July 2026

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes

Date: July 9, 2026
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.

Guest Speaker:
Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Okay, we're going to get started. I just want to welcome everybody. My name's Eddie Caisse. I retired in March from the Sheriff's Office, but I am working part-time. In my retirement, I do want to put some time and energy into the community work. I've been working with Mike on the basketball leagues, and I'll be involved in the community work, even though I'm retired from my full-time job at the sheriff's office.

Normally on the networking meeting, we usually have a speaker. But because we've been doing the in-person meetings, we haven't really scheduled anybody for speaking. I do want to say that, our next in-person networking meetings is going to be September and then December, but we do have some openings, for speaking on our monthly meeting.

What we usually do, I welcome everybody and then I turn it over to a guest speaker for about fifteen to twenty minutes just to share a little bit more detailed information about their agency. We do have openings in August, October, November, January and February.

If you're someone from an agency that wants to take that slot in our networking meetings to speak for about fifteen or twenty minutes, just send me an email, and as I receive the emails, I'll schedule people first come basis.

Since we don't have a speaker today, I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to really talk about the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative and the Holyoke Hub. When I say the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative, I really mean the networking piece, and what's important to us.

Many agencies in Holyoke work with youth and families. And as we help youth and families get to better places, we're really helping our community. And that's a good way to build community just by investing in the people.

I know that there are a lot of different coalitions in Holyoke, so, it's hard, if you want to attend all the different coalition meetings, it's hard to attend them all. I want you to know what we've been trying to do with the Holyoke Safe Network Initiative is really create a list of all the resources available to youth and families, so we can get, youth and families connected to those resources. I do ask you guys, as usually our in-person meetings are well attended. We usually have over 100 or so, unless we're down at the Holyoke Community College Culinary Arts, where we can only fit 90 down there.

I just ask folks in our monthly meetings if you can try to help us build the agencies that are actually coming, so we can get documentation of all the different agencies. And for us, it’s not just getting the agencies on the meeting, but it's really trying to get to know some of those agency representatives in a more personal way. And two, Rondy and Mike run the weekly hub. For those of you, and I see there's a couple new faces on today, some of you may not know what the Holyoke Hub is, but what the Holyoke Hub is, is we try to get acutely elevated risk situations come to that table on a Tuesday. We don't require that the agencies come every week, but we do ask the agencies to be open if we end up having a situation that needs a resource from their agency. We like the agency representatives to be open and available to be part of a Filter 4 team, so I just want to talk a little bit about what the Holyoke Hub is, in terms of the different Filters.

Holyoke Hub: Four Filter Process
Filter 1: happens prior to the meeting. When an agency decides someone is in an acutely elevated risk, they make the decision to be the individual or family brought to the Hub on the following Tuesday. Consent forms are mandated for youth, nice to have for adults as well, but not mandated for adults.

Filter 2: The situation is presented at the Tuesday, 1:00 Hub meeting.

Filter 3: Is name recognition, the individual’s name, date of birth and address are shared to see if any agencies have recognition of the situation. If an agency is already involved, it may make sense to have them part of the Filter 4 team.

Filter 4: Based on the risk factors of the situation, agencies assembled to be part of a team that will work immediately to get the situation out of the acutely elevated risk.

I want you guys to understand what some of those risk factors that we're seeing, particularly when the Holyoke Public Schools brings a situation to the table. The main reason HPS will bring a situation to the Hub is that they've exhausted every resource to try to get the families to help the kids and families need.

We do like to have a good number of agency representatives on the meeting, so we can already break into a filter four team and start some initial discussions on how we're going to handle the situation. But I just want to encourage you, if you can't make it every Tuesday, don't let that stop you from actually joining because you think the commitment is just way too much to be there every Tuesday.

As long as you're part of it and are on the list and have signed an MOU and you give us the okay to add you to some Filter Four teams, it's okay if you don't come every Tuesday, and when we need you, we'll reach out to you.

I'm not trying to discourage people from coming on Tuesday. In fact, I want to encourage people to come on a Tuesday, so you can really see firsthand and hear what all the different situations are, and what the struggles are.

I'm going to start going around. We're going to start at the end of the alphabet today. One month we start in the beginning, and then the next month we start at the end of the alphabet.

Do you have any questions about the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative or the Holyoke Hub? Please feel free to put some information in the chat, and we'll get back to you on that.

Timothy Powis: Hampden Superior Court Probation
Hey there, Ed, just checking in from Hampden Superior Probation, just looking to see what services are being offered in Holyoke.

Therese Ross: Rick's Place Grief Support
Hello. I am from Ricks Place. As Ed told you, we are a grief support organization. We run programs in local schools. We have our grief support for youth and families in Wilbraham, and we provide professional development about the impact of grief on young people and their families. And so just reach out to us about any of that.

Terri Lombardo: HCS Head Start
Hey everyone, Prairie Lombardo with HCS Head Start. We are busy this summer enrolling for next year. We have Early Head Start, which starts at 4 weeks of age, up until age 2.9. And then after that, we have our regular preschool classrooms, which are 2.9 to 5 years of age. We have classrooms that run 6 hours, or 10 hours, 7 to 5, those are our full-day classrooms.

For parents who are working or going to school, or a combination of the two, we have centers in Holyoke, Chicopee, Springfield, and one classroom in Ludlow. If you have any questions, or if you want to know more about applying, I will put my email in the chat. Thanks, Ed.

Rondey Allen: CrossPoint Clinical Services:
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Rondey Allen, Executive Director of Crosspoint Clinical Services. We specialize in Christian faith-based mental health and wellness. We serve everybody. We reach out to pastors and to the faith community, but we also feature some great health and wellness programs, and we actually have some coming up that I'll put in the chat here. Feel free to reach out if we can be of service.

Miguel Rivera: Rewarding Insurance Agency:
Hello, everyone. My name is Miguel Rivera. I am the CEO of Rewarding Insurance Agency. We specialize on retirement transition support. And we're building strategies. We have an office at 284 Maple Street Tomorrow, 2A for Maple Street, Holyoke, and I want to mention that, tomorrow and the next, three Fridays. We are running a community health fair, community resource fair. Tomorrow we're going to be at the Veterans Park here in Holyoke. Next Friday in Chicopee, and, the next Friday, we're going to be in Springfield, so if you want to participate on the Community Resource Fair.

Miguel Arce: Community Resident
Nothing to report, Ed. Thank you for providing this service.

Megan Gross: Bilingual Language Development Lab at UMass, Amherst
Good afternoon, everyone. Good to be here. Thank you for having these meetings. So I'm a speech language pathologist, and I direct the Bilingual Language Development Lab at UMass, Amherst. And our lab focuses on supporting, in particular, Spanish speaking families who have children on the autism spectrum or with other special education needs. And so we have a monthly group that meets at Enlace de Familias, and then we have two research studies going for families that have a child with an autism diagnosis. So I'll put links for those in the chat. Thank you.

Marc Luongo: Holyoke Public Library
Hi, hello. Mark Luongo here. I'm the new assistant director of the Holyoke Public Library. Just wanted to drop in and say that we're in the middle of our summer reading kickoff. If anyone needs any meeting room spaces or anything like that, I'm just going to provide the calendar links right there. I have the links on our website for any of our summer activities as well. Everything is free at the library for this stuff. Registration might be required for some events, just so you know. I'm going to drop my personal email as well, in case anyone needs anything, in case we need, like, a one-on-one space for you guys. Feel free to reach out to me.

Lisa M Carbonell-Correa: Alzheimer Association
Hi, I'm calling from the Alzheimer Association and I don't have anything to report.

Kimberly Gonzalez: Palante Transformative Justice
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Kimberly Gonzalez. I'm the new, youth psychotherapist over here at Palante Transformative Justice, and I have a very important person, part of the program as well, that she can introduce herself and the program. Hello! My name is Janiyah Williams. I'm a senior alumni fellow affiliate transformative justice.

And basically what we are, we're a youth-led organization who put youth in the forefront to take care of their community, take care of what's right for them, and to change whatever they feel like is not working for them as young people in the community in, a transformative way and not as punitive.

Kerry Medeiros: Hampden County Juvenile Court
Good afternoon, everybody. Kerry Medeiros, Assistant Chief Probation Officer at Hamden County Juvenile Court. I'm just on for the services also and thank you for having me.

Kareem Altius: RFK
My name is Karim Altius. I am the life coach at RFK Yazelle West. Yazelle stands for Young Adult Supported Living. We service young adults who are involved in DCF from 18 to 22, and provide them life skills. So we have fully furnished apartments for these young adults. They pay no rent, no utilities, they live for free. We also teach the life skills. That's my job as a life coach. I, you know, help them build the life skills and integrate them into the community. They're required to do 10 hours of community service every month, so if there's anyone on this call that needs any community service done, please let me know so I can get my youth to get their hours done, because that's something that we, we actually need to pick up on.

Jessica Merrill: CHOiCE Recovery Coaching
Hi, I'm Jessica Merrill with Choice Recovery Coaching. I am their Community Engagement Coordinator, as well as a Recovery Coach. A few things we have going on. We have a few containers our Coaching Container, Learning Academy, and Workforce Development, coaching. We offer Recovery Coaching at no cost. Learning Academy. If you have lived experience that you wanted to apply into the work field. We offer the CCAR trainings to enable you to do exactly that. And in our workforce development container, if you would like your team trained on how to better engage with the community, we can do that as well and train your team. Some community events we have going on every fourth Sunday of the month through October. We have a community wellness event. We partnered up with Mitra Healing Centered Yoga, and we are offering free yoga events to the community at Van Horn Park at 10 AM, again, fourth Sunday of every month through October. And we also run group peer supports group… support groups. Monday will be our last one until we find a new time and day, but Monday it will be, at 12 p.m., and then that day and time will change. So if anybody does need any of those, please feel free to reach out to us. We are… we are available, we are here, and we are willing.

Jessica Cogoli: Tech Foundry
Hello, good afternoon. I'm here at Tech Foundry. I am the program support specialist, also alum of the program. We have 3 programs that we provide. We have our free digital literacy, our tech hub. We have one in Holyoke in the Picnelly Center, and we also have one here in Springfield at 1350 Main Street, Suite 500. Completely free to the public, any age we also have our tech launch program, which is an IT workforce program? It's an 18-week program. Again, free to anyone 18 or older. You do have to go through an application process. Our biggest thing right now that we're promoting is our Tech Bridge program, which is for our 18 to 22 year olds, within Holyoke, Springfield, Chicopee, and Westfields.
Anyone that is a recent high school graduate, not sure where they want to go, after high school, we are a 9-month program. We teach IT, training and audio and visual. Again, free to the public. There is a, application process along with that also. We also have tonight at 5.30 in our Springfield office, we are having an in-Info session, so if anyone is interested in any of those programs, we will be here in the office from 5:30 to 7 for an info session. I will share our website, so if anyone has any questions, they'll be in there. I'll also share my email. You can send me an email. I've been with the program for five years, I'm an alum. I taught TechLaunch, I taught TechBridge, and now I kind of support the whole program.

Jennezzy Martinez: River Valley Counselling Center
Good afternoon. My name is Jennezzy Martinez. I'm a certified community health worker for the school-based health clinic through River Valley. And currently this summer, part of my summer project is to work on a vaccine initiative in the school-based health centers. And then our school-based health centers, we currently have 3 teen clinics. One's at Sullivan Middle School in Holyoke, Dean Tech, and Holyoke High School. We really encourage any kiddos that you may be working with that is not part of our school-based health centers to have them sign up. It's very easy. Again, I can assist the students or their families with any of that information.
We currently have a nurse practitioner inside of our school-based health centers. We have clinicians, myself, who's a community health worker to help, families and students with any resources or basic needs. I attend these monthly meetings, as long, as well as the hub that Ed, mentioned earlier. And basically, we're here to support, so thank you and I appreciate you for your time, Ed.

Jason Matthews: Tech Foundry
Hi, everybody. Really appreciate being able to hear from you, collaboration, you know, that's a big need in any region. I'm working currently with Tech Foundry, and I couldn't have done a better job than Jessica of explaining what it is. So I'm working with Career Services Department to make more connections in the community with employers and other services that are wraparound or barrier removal. So glad to be here.

Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College
Hi Ed, how are ya? I hope you are enjoying this beautiful island. Whoa, it's too hot there, but it's okay. Buenas tardes. My name is Gloria Penagos with Workforce Development of Holyoke Community College. For the new people that are here to join us, I want to share that AICC offers free job trainings to help people to get a job. They will get the certification that they require if they are looking for a job in these fields. We offer nurse aid, paraeducators, clean energy, line cook, hospitality, and other ones.
Now, we are running the ESOL culinary, in July, and, the other programs will start again during the fall. Thank you so much, and Ed, I apologize, I have to go for another meeting, but, really nice to see everybody here. Thank you.

Gladys Lebron: Alianza
Alianza Prevention Community Engarment Coordinator Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Gladys LeBron-Martinez. I work for a prevention project with Alianza Domestic Violence Organization. As you probably all heard me over and over, sharing in the past about a research that was being done with several subgroups. Thank you to you all, whoever participated or supported us throughout the process. We have closed the subgroups. We completed what was proposed in Holyoke, Chicopee, and Springfield, we've met with, the young adults, we did immigration groups, we did, adult, population 55 plus.
We did some survivors in the mixture of all of this. And now the last group is happening, it's the LGBTQ plus community that would be happening in August, and we'll wrap it up. I also want to thank you, because we also released a survey for those who were not able to participate in the sessions of the focus group, or listening sessions.
And we have closed the, the, the, responses because we got what was needed in numbers. So I want to thank you. We will be, we're analyzing the data. UMass is doing the work to analyze the data so that we can share this information in the, in the future.
But I think it's something that I would love to ask, or we'll be emailing you, Ed, to request, to share, because this is what has been shared by the youth community and the members and residents has been something that I think it will be interesting to everyone about their concern when it comes to domestic violence. So, I will still be around doing and being part of any networking, so let me… invite me to any networking, because we want to be part of any prevention work that we can do. Thank you.

Georgie Brown: OneHolyoke
Hi, I'm Georgie. I'm from OneHolyoke. I am Community Engagement Coordinator there. I'll… I think I put my email in the chat, but I'll also put some flyers. For us, we're right in the middle of our Keep It Clean campaign, where we do monthly cleanups. Or we also… so we do monthly cleanups on every fourth Saturday, or you can… we have supplies, and we lend them out if anyone wants to get a group together and host a cleanup anywhere. I'll put the links in the chat for that, if any… our next one is July 25th, and we always are looking for volunteers to come.

We also do a mobile food distribution with the Western Mass Food Bank. That's every second and fourth Friday of the month. So there's one tomorrow that's at 1 at 70th Ridge Street. And finally, we do a community bingo every month on the fourth Friday of the month. So that'll be, I think, July 24th.

Gabriel Rodriguez: Union Capital Springfield
Hi everyone, my name is Gabriel Rodriguez. I'm a network coordinator for Union Capital Springfield, and I work in Holyoke with our partner institution at the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative.

Union Capital is a non-profit organization that aims to incentivize community service and helps keep people in the neighborhoods connected to what's happening in their neighborhoods. We have an app and it provides points for people that get involved either supporting events, volunteering for certain organizations. And our goal is to help increase the number of people that take part in community organized events. So if there's, anything that comes up that we can help support, let me know.

Emily Matney: Westfield Family Resource Center
Hi everyone, I'm Emily Matney, I'm the Director for the Westfield Family Resource Center. We are in Westfield, but we serve all communities. We have a lot of families that we serve that are in Holyoke. We're a community-based center. And we offer a lot of support. We have, parenting classes, we have support groups, youth support groups, we have grandparents raising grandchildren support groups, which is great. We do an array of activities. We just had a bike safety event, so that was really great. We got to hand out helmets, and we raffled off a couple bikes. A big thing we do is, offer support for families, that are dealing with CRAs, that have CRA kiddos. So we have a school liaison that can help with bridge that communication between the school and the family, and we also have a clinician, so we offer an array of services to everybody, and I'm glad to be back. I used to come to this meeting a long time ago when I worked in Holyoke, so it's nice to be back. It's nice to see your face, Ed. Congratulations on your retirement.

Durga Giri: Center for Development in West Springfield
Hi, good afternoon. My name is Durga Giri. I work for center for development in West Springfield. I work for a safety zone program as a case manager. And I work with the young adult’s age 12 to 17 who are homeless, who are at the risk of homeless and who need short-term shelter. That's all. Thank you.

Damasco Santiago: Tapestry Syringe Access Program
Good afternoon, everyone. Damasco Santiago from the Tapestry Syringe Access Program here in the city of Holyoke. This week coming up tomorrow, we're going to be joining the Rewarding Community Partners Resource Community Fair at Veterans Park from 10 to 1. And on Saturday, we'll be hosting our monthly community cleanup from 10 to 1… I mean 10 to 12. We usually meet here at the site, 306 Ray Street in Holyoke, around 9.45ish, and we head out from there. And glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Have a good afternoon.

Charlie Knight: 32 Byer Street Incorporated
I'm with 32 Byer Street Incorporated. This is a straight homeless, housing for people. It's a deluxe SRO, single room occupancy. And, our property management people are Wayfinders Property Management out of Springfield. This is started by Michael Ann Busey and some others, Arise for Social Justice. For those people who are homeless to be a safe, solid place that they can be, and learn about taking care of their own place, and paying rent, and all that good stuff like that. We have one person that does come for a few hours, to give counseling, normally on Tuesdays, not always, but for a few hours on Tuesdays, and I guess that's about it for us. Good to be here.

Brynn Gillis: Holyoke District Court Probation
Good afternoon. I'm Brynn Gillis from Holyoke District Court Probation. I'm just here to listen to all the incredible resources that we have in our area. So thank you for all the work that you do and for the information.

Brianna St. Peter: Community Action Pioneer Valley
Hi, everyone. I'm Brianna St. Peter. I am the Intake and Outreach Liaison for Head Start and Early Learning Programs at the Community Action Pioneer Valley location. We serve Western Hampton, Hampshire, and Franklin County, and we serve children six weeks old to five years old. We did just get a new classroom that will be opening in September in our Easthampton site.
It was formally, temporarily at our Northampton site for a couple of years. So we're back in Easthampton at Mountain View School for our part day program, 815 to 1215. And that's for pre-school age two years and nine months to five years old. And our Westfield site is moving, from Southampton Road in Westfield to 17 Falcon Drive. Our building is currently being built and should be ready for September. And we are accepting applications for all of our sites, for the upcoming school year. And I will make sure to put my email, phone number, and our online website in the chat. You can apply online. And anyone who receives SNAP, SSI, DTA cash, or, is foster, are automatically eligible for our programs, and we do accept over-income families as well. We're just only able to accept 10% of our families to be over-income, but we do accept them as well, so we encourage everybody to apply.

Ashley Morales: Healthy Air Initiative
Hi, I'm Ashley Morales. I'm actually with the Healthy Air Initiative. I'm an RA and I'm just on here to listen to all the other resources, because I do a lot in the community.

Stefany Garcia: McKenny Vinto, Holyoke Public Schools
Good afternoon, everybody. Stephanie Garcia here with Aida Rodriguez, we all know she's the real boss. Sorry, guys. McKenny coordinators for the Holyoke Public Schools. We are also supporting Ed with the Back to School Event. So I just want to remind community partners that if you are planning to have a table in our community resource area to make sure you respond to my email and you complete the Google form. If you haven't received my email, please add your email in the chat.

In regards to that, what else do you have? The donations. Judy Battle, so thank you for her. For hiking products, our grants on beach cut short, so they're asking for us to work more with the community partners to get stuff. So I wanted to shout out Ashley Battle and her business for making sure we have enough hygiene products to cover us for the year for the growth, our growth. Thank you.

Luby O'Connor- Health Care for All
Hi there. My name is Luby O'Connor. I work for Health Care for All. And we do a lot of legislation, advocacy, and community work. We also have a helpline, which is free. We offer in four different languages, and help people troubleshoot and, earning… enroll in the, oh, like, Connect2Care, MassHealth, and all that jazz. And that's all.

Art Lobdell: Rotary Club of District 7890
Always takes a minute to come offline. Back on here. Again, Art Lobdell, representing the Rotary Club of District 7890, the district, and the Holyoke Chapter. Holyoke Chapter has just distributed $10,000 to Holyoke students for college next year. The next project that we are working on is we have an outbound foreign exchange student leaving from Holyoke, going over to Belgium for the year.

We have coming up the summer concert series that will be held in Heritage Park every Tuesdays in August, starting on the first Tuesday. So that's right after the other music festival is there. We're then, the next, three Wednesdays. So come on out, plan to, you know, family-friendly, bring anybody and everybody. There'll be food trucks and all that sort of thing. We also have ongoing our food ministry. Twice a month, we prepare meals over at Kate's Kitchen for the homeless. Again, come on out and join the Holyoke Rotary Club. Our business meeting is the third Wednesday at noon at the library.

We also are working right now, on our Christmas in July program, where we're collecting funds, to be able to purchase holiday, Gifts, meals, and all of that sort of stuff when that time comes. We found that trying to do some of the fundraising now in July is best when other institutions are all collecting, as well as everybody's budgets are all expended toward the end of the year. So that we can, reach out to about 20 families we get, from Olympia, and provide that link to a family dinner and, other support. So, Art Lobdell, the Rotary Club of Holyoke, and please consider joining us. I wasn't able to be on the whole time, so I wasn't sure if a public service announcement got made.

This Saturday at 10 AM, there is a commemoration at Mount Tom for the World War II crew that was on their way back. They were about to land and they crashed into the side of the mountain, and they were all lost. So there is a memorial there, and there is a group going to be there. Saturday, 10 to 11 or so both getting to the monument and a short program there. So consider that if you have time on.

Ashley Morales: Yeah, I just wanted to add something. I just wanted to let everybody know that tomorrow at the church on Appleton Street at 5, there's a dinner and a movie night that they have every second Friday of the month.

Anne Morales Medina: Holyoke Community College
Hi, everyone. So this is the first meeting that I'm attending. Previously, Angie Rodriguez attended, but she has since left the college. So I'm the associate director here at HCC, and I oversee the recruitment and enrollment management here in the admissions office. So as you guys probably are aware of, there's Mass Educate for anyone seeking

Trying to return to college. Whether it's for, you know, high school students trying to, you know, coming to college or adult learners returning to school. As part of my role, aside from the admissions part, I also oversee the Mayor of Adult Learner Success Center. We're a support program, one of many support programs on campus.

And what we do is we provide advising, career services, workshops. For adult learners 24 years plus and parenting students. We are and we just ended the end of the end of year three of a five year grant. And within that time we have opened up a parent learning center. We've opened up a lactation space and we have, you know, we've done great work so far, great retention rates for our students. So, you know, for any there's any way that I can be of service, feel free to reach out. I'll include my email address here as well. We're kind of in the transition period. As I said, Angie has since left. So I'm going to be attending meetings in the meantime until we find her replacement, but by all means feel free to reach out. If there's anything I can do to be of service in the meantime.

Abbie- Viability, INC
Hello. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Abby. I very proudly represent Viability. I want to just say this is such a great meeting. Thank you so much, Ed and Mike for facilitating. Welcome to the new faces. If you've been here before, welcome back. For those of you that don't know, viability is a nonprofit. We are all across Massachusetts and also in other states. We serve individuals with disabilities and mental illness in a variety of ways. We have lots of different programming including community based day programs. We have adult family care programs. We have clubhouse models which are for individual adults 18 plus with a mental illness.

We provide a lot of employment and career readiness, and job coaching. We kind of have a lot going on. So if you are not familiar with Viability, I'm happy to connect to tell you more. But I do actually have an announcement. We are actively recruiting right now for a pilot program. It's the first of its kind. Right now, this is going to be hosted out in Pittsfield, but it's for anybody that can get there. We have a partnership with Berkshire Medical Center. And what we're doing is we're looking for folks that are just out of high school between the ages of 18 and 22mthat have a disability, that are looking to enter the workforce. So our program is really geared towards getting people up and on their feet, and reducing the stigma around disabilities and mental illness. And so this summer camp, if you will, is going to be held for like I said 18 to 22 year olds. We're going to do some resume building interview skills.

We're going to actually link up with our students to be placed into internship opportunities at Berkshire Medical Center. So at the last day of the camp, the students are going to go over to Berkshire Medical Center and have a tour and kind of a day in the life of. So they're going to get to see what is dining services, what is, you know, X-ray technician and things. So we're going to be, we're going to take the students around. And then they're going to get the opportunity to have a paid internship that viability pays for a 40 hour internship.

So again, we're actively recruiting. I know it's a little far from Holyoke. However, if you know anybody that's kind of in that area, or even if you're in this area and you can get there, all are welcome between the ages of 18 and 22. The only requirement is that there is some kind of disability there. And so I just want to share the dates really quickly. It also includes in-person workshops and some virtual sessions. It's going to be August 17th through the 20th from 11 to 2.
And then the virtual lessons are Thursdays in July and August from 3 to 4. I will put the flyer in the chat. I already did once, but I'm going to do it again just to make sure you have it. And also, Eddie, if you could blast it out to those that aren't here, you'll all get that in your email box as well. But again, actively recruiting, happy to answer any questions. My colleague Kevin that runs these groups is wonderful, and so I know that whoever you refer will be in good hands. So again, that is our camp. First time we're doing this, we do hope to host one out here, closer to the Holyoke area, if this goes well, which we do anticipate it will go well.

But as far as collaborating, I heard a couple of you mentioning tabling opportunities and resource fairs and things. We love to collaborate on that. We love to share about our experiences, but then also walk around and learn about your services as well, so that we can share them with our participants. So summertime, I know there's a lot going on, but I'm happy to share any of your flyers. I've been downloading them as you drop them in the chat. I'll share that with our network here at viability, and hopefully, you know, we can stay connected. So again, my name

Abby, I represent Viability. We are kind of all over the state, so you probably see our buildings and our vans around. But connect with me. Let's stay connected, and let's, you know, see how we can collaborate if we don't already collaborate. But again, I just want to thank you, Eddie. This is my favorite meeting, and it's just, honestly, it's just really, truly an honor to be here to hear about all the great things happening in the community. We can't do this alone and so it's just beautiful and I just, I'm just grateful. Thank you.

Juan Anderson-Burgos: Aida for Representative Pat Duffy
Hi, everyone. Hope everyone is well. Sorry I was a little late today. Had a few things going on. So Juan Anderson Burgos, I'm the legislative aide for Representative Duffy, our office helps our constituents, which includes all of Holyoke and a fraction of Chicopee, which is Ward 3. Anything we cover is basically from, like, anything with unemployment, housing, you name it, and if not, if we can't help you, I'll find someone that can, so always feel free to reach out to us. I want to put a shameful plug.

So as you guys from the area in Holyoke know that Fiesta Patranales is coming up. I'm actually the volunteer coordinator for, yeah, I see you, Ashley. Thank you, Ashley, by the way. I'm the volunteer coordinator. There are nine slots left in our volunteer group. You got a T-shirt and a food voucher and you get to work with amazing and amazing committee. So please, sorry for that selfish plug in there. And thank you guys. Thank you for everything you do.

Mike Pratt: Sheriff's Office/HSNI
Hey everybody, Mike Pratt, Hampden County Sheriff's Office, Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative. I know Eddie touched on it, but I did want to say a couple things, a couple things I wanted to add about the Holyoke Hub. Even if you cannot make the meeting every single week, I appreciate this meeting so that I can get your contact info in case I do come across a family that's experienced, for example, domestic violence or something like that. But I also wanted to let you guys know that you can also present a situation. So, say you're dealing with somebody who's got mental health, but you know that they also need housing or food, or their kid does nothing at home, you can… you can contact me, and I can send you the consent form, and then you just have the parent sign it for themselves or for their child, and then from there, we can get them connected to the… we can present the case and get them connected to services. So that's what I'll say about the Holyoke Hub.

We're doing our basketball league, and any of you guys are welcome to come table the event any Friday you want to, we got 160 kids there every Friday, and we got about 250 parents on, on average. So you guys are more than welcome for that. We're always looking for volunteers, either on the score clock, or just keeping an eye on things, or if you guys eventually down the road want to coach. Please, some of our best coaches, Rondi Allen's on here, one of our best coaches comes from Crosspoint, so it's really good to have you guys here, and I appreciate your time.

Edward Caisse:
Hey, the only thing I have is, I want to talk about the Back-to-School Event for a minute. So, Stefany mentioned it, it's actually on August 15th, it's 11am to 3pm at McNally Field, and if you're an agency that's going to be in the community service area that Stephanie and Ada are taking care of. You'll have to register with Stefany, so when I send out the general email for volunteers, please don't register on that one if you're an agency that's going to be working in the community service area. And in the community service area, everybody will have a tent, we bring a tent, a table, two chairs, and then we're going to give two t-shirts, so only two representatives from an agency, will get a t-shirt. So, there's probably going to be about 45 maybe up to 50 agencies in that area.

And again, if you're going to be in the community service area, please don't register for the general volunteers, which I'm going to send out probably tomorrow. I've been waiting for our area leaders to try to recruit all the people that they want working in their area. So that's why I haven't sent out the volunteer registration yet, but I'm likely going to send it out tomorrow. And what happens every year is we get a number of agencies that are in the community service area. They also sign up to volunteer, like, in a specific area, like, let's say, the popcorn tent or the pony ride tent and then they planned on being in the community service area, so they're not really available for the popcorn tent or the pony tent, and that puts us in a bad situation. So, I just ask if, you are going to be in the community service area, please don't register for the general volunteer areas, Stefany and Aida going to take care of that area. We'll make sure that all the agency representatives get their t-shirts, so you guys won't be left out, but it'll just make it easier for our volunteer tent, to be able to have the volunteers in each area that they need, so I wanted to throw that out there.

In closing, I just want to say thank you so much for what each and every one of you do, day in and day out. Appreciate you guys, and please help me build the networking meeting up. If you know any agency representatives that are not attending this networking meeting, please encourage them to come if they have resources for youth and families in the Holyoke community. Thank you so much and have a great rest of the week.

Chat Notes:
Terri Lombardo: Terri Lombardo HCS Head Start

Ashley Morales: Ashley morales healthy air quality RA

Jessica Cogoli (Tech Foundry): Jessica Cogoli - Tech Foundry

Jennezzy Martinez: Jennezzy Martinez CCHW for the School-based health Clinic at River Valley Counseling Center

Marc Luongo- Holyoke Public Library: Marc Luongo- Holyoke Public Library

Brynn Gillis: Brynn Gillis-Holyoke District Court Probation.

Abbie Germain: Abbie Germain- Business Developer, Viability, INC 413-217-0348 agmermain@viability.org

Georgie Brown: Georgie Brown OneHolyokeCDC Georgianna.brown@oneholyoke.org

Kimberly Gonzalez: Kimberly Gonzalez & Ja'Niah Williams- Pa'lante

Jason Matthews: Jason Matthews Tech Foundry

Kareem Altius: Kareem Altius- RFK YASL West

Therese Ross: Therese Ross, Rick’s Place Grief Support tross@ricksplacema.org

Miguel Arce: Miguel Arce, Holyoke Resident, marce@springfieldcollege.edu

Durga Giri: Durga Giri form CHD

Brianna St. Peter: Brianna St. Peter - CAPV Head start & Early Learning Programs (communityaction.us)
Elizabeth McKinstry [AGO]: Elizabeth McKinstry
Community Engagement Coordinator, Western Massachusetts
Office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell
elizabeth.mckinstry@mass.gov

Emily Matney: Hi everyone! Emily Matney ~ Westfield Family Resource Center

shannon burke: Shannon Burke Holyoke Pediatrics MHCC burkes@holypeds.com

Abbie Germain: Now enrolling- looking for folks 18-22 years old. See flyer above!

Gloria Penagos: Gloria Penagos - gpenagos@hcc.edu - Holyoke Community


rkforce Development Free Job Training Programs | Holyoke Community College

Damasco Santiago: Damasco Santiago Tapestry Health Syringe Access Program. 306 Race st, Holyoke, Ma. 01040 (413) 315-3732 Ext 104. This week Saturday 11th 10 am to 12 pm Community Cleanup being Held.

Gladys Lebron: I am getting a bad feed back is anyone getting the same sound?? Trying to find out is me?

Abbie Germain: Hi Gladys- I don't hear it.

Gabriel Rodriguez: Gladys, I'm not getting any feedback

Lisa M Carbonell-Correa: Lisa M Carbonell-Correa PhD CCHW, CDP, CMDCP,
Dementia Care Consultant - Alzheimer's Association, MA/NH Chapter.617-819-8923 / 1-800-272-3900 https://www.alz.org/manh

Rondey Allen: Rondey Allen, Executive Director, Crosspoint Clinical Services https://www.crosspointclinical.org/

Angelique Rodriguez: I’m attending as Angelique Rodriguez for this meeting until we hire her replacement.

Abbie Germain: Welcome, Angelique! Happy you're here!

Angelique Rodriguez: I’m Anne Morales Medina, Associate Director of Admissions and the Marieb Adult Learner Success Center at HCC.

Abbie Germain: Oh! Welcome, Anne!

Angelique Rodriguez: Reacted to "Oh! Welcome, Anne!" with 💜

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: hi everyone!!!! Jessica Merrill with CHOiCE recovery coaching

Mike Pratt: Sheriff's Office/HSNI: Most Common Holyoke HUB Risk-Factos; Housing Insecurity, Food Insecurity, Mental Health, Truancy, Need for Enrichment opportunities, and Unemployment

Abbie- Viability, INC: Thanks, Mike, for sharing

Miguel Rivera - Rewarding Insurance Agency: https://rewardingagency.com/ Miguel Rivera 413-359-2771, 284 Maple St, Holyoke, MA. Retirement Transition Support & Wealth Building Strategies
Angelique Rodriguez: Love Rick’s Place!

Therese Ross, Rick's Place Grief Support: Reacted to "Love Rick’s Place!" with

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Love Rick’s Place!" with ❤️

Jessica Cogoli (Tech Foundry): @Therese Ross, Rick's Place Grief Support I woud love to connect with you i will be sending you an email later today.

Therese Ross, Rick's Place Grief Support: Replying to "@Therese Ross, Rick'..."

Excellent, looking forward to hearing from you!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Viability.org
jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: id love some info on the hub.... jessm@choicerecoverycoaching.org

Megan Gross: Megan Gross, speech-language pathologist and director of the Bilingual Language Development Lab (https://websites.umass.edu/bld) at UMass Amherst - focused on supporting Spanish-speaking families who have children with an autism diagnosis or other special education needs
Megan Gross, Bilingual Language Development Lab, megangross@umass.edu, 413-461-4399

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: choice recovery coaching offers coaching at no cost, trainings to apply lived experience and we have a few community events going on like community yoga and group peer supports

Abbie- Viability, INC: Viability is recruiting young folks with disabilities, age 18-22 for a free summer camp. I will share the flyer below. Check it out! Please share.

Gladys Lebron, Alianza Prevention Community Engarment Coordinator: Gladys Lebron-Martinez, Prevention Community Engagement Coordinator with Alianza a domestic violence organization. Glebron@alianzadv.org; (413) 335-2455 administration offices 208 Race St. 3rd floor
Terri Lombardo: lombardot@headstart.org please reach out to me if you have any questions!

Rondey Allen- CrossPoint Clinical Services: https://www.crosspointclinical.org/events/

Gladys Lebron, Alianza Prevention Community Engarment Coordinator: From GladysSorry wrong number I gave my personal number the business number is (413) 363-3737
jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: could you send me info about your resource fair Miguel? jessm@choicerecoverycoaching.org

Abbie- Viability, INC: Replying to "https://rewardingagency.com/ Miguel Rivera 413-359-2771, 284 Maple St, Holyoke, MA. Retirement Transition Support & Wealth Building Strategies"

Miguel, could you send me the info for the community resource fairs? Thanks! agermain@viability.org

Abbie- Viability, INC: Miguel, could you send me the info for the community resource fairs, too? Thanks! agermain@viability.org

Marc Luongo- Holyoke Public Library: https://holyokelibrary.org/reserve-a-meeting-space/ If anyone needs to book a private room for anything please do so on our website. My email is mluongo@holyokelibrary.com. We are in the middle of our summer reading programs and those programs can be found here on our website https://holyokelibrary.org/calendar/

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: Replying to "https://rewardingage..."

same please Miguel jessm@choicerecoverycoaching.org

Megan Gross: Opportunities for families with the BLD lab
Project ABC Familias (children ages 4-6 with autism diagnosis): https://bit.ly/49vwNnG
Project Hermanos (children ages 5-12 with autism diagnosis and at least one sibling): http://bit.ly/4ofT8ht
Supporting Bilingual Families monthly group at Enlace de Familias: https://forms.gle/4M9S4BvSPPcK7Swa6

Megan Gross: Replying to "Viability is recruiting young folks with disabilities, age 18-22 for a free summer camp. I will share the flyer below. Check it out! Please share."

Thank you, Abby! I will add this to the resource list we share with families participating in our projects.

Kareem Altius: For anyone needing volunteers for community service please reach out to me! Kareem Altius 413-575-4391/ kaltius@rfkcommunity.org

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: CHOiCE Recovery Coaching; recovery coaching at no cost for community members. Trainings available to become a recovery coach, as well as workforce development trainings. Community event; yoda in the park, Vanhorn park, 4th sunday next one July 26 10am. choicerecoverycoaching.org, jessm@choicerecoverycoaching.org

Abbie- Viability, INC: Replying to "Viability is recruiting young folks with disabilities, age 18-22 for a free summer camp. I will share the flyer below. Check it out! Please share."

Thank you, so much! This particular camp is hosted out in Pittsfield, MA. We are looking for anyone, living in MA that can get there, with a disability age 18-22! We are hoping to plan another camp in the Holyoke/Springfield area in the future, too!

Jessica Cogoli (Tech Foundry): Here is our website https://www.thetechfoundry.org/ also here is my email if anyone has any questions please reach out: Jessica@thetechfoundry.org

Emily Matney: I have to step away for a minute

Megan Gross: one of my students has joined me, Sarah, she also works at Amherst Community Connections and is interested in learning more about community resources

Abbie- Viability, INC: Hello Sarah, welcome!

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: Reacted to "one of my students h..." with ❤️

Charlie Knight: Charlie Knght her with 32 Byers Street, Inc. Streiaght delux SRO housing for homeless in Springfield, MA and the propertiy is managed biy Waiyfinders Propetiy Management in Springfield, MA

Megan Gross: Replying to "Viability is recruiting young folks with disabilities, age 18-22 for a free summer camp. I will share the flyer below. Check it out! Please share."

Good to know about the location - thank you!

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "Good to know about the location - thank you!" with ❤️

Ashley Morales: I love union capital

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: Reacted to "I love union capital..." with ❤️

Abbie- Viability, INC: Reacted to "I love union capital " with 👍

Gabriel Rodriguez: Reacted to "I love union capital " with ❤️

Megan Gross: Reacted to "I love union capital " with ❤️

Kimberly Gonzalez: Next event is a cookout on 8/18/26 4pm-6pm https://palanteholyoke.org/

Kareem Altius: Hey Gabriel, Would love to connect!

Gabriel Rodriguez: Replying to "Hey Gabriel, Would love to connect!"

Hi Kareem, my email address in gabrielr@umass.edu I would be happy to connect. :)

Kareem Altius: Replying to "Hey Gabriel, Would love to connect!"

Thank you!

Georgie Brown: [Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Georgie Brown: [Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Ashley Morales: Reacted to I love union capital... with "❤️"

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: [Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Megan Gross: [Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Georgie Brown: link to sign up for clean-ups: https://www.oneholyoke.org/community-engagement/keepitclean2k26/

Brianna St. Peter: Brianna St. Peter - bstpeter@communityaction.us - 413-654-1772 - Apply online at communityaction.us for children 6 weeks-5 years old as well as expecting parents!

Marc Luongo- Holyoke Public Library: If anyone has any flyers for any events or programs which they would like posted at the library please feel free to email them to my personal email as well mluongo@holyokelibrary.org

Gabriel Rodriguez: Reacted to "If anyone has any flyers for any events or programs which they would like posted at the library please feel free to email them to my personal email as well mluongo@holyokelibrary.org" with 👍

Megan Gross: @Stefany Garcia MCKV HPS Can you share the email to sign up for a community resource table? Thank you!

jessica merrill- CHOiCE recovery coaching: Replying to "If anyone has any fl..."

thank you Marc, i will absolutely take you up on that

Megan Gross: Replying to "@Stefany Garcia MCKV HPS Can you share the email to sign up for a community resource table? Thank you!"

megangross@umass.edu

Stefany Garcia MCKV HPS: Reacted to "megangross@umass.edu" with 👍

Megan Gross: Reacted to "If anyone has any flyers for any events or programs which they would like posted at the library please feel free to email them to my personal email as well mluongo@holyokelibrary.org" with ❤️

Stefany Garcia MCKV HPS: and the weekend backpack is also being supported by to the rotary club!!!

Megan Gross: Reacted to "and the weekend backpack is also being supported by to the rotary club!!!" with ❤️

Durga Giri: My name is Durga Giri. I work as a case manager CHD safety Zone program assisting youth age 12-17 who are experiencing homelessness are at risk of being homelessness or are in need of temporary living arrangement. Email:dgiri@chd.org .

Lisa M Carbonell-Correa: Replying to "@Stefany Garcia MCKV..."

lccorrea@alz.org

Jessica Cogoli (Tech Foundry): Info about the info ...
[Full message cannot be displayed on this version]

Anne Morales Medina she/her/ella: amedina1@hcc.edu

Luby O'Connor- HCFA: Luby O'Connor- Community Engagemen Manager at Healh Care For All.
Health Insurance Help – Health Care For All
In the Community – Health Care For All
Art Lobdell: Seeking employment as ceo, coo, or communiy outreach Arthurlobdell@gmail.com

Abbie- Viability, INC: Abbie Germain, Viability, INC 413-217-0348 agermain@viability.org. Let's stay connected!

Charlie Knight: sorry. I musat drpmin at another meeting

Abbie- Viability, INC: Bye Charlie!

Megan Gross: Do you still have folks give career presentations at the basketball league?

Ashley Morales: I'll volunteer ed

Stefany Garcia MCKV HPS: Reacted to "lccorrea@alz.org" with 👍🏼

Abbie- Viability, INC: www.viability.org.