July 2025

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes


Date: July 10, 2025
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

Nia Johnson and Laura Putnam: Attorney Generals’s Office 1:05pm - 1:20pm
Hello everyone, my name is Nia Johnson. I'm the Senior Community Engagement Coordinator at the Attorney General's Office. It’s so great to be here in community with you all today, and I'm actually here with Laura Putnam from the Central West Justice Center. She's an attorney local to Western Mass, and she'll be here to answer some questions after the presentation. Laura, would you like to just say a few words.

Laura Putnam: Central West Justice Center
My name is Laura Putnam; I'm an Immigration Staff Attorney at the Central West Justice Center. My office is in Springfield, but I'm a Holyoke resident, so I'm happy to be here with all of you, and we'll be talking about unauthorized practice of law in the immigration field. I'll be available to answer questions about immigration law and what we're seeing in our client base after her presentation.

Nia Johnson: Attorney General's Office
Thank you so much, Laura. I'm going to now share my screen and begin the presentation. I am here today to talk about the unauthorized practice of immigration law. So just a little bit of background about the Attorney General's Office; The Attorney General's Office is an advocate and resource for all residents of Massachusetts, regardless of their legal status, and our office is charged with protecting consumers, combating fraud and corruption, investigating and prosecuting crime and protecting the environment workers and civil rights.

On screen is our current attorney, General Andrea Joy Campbell, and she's been in office since January of 2023. Our office works in four major ways. The first way is investigation, so we do complaints three different ways. You can file a complaint with the Attorney General's Office over the phone. You can file a complaint in person, and I believe the closest location to all of you is our Springfield Office, which is located at 1441 Main Street, Springfield, Mass, 01103 on the 12th floor. This building is also known as the TD Bank Building if you're familiar with that area. You can also file a complaint online, over the phone, in person, or online.

All complaints filed with our office are investigated, however, only about 20 to 30% of cases or complaints that we receive are able to be enforced. Enforcement for us is another way that we execute our work. It happens in two different ways, so enforcement can be through mediation, bringing both parties to the table to figure out how the wrong can be righted, how the situation can be corrected. Then, enforcement can also happen through trial.

Our attorneys in our office do not represent individuals, and I think that's very important to note in any training that we deliver because we don't represent individuals. We represent the best interests of the State. So trials are very long. And so anyone that you're working with any clientele that you all have, that you're telling them about. The Attorney General's office trials are long investigations. Investigations take a very long time in our office. You might not know that we're investigating
or that we're filing suit against an employer or a business, or a landlord in the State, and we might be doing it, and you might not hear about it until, like there is a settlement and you are receiving money that you are owed.

Next is policy. So our office has a policy and government team that works alongside our Attorney General to advocate for State laws, or anything that's happening in the late Legislature.
And then, lastly, is prevention, which is what I'm here for. I'm here to inform you about the unauthorized practice of immigration law, and how to prevent that from happening to our immigrant communities, and then also to provide our information. If you ever need to reach out and have any questions and need additional resources.

The AGO engages with every city and town in the State of Massachusetts. This can be through litigation. This can be through training and outreach and partnership as well.
But we only have 4 physical locations. We have one location in Boston that's considered our main office, and we have an office in New Bedford, Worcester, and then the Springfield office that's located in a Td. Bank building as well.

Our Springfield office has about 50. It is an office that is actively growing, and we're also currently hiring for 2 different positions in our Springfield office, one being a chief of our Western Mass regional office, and one being an administrative assistant. Disclaimer, I am not an attorney, so I cannot provide you with any legal advice. However, neither can the attorneys in my office. This training is for informational purposes only, and so that if you do need to reach out to us, you are equipped to do so.

Also, I'm happy to answer any questions that come up that I can answer. However, I can't see any of you. So if you could come off screen, I mean, come off mute and ask your questions. That would be great.
So we're now going to talk about unauthorized practice of immigration law, and our 1st thing is always, always, always to avoid fraud by working with a licensed attorney in the State of Massachusetts. We understand that the immigration process can be complicated. It can be long, it can be stressful. But we seriously encourage you to work with a licensed attorney who will be able to get you help and get it correct. And so how do you find out if someone's a licensed attorney? So if you or someone you need, you know, needs help with immigration filings. Only an attorney or accredited representative can give legal advice on immigration matters, and you can always find out if someone's an attorney by asking to see their bar card or their proof of accreditation.

In order to avoid “notarios” or unlicensed people who ask for lots of money to apply for simple things like work authorization and a social security card. You want to make sure that you're asking for this bar card or proof of accreditation at all times, especially during immigration filings, because you want to make sure that the documents that are being submitted on your behalf are correct and that your process is not drawn out even more due to things being incorrect or working with someone who was unlicensed. So what can a licensed attorney or an accredited representative do?

They can explain the law and advise you on any options that you have. They can give you a written agreement, explaining services that they will provide and any fees they will charge. They can file immigration forms or applications on your behalf.

They can represent you in court or before government officials. They can also give you updates on your case, including proof your application has been submitted. So how do you avoid becoming a victim of fraud? So if someone claims to be an attorney, we encourage you to look them up, you can go to the massbbo.org site and find out if someone is, in fact, a licensed attorney in the State of Massachusetts, and it's important that they are licensed in this state if they're going to be working with you in this state. Make sure that you don't pay for immigration forms. These forms can be found online, and you can download them online for free. Make sure that you're not signing any blank forms and you're understanding everything that you sign. And we encourage you not to sign blank forms, because we wouldn't want someone to be filling in information that you didn't understand or that you're not committing to.

Always keep your original personal documents, such as your passport, your birth certificates, and any other documents, and make sure that you're getting copies of everything filed on your behalf and you're also getting a receipt for all payment payments given. Also when you get a receipt for everything, or when you get a copy, make sure that you keep those copies in a safe place, so that you can refer back to them if you ever need.
So what are the potential consequences of working with someone who is not a licensed attorney or accredited representative? If you take advice from someone who is not licensed to work on immigration applications, your application for work authorization could be rejected. You could lose money you need for other important things, and it could also hurt your chances of getting legal status or a green card at this time but not only at this time also in the future

The immigration process is a very expensive process, and our office knows that. And that's why we would like to go into as many communities as we can and facilitate this training because even if that person themselves, or the person that we're delivering the information to is not a member of the immigrant community, they might be able to save someone from dealing with a notario and being a victim of unauthorized practice of immigration law. So we want to get this information out into as many communities as we can. So how can you find legal help? You can find legal aid agencies near you visiting this website. And Ed, is it okay if I send this Powerpoint presentation to you for you to send out to the network?

Nia Johnson: Attorney General's Office
Perfect. Thank you. You can also find a qualified private lawyer visiting this website given and you can verify that anyone you work with is a licensed attorney or an accredited representative using one of these 2 websites on this page as well. So if you are a victim of an incident. Or even if you would like to report or get more information or resources from the AGO, you can contact our hate crime hotline at 809 94-3228, and you can also contact our general civil rights complaint hotline at (617) 963-2917. If you don't need additional resources and you just want to file a complaint that can also be done online using that link.

Some additional AGO resources that are out there if you have a question or want to file a complaint, is our general consumer hotline. We have an immigrant resource page which has our most recently launched guidance for people that are interacting with ice agents, ice enforcement. We have our fair labor division hotline, which is for protecting workers from exploitation by enforcing wage and hour, public construction and child labor laws. We have our civil rights division hotline, which is for enforcing and safeguarding constitutional and statutory civil rights and liberties on behalf of Massachusetts residents. We have our healthcare division which enforces healthcare laws to protect the rights of Massachusetts consumers.

We have our insurance and financial services division which performs key consumer protection functions, including securities, enforcement insurance and lending enforcement insurance rate cases and advocacy and consumer mediation and advocacy. And in addition to these specific hotlines that we have available, we have other hotlines on our www.mass.gov">website@www.mass.gov/AGO. So that concludes my part of today's presentation, and I'm now going to open the floor for questions which will be answered by Laura Putnam, an attorney at the Central West Justice Center. Thank you.

Laura Putnam: Central West Justice Center
Yeah, thank you. That was a great presentation. Before folks take a minute to think about what questions they might have. I just want to emphasize how tempting it can be for people to try to work with somebody who is not a licensed attorney on their immigration case.
1st of all, because, like Nia was saying, attorneys can be so expensive, and to do an immigration case takes an extraordinary amount of work which makes the legal representation even more expensive, but also because there aren't public defenders in the immigration system. And so there is just not the same level of free and affordable support for folks that they might need to protect themselves and their families.

Agency Overview and Updates 1:20pm - 2:15pm

Sheryl: VISTA Member/Resident Engagement
Hi, good afternoon. So I work most of the time, one on one, with residents. So
I can like help them to fill out any form or do anything on the Internet, because there's a lot of time they come to me asking how to help them upload any personal document, or help them to on the Internet, how to log in or do a profile or something. So I will be able to do that or no.

Laura Putnam: Central West Justice Center
So there's a few different things that people can need to do through the Internet in an immigration case. One of those things is filling out the actual immigration forms, so those might be a form to apply for a work permit, the form to apply for asylum, the form to apply for a green card through marriage, or based on having a parent or child who's a citizen of the United States, that kind of thing. And so one thing that I often see people needing help with is help just making the profile so that they can check the status of their case. Or, you know, logging into a profile that somebody helped them make, and that, you know you do not need to be an attorney to help them make a profile or check the status of their case on the Internet. The area where it gets tricky is if the person needs help actually filling out the form itself because each of the questions on those forms has a legal meaning, and will be analyzed by the government in a particular legal way. So ideally, people would be working with attorneys to understand what the questions on those forms mean. So because the meaning of the questions is something that only a lawyer really can understand and explain. So at the point that case, managers or folks who are who are not lawyers are helping people like actually fill out the forms that becomes a little bit risky. And it's much closer to the unauthorized practice of law.

Yamaris Rivera: Family First Western Mass
Hi! Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Yamaris Rivera. I am the Program Manager for Family First Western Mass. And our organization support parents of young children, ages from 0 to 8. And one way of doing it is to providing parenting program. Thank you. I added also my number and email in the chat. Just anyone has questions reach out. Please. Thank you.

Vivian Rodriguez: Holyoke Housing Authority
Oh, hi, Ed! Well, I work for the Holyoke Housing Authority. We do have our So hold it Homes lottery that ends tomorrow at 2 Pm. So, whoever wants to purchase a house is able to get into the lottery if they submit the documents by tomorrow at 2. That does not mean we won't be accepting more applications, we will review those. Well, once they come in and we'll have 1st time home buyer classes for the fall. So keep an eye on the website. I am here with Eliana Mejia. She doesn't have a microphone so
you can reach out to any of us here.

Timothy Powis: Hamden Superior Probation
Hi there, Ed Timothy Powis from Hamden Superior probation, nothing to report. But I appreciate that new AISS office in Holyoke looks great.

Taj Mullins: ROCA
Hello, everybody! My name is Taj Mullins. I am the outreach specialist for ROCA, Western Mass. What we do here at ROCA we deal with the high risk. 17 to 24
young women and young men. Yeah. So I put my contact in there. I'm the referral guy. So if anybody knows anybody that might fit the criteria for ROCA. Send me an email or a text, and I will definitely go see them.

Sheryl: VISTA Member/Resident Engagement
Hi! Good afternoon. My name is Sheryl Maldonado. I'm a vista member at Wayfinder, so I do resident engagement training. So unfortunately we lost Anna, she went to another job position. I’m the face now for the Resident in Holyoke. So if you need anything, you can reach out to me. I'm putting my contact information. And also, if you have any
problems, or you want to learn more about crumbles, so you can reach out to me. Thank you, Ed.

Rafael Santos: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Hi! Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Raphael Santos, and I work here at the Hampton County sheriff's office with Mr. Ed. Case. I support the basketball team, the Holyoke save neighborhood initiative, and I've been working in partnership with Wayfinder for some time. So yeah, I work as the Transition counselor for high risk offenders. And again, I support Ed's program in in any way that I can thank you.

Miguel E. Rivera: Rewarding Insurance Agency
Hello, everyone! Do you hear me okay?

Miguel E. Rivera: Rewarding Insurance Agency
Hello! My name is Miguel Rivera Colon.
I'm the CEO of rewarding insurance agency. We are dedicated to help to helping individuals and families navigate their life and health insurance options. We have an office here in Holyoke in 284 Maple Street, Holyoke, right across Mcdonald's.
We provide retirement transition support, helping people who are retired or about to retire to maximize their retirement income or get their life and health insurance plans they qualify for. I want to thank some of you for your referrals. We are fortunate to have a strong flow of leads, which is why we are looking to bring another bilingual broker to rewarding insurance agency. If you know anybody who wants to become a licensed life and health insurance broker, either full time or part time, send them to us, and we will help. We will help them get license training, and everything so nice to meet you all.

Miguel Arce: Springfield College
Thanks, Mister Caisse. Nia and Laura your presentation is timely under these very difficult circumstances so many of our residents of Massachusetts face. Mr. Caisse. I don't have anything to report.

Michelle Daries: Department of Children and Families
Hey, everybody Shelly Daries, from the Department of Children and Families. I'm a recruiter for foster care and adoption. We're always we're sort of at a critical time right now, with kids in foster care. Unfortunately, and we're always looking to partner with people to engage the community and let people know that you know what Foster care is all about. And we have information sessions every Monday at 5:30 every Thursday at 10. There's ones that are every month in Spanish, if you need Spanish language. But we're definitely out in the community and looking and making sure we want to keep kids safe and in the community. My name and information is in the chat. If you have any questions, or you are thinking about doing, Foster Care, let me know. Thank you so much.

Marissa Chiapperino: Holyoke Medical Center
Hi everyone. Marissa Chiapperino registered Dietitian at Holyoke Medical Center. I am in the process of hosting our bilingual diabetes class series with Nairobi at One Holyoke.
and I'm hoping to do another one in the fall. We do offer the classes for free for the community throughout the year, but this is one that we do particularly well in the flats in Spanish. So yesterday we had 17 people and Class 2 will be next week. So if anyone's interested in that I'm happy to share more, and we also are continuing to host the farmers market on Wednesdays, in front of the hospital, in the handicap parking lot right out front, and we do accept SNAP and HIP, so please take advantage of that with your clients while we still can. Thank you.

Lian Duan: Tech Foundry
Hi! This is Lian Duan from Tech Foundry. I don't know how many of you know about Tech Foundry. But recently I'm leading the Tech Bridge program at Tech Foundry. The Tech Bridge provides scholarship funded programs. So we cover for all the expenses associated with the training. We want to recruit trainees that are recent high school graduates. We are going to train them in IT and audio visual as well as low voltage systems. Our program provided a lot of credentials. SEL workshops, career readiness workshops. So, Ed, I don't know if I can paste this the information in the chat.

Lavar Click-Bruce: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Hello, everybody. Lavar Click-Bruce in the Hampden County Sheriff's Office with the Springfield Safe Neighborhood Initiative. 2 things we have going on right now is our Youth Leadership development program for 7 and 8th graders. We're currently doing that at the Umass Center and Tower Square where our young people are learning about life skills. And we have different speakers coming in for the next 6 weeks, and at the end of it they're going to develop a plan that they want to present to the city, whether it's, you know, stop smoking campaign or littering, whatever their heart desires. We're going to support them and bring it forth to the mayor, and also to the to the city leaders, to see if we can make some change, and at the end of it they get a $500 gift card to help towards shopping, or whatever they want to do with it. It's in partnership with the health and human services here in the city of Springfield. Secondly, we have our Youth Basketball League that will be starting up next week for summer, Biddy Ball and 3rd and 4th graders, 1st time doing it through the Springfield Safe Neighborhood Initiative. So we're excited about that. We have 6 teams for our 3rd and 4th graders, and then for our little itty bitty ballers, we have about 25 to 30 participants, so we'll be having some great time with our families over at Duggan Academy. So and also we're working closely with Ed Caisse here at the Hampden County Sheriffs Law office. Thank you so much.

Laci Labrecque: Shine Program
Hi, everyone. I do not have any notable updates for the Shine Program which offers homelessness support for youth 18 to 24. However, I would like to make a mention of another program through shine that is working with DCF right now. It's called the YESL, which is a program through DCF where when children are aging out of the foster care houses that they're in. We provide similar to our shine program housing, and it operates similar to our transitional housing through shine. So I'll go ahead and put all that information into the chat. And if you're interested in that program, go ahead and just send me an email.
Thank you everyone.

Scott Rice: Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Hello! How you doing? I'm General Scott Rice. I'm working with Ed and Raphael at the Hampton County Sheriff's Office, and I am President of the Board of Directors for the Western Massachusetts Council of Scouting America. So my partnership is with scouts and kids and giving them the opportunity to learn, you know, citizenship and leadership and good character and ethics through scouting, and I hope to participate in some of the Holyoke events that are coming up soon. Thank you.

Kathy McKean: Hoyoke Art
Hello, Ed, and Hello, everybody! I'm Kathy Mckean. I've been in the city for a long time, so some of your faces are very familiar. But I am the Executive Director at Hoyoke Art. Hoyoke Art actually has 2 major programs. One of them is where I'm seated, and as you can see it looks pretty great behind me. That's the print shop.
So we have this summer 4 interns from Masshire. So if you have the need for T-shirts, lawn signs, banners, any of those things that you think we might be helpful with if you would go to printshophoyoke.org we can help you out, and you will give work to some fine young men here at the print shop.
The other thing is, we run Hoyoke Art. And we have a special paint room experience, so that if for any reason you are a social worker who has needs a little to blow off steam in the afternoon, or you have a client who you think would be great. Please let us know we will. Set up the paint room experience, and you can splatter, paint for half an hour. And take home a gorgeous piece of art. So that's what I got today.

Juan Anderson-Burgos: State Rep. Duffy’s Office
Hello, everyone! Sorry I'm at an appointment. I have no updates but was here listening, and just proud to be here. Thank you so much.

Jenneke Reynolds: Central Pioneer Valley Public Health District
Hi there! I am Jenneke Reynolds and I work with the Central Pioneer Valley Public Health District, which is Chicopee, Holyoke, and South Hadley, and their boards of health. We have a public health nurse who this month focusing on sun safety. So if anybody wants to have a presentation given like at a camp, or anything like that. Fiona is lovely and loves doing presentations, and can gladly come out and do that.
And we're also at the Holyoke Mall promoting vaccine like answering vaccine questions. So the Holyoke Mall on Tuesdays is having that tykes Tuesday thing. We have a lot of families with young kids. So if anybody wants to stop on by, and our nurse can answer any questions about vaccine safety, that's all I got. Thank you so much.



Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College
Thank you. Ed. Well, Holyoke Community College, with workforce development, is offering for this summer different trainings. Let's start with clean energy. We have the introductory training in green construction, electricity and clean energy systems. This training will be for 4 weeks.
Organization training also will be for 4 weeks. We postpone a couple weeks. The trainings we really need to start in July 7th, but part of the situation with the grants put us in the July 21st. So we will start in July 21st. We still have some slots open in case that somebody is interested. I will put together all these trainings that I promoted, and I will send that to Ed. In that case you will have some information easier to find. Anyways, you can also go to the website, and all the information is there under workforce development, free job trainings. We also will run the Esol culinary program that will start on July 14th until August 22nd. That is for esol. Also, we have paraeducators that we run 4 times a year. That is the only training that is online. The north side run 3 times a year. So all year long, and the line cook that is more familiar for everybody, we will start in July 21st Unfortunately, that is already full but we'll come back with the next one on September 15th to October 17th with one during the day, and the other one in the nighttime, so September will be the next for line cook. Thank you so much, and I will send that information to you, and you can share that with everybody. Thank you.

Gina Anselmo: Hampden District Attorney's Office
Hi! Good afternoon everyone. My name is Gina Anselmo. I'm from the Hampden District Attorney's Office. I work in community safety and outreach, which is the hub for all of the DA's prevention and education programs. We have many programs for young people. A lot of our time is spent in schools providing presentations for young people on a lot of different topics like Internet safety, impaired and distracted driving, substance use, healthy relationships. All these presentations are free for all Hampden County schools.
They're also free. If you work with young people through an organization, whatever it may be. We are happy to bring these presentations to you.
We also have some great opportunities for young people like our Youth Advisory Board, which is for high school students, and we also have a future lawyers of Springfield program for any young people, whether they're in high school, whether they're in undergrad, whether they're in law school. It's a tiered mentoring program. So we welcome anyone that might be interested in the legal field to kind of get exposed and get their foot in the door with that program. We also do court tours for young people to just expose them to the criminal justice system and show them the various job opportunities within. I did post in the chat a link that has a list of all of our programs. So if you're interested in learning more or have any questions feel free to reach out. Thank you.

Georgie Brown: OneHolyoke
Hi! Everyone! This is Georgie from OneHolyoke. I have. We have a you know, some of our normal events coming up. Our keep it clean. Campaign is going on right now. We do monthly cleanups throughout the city or throughout the flats in Holyoke. And we also have supplies that we provide to anyone who is interested in hosting their own cleanup wherever they want. We have, like the grabbers and trash bags, and we can provide that
so and then we also have we started doing a bi-monthly bingo, or every other month. We have that coming up at the end of this month as well. Along with our movies. Movie nights in the park are starting up in August. I'll just put all these flyers in the chat, and my information is in the chat as well. If anyone wants to reach out for more information, thanks, bye.

Erryn Kimberley: Abby Care
Hi, everyone. I'm Erryn Kimberley. I'm the Community Outreach Coordinator for Abby Care. A few updates we've got. So we're starting to get prior authorization approvals for our families that are going through our program, which is really big because we're new to Western Massachusetts. So Masshealth is approving our families, which is awesome, and we are going to be hosting an ice cream social which is going to be free to our families and families in the community which is going to be out in the Southbridge area. We're partnering with scoops of hope. Which is a chapter of the arc that's going to be on July 26th and we're looking for folks who are interested in sponsoring and setting up tables there. So if you guys are interested in doing that, send me an email and love to have you.

Emiliya Aleksanyan: UMass Amherst
Hello! I'm Emi Aleksanyan from UMass Amherst speech, language, hearing Sciences Department. We've got a lot of research studies going on so previously we had, and we are still recruiting for studies about speech and language in younger kids with disabilities and younger bilingual kids with autism, also older adults, 55 and older, who are bilingual. I've now also got 2 new studies, one with adults, 40 and over, of several different language. So the language background is not particularly important for this study. What is important is if you have used a hearing aid in the past. I also have a new study that's going to be running about service workers with a wide range of age. So if you are interested, or if you know someone who would be interested, please reach out to me. I've put my contact into the chat. All studies are compensated for your time and for several of these studies. You would also get a report of either your hearing or your child that participated in the study's language skills. We're also always looking for collaborating with people in the community in their events. So, yeah. Thank you.

Damasco Santiago: Tapestry
Good afternoon, everyone. Damasco Santiago from Tapestry syringe access program here in the city of Holyoke. This coming weekend Saturday we have our community syringe pick up from 10 to 12. Any community member that would like to join us we meet at our site at 306 Rice Street here in Holyoke. Besides that, no other updates and thanks for having me. Thank you.

Cassie Giardina: Rise Above Foundation
Thank you, everybody. My name is Cassie. I'm with Rise Above Foundation. We are an organization that provides funding and other smaller projects and supports to youth in foster care. So any youth or young adult between the ages of 0 and 23 that's looking to access sports, music, a field trip, a special summer camp. Anything, really that's a pro-social activity and there's no funding through either foster parents or DCF. We are welcome to, or we're happy to step in and help get that paid for. I'm going to throw my information in the chat. We don't have any big special events or projects happening right now, but on a rolling basis we accept applications for funding all year round. So let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Ed.

Carla Zhingre: Head Start
Hi, everyone. I'm Carla Zhingre and I work in the enrollment department at Head Start and early learning programs. And I only have one announcement, and it's that we have openings in our part day Preschool program at our Northampton site. So that's for children 2 years, 9 months and older. So if you guys have any families, you know, in the Hampshire area, please let them know about this opportunity.

Carl Borden: Western Mass Scouting
Hello, Carl Borden, from Scouting America. Our programs are kind of quiet right now in Holyoke. They all went to Summer Camp. They'll be back in August. Our troops, our ships, and our packs. We are now based in Holyoke. Our office is at 850 High Street. We're very happy to have people stop by. The store is open every Wednesday from 9 to 4 you can come on by and stop and see all the cool things we have. Our weekends at camp woes. The next one is going to be September 20th and the one after that will be October 18th and we're looking to connect with people interested in career development programming. We're doing a huge push for our 10 to 20 year old range for exploring our career development systems, skilled trades and other fields. My information is at the very beginning of the chat today.

Brynn Gillis: Holyoke District Court
Good afternoon, everybody. I'm happy to be a part of today's group session. My name is Brynn Gillis. I'm a probation officer at Holyoke District Court, and we don't have any upcoming events. But I did leave my name and contact information in the chat. So if anyone has any questions, please feel free to reach out, we'd be happy to help you out in any way we can. Thank you.

Ben Abbott: Community Legal Aid
Hi, I’m Ben. I'm the case manager with the family preservation project, at community legal aid. Family preservation project works with families who have DCF involvement, but have custody of their children to try to prevent child removal. So we provide multidisciplinary legal representation. And then I'm a social worker. We have a parent advocate. We all work together with the family and to try to manage what's going on with DCF. Community legal aid has a lot of much larger areas than us. They provide housing attorneys, support with education, law, family law, immigration law. Through our imprint that Laura was speaking from and several others. I've left my information in chat, including the general website to go to for an online referral and my personal contact information for especially questions about family preservation. Thank you.

Austin Bechler: Springfield Rescue Mission
Hey there, Austin Bechler with the Springfield Rescue Mission, Workforce Development Coordinator. Not a whole lot going on over at the Mission, but we have been having a large influx of individuals applying to be part of our one year long program. Specifically, in Holyoke, we've been continuing to pass out meals upwards of 100 meals a day, Tuesday through Thursday for those of you that don't know we do
takeout meals if you will, where we go and drop them off in Holyoke to add different locations Tuesday through Thursday, but we also have public breakfast and lunch 5 days a week, Monday through Friday, where anybody and everybody is welcome. You're always welcome to come by and have a tour, or my information is also in the chat so great to be here great to be working with you guys and look forward to doing more in Holyoke.

Ashley Stackow: Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts
Hi! I'm Ashley Stackow. I'm a board of directors, member of neighbor to neighbor. I also do a lot of work with Ed. I'm actually in the process of with neighbor to neighbor we're working with the State to try and change some laws. We work with Luce for the immigrants, and we also are doing work to pass the clean slate law as well as housing laws. So I'm in the process of deal like, involved with a lot of things in the community.

Amy Deacon: Revitalized CDC
Hello my name is Amy Deacon. I'm a senior manager with Revitalized CDC. I work on our healthy. I'm sorry our health related social needs programs which are funded through
Masshealth. We work with the Be healthy, ACO Wellsense, Mercy, and C3 for a nutrition and a healthy homes program. At revitalize we also have different programs for digital equity, home energy audits, critical repairs. So if I put my information in the chat, if you're interested in any information I could put you in touch with the right person. Thank you.

Aida Rivera: Holyoke Public Schools
Hello, everyone! My name is Aida Rivera, and I work for the Holyoke Public School Enrollment Office. I work as a homeless assistant and enrollment clerk.

Melany Mendoza: Mass Mentoring Partnership
Hi! My name is Melany Mendoza from mass mentoring partnership. I represent Western and Central mass. So we are a statewide organization that supports mentoring relationships, whatever they happen really. Whether it's a one-on-one mentoring program or schools workforce development. So we are here to work with organizations. We also do a lot of capacity building. Most recently we had a training a couple days training at the Holyoke Community on supporting black and Latina youth. We have another one coming in the fall. We haven't decided on the final dates, but I will be keeping you posted on those. Thank you so much.

Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
I just have a couple of updates. I actually put a link in the chat earlier. But I'm going to go ahead and put it back in. This is for packing the backpack event, which is going to be on Friday, July 25th. So we need about 70 people. We decided to do 2 shifts. And when I say 70, I'm really hoping for about
40 and 40, like 40 for the 1st shift and 40 for the second shift, we'll be able to get done real quickly. So if you've seen that link, and you're interested in partnering with us. Please register as soon as you can, so we can plan accordingly.

The second thing I wanted to say is our back to school event in Holyoke is going to be on August 16th from 11 to 3 at Mcnally Field. I did send a couple emails out looking for volunteers. So if anybody on this call didn't get an email from me, but you may be interested in volunteering at the back to school event, please send me an email, and I'll get you that link as well.

Last thing I want to say, like Lavar Click is doing the leadership program in Holyoke. Mike Pratt, who works with me, is actually running one with both the Department of Health and Human Services in Springfield. They're running it in Holyoke the 6 weeks program. But in addition to that, we're also starting up. And I sent the email out today regarding a rise program, we partnered with rise. And we're going to be running a 6 week program from July 23rd to August 27th and that's specifically going to be that rise curriculum if anybody is familiar with it, but it's really trying to get law enforcement and young people together to have a better understanding of each other so they could work better in the community together rather than run into issues with each other. So that's what that's all about.

That's all I have for today. I just want to say thank you to everybody for the day to day work that you do. I hope you guys are able to partner with us, either on the pack in the backpack event or the back to school event. So hopefully, we'll see many of you soon. So have a great rest of the week, and thank you so much for all the work that you do. Take care.

Old Business / New Business
Next Meeting August, 14th 1:00pm

CHAT NOTES:
Miguel Arce
Holyoke resident

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

HCC - Gloria Penagos
Free Job Training Programs | Holyoke Community College - Gloria Penagos (gpenagos@hcc.edu)

Edward Caisse
Packing the Backpack Event

Shellie Darie
Foster Care Recruite
Western Regional Offic
1350 Main Street
8th floor
Springfield MA 0110
Phone: 413-452-324
413-781-4482
Email: Michelle.Daries@mass.gov
https://www.mass.gov/foster-car

Edward Caisse
Packing the Backpack Event: https://forms.gle/B2bYagtXP4Pxtw7bA

Vivian Rodriguez
Holyoke Housing Authority

Carla Zhingre
Enrollment at CAPV-Head Start & Early Learning Programs, Office: 413-387-1224, czhingre@communityaction.us

Carl Borden
W.Mass Scouting - Exploring
Western Massachusetts Scouting-Career Development Exploring Division Director. 850 High Street Suite 1B, Holyoke MA 01040 413-594-9196x7003 carl.borden@scouting.org www.wmascouting.org

Lian Duan
https://thetechfoundry.org/
Director of Strategic Initiatives
1350 Main Street, Suite 500
Springfield, MA 01103
413-276-0609 ext. 130
Site | Donate | Volunteer

Barbara McCoubrey
MHCC at Holyoke Pediatric Associates. We don't often offer resources but we love to get them !!

Erryn Kimberley
Community Outreach Coordinator
Abby Care (Western MA)
Erryn.kimberley@abbycare.org
401-267-9844
https://www.abbycare.org/
❤️

Mike Pratt

Yamaris Rivera
Families-First Program Manager(Western MA) yrivera@families-first.org (413) 626-3613
❤️

Eleana Mejia
Holyoke Housing Authority

Nia Johnson
MA Attorney General's Office - Nia.johnson2@mass.gov - 413-867-1619

Ashley Stackow
Hi Yamari
1 Reply
❤️

Analu Jaramillo
Holyoke Health Center Community Engagement Specialist. ana.jaramillo@hhcinc.org 413-420-2860 Good news! Holyoke Health Center /Chicopee Health Center is welcoming new patients. Please call 413-420-2200 and follow the new patient instruction. Leave all the information required to call you back : phone number, complete name and last name, insurance information.

Charlene Rivera
Holyoke Pediatrics Medical Home Care Coordinator-413-536-2393 ext 170, riverac@holypeds.com

Lisa M Carbonell
Correa MA CCHW, CDP, CMDCP,
Memory Specialist - Dementia Care Consultant
pronouns: she/ella
Alzheimer's Association, Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter email : lccorrea@alz.org

Taj Mullins (ROCA)
Roca Inc
Outreach Specialist
346 Race Street
Holyoke Mass 01040
413 302-5506

Jenneke Reynolds
Shared Service Coordinator for Central Pioneer Valley Public Health District - jreynolds@southhadleyma.gov - I work with the Health Departments in Chicopee, Holyoke, and South Hadley to improve their capacity

Brynn Gillis Holyoke District Court
Holyoke District Court Probation Department. 413-493-0221

Ashley Stackow
I am Ashley I am a board of director of n2n/luce

Amy Deacon (Revitalize CDC)
Senior Manager of Health Related Social Needs Programs at Revitalize CDC: adeacon@revitalizecdc.om

Damasco Santiago
Tapestry HSAP program Manager. dsantiago@tapestryhealth.org.

Gina Anselmo
Hampden District Attorney's Office
Deputy Director, Community Safety & Outreach (CSO)
Gina.Anselmo@mass.gov
@communitysafetyandoutreach | Linktree

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

Laura Putnam, Central West Justice Center
If people have clients or community members who are looking for legal representation in an immigration case, they can apply for help with my office at https://www.cwjustice.org/get-help/

Austin Bechler
Workforce Development Coordinator
413-316-7777
abechler@springfieldrescuemission.org

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

Emiliya Aleksanyan
Research Recruiter for UMass Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. If interested, contact me at ealeksanyan@umass.edu or 413-545-7225

Sheryl/VISTAMember/ResidentEngagement
VISTAmember at Way Finders Residents Engagement Training VISTA. smaldonado@wayfinders.org 413-386-6898 We do some community engagement , workshop, events and programs Also if you have a Chromebook and what's to know how to use it, make an appointment with me I could help. Thank you everyone to do what you do.

Víctor Machado
Hi ! Victor here, my apologies for not being available to talk, I’m connected through my cell phone and it’s completely complicated to unmute the mic but I’m ready

Ben Abbott CLA
Family Preservation Project Case Manager, Community Legal Aid. FPP works with parents with open DCF cases who have custody of their children to prevent removal. CLA also provides legal support for housing, immigration, family law, elder law, education law, and a number of other areas. http://communitylegal.org for referrals. (413)686-9082 direct line for FPP questions. babbott@cla-ma.org

Miguel E. Rivera
Rewarding Insurance Agency
413-359-2771
284 Maple St, Holyoke, MA 01040
Miguel@RewardingAgency.com
Retirement Transition Support
In need of a bilingual life and health insurance broker

Lian Duan
Hi，my name is Lian Duan, and I lead the Tech Bridge program at Tech Foundry. I want to share some highlights of our program with you to see if this is applicable to your 2025 graduates.
The Tech Bridge program is a no-cost, scholarship-funded program—all training, materials, and support services are fully covered by Tech Foundry. We aim to support students in building in-demand technical skills while also earning college credit.
Program highlights include:
Hands-on training in IT, audiovisual (AV), and low-voltage systems
Up to 7 college credits through Holyoke Community College upon successful completion
Industry-recognized certifications (Google IT Support, OSHA 10, AVIXA's AV Technologist Certificate)
Internship opportunities with local employer partners in low voltage and IT
Career readiness training, coaching, social-emotional curriculum, and a strong support network.
---- Due to recent unexpected shifts in our outreach, we're particularly eager to connect quickly with young adults who could benefit from this program. If, after learning about Tech Bridge, you see how it could be a great fit for individuals in your network, I'd be incredibly grateful for your immediate assistance.
My ask is this:
Would you be open to an opportunity for me to present the Tech Bridge program directly to a group of young adults or parents you connect with in the very near future? Alternatively, if there's a more efficient way to reach your constituents that you'd recommend to help us quickly identify candidates, I'm open to your guidance.

Lian Duan
If you know of any young adults who are interested in tech and want to become an IT/low voltage technician, please do not hesitate to refer them to us : lian@thetechfoundry.org.

Lavar Click-Bruce
SSNI: P: 413-858-0485 E: Lavar.click@sdh.state.ma.us

Laci Labrecque
SHINE young adult housing program-homelessness and housing services for youth 18-24 yrs old. Hotline # 413-316-4979 ( be advised there is a waitlist)

Shadya ortiz
Outreach & Admissions-Westover Job Corps I apologize my connection is not good. I can't hear anyone

Kathy McKean
Holyoke Art

Laci Labrecque
YASL-young adult supported living-youth 18-24 aging out of the foster care system. program operates similar to SHINES transitional housing program. referrals come through DCF at this time but feel free to contact me by email if this service could be useful to you. llabrecque@gandaracenter.org 413-472-4690

Analu Jaramillo
My apologies I need to leave. My information is on the chat

Víctor Machado
To those agencies in the community, if you are having difficulty finding volunteers and connecting your resources and services, you may consider connecting with a man of action.
vmachado@51outlook.com, Community Outreach Navigator.

Georgie Brown
OneHolyoke’s Upcoming Events

Cassie Giardina
Community Outreach Manager with Rise Above Foundation. Providing funding and support to youth in foster care ages 0-23. cassie@weriseabove.org

Carl Borden W.Mass Scouting - Exploring
nearby units can be reached at www.beascout.org

Eleana Mejia
Thank you :)




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