November 2024

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes


Date: November 14, 2024
Time: 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Place: Zoom Meeting


Mission Statement: The Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative is a partnership between local, state & federal law enforcement; city & state government; civic & human service organizations; faith based organizations; the business community; education providers; property managers; and residents coming together with a goal to create safe, healthy & economically viable neighborhoods through information sharing, identifying at-risk youth, referrals and community efforts in specific Holyoke neighborhoods.


Welcome & Introduction 1:00pm - 1:05pm
Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
I just want to welcome everybody. My name's Eddie Caisse, I work for the Hampden County Sheriff's Office. I've been the facilitator of the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative since 2011, when we started the initiative. But I just want to give everybody an understanding of what the process for the networking meeting it.

I ask folks to stay on mute until it's your turn to speak. Every month we have a speaker, who speaks for about 15 minutes to give a little bit more information about their agency, and after the speaker, we ask the audience to put any questions in the chat that they have for the speakers. Then we go around the room and give every agency representative an opportunity to share what their agency resources are or any upcoming activities or events that they have going on, or whatever it is you want to share about your agency.

So we give you that opportunity. I do ask people especially when you're speaking, if you could put your camera on, if you have that ability. For many of us like me, I'm always trying to put a name to a face and get to know people on a different level. So I do like to see people keep their cameras on as often as you can, because to me the networking meeting is all about; one hearing about the resources, but also trying to develop a deep working relationship with some of the folks from the different agencies.

So sometimes building those relationships takes a little time, so it's good to see the faces. Today we're going to have Ingrid Arvidson and Dennis Baker from the Federation of Children with special needs. So Ingrid and Dennis, I'm going to turn it over to you guys.

Ingrid Arvidson and Dennis Baker: Federation for Children with Special Needs 1:05pm - 1:20pm
Ingrid Arvidson:
Thank you for inviting us Edward, and Deanna who you all know from the Federation for Children with special needs who specifically invited us. So we're super happy to be here. Can't wait to share this new information that we have hot off the press.

I'll give you a little bit about who I am, and then I’ll let Dennis introduce himself, and then I'll share my screen.
I am a former principal of a school right there in Holyoke, on Center Street. So when Deanna asked me to attend a meeting with you all, I went back to Center Street and my heart just exploded. I have such fond memories of the students and the families that I worked with. I still walk around in any given town, and I'll have a student come up and just hug me and almost knock me over. It was just an amazing experience.
So it was called the Holyoke Street School, some of you may have heard about it. We transitioned it into River Valley Academy, but have amazing ties and memories with Holyoke. So my name again is Ingrid, I will be presenting with Dennis, and I'll let Dennis introduce himself.



Dennis Baker:
Hi, thank you Ingrid. Ed thank you for having us, and Deanna thank you for making this connection. I am Dennis Baker. I work on the information team at the Federation with Ingrid.

I am a former special education teacher, high school sub separate emotional behavioral program for 15 years. During that time I did not know the Federation existed. It wasn't until after I left, and found out, then inquired about being an advocate and then took our Federation's intensive training course. Which I think its 64 Hours, Ingrid, was the teacher and that was at Holyoke Community College.

I also have many ties to Holyoke. I love coming here, my family, my grandparents, are lifelong Holyoke residents. My grandmother just passed away in May, at age 108.
So I've been coming to Holyoke my whole life. Nick's Nest is one of my favorite spots, I used to go to the Delaney House and JP’s, so I love being here, and having this opportunity to present to this area. So thank you for having us.

Ingrid Arvidson:
So I do want to mention that I will be monitoring the chat. I'll jump in and out of the presentation. Dennis will give the most of the presentation, but we were asked if you all could hold your questions until the end or put them in the chat, so during the presentation we can answer them and we will make sure that we answer all of them. If we don't get to do that during this time. Then we will send emails and we'll send our information out. So without further ado, let me share my screen.

Dennis Baker:
Yes, excellent. So this is a project specifically that we've been working on with DESE and some other state agencies. This is specifically related to students who aged out of a transition program at age 22, during the pandemic. So that those dates are March 10th 2020 to September 30th 2023. If you go back the corresponding birth dates are March 10th 1998, to September 30th 2001.

So this is for students who again aged out of a transition program at age 22, on an IEP during this COVID period.
So in 2022 there was an act passed that funded 10 million dollars to transition services for these young adults. We'll talk a little bit about the services. But we'll also talk more specifically about our participation in the services. So again, a very specific age range, we realize that there's a wide range of professionals here that work with a lot of different ages. So although this might not apply to maybe specific families that are people on your caseload. Maybe there are siblings, or you know, I think just getting the word out about this to any professional will be beneficial.

Ingrid Arvidson:
Yes, we have money to spend. We have money to share with families, so bear with us here.
I just wanted to talk a little bit quickly about what the Federation is. Some of you may have heard about the Federation for Children with Special Needs through Deanna or through your work, but some may have not so very quickly. The Federation for Children with Special Needs is a program that exists within the State of Massachusetts. We are required to exist in all states across our country. So we are a family information center.
So all States are required to have a family information center, it was started in Massachusetts.
We have an amazing organization that parents really created. Parents sat around a table and said, You know what? We're not putting up with this. We are not going to allow our kids, our children, with special needs to continue to receive services in a basement or to not receive services at all. And so they got together with state legislators, and they said no more, they worked with multiple people along multiple agencies.

Luckily there was a law that was created that said, we now have to have a parent information center for all families and professionals who require information and services to have a resource. So in Massachusetts the resource is the information center, the federation in California they have four different information centers, depending on what state it is and the population. You have different amounts of information centers. But in Massachusetts it's the parent information. It's our information center, so that's really important to know.

Within the umbrella of the Federation we have lots of different resources. It's not just about special education. It's also about health care. So what are the healthcare needs? Do you have a medically complex child or somebody you're working with that has a medically complex child.
You could reach out to us through family voices, through family ties. We have a new, really great new program called C2C which is caregiver to caregiver. So, for example. If you have a family who is really struggling with a need for respite, that need to take a moment and have a moment to breathe. So that family or you, as a social worker or a clinical worker, could reach out to us and say, I have a family in dire need that has a child with X issue. So it could be autism disability or cerebral palsy and you could reach out, then they would match you with somebody else who has a child with that, and you could exchange services. We have things like P2P. Parent to parent. So it's similar. I'm a parent of a child with vision impairment. Do you have another parent who has a child with vision impairment, so I could talk to them and just hear what their experience was, and I could share my experience. So we have lots of different programs and supports under our umbrella.

If you go to our website, you can also see that we have a library and a lot of resources. So I will continue, because I know we're short on time here. The Federation empowers, families, young people, and those who work with them. Disability access, language access, and equity are our core priorities. Our goal is to remove barriers to access and support equal opportunity for all students.

Dennis Baker:
All right now to talk about the services that are available for this specific age range and for a couple of years there were services in place through agencies. But just recently we were able to convince and advocate
With DESE to start a program or actually to piggyback off a program that you'll hear about. But it was a way to give families who are eligible for this program, direct stipends and service vouchers to purchase transition and social activities. The important thing for us was that this happened within the community that these families are living in. Just to give you a little bit of context about Springfield. Unfortunately, we are unable to find out the specific names of these young adults and families who are eligible, due to privacy concerns. But DESE was able to give us a spreadsheet of the number of eligible families in each town and city. So if we add up Holyoke, Springfield, and all the surrounding communities. There's 200 plus families that are eligible for this.

If they're eligible for one of these services then they're eligible for all. So in the spring we piloted a program that families called us who are eligible, and we paid them direct stipends for social activities, and you could see a wide range of what we have funded. Which can include horseback riding, driver's Ed courses, theater tickets, assistive technology, even respite for parents, a lot of class and social opportunities. So this is all in an effort to help the young adults re-engage in their community socially, and transition missing out on those skills you know, that they missed out on during the pandemic. So these are just some of the examples that we have funded so far, if we funded $15,000 in the spring to over 55 families for these uses, and more.

So the $15,000 that we got in the spring was just a pilot program to see if we could make this work, which we did. It was very successful, in addition to funding 50 plus families, we have a waiting list right now of over a hundred families who will be able to call us, for now we're going to cap each family. This is going to be $600 per family, were going to try to fund them this year before the end of the tax year, and then families can come back at the start of the new calendar year for another $600. So we are trying to make this as easy as possible for families. With so many things to navigate. I think we've done such a good job of it that some people didn't actually believe that this was true, this is money to families.

I just also would like to add; we are not asking for receipts, there's no checkup. We're asking for data on what the families are spending it on. So we can report back to DESE but families are not going to have to provide any sort of paperwork, or receipts or accountability for this. So what we would love to have families do is contact us, and they can fill out the easiest thing which is our online intake form. We can put links to that in the chat for this. Then what we do is a really good job of reaching back out to families quickly. I know within families there are frustrations in dealing with some bigger agencies and navigating. When families reach out to us, we'll call them back; someone on our staff will confirm their eligibility. Within those specific age out dates during Covid if eligible. We will then be on the phone with that family right there to complete an application, a funding request form which then gets sent to me, which I approve. So we will sit on the phone with the family and talk about what types of things that are available to them and we'll go over some options. We can't do as much legwork or see what’s available in each community, as we'd like to do. But we do have plans for cultural brokers to help assist with that but we can help brainstorm and talk with the families about what they need. So, for example, this is a very common phone call and funding requests that comes up like, Gym membership, Y.M.C.A. Class, or a dance classes. So we'll just put in the application, $200 for a Gym membership or $350 for dance classes.

I always tell the families, this is for data collection. If something comes up when you get this check next week,
that was unanticipated and assistive technology needs fixing. That is very okay. That's your choice to spend it in that area. So that's just one example.

So the next slides are just elaborating on what people are saying. It's some feedback and testimonials kind of
what I alluded to before with people saying. When the pilot program launched, we would talk to somebody on a Monday and process an application very quickly, and it was within a week that the families would get the checks in the mail. We just have a couple testimonials that just indicate that we pride ourselves in warmth, human contact that it might be hard to get sometimes with other agencies.

Ingrid Arvidson:
I just want to reiterate. So we gave out $15,000 in our pilot program for the young adults who did not receive
transitional services during Covid. So there was 10 million dollars that was allocated from our legislators to
support the young adults across the State of Massachusetts who did not receive those services during Covid.
There are over 3,000 students in the State of Massachusetts who did not receive those services, so we were really happy with our pilot program of supporting a couple 100 students in spending the 15,000. But
that's not enough. We had over 3,000 who are across the State of Massachusetts, we now have close to 2 million. Which was just allocated and approved by DESE department of elementary and secondary education. We are starting this new venture next week on Monday, and we will be handing out these youth stipends. So by youth stipends it means a family or a support person calls us and says, hey there is a young adult I'm working with. I think they meet this criteria. If we all agree that they meet the criteria. They then go through the application process that is literally like 5 minutes long. Once they get approved for the application process, they tell us what their funding is requested for.

So like Dennis said, a Y.M.C.A. Membership, maybe it's a dance class, or an uber card for transportation. Maybe it's a coach, a life coach, I mean, think outside of the box. Like for my son, who has autism, I said, you know I think I need a laptop that would be approved. So it's whatever could be approved, whatever makes sense that they did not receive for social emotional support during COVID. This age range will get approved by us for up to $600 each fiscal year. So if we can approve them for $600 before the end of December. We can approve them for another $600 next fiscal year from January to December again. So that's really exciting.

Also young adults who might be incarcerated are also eligible for this; we have talked to young adults who are incarcerated. We have talked to their families, and if they're not able to receive this check. Then the families can receive this check, and it will help their entire community as well as their family. I just want to reiterate what Dennis said is, it's like you get in a car accident and you get the insurance, and you can fix your car or not. It's the same thing. So they can spend the check, however, they see fit for their families, even though they reach out to us and explain what is best for their families.

Dennis Baker:
In addition to our funding and you know we can, have a much longer presentation that we could talk a little bit more about this. But in addition to our funding originally, this program started with the 10 million dollars in the funding with these 4 agencies. If you could take away anything, everything that we mentioned here is free. Compensatory will not impact anything being currently received or accessed; our funding will have no impact on flex funding any accounts with any agencies. A family who's eligible, could take services from every one of these agencies that are applicable to our funding, just to make that clear. The Macy College program and Mass Commission for the blind and those just very quickly.
We are the contact hub for this. How we got involved is that we were just the information hub. So we were just taking calls and connecting families to these organizations. So any family who are eligible for this could receive services from their local center if they are participating, which only 15 of 52 are in the State. But those are for social groups that meet on nights and weekends and outings and could be tailored to skills and hobbies as it was advertised in this program. Mass Rehab Commission offers their next Gen vocational training, which is only available in 120 towns and cities in Mass, and then they offer their vocational training to the rest of the State.

Macy offers students who would have aged out at age 22 to re-enroll and take classes. Ingrid, and I have been there to observe that program at Bridgewater State, and I know out in your area Westfield has a very successful Macy program. And lastly, when we put Mass Commission for the blind. They obviously have the fewest number of eligible participants, they were the only agency which gave out direct stipends and service vouchers, and we would talk to families who said that was so very successful and appreciated. Instead of shoehorning into services for the other agencies that are already existing.

This allowed freedom that families really benefited from, which is why we advocated so strongly to do the same thing because, while Mass Commission for the blind is only available for those families who are registered. You know we are available for all 3,000 plus families in the State. So in addition to our funding, there are other options available, and want you know I am a warm handoff, so a family can call, and they could process an application with us and get approved for funding. Then we can take their information and connect them with the appropriate state agencies to investigate more of what those agencies have to offer.

Ingrid Arvidson:
Thank you Dennis. I know we're out of time. Just so you know, this is hundreds and hundreds of dollars in families and young adult’s pockets. So reach out to us. If you think you know a young adult or a family who is eligible for this, because this is no strings attached.

Thank you so much, Edward, for having us, put any questions in the chat. If you have further follow up questions, also you can email us. We'll put our information in the chat. Thank you so much. Sorry to go over time.

Edward Caisse:
Thank you so much Ingrid and Dennis. We really appreciate you sharing that information sounds like great resources for the youth and families that we're working with.

At this time, what we're going to do is go around the room. I'm going to start at the end of the alphabet the way folks are showing up on my participant list. So I'm going to call you and forgive me if I mispronunciation your name. But at this point, we have about a minute to a minute and a half for each person to speak. So if we can respect the people that are coming after us. So I'm going to turn it over to Will Weche.

Agency Overview and Updates 1:20pm - 2:25pm

Wilbert Weche: Willful Change, LLC
Good afternoon everyone, Will Weche here, president and founder of Willful Change, LLC. Which is a local training and development firm that specializes in leadership development. I work closely with nonprofit organizations that are experiencing a lot of employee relations issues that are closely linked to leaders that are not necessarily equipped with the resources and the tools that they need to handle a diverse workforce.

Some of the updates that I have here is that I've recently launched out yet again another training
that is being launched out and currently in progress as we speak, and I'll do a quick share of screen
but I'll also drop that in the chat. So the training for this month that I've just recently launched is creating an inclusive and equitable team environment.

So folks if you know that diversity, equity, and inclusion happens to be one of your core values in your organization or happens to be one of the initiatives that your organization is looking to incorporate, but also needs the additional training and support on how to effectively do that, you can definitely reach out and contact me. So again, I'm going to place my information in the chat as well as this flyer so that you can reference it again. Our focus here is to always provide customized training for leaders, so that we are making sure that we're tailoring our approach to meet your specific needs. Thank you for your time.

Tonja Paone: Northeast Center for Youth and Families
Hi! Good afternoon, everybody. I'm from Northeast Center for Youth and Families. I actually am the home finding specialist. We have offices in Easthampton, Worcester, and Malden, and we are a nonprofit foster care agency connected with the Department of Children and families.

Actually I wanted to join to see what was out there and to also make available our information. I am from the Foster Care Department. We do have other departments such as a clinical department, in-home therapy, as well as mentoring services, and we also have psychiatry medication management. It’s not just the foster children that we serve.

We also serve the public and our office covers Hampshire, Hampden Counties and Franklin County. We don't have too much out past that, but like I mentioned, we do have a Worcester and a Malden office.
We specialize in working with children with behavioral and emotional challenges. We have a 24/7 support team. We have case managers that work with the children that are placed in the foster homes. I was just kind of looking to see what's available out in the community, and kind of be a little bit more informed and knowledgeable. And I think by just listening to today's presentation, we have a lot of kids that age out
of the system. So that's a wonderful support to be able to offer them. I will put my information in the chat as well. Thank you.

Timothy Powis: Hampden Superior Court
Hi there, Timothy Powis, from Hampden Superior probation, I have nothing to add.

Terri Lombardo: HCS Head Start
Hi, everyone. Terry Lombardo, with HCS Head Start Services, children from 6 weeks to pre-k. We have 8 classrooms in Holyoke and all over Springfield, Chicopee, and one in Ludlow.
Parents can qualify based on their income, and it is of no charge. And currently, I'm actually looking for trainers
for the dads in our program, specifically on co-parenting. If anybody knows of someone, please let me know. I will put my email in the chat. Thanks, Ed.

Sidney Richeux: Gandara
Hello, everyone! My name is Sydney. I am the triage clinician from Gandara Center in Holyoke for the intensive care coordination program. Currently we are having probably 3 week waiting list for the ICC program. I'm going to leave the referral form and my contact information in the chat. Thank you for having me really. It's always a pleasure to participate in these meetings. Thank you.

Sasha Viands: Girls Inc. of the Valley
Hi! Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Sasha Viands. I'm the volunteerism and community Engagement Coordinator for Girls, Inc. of the Valley. We do have a few volunteer opportunities for folks who are interested.
My email and phone number are in the chat. If folks are interested, we're always recruiting and looking for new participants for our programming, specifically high school youth. So if you have any questions around that feel free to drop me a line. We are also currently recruiting high school students to attend the Holyoke listening sessions that folks may or may not have seen at the Greater Holyoke YMCA on November 21st and I will wrap it up there. Thanks so much for having me.

Sandy Ward: Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Mass
Thanks. Ed. I'm a volunteer with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts. We provide education about your rights and options for death care and how to deal with the funeral industry. I'll put information in the chat. We're an information resource, all volunteer run and happy to help when needed.
Thank you.

Victor Colon: Tapestry
Hi community coordinator for Tapestry and work out of Springfield. I do live in Holyoke, my 1st time joining in Holyoke. I was just curious of what's going on in Holyoke. Thank you for having me.

Oza Nunnally: Dial Self Ameri-Corps
Hi, my name is Oza. I'm AmeriCorps member representing Dial Self. I serve the youth in Holyoke Opportunity Academy. So I'm just here to see what everyone has going on, and maybe trying to network with any resources that may be available for the youth here that I'm serving at my site. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Nia Johnson: Mass Attorney General’s Office
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Nia Johnson from the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. Thank you for the invitation to join Ed. We have available educational on Know Your Rights trainings on the topics of landlord tenant rights, fair housing scams and ID theft, workers’ rights, teen workers’ rights. If you're interested, I drop my information in the chat, and I'd love to connect and talk about it more.
Thanks, Ed. Have a great day.

Millie Ruiz: Way Finders
Good afternoon, everybody. I am the housing mobility outreach specialist here at Way Finders, and I have no updates. Thank you.

Miguel Rivera: Rewarding Insurance Agency
My name is Miguel Rivera. I'm the CEO of Rewarding Insurance Agency here at 284 Maple Street, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. And first of all, congratulations, Eddie, on receiving the Bridge Builder Award.
I also want to mention that we do have health, auto, home and business insurance. It's important for you guys to know that Medicare annual enrollment period is from October 15th to December 7th and many of our local seniors are receiving phone calls from telemarketers, enrolling them in plans that their doctors don't accept. So if you know anybody who is enrolled in a Medicare advantage plan that their doctors don't accept. Please send them to me, and we put them in the right plan. Thank you.

Miguel Arce: Springfield College
Thank you Mr. Caisse, for providing this forum for discussion. I have no update, but do have one simple offer. If anyone's interested in higher education in whatever institution I'd be delighted to chat with them.

Maria Pelchar: Holyoke Fire Department
We have had a few fires as you know lately, so please, if you're a smoker, please discard of your cigarettes. Put them out all the way, or put them in water. Also, if you're cooking, stand by your pan never leave cooking unattended.

I also have the free car seat installation program and free car seats. They do not have to be Holyoke residents. So if you know a family that needs a car seat. Send them my way. This grant they do have to be referred by a company who serves them. So if you refer them, I'll give them a free car seat. I also still have the free smoke alarm installation program. But for that you have to be a Holyoke resident. But Springfield and Chicopee and South Hadley all have their own program, too. That's pretty much it. Be safe.

Iohann Vega: Holyoke Media
Hello, Eddie, thank you so much for this opportunity of reaching out and talk to all of the members in the in the group. I'm Iohann Vega, director of media engagement with Holyoke Media, the community access television channel in Holyoke.

We offer the opportunity for all of you to share your work. And that way we can put it on the TV and our social media as programming stories and ways to promote and support your work. Today I want to introduce Luis Barrios, who is our new member in the staff, who is offering a new program and support for pretty much everybody as detailed navigator, so I would like to pass it on to Luis.

Luis Barrios: Holyoke Media
Good afternoon, everyone I'm Luis. I represent a Holyoke Media, but my position is digital navigation. It's a newly started position through community media centers. That are forming through the digital alliance for equity.

Right now, we're laying out the plans trying to bridge those connections, bridge those gaps. We have a lot of them, unfortunately in Western Mass since the pandemic. We figured out that we need some digital literacy. I'm a perfect example of it. I started my journey a year ago and want to help everyone and anyone. Youth to seniors bridge that gap and start looking forward to digital literacy in this in this area.

So, Eddie, I appreciate that. You've started bridging those gaps. And anyone that's here next month I should have something hardline websites and connections to go through resources. I know we have a few people here that do the same thing. So I appreciate it. And I'm looking forward to working with you all, Luis Barrios Holyoke Media digital navigator. Thank you.

Iohann Vega:
Today reach out to us. So that way, we can also have you featured on our public access channel. So more people can know about the work that is going on, the opportunities, programs and services that are being offered by all of you. So thank you, and always available to everyone for any way that we can support and help to amplify your work.

Lisa Schechterle: Holyoke Medical Center
Hi, everyone. My name is Lisa Schechterle. I work at the Holyoke Medical Center in community benefits. Our mission is to improve health and well-being of residents by addressing health, related social needs and promoting health in general; I will be working on a Community Health Needs Assessment in 2025, so I may be reaching out to some of you for your input. Thanks for having me here.

Laci Labrecque: Gandara Center
Hi, everyone! My name is Laci. I work with the Gandara Shine Program. We provide housing for 18 to 24 year olds. We also provide case management. The case management, however, is trauma informed, and it starts immediately upon contact with the navigator. I posted in the chat our navigation hotline. Thank you all for sharing your information as well.

John McCarthy: USCIS
Thank you Ed. John McCarthy, I'm the community Relations Officer for USCIS, citizenship and immigration services and they work out of Boston just a couple of items today.

1st of all, we're expecting a rollout of TPS, temporary protected status for Lebanese. There has already been a deferred and forced departure rollout in July. So just be aware of those two things. If you need information, you can get in touch with me. I put my information in the chat two other items I'd like to mention is that with the election just having taken place in all of the discussion. Every place that you look in regard to deporting people. And those issues, there's a real danger of a good deal of fraud and scams in the immigrant community, and whatever you can do as a community to get that information out. If people are offering you something for a price. You take a good look at it. If it's too good, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

The other thing is that I'm available for either immigrant groups or people who serve immigrant groups agencies. If you want an immigration 101, just an overview of immigration. Just get in touch with me. I'd be happy to do it for you for free. Thank you very much, Ed.

Gladys Lebron: Alianza
Hi, everyone. My name is Gladys Lebron Martinez, and I am the community engagement specialist.
Thank you. Everyone. It's been more than two and a half I believe years, because I used to go to these meetings, but was in person at the Holyoke Public Library. So you really used to this system and I enjoy hearing everyone again.

But I just want to share with you quickly that I was hired to work on a grant that Alianza received and was awarded on July of this year from the Department of Public Health. It's a culturally specific Grant, which means that they are going to have a listening session’s focus group. Any way, we can listen from the community as far as what they understand on what are healthy relationships, what is domestic violence and violence as a whole?

We already had an announcement on October 30th and were just to announce, and we had a great deal of attendees. So we have the specific card that I will share then later with Ed, if it's okay to share for those who did not make it to the event. So that you could reply as to at what level would you like to get involved. So people may want to be part of the Advisory Board, or others maybe want to be part of the receiving emails, receiving the newsletters, getting up to date, hosting their own listening project focus group in the organization. So we can hear. And this is for the LGBTQ community elders. It's also for the youth, population and immigration immigrants. So please I will put my name and information in the chat, so please feel free to reach out if you are interested. Thank you so much.

Jenneke Reynolds: Public Health Department of Holyoke, Chicopee and South Hadley
I work with the Central Pioneer Valley Health District, which is the Public Health Departments of Holyoke, Chicopee, and South Hadley. This month we have our public health nurse who is happy to do presentations on diabetes awareness. So if any organization would like to have a nurse come in and just talks to people about risks avoiding risks. Just reach out to me, and we can have her come in and set up a table, hand out some information and just answer questions that people may have. I'll put my information in the chat.

Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College
Thank you so much, Ed. And congratulations well deserved. Also congratulations to Gladys. And I would like to say, Thank you to John, and thank you to everybody that has to work with the immigrant community. I think that community really needs the support.

Now, I'm Gloria Penagos from Holyoke Community College. We are offering some work from workforce development. We are offering some free job trainings. We already are doing the last one from 2024. Thank you to every single one to share this information. I know that pushing these groups made these courses full because you are sharing this information with everybody. So thank you so much. So we are working, and next year we will start again in January with these free trainings. So thank you again, and have a beautiful rest of the day. Bye, bye.

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 specifically in the community safety and outreach unit. So in a nutshell we are the hub for all of the DA's prevention and education programs.

A lot of my time is spent in schools across Hampden County. I'm doing presentations on a lot of different topics. We talk about substance use, we talk about Internet Safety. We talk about healthy relationships, about impaired and distracted driving. We have a lot of programs for a lot of different age levels. We also have social media programs available for parents and adults.

Aside from students, we also have a Hampden County Addiction Task Force that we co-coordinate with the sheriff's department. So I did put my information in the chat. If anyone is curious about learning more about what we do, you can shoot me an email, and I will also share on the DA site, a list of all of our programs. If anyone is interested and any of our presentations as well necessarily have to be for a group of students at a school. If you work for an organization or an agency that works with youth, then we're happy to bring our presentations to you as well. Thank you.

Gerardo Torres: Way Finders
Hello, everyone! My name is Geraldo Torres. I'm a resident of Holyoke. I want to share information for this month of November that Way Finders is going to host a Resident Leadership Program on November 26th starting at 5:00pm to 7:30pm it starts on November 26th and ends on December 17th. If you want more information, you could call Anna Cruz at (413) 523-3826. Thank you very much. Have a nice day.

Georgie Brown: OneHoloke CDC
Hi, everyone. I just put it in the chat. But I'm Georgie from OneHolyoke. The big thing that we have is that we are really looking for volunteers and sponsors for our upcoming community dinner on December 14th we need a lot of volunteers, and that's why I put the sign-up sheet in the chat and our website. If you want more details because we are also looking for sponsors. If you have any questions, my information is up in the chat as well. That's it, thanks.

Gabe Vargas: Community Education Project
Hi, everyone! My name is Gabriel Vargas. I just go by Gabe. I am the student advisor over a Community Education Project we are always taking on students who are interested in wanting to learn English, and who would like to get their GED. The GED classes are in Spanish otherwise than that I have nothing new to update on.

Faith Sarisley: CrossPoint Clinical Services
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Faith. Good to see you all. I'm the Marketing and Community Relations Coordinator for CrossPoint Clinical Services. I've left my contact info in the chat, as well as our website link and my email for CrossPoint; we continue to provide faith-based and traditional mental health services from our locations across Massachusetts, closest one being in West Springfield. We also have a lot of health and wellness options such as life coaching, personal training, things like that that's open to everybody at any time and also available virtually.

We also have a free virtual webinar tonight at 7pm entitled Thrive Don't Just Survive this Holiday Season. This is a spiritual journey that's going to help us navigate the complexities of the holiday season with grace and resilience. So you can learn more and sign up for the webinar in our events section of the website that I linked in the chat section, as well as see all the other events we have coming up and different things that we offer. Thanks, guys.

Emily Skoczylas: Alianza
Thank you Ed. Hi, my name is Emily Skoczylas. I'm the education and outreach coordinator at Alianza. I have nothing to add, but I'll throw my contact information in the chat. Thank you.

Dorothy Prieto: Community Action of Pioneer Valley Head Start and Early Learning
Thanks Ed. Hi, everyone, I’m Dorothy Prieto, with Community Action of Pioneer Valleys Head Start and Early Learning programs. I did put all of my information and some contact numbers and emails in there as well.
If anybody has any questions, most people know what head start is and what we do. In particular, we serve all of Franklin, all of Hampshire and Western Hampden counties.

There's been a little update to how we are able to accept some families into our program. Our eligibility is, you know, pretty low. It goes by the Federal poverty guidelines, so we all know how low those are. Snap made a huge difference for some families to get in. As long as they have Snap or SSI or a foster child, they're automatically eligible. But now some of the families that are over income for our program will have a better chance of getting in, because there's now, something called a housing adjustment.

So basically, what they're doing is they're allowing us to subtract all of your housing costs from your gross income. So if your housing costs are more than 30% of your gross income. We’re going to be able to subtract any amount over that 30% off of your gross income. So that's going to make a lot more families eligible. That's really the only update that I have. All of my information is in the chat anytime. If anybody has any questions, give me a call. We also do presentations for staff meetings or parent meetings. If families have any questions about eligibility or anything else. Give us a call. Everybody have a good rest of the day, and hopefully I'll see you on December 14th at that Community Dinner, because it's always a lot of fun.

Diosdado Lopez-Martinez: The Support Network
Good afternoon, Diosdado Martinez, from The Support Network. Basically, what we do is we work with children with mental and disabilities and supporting them in school. Thank you

Diana Biagioli: Federation for Children with Special Needs
You're great Ed, I'm not going to take up any time because my great colleagues, Dennis and Ingrid presented today. But I do want to give them a really a big kudos, because I just want to highlight. They fought with DESE for the money that they got, and it was David and Goliath. They are amazing, and they're very humble. They were just outraged that the families were not getting this money. So I just wanted to highlight that. Thank you.

Devona Robinson: MSPCC
Hi, I'm from Elliott, MSPCC, Holyoke Division. We do have divisions in Jamaica Plain, Malden and Worcester. Our Holyoke for survivor services, which is trauma-informed therapy, only covers Hampden County. So I do put that out there, because sometimes we have family like on the line, and because we're grant funded we cannot go out of our catchment area me and my colleague. We have immediate opens in Holyoke. I did pop the referral link in the chat that referral link is also good for our RHT program, which is also only like a week wait.

We also added psychiatric services to the Holyoke Office. If IHT or survivor services is the hub so I did drop that in there. We also run a caregivers group for foster care, or parents that may have children that have been victims of trauma or themselves. So that's also another group that we run. So I did pop those in the chat as well. Thank you.

Delvis Hernandez: River Valley Counseling Center
Thank you for having me. I hope everyone's having a good day. I work for Holyoke River Valley Counseling Center and the Health Education program. So what we do is we can go to different middle school, high schools or after school programs and basically teach health class. We can do this after school hours or during school hours. A lot of school will use their gym period and let us come in for a few of those periods to teach the health class. It is like sex Ed, but it also includes teaching the students boundaries, healthy relationships and a lot of other topics.

I'll put my email in the chat with some info. And then I also work for a suicide prevention project for the State. If anybody's interested in having some trainings at their organization, their schools, anywhere. Just let me know or email me. We can do that on Zoom, or we can send somebody to your organization and thank you so much.

Dave Haslam: Homework House
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for inviting me to this. This is my first time participating in this meeting, so I greatly appreciate it. My name is Dave Haslam, longtime resident and the new executive director at Homework House.

Homework house is an after school program for the students of Holyoke that are in grades 1 through 5. Our mission is providing free tutoring and mentoring to children in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, ensuring the safe a nurturing space for them to be able to grow and learn. We recruit volunteers from all over the Pioneer Valley. So we always have volunteer options. For our students as well, we promote whether it's
just community-based colleges. We have high school students, senior programs that coming in are those mentors for our students providing this after school tutoring; we also have a summer literacy program as well. So just thank you so much for all of your time, and it was great getting to learn about the other programs that are in this community.



Damasco Santiago: Tapestry Syringe Access Program
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for having me. I'm Damasco Santiago the program manager of the Tapestry Syringe Access Program in the city of Holyoke.

I posted my information in the chat and also listed the Holyoke syringe disposal hotline. I just want to fiercely advocate that number. Any community member, business that finds any kind of discarded syringe in your property area, walking platform wherever you can use that phone number. Give us a call, and a geographical area of where that needle is that comes in directly to myself and my staff, and I'm able to send my outreach team to go collect those off the community.

So please share with your family members everywhere coworkers, your networks. A real important number to have for us residents in the city of Holyoke, and thank you for having me.

Corrine Ryan: Community Legal Aid
Hi everyone, Corinne, from Community Legal Aid in Springfield. I think most of you know us. We provide free, civil legal help for low income and elderly folks throughout Central and Western mass. So we're right in downtown Springfield in Hampden County. We don't do personal injury, and we don't do criminal law. But anything in the civil, legal context. So think of us for eviction, defense from public or subsidized housing benefits, state benefits, federal benefits, employment, benefits, social security, and disability benefits family law for survivors of DV education law.

So if students are struggling in school and they're not getting services they need from the districts. We also do some CORI reentry work, so record sealing. We also help folks overcome barriers to housing and employment post incarceration. We have a veterans unit. We also have a wholly owned subsidiary, the Central West Justice Center, and that mostly helps folks with their humanitarian based immigration issues so asylum seekers, u visas t visas victims of certain crimes.

You can visit our website@communitylegal.org that's got a description of all of our program offerings. Our intake line is also right on the website, folks can apply online, or they can call us, we have 3 h worth of screening every day. Monday to Friday. So whatever works for your consumers online or phone, my information is in the chat. So if anyone has questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly.
Thanks, Ed.

Carl Borden: Boy Scouts of America
Hello, Carl Borden, from the Boy Scouts of America, soon to be rebranded Scouting America. We are now up to four programs in Holyoke Cub Scout pack for boys and girls starting at age 5, Scouts, BSA. Troop for boys starting at age 11, and a Scouts, BSA. Troop for girls that starts at age 11. Both go till 17, and we've established our second Sea Scout ship throughout the Council in Holyoke.

The Sea Scout ship serves 14 to 20 year olds, boys and girls. It has meetings on Wednesdays. The troop for boys meets on Wednesdays. The Cub Scout pack and the girl troop meets on Thursdays all the meetings are at the Masonic Lodge, Mount Tom Lodge, across the street from the library. If you want more information, I did put my contact. And if you're an organization that would like to sponsor its own cub pack or scouts pack program within your own programs, please contact me. We will love to do the paperwork to help you get that done. We have tons of scholarships available for those who have a need. Thank you.

Alex Bernard: Palante Transformative Justice
Hi, Alex Bernard! Here I work with Palante Transformative Justice. I'm going to drop in an Admin coordinator.
Our drop in center is open for you 13 to 19 every day there's normally an event or an activity that they can come and it is free.

We're working on getting a food pantry which will be accessed for all Holyoke residents. It'll be most likely on a Tuesday running hours will be 3 to 6 we'll send an email to Ed, when we actually open that up. Another thing that we do is if you have a youth that has been either like incarcerated, or anything we do anchor management classes. But it's an alternative, so we do a mindful rage course, you can have the lawyer send over a referral. We have a referral process. So I'll put my information back in the chat and thank you, Ed.

Brett Fortin: US Department of Labor, Osha
Good afternoon. My name is Brad Fortin. I'm with the US Department of Labor, Osha, out of Springfield, Massachusetts. Part of what we do is that we make sure that all workers in this country have the rights to a workplace free of donor, recognized hazards, meaning that they should not receive illnesses, serious injuries up to and including death at work.

One of the other things that we do is we also protect whistleblowers that do come forward with information that there is a hazard at their job that they're exposed to when the employer is not taking care of that again as community leaders, and as community outreach coordinators from your different organizations, you can also represent someone. If they are afraid to come forward themselves and say something to us. You can represent them and give us a call, and let us know to go. Look at that employer and correct that hazard. Thank you for having me.

Adlyn Colon: Holyoke Community College
Hi! Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Adlyn Colon. I work for Holyoke Community College, adult education program. And that's mean we offer classes for the High Set or GED, if we are located downtown. Holyoke on 206 Maple Street, and we are studying the evening classes. We have another cycle starting next week, November 19th.
We also have the next cycle starting in January, both for day or evening classes. You may contact me if you are interested; it's for free for any adults in the community. And my email is acolon@hcc.edu. I'm also working with Way Finders in the community engagement. But my coworkers here they already gave the information about Way Finders. Thank you, and have a great day.

Abbie Germain: Viability / Western Mass MOMS
Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. I just wanted to thank Ingrid and Dennis for that great presentation earlier. Keep up the great work. My name is, Abby. It's been a minute since I've been here. I previously represented the Western Mass Moms program at Viability. Many of you might remember hearing me talk all about that program asking if you're a mom, or if you know any moms that might need support. You may also know that Viability has a host of other programs and services in and around Holyoke; we serve hundreds of individuals a year.

So recently, I moved to a new role here called business developer as the business developer; my new role is to educate the community about our agency and to help make community connections, for those of you who might not know. Viability is a nonprofit organization that focuses on individuals with disabilities and other disadvantages. And one way we do that is, by helping them find and maintain employment. In summary, I will be working directly with the community to find employment, opportunities to help these individuals flourish, reach their full potential, and also to help meet your employment needs. So if you work within an organization that is looking for employees, I can help, we have an entire pool of dedicated applicants that come with a variety of skills, experience, and interests. I would love to reintroduce myself, my new role and my mission to you individually, since there is a little bit more to it.

I did share my contact information in the chat, so I hope that we can reconnect soon in my new role, as there is lots of different sort of ways that we can work together to help folks within the Holyoke community and surroundings. So thank you, Eddie, and I hope to stay in touch. Thank you.

James Rosado: Dial Self Ameri-Corps
Hello! My name is James, representing Dial Self Ameri-Corps. We're a group of hung individuals hungry to work in the community. So if there are any volunteer opportunities that any of your organizations would like to present to us, we would love to have some of our people show up. We're happy to work in the community and do what we can. I also do work here at hope for youth and families, which is a business startup here in Springfield. They are working to integrate an independent reading program into Springfield Public Schools as well as college bound program looking kids looking to help kids in into getting into college figuring out what they would like to do. And we are also establishing an art center down here in Springfield downtown. That should be completed sometime next year. But do look at our website, and if you are interested in learning more, thank you very much.

Edward Caisse:
It looks like we got everybody. If I didn't get to you, just shout out right now. But I went through the list; I believe we heard from everyone. Thank you so much for joining us and James just to speak to what you were asking about any volunteer opportunities, so we always have a bunch of them upcoming. You already heard about the community dinner, that's a big one for us, and the Basketball League. I'm looking for a 7th and 8th grade coach, so if anybody, you don't have to be a superstar coach, but if you want to come out and volunteer with us as a coach. We run a 12 week Basketball League. We really use the Basketball League to try to develop relationships with the youth and families and try to help people get to better places. So once we develop relationship with them, we want them to know about your services and try to get them connected to the resources that you have. So I just wanted to say that I don't really have anything else.

I am actually leaving on vacation tomorrow, so the next two weeks will be busy. I'll try to get these meeting notes sent out to you and posted on the website. It probably won't be till I get back. So my first day back is December 2nd, and I'm going to shoot to get them out for you that day.

Thank you so much for all the work that you guys do individually. Also, thank you for supporting what we're trying to do and getting all resource agencies to come to this meeting. We feel like, if we can all hear about what resources are available in the community, when we come across a family with that type of a need, we can then make those connections to you guys.

Please help us continue to grow this list. If you know agency representatives that their agency is not on this platform, please invite them to come, so we can grow it. Thanks again, have a great rest of the week. Have a great weekend, and we'll talk to you guys all soon.
Next Meeting is Thursday, December 12th on Zoom

Close Meeting 2:30pm

Chat Notes:

Terri Lombardo
Terri Lombardo, HCS Head Start

Emily Skoczylas
Gladys Lebron (she/her/hers) with Alianza

Wilbert Weche
Good afternoon everyone....Will Weche here from Willful Change; Training & development

Ingrid Arvidson/FCSN
Ingrid Arvidson, Federation for Children with Special Needs www.FCSN.org

Dave Haslam
Hello, Dave Haslam, Executive Director of Homework House Holyoke INC.

Emily Skoczylas
Emily Skoczylas, Education and Outreach Coordinator at Alianza DV Services

Jenneke Reynolds
Jenneke Reynolds here, I coordinate the Public Health Excellence grant for Holyoke, Chicopee and South Hadley

Oza Nunnally (She/Her)
Oza Nunnally Representing AmeriCorps dial/self Member

Diana Biagioli
Diana Biagioli, Federation for Children with Special Needs, Transition Specialist for Special Education.

Millie Ruiz
Millie Ruiz, Outreach Specialist at Wayfinders

Diana Biagioli
dbiagioli@fcsn.org

Diosdado Lopez-Martinez
Diosdado Lopez-Martinez from the Support Network 413-887-2771 dlopez-martinez@wmtcinc.org

Gabe V.
Gabe Vargas Student Advisor at Community Education Process

Lisa Schechterle
Lisa Schechterle, Community Benefits, Holyoke Medical Center

John McCarthy
USCIS Citizenship and Immigration Service John McCarthy Community Relations john.j.mccarthy@uscis.dhs.gov

Corrine Ryan
Corrine Ryan, Community Legal Aid, communitylegal.org; 855-252-5342

Damasco Santiago
Damasco Santiago, Tapestry Syringe Access, 306 Race st, Holyoke Ma. 01040. (413) 315-3732 Ext 104. Holyoke Syringe Disposal Hotline (413) 650-2679.

Abbie- Viability, INC
Abbie Germain- agermain@viability.org

Gladys Lebron - Martinez,
Community Engagement Specialist for Alianza, glebron@alianzadv.org and my 413-363-3737

Miguel Arce
Miguel Arce, Springfield College, Department of Social Work, 748 3488

Georgie Brown
Georgie Brown, OneHolyokeCDC georgianna.brown@oneholyoke.org

Gina Anselmo
Good Afternoon - Gina Anselmo, Hampden District Attorney's Office, Community Safety & Outreach Unit Gina.Anselmo@mass.gov

Kori Cooper
Kori Cooper Choice Recovery Coaching Outreach Coordinator for the RCW grant crcoutreach@choicerecoverycoaching.org

Carl Borden
Carl Borden, Western Massachusetts Council Scouting America, Membership Director. 413-594-9196x7003 carl.borden@scouting.org

Dorothy Prieto She/Her HSELP to
Dorothy Prieto dprieto@communityaction.us 413-834-2564 Head Start & Early Learning Programs We offer quality early education and care and services to support expectant parents and children birth to five in Franklin, Hampshire, and Western Hampden Counties at low or no cost to families. Visit HSELP/CAPV for all program options To apply online http://goengage.app For a referral form (which gives clients priority) Downloadable Referral Form Fax or email completed referrals to hselpenrollment@communityaction.us or 413-387-1224 Please call 413-387-1250 Or email questions to hselpenrollment@communityaction.us To set up a presentation virtually or in person for your Staff/Parent groups call Carla Zhingre 413-387-1224 or email her at czhingre@communityaction.us

Sasha Viands
Sasha N. Viands, Volunteerism and Community Engagement Coordinator at Girls Inc. of the Valley! SViands@GirlsIncValley.org | 413-335-0059

Adlyn Colon
Adlyn Colon - HCC HiSET/GED Program - Intake Specialist - Wayfinders Resident Advocate acolon@hcc.edu 413-552-2927

Aleyx Bernard
Aleyx Bernard - Drop in and Admin Coordinator for Pa'lante Transformative Justice located in Holyoke. 413-200-0624 is our phone number. Our drop in is open from 3-7pm Mondays through Fridays with an activity or event happening almost every day all youth ages 13-19 are welcome; We also have an alternative anger management class for youth who have been appointed anger management classes from court/ or by their attorney

Abbie- Viability, INC
Abbie Germain, Business Developer, Viability, INC 413-217-0348 call, text, email anytime!

Delvis Hernandez
Youth Health Program from RVCC
hernandez_delvis@holyokehealth.com

Nia Johnson (AGO)
MA Attorney Generals Office Nia.johnson2@mass.gov 413-867-1619

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

Emily Skoczylas
my oldest daughter is a graduate of Holyoke Street school who will be tomorrow 47 years old.

Naddy Ibrahim
ACC Serving Tech Foundry
Naddy Ibrahim, Digital Equity Outreach Coordinator, American Connection Corps fellow serving Tech Foundry.




Miguel Rivera - Rewarding Insurance Agency
Miguel Rivera-Colón Rewarding Insurance Agency Phone: 413-317-0043 miguel@rewardingagency.com 284 Maple St, Suite 1, Holyoke, MA Life, Health, Auto, Home & Business Medicare Annual Enrollment Period Oct 15th to Dec 7th

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

Diana Biagioli
Here is a link with more information about the presentation today: https://fcsn.org/transition-support/
Our website is: fcsn.org

Devona Robinson-
Suttles MSPCC Survivor Services
MSPCC Eliot Survivor Services trauma therapy for youth 3-21, immediate openings for Hampden County residents. Grant funded, no insurance needed. Our IHT dept has about a week wait and are taking new clients as well . Referral link : https://www.mspcc.org/child-family-counseling/

Gerardo Torres
Hello every one my name is Gerardo Torres I am a resident advocate of Holyoke I am a Volunteer of Way finder, I want to mention that this month Way finder will host the Resident leadership program in Spanish if you are interest you can call Anna Cruz at 413-523-3826 Thank you every one.

Adlyn Colon
This is the flyer for the Resident leadership at Wayfinders.

Gerardo Torres
Thank you Adlyn

Cindy Mahoney/FCSN
FCSN link to additional information about this program https://fcsn.org/transition-support/

Ingrid Arvidson
We need to wrap it up!
Sorry! :)
Thank you for your time!

Cindy Mahoney/FCSN
FCSN general Transition info https://fcsn.org/realtransition/

Laci Labrecque
Hi everyone! I'm Laci Labrecque- Housing case manager w/ Gandara SHINE program, we provide low barrier housing to youth 18-24yrs old in Hampden County. Our hotline number to get on our waitlist for housing is 413 316 4979. Trauma informed case management however is provided from initial contact forward.

Millie Ruiz
Thank you for this information!

Terri Lombardo
Thank you, great information

Cindy Mahoney
Ingrid's email iarvidson@fcsn.org
Dennis' email dbaker@fcsn.org

Will Weche
(Willful Change: Customized Leadership Training & Development) 413-306-4309: wweche@willfulchange.com

Gladys Lebron,
Community Engagement Specialist with Alianza
Hi My name is Gladys Lebron -Martinez, community engagement specialist for Alianza (

Tonja Paone
Tonja M. Paone, LSWA: Family Resource Specialist

Terri Lombardo
lombardot@headstart.org

Sidney Richeux
Sidney Richeux ( Triage clinician for ICC services at Gandaracenter) Sricheux@gandaracenter.org 413-433-2671

Sasha N. Viands
Sasha N. Viands SViands@GirlsIncValley.org | 413-335-0059 -- Volunteerism and Community Engagement Coordinator at Girls Inc. of the Valley

Tonja Paone
Northeast Center for Youth and Services 203 East Street Easthampton, offer foster care, clinical, psychiatry, in-home and mentoring services. Tonja M. Paone- looking for events in the community to offer our foster clients as well as looking for community events to set up a table to recruit foster parents.
Tonja.paone@ncyf.org (413) 588-8831

Iohann Vega
Holyoke Media - Community Television Station in Holyoke. Support to promote your work through stories, and training on media production. Iohann Vega - iohann@holyokemedia.org NEW SERVICE: Digital Navigation. Luis@holyokemedia.org

Sandy Ward
Sandy Ward, volunteer, with Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts (FCAWM) https://funeralconsumerswmass.org
413-376-4747 (Voicemail line 24/7) fcawmass@gmail.com

John McCarthy
Will need to leave for another meeting at 1:55. USCIS Comm.Rel. is available to provide immigration information for immigrants or agencies serving immigrants. 2 current items; first TPS for Lebanon has been announced but the Federal Register notice has not published yet- expected shortly. DED Deferred Enforced Departure for Lebanon effective July 26, 2024. My contact is i the chat. 2) Following the election with all the discussion about deportations beware of scams and fraud

Jenneke Reynolds
If you’d like to have our public health nurse present on diabetes, email me at jreynolds@southhadleyma.gov

Georgie Brown
Call for volunteers: OneHolyoke CDC 9th Annual Community Dinner. December 14th, 2024. Sign up now: https://forms.gle/FqnAwcChoV7bGJWJ8 We are also looking for sponsors. More information about the event and sponsorship opportunities can be found here: https://www.oneholyoke.org/community-dinner-2024/

Gina Anselmo
Hampden District Attorney's Office Community Safety & Outreach Unit: Community Safety and Outreach Unit | Hampden District Attorney (hampdenda.com)

Sheryl
Hi, Sheryl Resident Engagement VISTA, at WF 413-386-6898 email. smaldonado@wayfinders.org We will have a Resident Leadership Program in Holyoke 210 Elm St 5 to 7:30pm from 26th Nov to Dec 17th. total in Spanish Any more information please call Anna Cruz 413-523-3826. Thank you

Emily Skoczylas
Education and Outreach Coordinator Pronouns: She/her eskoczylas@alianzadv.org 413.430.9339 Alianzadv.org

Cindy Mahoney
Thank you very much for allowing FCSN to present on the stipends for families. It was also terrific to learn about the many agencies doing such good work!

Dennis Baker
I have to run to another meeting. Ed, thank you so much for having us!! dbaker@fcsn.org if anyone wants to reach out with any questions. Thank you everyone!!

Ingrid Arvidson
Thank you for having us! We have another meeting. iarvidson@fcsn.org please reach out with any questions!

Luis Barrios
Thank you everyone look forward to connecting really soon!

Delvis Hernandez
Here’s my email as well! hernandez_delvis@holyokehealth.com djhernandez@umass.edu (suicide prevention)

Carl Borden
www.wmascouting.org Western Massachusetts Council Scouting America... we offer 4 Programs for Boys and Girls ages 5-20 in Holyoke at the Mount Tom Lodge Masonic center across from the Library. Wednesdays and Thursdays 413-594-9196 x 7003 carl.borden@scouting.org If your agency wants to have a Cub Scout or Scout BSA program within your programs talk to me.

Abbie Germain
Business Developer, Viability, INC 413-217-0348 call, text, email me anytime

Aleyx Bernard
Drop in and Admin Coordinator for Pa'lante Transformative Justice located in Holyoke. 413-200-0624 is our phone number. Our drop in is open from 3-7pm Mondays through Fridays with an activity or event happening almost every day all youth ages 13-19 are welcome; We also have an alternative anger management class for youth who have been appointed anger management classes from court/ or by their attorney thanks Ed!

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

Adlyn Colon
Free HiSET/GED classes - acolon@hcc.edu 413-552-2927

James Rosado
James Rosado w/ Hope for Youth and Families & DIAL/SELF Americorps