November 2023

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes


Date: November 9, 2023
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.



Agency Presentation: 1:05pm to 1:20pm
Kristen Wheeler: Strategies for Youth
Thanks so much Eddie and thanks so much everyone for allowing me to take a little bit of time in your meeting today. It's such a pleasure to see everybody's face; I love the policy of cameras on. It's so nice to be able to connect to the folks in this way. As we were all logging in, I believe it was Sandy who I've not had the chance to really meet, but had said this is a room full of helpers or a Zoom full of helpers and I just love that. From everything I've heard about Eddie, about the work this community in Holyoke is doing to support young people, to support families and community. I'm so honored to have the opportunity to connect with everyone and share a little bit about the work I'm doing with my organization called Strategies for Youth.

We're located over in Cambridge, but we work across the State of Massachusetts as well as across the country. So I'm going to share my screen here and give you a little bit of background about the work we're doing and how I would just really enjoy connecting with folks on this call if they feel like our program might be right for them. So I'll just start off with a little bit of background about myself and my organization. What I'm really here to talk to you about today is an educational program that the Strategies for Youth runs with youth across the country called Juvenile Justice Jeopardy. This is really education disguised as a game to try to empower young people with knowledge across a wide variety of topics, in the hopes of disrupting pipelines that can direct them towards the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

First and foremost, Strategies for Youth; we're a nonprofit located in Cambridge, and our mission is to ensure best outcomes for young people interacting with law enforcement. We've been doing this since 2010. We have our educational programming running in about twenty-five different states, including right here in Massachusetts. We've got a big project going on in Brockton that I'm going to tell you about in a little bit.

We try to promote best outcomes for young people interacting with law enforcement through a multi prong approach. When I say, best outcomes for young people interacting with law enforcement, what I mean is, we're trying to see less young people entering the juvenile and criminal justice systems, and that interaction with law enforcement through an arrest is the way that that mostly happens. So we're trying to make sure that interaction stays safe for young people. We're trying to reduce the number of those interactions that have to occur, and if they do have to occur, we hope that we're going to divert more young people, and if a use of force is used, we hope that it will be an absolute last resort only when necessary to keep folks safe.

So that's our mission is to keep young people safe in these interactions with law enforcement, and ultimately so everybody can walk away from them safely. But the way that we approach this is through a multi prong approach. We work with law enforcement all across the country to train them on how to respond to young people and approach them in a developmentally appropriate trauma. Informed and equitable way we bring in adolescent psychologists to lead that training to help them understand the developing brain, to help them understand what's actually going to deescalate effectively with young people.

We also work at the policy level, whether that be on legislation that's going to be protective of young people in these interactions or whether that be at the hyper local level, working directly with law enforcement departments to adopt policies that are going to shield young people from harmful outcomes.

Our third prong, what I'm here to talk to you about today is Juvenile Justice Jeopardy. That's our educational prong where we work directly with young people to help them understand these interactions with law enforcement, to help them understand about themselves, about their interactions with peers, interactions with authority figures like law enforcement, so that they can make informed decisions themselves. For what they feel is going to be best for them. All of our games are under the umbrella of Juvenile Justice Jeopardy. Basically, it is education disguised as a game, but our tent poles of every jeopardy game we build is that they're using an interactive web based game board, which I'm going pull up here in a second.

We pull in young people and have some bells and whistles that make it fun for them, so we can engage them. These game boards are led by credible messengers. We work within local communities to lead the conversations that snowball off the game boards, and any topic our games are covering are designed to try to disrupt pipelines to the criminal and juvenile justice system, so it can cover a wide variety of topicw, which might look like a few of our options; here we have our street game, which teaches young people about the law and how to interact safely and lawfully with law enforcement, hopefully to drive down those arrests. We also touch on risky conduct between peers, so that law enforcement doesn't have to come into the equation in the first place, and also consequences of system involvement so young people can really understand both collateral and direct consequences.

We have a school game that we built using school codes of conduct for localities. So we teach the school code of conduct in the hopes of reducing out of school time for violations of those rules. We have a game called “Know Your Triggers”, which is trauma-focused where we're helping young people understand and manage in a healthy way trauma that they might have been exposed to in the hopes of breaking up that cycle that we see where trauma is such a major predictor of system involvement. System involvement is, of course, traumatic to both young people and to their families and communities.

We've got a game designed for DCF involved youth that's going on in Brockton right now, which I'll touch on in just a little bit more detail in a second. That's designed to try to reduce the number of “crossover youth” we have who are involved in the child welfare system and then become involved in our juvenile justice system. So we want to disrupt that pipeline. Our probation game teaches young people probation contracts, so they don't violate the rules of their probation.

We've got a game for young people leaving detention, so they understand the rules that they might be under in exiting detention, all in the hopes of reducing recidivism. We've got a game designed to teach young people about substance use and abuse, to try to combat those risky behaviors that can create such a wide variety of problems for young people in their current lives and in their future lives. So that's just a taste of the different types of versions of our game that we offer different types of content, but all under the umbrella of empowering young people with knowledge related to these topics, so they can make the best decisions for themselves.

I ask you to think about today; what do youth in your community, youth in Holyoke need a little bit more support around? What would be the right version for Holyoke, for your program? Whenever we build up a jeopardy game, we're building it from scratch. This is a tool that has a format, but what's going to be the specific content within our games is designed with community consultation. So we get local data, whether that be local arrest data, local substance abuse data, what have you. We speak to local practitioners, folks who are stakeholders in the juvenile justice system, who work within people to young people themselves, especially is critical to hear their voices, and learn what they want to know.

Then, we draft up a game building app. This is not a plug and play tool. The version I use in San Antonio, Texas is not going to be the same version I would use in Holyoke, of course. Your laws are different, number one. Different laws in every jurisdiction, but the issues are going to be different too, and we want to be able to reach young people in a relatable and realistic way. We go through a process of assessment and feedback to make sure we're building up a game that's going to be right for the community.

I’m going to break from my PowerPoint. I'm not going to do it through a PowerPoint. I'm going to pull up my actual game board here. So what I'm about to show you is our interactive game board that we use for all our different games. It’s got some bells and whistles; some music plays, some flashing lights, and what I'm going to show you is a game board we built for Brockton, Massachusetts. This is our, “You got this” scheme which is meant for DCF involved youth. Our hope here is to just inform young people about the system that has impacted them so greatly; the Child Welfare System and DCF,

We want to talk to them about risky behavior that they might be getting up to that could lead them towards system involvement. We want to look at things that are going to happen to them when they turn eighteen that they need to be aware of. What are the rules, and how do they change when you turn eighteen? And we're going to ask if cops can do that because we want to make sure young people really understand the rules when it comes to police encounters. Not just what their rights are, and we're certainly going to talk about that. My background is as an attorney. I was a public defender in Boston for many years, so of course, it's important to me that young people know what their rights are in these encounters.

We also want to focus on their legal obligations because we don't do that enough, and then we put young people at risk because we're not talking about legal obligations that do actually occur in these interactions. We want to make sure these interactions stay lawful, peaceful, and everybody walking away safe. So we're going to cover that in our, “Can Cops Do That?” section.

This is just a sample of a game board. I'm going to pull up, “What Could Happen If…” for 500. Here's our question that we would pose to young people. “You've been sleeping on a friend's couch for the last month. Your friend tells you that you have to drive him and his brother to rob a store, or else you can't stay there anymore. What could happen if you drive them? Our answer choices on the board for young people to debate are; A, you could be charged with accessory. B, you could be charged with robbery. Or C, you can't be charged as long as you don't get out of the car.

Now, I played this question with a group of clinicians and case workers at the Old Colony Y [YMCA] outside of Brooklyn recently. I pulled up this question, and I was immediately saddened and validated because one of the clinicians raised her hand immediately and knew the answer. Because, she said, “One of my kids had this exact situation happen to them.” So while it's validating to know that this is something happening that we're effectively going to reach some kids on because it's a reality for them. It's quite sad to understand that young people are being put in this predicament.

What we want is for young people to walk away from our games knowing is that just going along to get along, and maybe you're in a really tight spot where you need a place to stay, but if you're the driver, if you're a getaway driver, if you're playing lookout, if you're in these roles that young people might think are lesser than the principal actor, so they know they might be doing something wrong, but they think they might not get as in as much trouble. We need to explain a very complicated legal concept called joint venture to them. Which in Massachusetts says, if you’re the getaway driver, if you bring them to the scene and take them away, if you’re the lookout, you’re getting charged with the same thing your friends are getting charged with when they go into the store and do the robbery.

Many people think it's something called accessory. That's that lesser offense. But no, we call it the exact same thing as the principal actor in Massachusetts, and they could be in a lot of trouble just because they think they don't get out of the car so they won't get in that much trouble. We want to make sure they're really aware of the spectrum of consequences they could face for this type of risky behavior.

We're not taking the time to teach it to them. We're leaving it up to TikTok, we're leaving it up to gossip and rumors, but this game hopes to bring vetted accurate information to them. So at least they know the rules, and then they can make the choice about whether they're going to follow them or not. But they at least deserve to know the rules first and foremost.

I'm going to pop back over to my PowerPoint. I just wanted you to kind of see what I'm describing here through my words and through my slides. We did this together, so I'll just flash forward. We build all of our games to be developmentally appropriate for twelve to seventeen year olds. We think the ideal number of players for a game is about fifteen to twenty, but I've played it with as little as four kids, and I've seen them play it upwards of eighty in kind of a youth summit format.

So really the hope of this tool is that it fits into your programming whether that be an event or a recurring program. Edit and fit in as a tool in your toolbox, that you use it as you see fit. We trust that folks on the ground working with young people every day know how to fit it into their program in a way that makes the most sense for them and the young people they're working with. When I survey youth, and I did this in Brockton for a project down there, I hear from young people about the things that they're wondering about, the anxieties that they have, and we want to meet them where they're at.

We want to answer these questions and make sure young people understand what the rules are, what the consequences might be, and to allow for follow-up conversation. Really, this is meant to be a conversational tool to tee community members up are credible messengers in the community, to lead the follow-up conversation, to get into the weeds of how young people are thinking and feeling about this, to catch misinformation in these conversations and to correct it.

But again, I ask you, what might young people in your programs or in your community be wondering about? And with this type of interactive tool, you'll actually hear from them because they'll debate the answers, they'll argue with their teammates while they're trying to get to the right answer, and you'll hear the things they're thinking and feeling, and you'll be able to meet them where they're at much more effectively than a lecture where it's only one way.

It's a train, the trainer model. We've got folks leading our game all across the country from a lot of different types of backgrounds, whether social workers, law enforcement defenders, prosecutors, community advocates, coaches, faith leaders. It really just takes a care for kids and a willingness and energy to engage with them with a tool like this. We are working in Brockton right now under a Shannon grant. So we're partnered with the Brockton police department and the boys and girls club down there, and that's allowing us to build up four versions of our game to bring across the Brockton community. We built our “Street Game”, our “School Game”, and our “Know Your Triggers” game, which is the trauma focus game, as well as our game for DCF involved youth. So now all of those games are being accessed by a variety of stakeholders across Brockton.

Due to that initial partnership with the police department and the boys and girls club, we've expanded. So now we've got a juvenile probation officer who really liked this down in Brockton, took it to her judges. And now the judges are offering playing this game as an alternative for a probation condition with her. I've got the Brockton public schools. We're working on the middle schools right now, implementing the school game into their both parent events, because that's critical too, making sure parents have the accurate information as well as their curriculum.

Then, we've got a wide variety of the Old Colony Y [YMCA] down there, using this in their various programs; their DCF contracted programs using that game for DCF involved youth, a DMH contracted program using our trauma focus game, as well as emergency residents for DCF involved youth. That's where I was playing the game just a couple of weeks ago. A couple of community youth serving groups, The Family Center and Love to Learn Brockton have both been partnering with us. The Department of Youth Services has actually been trained on the street game and our trauma game to use with their clinicians and the young people in their care.

When we work with you, we don't just bring that game board you sell. We have a wide variety of materials and resources. We pair with the game both to help our game leaders lead the conversations as well as some handouts to help provide alternative forms of learning through worksheets, but also take on resources for young people, whether they be glossaries or handouts that they can take home, fill in the blank, and then go back to them later.
We've got an accordion pamphlet explaining the simple do's and don'ts for how to have a safe interaction with law enforcement and a wallet size cards think about it first for the collateral consequences of system involvement.

We also work with you to do a little bit of data analysis. So we have pre and post-game, surveys that pair with our games so that we can track knowledg during the game and then analyze that and send it back to you to show you how young people are responding, how their knowledge is growing. The last thing I'll just touch on here is, we are fortunate enough because of those surveys that have been part of a peer reviewed study in two journals this year; The Justice Evaluation Journal and the Journal of Prevention. Both publish peer reviewed studies of our street version of Juvenile Justice, Jeopardy.

That was through a collection of about nine-hundred surveys across five different States, forty different schools, and the findings showed that of the survey, about eighty-nine percent felt more prepared to interact safely with law Enforcement. Ninety-seven percent were reporting that they thought the game was helpful for them, and of all the information covered in that game that day, they thought about fifty-three percent of the information was brand new to them. So that's a really important data point, too. They're not getting this information elsewhere. When we ask where they are getting it from, one-fifth are saying family and two-fifths are saying the Internet.

The Internet and family can have the best intentions at heart sometimes, and even if they do, it might not be accurate. So we don't want to burden families with having to collect this accurate information. This isn't necessarily their wheelhouse. We shouldn't expect them to be teaching the law or these rules right? We can't rely on the Internet being accurate, and unfortunately those are the main sources of misinformation. We want to support young people with a tool that's going to bring them accurate vetted information.

Through the study it showed that taken together the findings argue for an implementation of a universal standardized curriculum for youth about state specific information on laws. We need to standardize this. We need to get it out to every kid so they all have the same information they're working with. By implementing a Juvenile Justice Jeopardy to lead, that promises to prevent some negative outcomes for young people. So these are great findings for us, we feel really proud of them.

Here's my contact information, I put it in the chat as well. These are a bunch of our game leaders all across the country, from Birmingham, to Maine, to San Antonio, to New Jersey, to Brockton as well on there. So I will stop sharing my screen and turn it over to folks for any questions that they might have, or put them in the chat, and I can tend to them while you all get on with your meeting.

Agency Overview/Updates: 1:20pm to 2:30pm

Abbie Germain: Western Mass MOMS
Hi, folks, good afternoon. Thanks Eddie, always a pleasure to be here. I'm happy to be here, I get to start today. For those of you who don't know Western Mass MOMS provides an opportunity for mothers to address their stress, anxiety and depression. I wanted to use this time just to thank the agencies that have invited us to trunk or treats and fall festivals. I think we did about sixteen or seventeen events throughout the month of August.

It was very busy, great to be out in the community handing out candy to the kids, and of course, talking to the moms and caregivers about our program. It was absolutely amazing. We're looking forward to this month and next month, and of course all the holiday festivities. So if your agency is hosting any kind of event, and you're looking for resource tables, we would love to come. We'd love to hand out goodies, treats, and snacks to the kids. We have somebody that does face painting for free. We just like to engage in the community and keep this going, especially after such a beautiful month of October.

So again, I'm Abby from the Western Mass MOMS program. I'll put my information in the chat. If we have not met or spoken, I would love to know you, and for those of you who are returning welcome back. I do have my colleague Heather, on the call today, so you'll hear a little bit more about the Moms program from her.

Elijah Liam Bruno: MSPCC
Hi. I'm Elijah Liam Bruno, a clinical supervisor with MSPCC Elliott in Holyoke. We provide in home therapy services and therapeutic mentoring services for youth. Right now, we have a very short wait list for in-home therapy, very short wait list for therapeutic mentoring. We just hired a male bilingual TM, so we can accept male referrals for therapeutic mentoring. We are also hiring for a clinical supervisor at the office, and it's a hybrid position. You can make referrals on our website at ElliotCHS.org. And my email is in the chat if you're interested in speaking more about the supervisor position.

Ana Jaramillo: Holyoke Health Center
Hi, everybody. Anna Jaramillo and I work for Holyoke Health Center and Chicopee Health Center as the community partnership engagement coordinator as well as the Let's Move Hampden County coordinator. The Holyoke Health Center is a federally qualified community health center and we provide different services for everybody in the community. Basically, we take private insurance. We also work with Mass Health recipients. We have a scale fee for those who need financial assistance as well. We try to work with everybody and anyone. We provide clinical services. We provide pediatric vision and dental for adults, dental care for kids’ and orthodontic care.

We have many other resources, we have substance abuse programs. If you need more information about what services we provide for you, your family, and community members. My information is on the chat. I also have been a food advocate for many years, and I collaborated with many people in these regards. If you want to be part of our efforts in Holyoke or you want to be part of our team. We also work very closely with many organizations, educating communities, about healthy lifestyle and healthy living programs in Holyoke. I have more to say, I can be here all day, but please don't hesitate to call.

Anthony Rigali: Kiwanis Club of Greater Holyoke
How are you doing, everybody? My name's Anthony Rigali. I'm a board member of the Kiwanis Greater Holyoke Club that is newly charted. And really one of the reasons why I'm visiting is we are looking to piggyback on any other service projects that are out there in the community of Holyoke. We also are having a Kiwanis Charter Night tonight at Pic’s Pub. If anybody would like to come, feel free to come on in and learn a little bit more about the Kiwanis and what we are doing. We are really kind of here for the youth, in the Holyoke community, and we're just trying to be out there kind of extended olive branch to the youth. Make sure that they're on the right path, on the right track, and mentoring matters. We're here to make sure that we're out in the community, and everybody knows who we are. Thank you.

Bill Courchesne: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Hey everybody. Bill Courchesne, the Hampden County Sheriff's Office I’m the Ward Six Neighborhood Watch Coordinator for the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative. Currently, we're working on a food drive for United Way, and if any of your organizations would like to host a dropoff box. We have smaller boxes for offices, you can reach out to me by leaving me a voicemail on my phone number there or email. And we'll be getting those boxes out next week hopefully, and I'll be happy to show up to your place and drop off a box.

Brett Fortin: Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA]
Good afternoon everyone. My name is Brett Fortin, and I'm with the OSHA office here in Springfield, Massachusetts, the outreach coordinator. Part of what we do is provide training for individuals on their rights as employees to safe and healthful workplaces, how to file complaints, their protections under whistleblower actions. We also assist companies with resources for them to get free training and assistance with their health and safety programs to provide the safety practices for their employees. And thank you for your time.



Caitlin Moran: River Valley Counseling Center
Hi, everyone! I'm Caitlin Moran. I use they/she pronouns, and I work for River Valley Counseling Center which offers a bunch of great counseling services; bilingual, especially for Spanish included in that. I am a little one person department and I'm the adolescent Sexual Health program manager. I go into local schools and help teach and support inclusive and comprehensive sex-ed, and relationship health education. So if any schools or any other types, we also do out of school things. So if you have any need for that my emails in the chat and let us know.

Carl Borden: Western Mass Boy Scouts
Hi, Carl Borden, from the Boy Scouts of America, Western Massachusetts Council. As I announced in the Chat group, we just restarted our first pack here in Holyoke last week.
We have four families on board there, and we're in the process of reestablishing the troops. The long term plan is to have every neighborhood have the opportunity to join scouting locally. Not have to walk more than a few blocks.

We are looking for charter partners and sponsoring organizations to help us with that cause. With my office being in Westfield, it's a little hard to have the kids walk over here for meetings. My email is in the chat, and Iris is on here somewhere else, so she can give us more information.

Carmen Ruiz: Valley Opportunity Council
Hi, everyone, my name is Carmen Ruiz. We provide employment for the youth in school and out of school. Here we also have the classes for DOD for the youth. Recently for the youth work, we just started our cycle too, last Monday. So we have a group of students that are currently working with our vendors. If you have any questions I did put my information in the chat, and you can reach out to me.

Charlene Rivera: Holyoke Pediatrics
Hi! My name is Charlene Rivera the care coordinator for Holyoke Pediatrics. I connect families to the community resources. I also support them with medical needs, such as transportation, food insecurity, things like that.

Daniel Torres: Fisher's of Men New England
Blessings to everyone, Daniel Torres, Fisher's of Men New England. I just had a meeting with a good group of Holyoke pastors and just found out that many of the pastors in Holyoke do not know about the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative. So we’ve got some education to do, and we'll be working on that, Ed. I'll need your help for that. So anyone that needs faith based services I could be the guy. Have a great day, everyone.

Dorothy Prieto: Head Start
Hey everyone, Dorothy Prieto. Though, I work for Head Start in early learning programs. We cover Western Hampden County, all of Franklin, and all of Hampshire. So right now, we are still looking for pregnant moms and kids that are under 3 for our Head Start at Home Program, especially in Western Hampden County. So Westfield, West Springfield, the outlying hill towns. We have a couple of spaces open for that and we have low wait lists in our other areas. So if you have anybody, send them our way. We have half day classrooms. We have full day classrooms. Anything to do with Head Start and early learning if you have any questions, just give me a call.

I put my information in the chat. If anybody's working up in Franklin County, Orange has a very low waitlist. Northampton, in Hampshire County has a very low wait list. So if you guys have anybody send them my way. Email me, I can send you a referral. They do get priority points for referrals. And just any general questions that has to do with anything Head Start and children under five, if I don't know the answer, I can find it for you.

Elizabeth Veillette: Center for Human Development
Hi, everyone. Elizabeth Veillette. I'm the employment specialist navigator for Center for Human Development diversion, shelter, and housing division. We provide housing and supports for somewhere between 450 and 500 families along the entire range from overflow hotels to supported housing and independent apartments. The bulk of our participants are in family shelters, and that's primarily who I work with.

I provide employment and training information as well as access to resources both to the participants and to the staff. So a lot of what I get from these meetings is shared with staff. Some of it's for staff most of it is for the participants. As always, I'm very grateful for everybody I meet through this organization and the ways that I'm able to help my participants through your knowledge and expertise. Other than that, nothing to add and thank you so much.

Faith Sarisley: CrossPoint Clinical Services
Hi, everybody! My name is Faith, and I'm from the CrossPoint Clinical Services marketing team. Our executive director, Rondey Allen is here as well, you'll hear from him soon, and I've left my contact information in the chat as well with our website link. You can check that out as well. At CrossPoint, we continue to provide faith based and traditional mental health counseling from our four Massachusetts offices. The closest one being in West Springfield.

I want to quickly highlight a few things we have coming up this fall are taking place in person or virtually over Zoom. So we're running a saving your marriage before it starts workshop for eight weeks, starting in February. Please share some information with any newlyweds you may know. We also have a new life coaching and personal training programs open to anybody. You can learn more and sign up for any of these programs and the events in coaching sections of our website in the chat, and thanks everybody for all you do. Thanks Ed.

Flor Diaz: Valley Opportunity Council
Hi everyone, my name is Flor Diaz. I work for Valley Opportunity Council, the WIC program Holyoke and Chicopee. So with the WIC program, it's free. We offer free health foods, personalized nutrition consultations, tips for eating well, referrals for medical and dental health insurance, childcare, housing, fuel assistance, and other services. Right now, I have nothing to report. I left my information in the chat. If you have any questions you can reach out to me. Thank you.

Heather Salerno: Western Mass MOMS
Hey everyone! It's great to be here. I loved being out this past month with all of the trunk or treats. I just wanted to let you guys know that we are still enrolling moms in our program. So if you have any moms that you are working with, that you think would be a great fit for us, send them our way. The other thing that I have that I'm working on is the moms in our program that I work with specifically, I work with them on their education and employment goals. So I plug them into education programs and I get them hired. So if you know, you come across anyone who's hiring you think of anything like that. That would be great to let me know. Other than that I am a distribution for the toys for tots, and I need a space to do that in. So seems like it's going to be a pretty large year for us. Probably we will be distributing about five-hundred toys. If anyone thinks of any community spaces that are quite large, a large room, please just let me know. That would be really great. Thanks so much.

Iris Cerda: Buckton Health Agency
Hi, everybody! I'm the Marketing Assistant Coordinator for Buckton Health Agency. But right now I'm located in Holyoke. We're at 284 Maple Street. I left my information in the chat. We're now taking clients, so if anybody's in need of home health services, please shoot me a message or an email. Thank you.

Iris Sosa: Boy Scouts, Western Massachusetts Council
Hi everyone, I’m Iris Sosa from Western Massachusetts Council. As Carl mentioned, we started a pack in Holyoke, and we're working to start the troops too. So our next meeting is going to be on November 16th, and is going to be in the Enlace Familia facility. So please, if you know of any families that have kids from kindergarten to fourth grade, the Boy Scout age, let us know. Refer them to us or to that meeting. We are always looking for volunteers that want to help out. The more kids we get, the more volunteers we need. We help with the trainings, we hold our trainings online, and we can also do it in person. We can help out with anything with the program, and also any kind of partnership support is welcome.

Jahan Pluas: DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps
Hi everybody, my name is Jahan Pluas, I’m an AmeriCorps member serving at OA at the moment. It's my second term as an AmeriCorps member. Don't have much, it's pretty simple. Right now, I'm here just trying to see if there's anyone that would be interested in the team service project that we do every year. We're hoping to talk to a couple of people about community and whatnot, and then to formulate an actual project to do in June.
If anybody is interested in being part of it, we also try to make sure that it's also you centered. So if anyone's interested, just definitely hit me up. I left my information in the chat. If anyone has any resources for OA as well, it is a technically alternative school. I know a lot of kids we use would appreciate a lot of the support and resources that you guys provide. Thank you.

Jason Comcowich: Nuestras Raices
Hi, Jason Comcowich, community garden coordinator with Nuestras Raices. We have some community garden plots downtown and in the flats that will be available in the spring. We also are getting our Youth Garden in the flats back online. So if anybody would have youth who might want to participate there. That space will be available for youth garden education. Also on this Friday, tomorrow we have an event at El Marcado, from 5:30 to 8:00 at 413 Main Street. It will be a story telling event, focusing on cultural additivity to climate change. So if anyone would like to attend, there will be dinner provided for free and opportunities to share stories. And you'll hear more from my colleague Sicry, a little bit later. Thank you.

Jennezzy Martinez: River Valley Counselling Center, Holyoke High School North
Hi everyone, my name's Jennezzy Martinez. I'm a community health worker for the team clinic out of Holyoke High North. I work very closely to support the students and also the families with referrals and their needs. Thank you.

Johana Farrell: Food Bank of Western Mass
Hello everyone, my name is Johana Farrell. I am a food assistance referral coordinator with the Food Bank of Western Mass. We help folks in the community with different resources. Just pretty much anything that they need and anything I can get my hands on. I will try to point them in the right direction or refer them to whatever programs they are in need of.

John McCarthy: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
Good afternoon everyone, John McCarthy, I'm from USCIS. I'm the community relations officer. My job is to get information out to anyone who's interested in filing for immigration benefits. In particularly the hot topics most recently, are TPS for Venezuela, and also the family reunification programs. The family reunification programs were the reinstitution of the Cuban and Haitian family reunification in the addition to the Colombian, Salvador, Guatemalan and Honduran family reunification programs.

We've also been notified that Ecuador is going to be joining that list for family reunification. However, we have not seen the Federal Register notice posted as of yet, so I cannot tell you the dates of that yet, but that's coming. If anyone needs an informational presentation please reach out to me. I have my contact information in the chat. Thank you very much.

Juan Anderson-Burgos: Representative Duffy Legislative Aid
My name is Juan Anderson Burgos. I am the legislative aid for Representative Duffy. We represent Holyoke, Mass and Ward 3B in Chicopee. I don't really have updates, but I will say what I always say when I'm on here, if you know any of your constituents in Holyoke or in Ward 3 in Chicopee who are having issues with unemployment, I am the unemployment King. I get those, resolved quickly. I will tell you, there's a new trend coming through now that I'm experiencing, which is people who did not file for unemployment during COVID, they're filing for the first time now, and they're just figuring out that they were a victim of fraud. So someone used their information during COVID and were getting paid under their social security, their text tax ID and everything. So that's a big mess but I found a way around that, and I'm helping constituents in that way too. So if you know anyone who's dealing with that, please send them my way. I'll be more than happy to help. I did put my name and my information in the chat. So it was great to see you guys. Thank you all for everything you do.

Julia Popkin: Community Legal Aid
Hi everyone, my name's Julia Popkin. I'm a staff attorney at Community Legal Aid in Springfield. CLA is the civil legal services provider for Worcester and West. So we serve Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire Counties. We provide a range of civil legal services; housing, employment and unemployment, and family law for survivors of domestic violence. We have an education law unit that I practice in. We have a benefits unit to help folks with Mass Health denial, SNAP, emergency assistance, etc.

A disability benefits unit and we have a CORI and re-entry unit that helps folks with ceiling and expunging criminal records and other collateral matters around housing and employment. We also have a wholly owned subsidiary organization, the Central West Justice Center, which provides immigration representation for humanitarian based immigration cases. We are available to do know your rights trainings on all the different substantive areas that we work in. I don't think that we have any updates right now.

Kevin Moforte: Mass Development TDI Fellow
Hi everyone. This is my first time here. I work with Mass Development which is like the economic development agency of the State. I'm the TDI Fellow for Holyoke. Holyoke has a three year grant for Mass Development to coordinate efforts and funding to revitalize the downtown. I'm the grant basically; they get a full time roaming chicken downtown talking to business owners, residents, property owners, the city.

Through Mass Development, we provide a lot of funding for some of the projects that the community wants to see implemented. So we've done a store for improvement programs. We're working with the businesses now forming a business association. We're going to try to put a ton of trash cans downtown, and have a service that keeps it clean and litter-free. The space next to Lalita on High Street, which is 394 High Street, is an empty lot where there used to be a hotel. We hope to activate that, next spring and summer. You know, level it out. Put some pop up, retail a stage, some community garden implements.

We are inviting anybody and everybody who has a stake on High Street. Either they live, work, play close to there to join our partnership meetings. They're the third Wednesday of every month. We have a quite generous fund that's coming out now for people who want to start businesses or open locations in the downtown. So please contact me about that. Thank you very much.

Liam Russell: DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps, Lighthouse Holyoke
Hi everyone, my name's Liam Russell. I'm a DIAL/SELF AmeriCorps member serving at Lighthouse Holyoke. Right now, the reason why a lot of us are here today is just to get to see the different resources available in Holyoke. So we could either partner up or use them in our team service projects. Like Jahan said, it's going to be centered around youth in or around Holyoke.

For Lighthouse it’s an alternative school. It deals with a lot of kids who can't function in a normal school environment for whatever reason that may be. We take them in and give them a better chance of education than they would have had in a public school. So if you have any resources pertaining to that, please contact me and let me know. Thank you.

Maria Chambers: Behavioral Health Network
Hi everyone, I'm Maria Chambers. I'm a senior program manager at BHN. I oversee our Behavior Health Community Partners Program and the Long Term Services and Supports Community Partners Program. I don't have any updates right now, but it's nice to see everyone.

Megan Benway: Department of Veterans Affairs
Hi everyone, my name is Megan. I'm a social worker with the Department of Veterans Affairs. I'm a part of the healthcare for homeless veterans outreach team. I'm just here to learn more about what's in the community for Holyoke, and I did leave the contact information for the general line as well as my work cell. So if anyone identifies a veteran experience in homelessness or is at risk, or if you're working with a family where there's a veteran as a parent or a family member. Please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you.

Miguel Rivera: Rewarding Insurance Agency
Hello everyone, my name is Miguel Rivera. I'm the CEO of Rewarding Insurance Agency. Our clients have the convenience that we can help them with life and health insurance in the same place. Today, we want to let you all know that we moved to our new location here in 284 Maple Street. It’s the building right across from McDonald's. From here we can protect families financially; Massachusetts and Connecticut, and we give them access to services to help them have a better quality of life.

We are contracted with the principal health insurance companies in Massachusetts. So we are able to find our clients the best plan for them. Also, we help them apply for Mass Health so my information is in the chat. Let me know if there's anyone I can help.

Nadeem Sikandar: Valley Opportunity Council
Hi everyone, my name is Nadeem Sikandar. I am the Director of Continuing Education and Career Center at Valley Opportunity Council. I'm going to leave my information and the website in the chat box. I oversee adult education which covers GED high set classes. I oversee youth works and Theova Program in school and out of school youth program. Which provides youth when they're off during the summer time, some employment opportunity trying to get them ready for some career readiness. Also, involves out of school use, which is the GED preparation and part time employment opportunities.

Parts of my programs are C Comp employment program services and the Gear Up, which is the gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programs in Holyoke public schools. I'm going to leave my information there right now. What I wanted to ask is, if you know a youth who's looking to get a GED preparation who's not in school ages sixteen to twenty-four and looking for some part time employment opportunities. We're looking to enroll some of those youths here. So thank you very much for havingme. This is my first time attending this meeting. Thank you.

Nia Johnson: Attorney General's Office
Hi everyone, my name is Nia Johnson. I am the Western Mass community engagement coordinator for the Attorney General's Office. I'm here to just let you know that the Attorney General is a support for all people in the commonwealth, regardless of legal status, and we do offer trainings. Such as, know your rights, trainings, consumer rights trainings, landlord, tenant trainings.

We offer trainings for people under the age of eighteen to expose them to their rights, that they have, as well as some scam and ID theft training and worker workers’ rights trainings. So I would love to partner with anyone interested. I'll also be at events and look forward to meeting and getting to know you all.

Penny Dugan: Center for Human Development
Hi, everyone I’m from CHD Outpatient, over on Appleton Street. I supervise the new pediatric program over there. CHD has provided pediatric services for a while, so you know, like outpatient therapy for kids. But this new program we're trying to let people get quicker access for their clients. You can refer directly to me if you have a kiddo or a parent who needs services.

We have a lot of different types of services in our outpatient clinics; we've got case management for adults, recovery coaching, we've got psychiatry and obviously outpatient individual therapy, we're also adding family therapy, and group therapies. Specifically, I wanted to let you all know that we're doing parenting coaching right now. I know a lot of folks are struggling to find classes that start with their clients need, especially for DCF. I can do them one on one and start like next week, if you want to send someone my way.

We were also getting ready for some anger management classes for kids, for teens, and adults. So if you have any DYS, DCF, probation clients who need that, you can contact me. My info is there and just wanted to reiterate, if you're sending a referral to CHD for a kid you can send it directly to me instead of going through Central, and we'll get them hooked up with an intake for the next week. So that’s it for me, thanks everyone.


Robert Crawford: DHHS
Good afternoon, Robert Crawford, DHHS. I operate in Holyoke and Chicopee also. I do have a couple of updates. So I am currently looking to leverage the opportunities given to the grant that I operate out of to employ a health worker. I'm going re-drop my contact info. If somebody has any information regarding a community health worker network that I could potentially dive into to find a candidate for those positions, I would really appreciate it.

Additionally, we also are looking for responsible and committed citizens of these different communities to essentially work with the community health worker to create outreach opportunities for youth and pertains to youth substance prevention. We're looking to create a program around that. So if you have any leads or details, or you'd like to start a conversation regarding potential agencies we’d appreciate that. Thank you.

Rondey Allen: CrossPoint Clinical Services
Hey everybody, good to be back. I'm the executive director of CrossPoint Clinical Services. I just want to give a shout out to Kristen that was a great presentation. That's some great information. I worked with the Department of Youth Services for a while down in the Boston area, and I know how valuable that would be.

Faith already talked about our agency, I want to actually invite people that would be interested to participate in a program that our agency is participating in. As the holidays are coming up there's a lot of toy distribution programs that come up. I wanted to call your attention and invite you to participate in a in a very specific one that I think is special. The program is called Angel Tree, and what it does is it purchases gifts to distribute to the children of incarcerated parents. In doing so, trying to offer on behalf of the incarcerated parents so incarcerated individuals sign up on the inside, distribute the names of the kids.

Angel Tree facilitates the purchase and distribution of gifts to those kids, and by thereby, fostering this connection. You know one of the things that I'm involved in is I teach a fathering class inside Ludlow [Correctional Center] every week. For the reason I was drawn to that is because it's such an intergenerational cycle that incarceration is. One thing that's been shown is that people who are connected to their children will recidivate less, will tend to reoffend less if they have a reason and purpose to stay out.

This is another way to facilitate connection between incarcerated parents and their kids by being able to offer a gift and say, “This is from your dad. This is from your mom. They didn't forget about you, Merry Christmas.” That also creates a connection between the entity or individual who's delivering that gift to provide ongoing support if appropriate. So it's a really cool program. If you're interested in supporting that along with CrossPoint and basically just to be more specific, they're twenty-five dollar gifts. Essentially, the volunteer gets assigned a ticket of a child who they'll buy a gift somewhere in the range of twenty-five dollars. You can support by simply paying for the gift, you could support by helping to deliver the gift, or both.

I'm going to drop specific information about the program in the in the chat, and then you could also reach out to me personally. Really, we'd have to execute if you're interested on this by tomorrow, because we're about to get our list of kids and we want to act quickly to make sure that all goes smoothly. Thank you.

Rosalyn Rodriguez: Young Women’s Christian Association [YWCA]
Hi, I'm Rosalyn Rodriguez, I'm the program director at the Holyoke Young Parenting Program Shelter here in Holyoke. I don't have any updates, I'm from the YWCA, by the way, no, updates are on my end.

Sandy Ward: Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts
I put my contact information in the chat. I'm a volunteer with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts. Our website has all sorts of information about your rights and options. We have a 24/7 call in number; we answer questions from the public. We also we do advocacy and try to help improve consumer awareness of what their rights are.

I just was notified this morning that the Federal Trade Commission is going to have a training session for us about how to report any fraud that gets reported to us, or any complaints about funeral homes that maybe, for instance, failed to give a price list when you first go in the door, that's a Federal law. People don't know that they're entitled to price lists, and you can shop around and save a lot of money. So we try to educate about that. I'm going to be getting educated about how to report any violations that we hear. That's the kind of work that we do as volunteers.

Sarah Lynn: MSPCC Prevention
Hi everybody, Sarah Lynn, from MSPCC Prevention. We have the Healthy Families and Parent Teachers Program that supports young parents in the area. Today, I want to tell you about our Fathers and Families Network Series Talk that is coming up. We are hosting it at the Holyoke Public Library, Tuesday, November 14th at 10:00AM. It is called a Father's Voice in the New Hampshire Child Welfare System.

You may wonder why New Hampshire, and the reason is because every year there is the New England Fathering Conference. I went to about twenty-five breakout sessions, and these gentlemen blew my mind with how they're getting dads involved and back in the picture. One of the gentlemen that is coming was incarcerated, lost custody of his children, gained custody of his children, and is now employed by them. So I will put the information in the chat, and we have about ten more tickets. Thank you.

Sheryl Maldonado: WayFinders
Hi good afternoon, my name is Sheryl Maldonado. I work as a resident engagement training vista. I'm a volunteer with AmeriCorps. So for today, I have an event we're going to hold on Tuesday, November 28th, in our WayFinders office in Springfield at 780 Main Street. We're going to hold a digital equity collision meeting that we are having because of the gap that we have because of the Internet. So we are looking for some stakeholders to be part of it with this group. We're going to have on that day the meeting, if you want to be there just contact me.

Also, I want to say every Friday or Monday I send out all of the flyers and the event that is going to be held in the community. If you have any flyers for any events that you want to spread the word, just send it to me, and I will forward it to the resident. We had this past Thursday, a walk audit. This was the first time that we did a walk audit in Holyoke. We went through Chestnut Street up to Appleton and Elm Street, and we did this walk audit with Stephanie Colon and Jenny. It was a great tournout, everything was great. We had a few feedback and issues that we found there. Today, we're going to have a meeting with Boston, and we're going to try to see how we can resolve this issue. So this is everything that I have for today. Thank you.

Sicry Garcia: Nuestras Raices
Hello everyone, my name is Sicry Garcia, community outreach with Nuestras Raices Inc. Here we offer many programs; we do new training for farmers, we do business and finance for people that want to fix their credits, we also do service training for people that want to open their own business. I put all of my information in the chat. If you have any questions, just reach out, and we can answer all the questions that you guys may have. Thank you so much for having me today.

Thomas Ellis: Center for Human Development
Hi everyone, my name's Thomas Ellis. I work for CHD Children and Families. I'm in the basic center program under safety zone. What we do is we offer emergency housing to runaway homeless youth under eighteen. We also do preventative services, and of course, we connect them to the services they may need.

Right now, we're kind of looking to expand our network of host homes. So I did leave my information. I'm hoping to be able to send some information to people. This is a little outside of my scope of my job because we have a home finding team. But I just want to add a little more manpower to their search, so we can offer more host homes to the kids.

Mike Pratt: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
I am Mike Pratt, I work for the Hampden County Sheriff's Office, and with the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood initiative. I help Ed with the community work that he does, and I also help him with the basketball leagues, and I just started mentoring a couple of high school kids. So it's been pretty exciting. And I want to shout out to the YMCA for helping me get the platform for a place to meet with them every week. So thank you.

Luis Rodriguez: Girl Scott's of Western Massachusetts
Hey, how are you doing? I'm Lewis Rodriguez; I work with the Girl Scott's of Western Massachusetts. I do appreciate the opportunity of being here. I did come a little unprepared, so I do apologize for not coming with the proper information that I would love to share with everyone. But it's a pleasure hearing a lot from all of you and meeting all of you today.

Art Lobdell: The Holyoke Rotary Club, Boy Scouts of America
Hi, I just wanted to give a shout out today to the Holyoke Rotary Club. We have a big event coming up December 7th. Eat, drink, and be Holyoke, to support the scholarship fund and other things that we do to improve life in Holyoke. We recently made a large contribution to the handicap accessible park for the Miracle League in Holyoke, and we'll be raising those funds. The event is at City Hall on December 7th, tickets are fifty dollars. I put that in the chat also. If anybody would be willing to let us put up posters or yard signs anywhere in Holyoke, please drop that in the chat, and I can get the signs to those locations and posters. So again, even though my work for the Boy Scouts, my staff made the Scout announcements, and I'm just speaking for the Rotary Club today. Thank you.

Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
I don't really have any updates. Our next meeting's going to be December 14th and that's pretty much all I have. I just want to thank you for the work that you do. Have a great rest of the week, and we'll see you guys next networking meeting on December 14th. Take care.

CHAT NOTES;

Ana Jaramillo
ana.jaramillo@hhcinc.org cellphone:413:335-7216

Robert Crawford
Youth Substance Prevention
rcrawford@springfieldcityhall.com

Kristen Wheeler
Strategies for Youth, kew@strategiesforyouth.org, 617-714-3789

Miguel Arce
Springfield College marce@springfiieldcollege.edu

Carmen Ruiz
YouthWorks / WIOA Program coordinator, Valley Opportunity Council. Phone : 413-612-0206 ext. 213

Jason Comcowich
Community Garden Coordinator- Nuestras Raices- jcomcowich@nuestras-raices.org

Faith Sarisley
CrossPoint Clinical Services, Inc.
fsarisley@crosspointclinical.org
www.crosspointclinical.org

Iris Cerda
Marketing Assitant Coordinator for Brockton Health Agency - now providing services in the Western Massachusetts area call at 413-275-4050

Heather Salerno
Western Mass MOMS Partnership Program hsalerno@viability.org

Johana Farrell
Food Bank Phone: 413-315-4455 johannaf@foodbankwma.org

Elizabeth Veillette
Employment Specialist/Navigator, CHD's shelter division. eveillette@chd.org, 413 266-9840

Diana Biagioli
Federation for Children with Special Needs, dbiagioli@fcsn.org. We provide information, support and training for young people with disabilities ages 18-26, to their families and to professionals working with them.

Dorothy Prieto
ERSEA (Enrollment) Coordinator Head Start 413-387-1234 dprieto@communityaction.us

Alijah Leombruno
LICSW clinicial supervisor with MSPCC/Eliot, In home Therapy-very short waitlist, Thereaputic Mentoring-very short waitlist, just hired a male bilingual TM, hiring a clinical Supervisor (hybrid position) Holyoke office, aleombruno@eliotchs.org

Megan Benway
Department of Veterans Affairs, Healthcare for Homeless Veterans. 413-584-4040 ex. 2122 (general line), cell: 413-686-6968. megan.benway@va.gov

Rosalyn Rodriguez
Program Director- YWCA /HYPP/Holyoke Young Parent Program - rrodriguez@ywworks.org 413-536-4080

Carl Borden
Senior Membership Executive Boy Scouts of America and Career Education Exploring division

Jennifer Yekel
MSPCC/Eliot with the VOCA/survivor services program as a trauma clinician
jyekel@eliotchs.org

Caitlin Littleton
Adolescent Sexual Health Program Manager of River Valley Counseling Center. Littleton_caitlin@holyokehealth.com

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

Abbie~Western
Western Mass MOMS 413-561-7413 MOMS@viability.org Would love to connect. Please contact me if we haven't met yet. And if we have- let's reconnect!! Contact me anytime.

Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Hampden County Sheriff's Office, ed.caisse@sdh.state.ma.us

Rondey Allen
Executive Director Crosspoint Clinical Services. RAllen@CrossPointClinical.org. 413-231-3113 www.crosspointclinical.org

Kevin Moforte
MassDevelopment TDI Fellow for the Revitalization of High Street - kmoforte@massdevelopment.com - 781-309-3157

Nia Johnson
Western Mass Community Engagement Coordinator in the Office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell 413-867-1619 nia.johnson2@mass.gov Great to see everyone! If you have a newsletter please sign me up! I would love to connect!

Shakira Guzman
Community Outreach Specialist for Planned Parenthood. EMAIL: Shakira.guzman@pplm.org

Maria Chambers
Senior Program Manager BHN, maria.chambers@bhninc.org 413-654-7639

Anthony Rigali
Board Member of the Greater Holyoke Kiwanis Club 413-237-9110 tony@conklinoffice.com

John McCarthy
USCIS Community Relations John McCarthy
USCIS john.j.mccarthy@uscis.dehs.gov

Sasha Viands
Sorry if I missed intros — wanted to share this here!
Call me (413) 455-5757 or email at SNViands@gmail.com for more info!
We’re still looking for youth speakers (stipends will be provided). Thank you!

Abbie
Western Mass MOMS at Viability INC
Kristen, these games are GREAT! Wow!

Brett Fortin
Compliance Assistance Specialist, U S Department of Labor\ OSHA, Springfield Area Office 413 785 0207 Fortin.brett@dol.gov Our mission: ensuring workers are provided with a safe and healthy workplace.

Luis Rodriguez
membership specialist for gscwm in the Holyoke council

Thais Rivera
HR Employee Relations & Compliance for Trulieve. I am also a parent of youth in HPS schools. I love to connect with the resources available, I share the opportunities with anyone I come across. Looking forward to the upcoming winter basketball season
Thais.Rivera@Trulieve.com

Carl Borden
W.Ma Boy Scouts
We started a Cub Scout Pack last week in Holyoke and are restarting a Scouts BSA Troop for Boys and Scouts BSA Troop for Girls in Holyoke soon. if you have questions carl.borden@scouting.org

Iris Sosa
Boy Scout of America Western Massachusetts Council. Iris.sosa@scouting.org. Cell 787-512-1375

Rondey Allen
Such good information!

Sheryl
ResidentEngagement/WayFinders
Hi, good afternoon, Sheryl Maldonado, Resident Engagement Training and leadership VISTA. smaldonado@wayfinders.org 413-386-6898. We are going to have a Digital Equity Coalition meeting on Nov 28th at Way Finders office in Springfield please join us More information please contact me. Thank you

Abbie
Western Mass MOMS at Viability INC
That was GREAT!

Jahan Pluas
Americorps member serving OA Success Center Holyoke. Im an adult advisor Jahanamericorp@gmail.com 413-273-3499

Sicry Garcia
Community Outreach and event coordinator at Nuestras Raices Inc. 329 Main Street Holyoke, Ma 01040

Shannon Burke
Holyoke Pediatrics - burkes@holypeds.com Medical Home Care Coordinator 413-536-2393 ext 203

Liam Russell
AmeriCorps member serving Lighthouse Holyoke. Teacher assistant

Flor Diaz
Valley Opportunity Council (Holyoke/Chicopee-WIC program Community Coordinator) 413-612-0214 ext. 607

Liam Russell
AmeriCorps member serving Lighthouse Holyoke. Teacher assistant Email: liam@lighthouseteens.org

Penny Dugan
Program Supervisor of Pediatric Services at
CHD Outpatient, pdguan@chd.org

Shaundell Diaz (she/her) 3COC/CAPV
Coordinated Entry Coordinator, Three County Continuum of Care/CAPV & Consultant for the National Coalition for the Homeless. sdiaz@communityaction.us

Miguel Rivera
Rewarding Insurance Agency. Life, Health, Auto, Home and Business Insurance. 284 Maple St, Holyoke, MA. Licensed in MA & CT. 413-317-0043

Juan Anderson-Burgos
(Rep. Duffy)
Legislative Aide to State Representative Patricia Duffy
District office: 413-529-4307
164 Race St., Suite 105
Holyoke 01040

Abbie~Western
Abbie Germain- Western Mass MOMS 413-561-7413 moms@viability.org

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

Shannon Burke
I have to jump off. Sorry. Holyoke Pediatrics. Nothing new to report.

Anthony Rigali
Kiwanis Club Night at Pic's Pub in Holyoke from 5-7 tonight 11/9. Come learn more about the Greater Holyoke Kiwanis Club. And Help us spread the support.

Sandy Ward
Sandy Ward, volunteer with nonprofit Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Mass. https://funeralconsumerswmass.org/ Our website provides information about rights and options, tips for saving $, and a comparative chart of prices charged by funeral homes in our region. We answers questions from the public via a 24/7 voice-mail service (413-376-4747) and our email at fcawmass@gmail.com and we can do presentations to groups.

Ana Jaramillo
Is the zoom link the same every month?

1 Reply
Elizabeth Veillette
I think I may have forgotten to mention what is arguably the most important part of my work: enabling participants in gaining and maintaining employment in order to break the cycle of poverty.

Jahan Pluas
@Heather Salerno - WM MOMS send me you info might have a few spots

Shakira Guzman
Hi all, Shakira Guzman Community Outreach Specialist for Planned Parenthood - I have to hop of for another call but I have no current updates, feel free to email me @ Shakira.guzman@pplm.org if there are any events you would like me to table at! Have a great day, thank you all!!

Ana Jaramillo
Good to have Nuestras at these meeting. Welcome

Jennifer Yekel
Hi everyone this is Jennifer Yekel with Mspcc/eliot in the survivor services program.
We offer individual counseling, case management, trauma assessments, victims compensation assistance and group therapy. We are currently hiring for a full-time VOCA clinician in the Holyoke office.

Iris Cerda
Also , I am currently a BSW ( Social Work ) student looking for opportunities for an internship my personal contact information is 939-308-4668 , iris.cerda21@gmail.com . I am bilingual.

Thomas Ellis
thellis@chd.org basic center program youth emergency housing.

Sicry Garcia
sgarcia@nuestras-raices.org

Carl Borden
W.Ma Boy Scouts
WHOA coming Nov 18 https://www.wmascouting.org/content/103695/WHOA WHOA: All Ages
Archery
Blacksmith
Bouldering
Crafts - Branding
Crafts - Wood Burning
Disc Golf
Geocaching
Kites
Mountain Biking
Orienteering
Ages 5 - 10
Special Program - Gem Mining
Ages 11+
Axe Throwing
Ages 14+
ATV

Art Lobdell
Holyoke Rotary - Eat, Drink and Be Holyoke City Hall 12/7 contact me for tickets
https://portal.clubrunner.ca/6933/SitePage/eat-drink-be-holyoke

Shaundell Diaz
3COC/CAPV
I have to jump off! Thanks for having me! Great group of folks!

Art Lobdell
Support Scoutings New Programs in Holyoke
https://www.wmascouting.org/Pancakes

Abbie
Western Mass MOMS at Viability INC
Penny, we have a mother that could use some supports. I will email you.

Kevin Moforte
TDI Fellow
I have to go to another meeting, thank you everyone

Maria Chambers
I have another meeting. Have a good afternoon everyone!

Robert Crawford
rcrawford@springfieldcityhall.com
413.787.6718

Art Lobdell
Looking to hire a 25 hour a week accounts recievable / payable clerk westfield, Ma.
Art.Lobdell@scouting.org

Rondey Allen
https://www.prisonfellowship.org/about/angel-tree/
RAllen@CrossPointClinical.org

Sarah Lynn
MSPCC Prevention
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-fathers-voice-in-the-new-hampshire-child-welfare-system-tickets-738132553337?aff=oddtdtcreator
slynn@eliotchs.org

Art Lobdell
Yard sign locations?

Sicry Garcia
Community Outreach and event coordinator at Nuestras Raices Inc. Sgarcia@nuestras-raices.org We offer Servsafe training for people who want to open their own business, this training is in Sapanish. We also offer New farmers traininig, Personal and business finance

New Business
Next Meeting is a special meeting on Thursday, December 14th on Zoom.


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