothing new to report. We're still on the on the lookout. Thank you.

Luis Aponte: Boston Children’s Hospital
Good afternoon everyone, my name is Luis Aponte, community health worker with Boston Children’s Hospital. I’m just here to hear about resources so there is nothing to report. Thank you.

Maria Chambers
Hi everyone, my name is Maria Chambers. I'm a senior program manager at the Behavioral Health Network and I don't have any updates today.

Maria Flores Lopez: The Salvation Army Holyoke
Hello everyone, I'm Maria Flores Lopez; I work for the Salvation Army in Holyoke. Next week is going to be our Toy for Joy registration and you can get more information on the webpage, Toy for Joy 2022. It's going to be online for the Springfield area and for Holyoke, Chicopee, South Hadley, and Granby here at 71 Appleton St. Thank you.

Meghan Lemay: Alzheimer's Association
Hi everyone, my name is Meghan Lemay; I'm the regional manager at the Alzheimer's Association here in Western Mass. So we provide free services and resources for families coping with Alzheimer's disease or any type of dementia. We're also having an upcoming free training for any first responders, so anyone who's considered a first responder in any way; it's also open to anyone who may be interested in learning it from that perspective. It's a free training online on zoom around Alzheimer's, Dementia, and first responding. We also always have free education for families and caregiver and we run a 24/7 helpline. So I’ll put that in the chat, thank you.

Professor Miguel Arce: Springfield College
I think you moved me into a totally different realm, a spiritual realm, which I hope to attain someday. Miguel Arce Springfield College, I have nothing to report Mr. Caisse.

Miguel Velez: Holyoke Community College
Hey, thank you Eddie my name is Miguel Velez I'm an ALANA mentor for the Holyoke Community College program. Like Freddie said, we offer services to men of color and wrap around services. Thank you.

Nayroby Rosa Soriano: One Holyoke
Hi everyone, I'm sorry. That my camera is not on but I think a lot of people here know me. I am the director of Community Engagement for One Holyoke. We are a little busy this month, we are collaborating with Holyoke Medical Center and offering a CPR class for the Cuidado Es Unidos group that meets around caretakers in the city. We will also be doing a workshop with mass in Motion where will be raffling five turkeys, five pork shoulders, and 50 bags with $20 vouchers to the farmers market. We will have our food bank on Friday. We're always looking for volunteers at 1:00 o'clock at 17 N Bridge St. We will be doing our community dinner this year. It is indoor; I think I mentioned it last month. It'll be December 14th at 5:30. I will be posting a link in the chat for people to sign up to volunteer and we are still looking for sponsors. We'll be doing a big event, hopefully serving about 500 meals and giving out some groceries as well. So it's going to be a great holiday event for everybody in the Holyoke community at Kelly School. Thank you, Ed.

Robert Crawford: Springfield Department of Health and Human Services
Good afternoon everyone, Robert Crawford, here at the Springfield Department of Health and Human Services, doing youth substance prevention, nothing to report, but if anybody has any opportunities for a December gift wrap or anything like that. Can you please send the e-mail out through the network or shoot me a direct message? I would love to put together some volunteering coalition here in Springfield to come out and support any initiatives around the holiday. Thank you.

Robin Neipp: Western Mass Moms
Hi, my name is Robin Neipp. I'm the volunteer lead for the Western Mass Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. Ed, I think I initially got a reach out about requests from Kate Fenn from the Holyoke School system. Before COVID we were involved down in Holyoke, we had been invited to the E.N. White School to give a presentation on safe storage, the Be Smart Program, which is one of the things that we do for guns. We were getting active down there. We've been also to the Holyoke Library for a presentation on that and also on the Red Flag Laws. Then COVID came and we kind of fell on the wayside for Holyoke, but we've stayed active in Springfield with the DLJ victims, Homicide Resource Center, and ROCA. Our group is also part of the founding of Nonviolent Springfield Coalition, I haven't met any of you there and I don't know why I haven't, but I think that you guys are already doing what we have been trying to do in Springfield. So I'm very interested in talking to you a little bit more about that and getting everybody together so that we can support each other’s actions and resources. What I can offer is education on Be Smart, which is the safe storage initiative through Moms Demand Action and education on Extreme Risk Protection. The main focus of Moms Demand Action is legislative support for common sense gun laws. I also wanted to let you know that we have presented to providers at Holyoke, Pediatrics and other health providers about how to ask the questions and support Be Smart to talk about safe gun storage with clients. So, I’m really looking forward to picking your brain a little bit Ed and seeing if Nonviolent Springfield should be combined with this group. Hopefully, I will be in touch with some of you in the future. Thank you so much.

Sandy Ward: Funeral Consumers alliance of Western Massachusetts
Thanks Ed, I'm a volunteer with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts, and we can go out and do presentations for people to answer questions about death care and options in Massachusetts. We also have our website with good price information that we've collected from many of the funeral homes in Western Massachusetts. If you have needs in that direction, we are neutral and Reliable source of information for comparative choices and knowing what the consumer rights are, that is what we are trying to protect, consumer rights I've put my the contact and the web information in the chat. Thank you.

Stephanie Marshall: Mental Health Association
Good afternoon, you can't see me because the sun I'm a recovery coach for MHA and also a mentor, at AISS. I have nothing to report.

Sunibel Guerrero: Community Education Project
Hi good afternoon my name is Sunibel. I'm here on behalf of the Community Education Project. We are located at 317 Main St in Holyoke. We offer free English classes and HiSET classes in Spanish. We do not have any updates now but thank you for having us.

Susan Ventura: Interim Healthcare
Good afternoon everybody. My name is Susan Ventura. I'm the in-house recruiter and community relations person here at Interim Healthcare, and today I'm looking to see if we can partner with some agencies. I recently partnered with Viability in the moms program and the DTA granted employment program. It's a grant program where they receive funds to help women find a job and provide them with free childcare. It’s been really successful and I look forward to doing a presentation on it here in the very near future to help you better understand what we're doing. What we're looking for are to help employees who are coming into the job market or transitioning into the job market with employment, and with that employment comes, if they don't have any experience as a personal care aide or a caregiver, we hire them as a homemaker. We also offer them employee paid training where they can have their opportunity to earn their PCA certification and they can later on go on into doing a CNA program with a lot of knowledge from the PCA program that makes it a lot easier for them.

What's the difference between the CNA and PCA? Well, there's a lot of difference in the skill level, but in order to work in a skilled nursing facility you have to be a CAN. However, to do homecare it is required that you can either be a homemaker to do light housekeeping, meal prep, laundry, things like that. Or if you're a PCA, you can get into personal care and help someone with bathing, showering, dressing that sort of thing. So how we work is that we are looking for individuals to partner with and provide their clients with an opportunity to be employed as a homemaker or I should say PCA. In the future, I'll be providing a very clear description of what that entails. We're also looking for individuals who may be adult children or your clients who just had to leave their employment to care for their mom, dad, or loved one and had to cut their hours. We can hire them and help them replace those lost wages. Again when I do the presentation I will give you more info information on that, but if you're an agency that's looking to partner with someone who can help your clients obtain employment, meeting for work, and a flexible opportunity; meaning that we work with their availability, and that's really important, especially in some people who only have maybe 2, 4, or 10 hours a week that want to have some extra money coming in, we can help them do that. Maybe retirees that don't need to go back into the workforce to supplement their income, we can help them do that by doing meaningful work in their own community. So please reach out to Interim Healthcare. I will actually try to put my information in the chat. Thanks everybody, looking forward to hearing from you all and thank you all for what you do each day. Take care now.

Rhakeem Kinard: RFK Community Alliance
Hey, how are you, my name is Rhakeem Kinard. I'm here with the YASL program through RFK Community Alliance. We do not have any updates, but just as an introduction. We are a youth program that provides opportunity for youth housing so young adults supported living. Here with me is Katie, our case manager. So, we're just really looking to build and make a lot of relationships and some great connections with people in the community for a lot of our youth. We're looking for things like community service; we've actually had the opportunity to connect with a few people from this group, so it's been really helpful. If you have anything community service based, if you have any community resources, anything that really could be helpful for the youth. Job searching, all of those skills and resources we're looking to connect with people. I'll also resubmit my information in the chat, but we're just looking to really connect and create a great base for our youth through the community.

Art Lobdell: Boy Scouts of America
Good afternoon, Art Lobdell from the Boy Scouts of America. Obviously, we've had a great fall having an opportunity to partner with many agencies and events in Holyoke. We were in several of the trunk or treat events and happy to participate in those things where we're invited. The big news we have is that this Saturday we're kicking off our Youth Aviation Program. We already have seven students signed up for that. It's a year round program, will meet twice a month for youngsters interested in aviation careers. It's open to all youth from age 10 to age 20. There is financial assistance available to participate in the program, it is going to be based out of Westfield Regional Airport, so it's not in Holyoke, but it's open to the whole region. So, please if anyone has interest in aviation to get those students down to the airport at 10:00 in the morning on Saturdays. I will put the details in the chat, there's a link I will list out. Thank you.

Lisa Marie Carbonell-Correa: Alzheimer’s Association
Hi, my name is Lisa. I'm working for the Alzheimer's Association. I don't have any updates. I'm assuming that Megan Lemay, the regional manager updated already, so thank you Edward.

Yvonne Lomax: Westover Job Corps
Good afternoon Ed and team, Yvonne Lomax from Westover Job Corps. I am the outreach and admissions manager here. I wanted to spread some exciting news. We are fully open and operational; our tours are back in business. We have two time frames on every Wednesday. We have a morning tour that's scheduled from 10 am to 12 pm and then we have an afternoon tour that we are doing from 1 pm to 3pm on Wednesdays. So if anyone is interested, my information is in the chat. You can call me or e-mail me and we will schedule and get you all taken care of for that tour. Then of course if you would like us to speak with any young people after our tours, we most certainly can do that as well. Any young people ages 16 to 24 that are looking for academic trade, housing, or non-residential status here at the Westover Job Corps, we certainly welcome you. If there's anyone looking for community service assistance we would love to help you as well. Thank you all and have a great holiday.



Ed Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Department
I just want to share a couple things. I just wanted to thank everybody, certainly when I send out the emails and people respond like for our basketball league. This was our largest basketball registrations, we have over 375 kids registered right now, which is the largest league we've had over the years. I just want to say thank you for everybody to keep the communication going and even the direct referrals from the different agencies that came in to get kids connected to the Basketball League, we really appreciate that. The other thing I want to say, we do have all of our coaches, but if anybody else is interested in being a volunteer with us or being a scorekeeper, we can always use some additional volunteers. If that interests you, I just ask you to send me an e-mail.
One other thing I want to mention, I placed a link in the chat early on, I'm going to put it back in again. I want folks to know that we've been targeting six neighborhoods in Holyoke, Wards, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. There are leadership teams in different areas, but we need some additional people. We need some folks for our Ward One team. Nayroby is the leader of the Ward One area. We definitely need some additional folks to help out in specific areas, such as; the Flats of Holyoke, Ward 6, Billy has been trying to get some additional leaders. Agencies that are vested in that particular neighborhood, he is trying to grow and get more people involved so we can do more things together. He's been doing some things up in Ward 6 with Sullivan School. I put a link in the chat, there's six areas listed. If you click on that link, it's a Google Doc, so if you're interested in one of the neighborhoods and learning more about some of the work that we're doing click on that link and click on the area that interests you the most and we'll go from there.

Juan Anderson Burgos: State Representative Patricia Duffy’s Office
Hello everybody, first of all thank you for all the hard work you guys put into this meeting. My name is Juan Anderson Burgos; I am the Legislative aide for State Rep Patricia Duffy. So, I surround myself with the passion on providing excellent constituent services and what I've been known to do or known for is dealing with people who have issues with unemployment and issues with the RMV which could be can be licenses or ID. We also help with searching for housing or anything that you think your constituents will need. Please send them our way. I have already put my information in the chat. Thank you so much Ed Caisse, I can't thank you enough for all the hard work you do, thank you.

Ed Caisse:
Thank you Juan, appreciate you. In closing I just want to say one last thing I know Susan had mentioned that she wanted to do a more detailed update, so we do give an opportunity every month for an agency to talk for about 15 minutes to give a little bit more detail about the agency. Right now we're booked till February of 2023, so the next three months are booked, but if you're looking to get on a future meeting to be able to talk for 15 minutes, send me an e-mail and we'll get you plugged in. I just want to thank everybody for being here and again, like others have said, I just want to thank everybody for the work that you do for the whole community and beyond Holyoke. Have a good holiday weekend. Hopefully some of you have the day off tomorrow and we'll talk next month. Next month our meeting is actually going to be on December 8th. I was going to talk a little bit about the Holyoke Hub, below is an outline of risk factors from our first 22 situations to show you the risk factors that we're dealing with, so you all can take a look at it. If you feel like your agency can help with some of those risk factors, we would like to get some additional agencies to the table that can actually help youth and families get to better places. If you don't know anything about the Holyoke Hub, we have situations brought to the table that involve people who are in acutely elevated risk situations and need some wrap around services to help them get out of that acutely elevated risk situation. If you feel like your agency has some resources that can deal with some of the risk factors below, send me an e-mail and we'll get you connected. Thank you guys, have a great weekend and thanks for all the work you do. Take care.


Chat Notes

Meghan Lemay
Hi all! I am Meghan Lemay, Regional Manager at the Alzheimer's Association we have a 24/7 helpline at 800-272-3900.
We are offering free dementia training for First Responders- email mlemay@alz.org for more information. We also always are offering free education and support groups for caregivers and families
Alzheimer's Association 24/7 helpline: 800-272-3900 Free dementia training for First Responders: contact mlemay@alz.org

Sandy Ward
Sandy Ward, a volunteer with nonprofit Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Mass, funeralconsumerswmass.org, (413)376-4747.

Jeana Burke
Hi Liza. I would love your contact information!

Miguel Arce
Have the number of complaints increased? If so, is it because of a better mechanism for reporting?

Liza Hirsch
Hi everyone, here is the link to the Attorney General's Office Civil Rights Division Online Complaint Form: https://www.mass.gov/how-to/file-a-civil-rights-complaint
Hi everyone, I need to log off, but here's my contact information: Liza Hirsch, Director, Children's Justice Unit - liza.hirsch@mass.gov. Nice to see all of you!

Abbie~Western Mass MOMS
Liza, what's your email address? Thank you for presenting today.
veterans!

Susan Ventura - Interim HealthCare
Hello!
Interim HealthCare is looking to work with community partners to help clients needing a job.
Susan Ventura - In-house Recruiter - Community Relations Work - (413)734-6900 Cell-(413)334-9128 susan@interimhealth.com

YASL - Rhakeem Kinard (Life Coach)
What is the best contact for that program?
Can we please have your contact info Jena?

Kevin Noonan
Kevin Noonan, El Colibrí413.335.6313 (cell phone)www.elcolibri.org">kevin@elcolibri.orgwww.elcolibri.org

Juan Anderson-Burgos (Rep. Duffy)
Juan Anderson-Burgos Legislative Aide to State Representative Patricia Duffy Fifth Hampden District District office: 413-529-4307164 Race St., Suite 105Holyoke 01040

Rondey Allen
https://www.crosspointclinical.org/struggle/

Stefany Garcia
@Abbie would love to help please reach out to SEGARCIA@hps,holyoke,ma.us I have to run but would love to connect with you

Aida Rivera
mckv@hps.holyoke.ma.us 57 Suffolk Street, 1st Floor Holyoke, MA 01040 (413)534-2000-Ex1104 or Ex1141

Corrine Ryan, Community Legal Aid
Community Legal Aid: refer clients/patients to 855-252-5342 or communitylegal.org; call/email Corrine with questions (cryan@cla-ma.org or 413-686-9018)

Jamie Jang
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScIOJE4_MYA8WSuUyLyRgeL-xEqG4cZmcGjbJAjYRBrUN_zxA/viewform
Thanks all. Your work is inspiring!

Maria Flores-Lopez
https://easternusa.salvationarmy.org/massachusetts/toy-for-joy/#Free-Text-Area-2

Thais Rivera
Thais Rivera Cultivation Admin/Community Liaison for Trulieve, manufacturing facility in Holyoke. Always looking for resources to share with my Trulieve family and ways to have continued positive partnerships with those in our community.Thais.Rivera@Trulieve.com best way to reach me We’re currently working with Mass CultivatED to get an intern for a paid internship for an 8-12 week session.

Nayroby Rosa-Soriano
Nayroby Rosa, OneHolyoke CDC,
https://forms.gle/JrbfQ9Nj3F4EJxuq7 link to volunteer for community dinner. Also looking for folks that want to support engagement efforts in ward one. Email me at Nayroby.rosa-soriano@oneholyoke.org

Maria Chambers
Maria Chambers, Senior Program Manager at The Behavioral Health Network Maria.Chambers@bhninc.org (413)654-7639

Robin Neipp
Momsdemandaction.org
rneipp.ma@gmail.com
Besmart.org

Art Lobdell
Aviation Exploring. Tinyurl.com/Flight1903

Lisa Marie Carbonell-Correa
Lisa M Carbonell-Correa MA CCHW CDP Memory Specialist - Dementia Care Consultant pronouns: she/ella Alzheimer's Association, Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter309 Waverley Oaks Rd, Waltham, MA 02452 | 617-819 -8923 ext. 2040 | lccorrea@alz.org / www.alz.org/manh24/7 Helpline: 800.272.3900

Edward Caisse
Neighborhood link: https://forms.gle/HU17jCGDRafzUxJk9

Stephanie Marshall (she/her)
Thank You!!!!!

Carmen Ruiz
Thank you all for the information! Have a great weekend!

Old Business / New Business

Next Meeting is Thursday, December 8th, 2022 (ZOOM).

Close Meeting 2:30pm

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