September 2024

Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative
Meeting Notes


Date: September 12, 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

Dr. Nadeem Sikandar and Team: Valley Opportunity Council 1:05pm - 1:20pm

Amanda Carrier: Valley Opportunity Council
I'm just going to give a little short chat about the youth works program. Basically, the Youth works program is a state funded program where participants can take part in paid short-term work placements during the summer, and our second session is during the school year all round program. This is for students who are between the ages of 14 and 25 years old, and we also offer training in work placement within the public and private sectors of work sites within the general area within Hamden County.

So if a student wants to be a part of the program they can join by meeting our requirements, which is being a resident of the Hamden County. And being 14 to 25 years old, and there are a set of income eligibility, requirements that are standards from mass hire. So they’d fill out some forms. It’s on a 1st come 1st serve based on funding and availability for our programs.

We teach and share soft skills such as time management, financial literacy, responsibility and work ethics alongside their work placements. So they're getting work experience, while they're learning kind of like professional soft skills. So our cycle one, our summer session is from June to August. And our second cycle is our year round program from October to March, and students are paid based on their age group so they can kind of continue throughout the program, and at each age.

There are a number of forms that we need to collect and fill out in an application that is done for the program. Some of our vendors include the low and low realtor located in Springfield, the center of martial arts in Chicopee, Chick-fil-a in Chicopee, Chicopee City Hall, and then some departments within the Valley Opportunity Council that include Childcare Senior Center. And we're always adding more and changing what those look like so that can change.

So Carmen is our youth coordinator and she runs the youth works program. Her information is right here, but I'm also going to add her information to the chat as well as a couple of document documents that go into a little bit more detail if you're interested. I just wanted to give a quick, brief overview about the program. And then I'll pass it on to you, Stephanie, and you can talk more about the WIOA program. I'm going to add all of that information. So if you're interested in learning more about this youth works portion, feel free to reach out to me or to Carmen. So thank you so much.

Stephanie Avila: Valley Opportunity Council
So I'm today. I'm going to talk about the WIOA program. So it's a stand for workforce innovation and opportunity. It's a state funded program that supports youth in and out of school ages between 16 and 24, a high school dropout to get GED or postsecondary education. We also employment opportunities, some things we offer are paid and unpaid work experiences, including summer employment, internship and job shadowing.
Also a small GED or high set classes, career readiness workshops follow up service, into 12 months requirement.

The out of school program classes take place in Holyoke and Chicopee. Our classes are divided into 3 levels, Ab100, Ab200 and Ab300. We prepare students to pass Ged or high set tests in all the 5 subjects, such as reading, writing, social studies, math and science. GED, they only comes to 4 tests because reading and writing are combined, but they are pretty much the same work, experience, and job placement. We place our students with local employers, such as Chicopee, City Halls, Lorraine's Kitchen, At Childcare, Marshall, Centers, arts, theaters, or martials, art, etc. We also give paid and pay work, experience in the summer employment, just showering and internships.

I’ll show you the map to enroll to our WIOA program; the 1st step is that we are online. Inquiry is open. We have, like a QR code that we can share with you. After that, our case manager, we talk to them and set up an appointment and talk about the program and all the benefits that we have. In the 1st step we submit all the paperwork to Messier, and we're going to wait for the mass hire approval. In the second step, we have information sessions and intake with your application and paperwork; that we do that in the last Monday of the month In Holyoke, and also in Chicopee. The 3rd step will be orientation, and the map testing.

There will be start classes not this Monday the following Monday.
Thank you so much for having me today. If you have any question. Or do you know somebody who I may be interested in the program, just call me or email me. Amanda who is also a part of the program. So I’ll Send her information through the chat and thank you so much.

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

Socrates Montas: Gandara Center in Home Therapy
Hi, everyone, thank you for starting with me. My name is Socrates Montas. I am a clinician for the Gandara Center. I already put my information on the chat, but I'm here to say that we have openings for all of our programs and very short. Wait list for in home therapy in home behavioral therapy, intensive care, coordination and therapeutic mentoring. Again, my information is on the chat you can just reach out by phone or email. If you have any questions, and if you have any, you know referrals.
That's really it. Thank you.

Sidney Richeux: Gandara Center
Hello, everyone. I'm also a triage clinician from Gandhara Center. I am in charge of the waiting list for the intensive care coordination program. I will be play. I will be putting the referral form on the chat as well as my contact information. Like my coworker said, we have a short waiting list for the in home intensive care coordination program and the in home behavioral program. I know as well that the in home therapy program has a short waiting list. So if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I will leave my contact information in the chat. Thank you.

Shaundell Diaz: Three County Continuum of Care.
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Shaundell Diaz. I am the director for the Three County Continuum of Care. The only update that I have is that I'll be leaving our talent Lms training link in the chat that you can find uniform trainings for all of Western Mass that we've created. And folks in Hampden County do have access to it to not just folks in Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire, which is our coverage area. So that's it. I'll drop it in the chat in just 1 min. My emails in the chat as well, Thanks.

Sean McBride: Holyoke District Court
Good afternoon, everybody. Sean McBride from the Holyoke District Court. Nothing to report. Thank you.


Sasha & Ana: Nuestras Raices
Hi, everybody we are from Nuestras Raices here in Holyoke. I'm the new Ameri-Corps Service position for the year. We are looking for to make community partnerships, and we are looking for volunteers who want to come out, get their hands in the soil and connect with nature. Whether that be schools, youth groups, or adults. We also have several programs here that the community can get involved with so feel free to reach out to us, and I will put my contact information into the chat, but I will also add Anna's contact information into the chat. So yes, thank you. And I also just wanted to add again.
I'm Anna Assentio. I'm the farm program coordinator at La Finca, on Jones Ferry Road, and so definitely volunteers. And this is our 1st time on this call. But you all have probably met and worked with folks like Jason doing grants Sicry, who is our outreach coordinator, Gustavo Colaso, who's doing markets? Darwin Cruz, whose doing produce prescription boxes and classes in the area, and then others. Who is part of the larger organization? But really nice to meet all of you today.

Sandy Ward: Volunteer with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts
Thank you. Ed. I'm a volunteer with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts. We do outreach and talk to groups and about death care, options and rights, and we also, sometimes behind the scenes, try to figure out what things aren't working well, and what could be better? And if anyone has any situations, or, you know, awareness of problems where people cannot afford desk here the funeral crisis is having real struggles with that we've been. We attended a webinar in May by a very interesting Kentucky program, was titled, what happens when you can't afford to die, and I think we have some of those issues from time to time in the area. But we're trying to understand who helps and where. And you know. It’s a big issue. Thank you. My contact information is in, for our organization and mine personally are in the chat under Sandy Ward. Thank you.

Rafael Santos: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Rafael Santos, and I work here at the Hamden County sheriff's office in partnership with Mr. Ed. Caisse. Addition to that, I support Mr. Caisse with the Holyoke Save Neighborhood Initiative program, the basketball leagues and all the other activities that are held on a yearly basis, and that's about it. For the moment, I do have to say that I may have to leave a little early, because I have a couple of meetings coming up. But nice meeting you.

Nia Johnson: Attorney General’s Office
Hello, everyone! My name is Nia Johnson. I am the Western Mass Community Engagement Coordinator for the Attorney General's Office. I'm happy to be here and also state that I'm speaking on a panel two weeks from today, actually from 5:30 to 7:30 about housing. So it'll be a Housing Tenant Forum myself from the Attorney General's Office, a representative from Community Legal Aid, a representative from the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, and then a few representatives from Neighbor to Neighbor are coming together to host this housing forum and basically educate people on what their rights are, with regards to housing in the State of Massachusetts, but most importantly, in Springfield and Hampden County. So if you know anyone who would like to attend. We do have a RSVP Link, and I can send that out. My information is in the chat. If you'd like to talk about it. Even in more detail. I'd love to connect with you also. They also offer educational Know Your Rights Training. We also have Landlord Tenant Rights. We have working rights for both teens, and then anyone 18 plus, we have savvy 18 which is, know your rights. When you turn 18 we have scams and id theft training. Thank you, Corinne, The link is in the chat to Rsvp, to see or to seek out more information. So if you want to connect with me again, my information is in the chat, and I look forward to connecting with you. Thanks, Ed.

Miguel Rivera: CEO of Rewarding Insurance Agency
Hello, so my name is Miguel Rivera. I'm the CEO of rewarding insurance agency. We are the only Latino own insurance agency of our kind in Western Mass, and we have an office here at 284 Maple Street here in Holyoke, it is right across from McDonald’s. We specialize in the senior market, and we help them navigate the complexities of life and health insurance in the same place on the life insurance side. We help them protect their families financially in case something happens to them. And the family doesn't have to collect donations for their funeral. On the health insurance side, we are contracted with the principal insurance carriers in Massachusetts, including CCA. Final Navicare Tufts, Health, New England and United Healthcare, and others. We also help individuals 65 and older who have Medicare part A and B, whether they have muscle or not, so we help them apply for Medicare Advantage and health insurance plans. Now the open, the annual enrollment period is coming up from October 15th to December 7. If anybody 65 and up needs to enroll in a plan or need to make needs to make a change in a plan send them my way. We can help them apply for the best or the proper plan for them.
We also want to say that we are starting a broker boot camp. So if you know anybody who wants to become a licensed life insurance broker, send them my way, so we can help them get licensed. And if they are 18 to 25 MassHire will pay all the costs of their licensing and the courses and everything. I also want to say that the greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce just named us the Business of the Year. So thank you. Thank you all for your time. Thank you.

Miguel Arce: Springfield College
I have nothing to report out, but thanks for your service, Mr. Caisse.

Melany Mendoza: Manager of Community Engagement at Mass Mentoring Partnership
Hey, everyone! My name is Melany Mendoza. I am the manager of community engagement at Mass Mentoring Partnership for those of you who are not familiar with us. MMP is dedicated to empowering young people through quality mentoring relationships. So we work closely with a wide range of partners, including youth, development organizations, schools, and community groups across Massachusetts. I have the pleasure of representing Western Mass.

Our mission is to ensure that every young person has supported relationships that guide them to do better in life. So many of you have programs that work with youth in different capacities like whether you are workforce development, whether you are a formal mentoring program after school program, you name it. I am your contact person to get resources, support professional development, to try to streamline and find a space where youth development organizations come together. We have a quarterly meeting; networking meeting that happens, the next one is in October 9th from 10 to noon. This one will be in person at the Holyoke of Public Library. So looking for the opportunity to have you connect with all the programs from Western Mass, the Berkshire’s and Central Mass. So it's a great space we meet for 2 hours, we bring food; I want to make sure you are fed. It’s a really nice space for people to come together and talk about challenges and strategize. And so really, you know, create relationships among other programs around the area, which is equally important as supporting the youth we work with. I put my information in the chat, but I want to put it again because I want to make sure, especially new faces, to please, please connect with me, and happy to meet people individually. Go to your places and see what you're doing. Understand?

We also have a line item in the State where we provide money for formal mentoring programs. So, we do a lot of advocacy. So a lot of things to discuss, and I'll be more than happy to go to you and walk you through what we do. Okay, thank you so much.

Megan Benway: Department of Veteran Affairs
Hello! My name is Megan. I'm a social worker with the Department of Veteran Affairs homeless outreach. I don't have anything to report on my end.

Mandy Goulet: Hope for Holyoke
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Mandy. I'm from hope for Holyoke Peer Recovery Center. So hope for Holyoke is a peer run Recovery Center, where we offer recovery support from substances. We also have a gambling support or ambassador program and a transportation program which is called Highway to Hope. So that program offers rides with the recovery coach to detoxes the next step, which could be a TSS (Transitional Support Services.) A sober home, whatever that may be, it’s completely free, and we'll even pick you up when you complete. So just give us a call. If you need those services or come in. Membership is absolutely free. Right now we're gearing up for our recovery parade. It's going to be from Heritage Park to Veterans Park that'll be on the 20th, so we're looking forward to that and send your people. Thank you.



Maddy Crudele: African Bridge Network
Hi, everyone. My name is Maddy Crudele, and I'm a career program coordinator with African Bridge Network. ABN focuses on workforce development for skilled immigrants across the State. So we have a couple of programs that focus on placing skilled immigrants with foreign college degrees or foreign work experience in mid-level jobs that are pretty close to what they were doing in their home countries. We are mainly based in Greater Boston, but we're attempting to expand our services across the State to other communities. We have an orientation workshop at Holyoke Community College on September 21st. The purpose of the workshop is just to connect skilled immigrants with employers, local service providers, and fellow professionals. So if anyone here has any clients who they think might be a good fit, or might benefit from our workshop. I highly encourage you to share the opportunity with them. I'm going to put a couple of links, and our flyer in the chat as well as my contact, if anyone has more information. Thank you.

Julia Popkin: Community Legal Aid
Hi! I'm Julia Popkin. I am a staff attorney at Community Legal Aid in the Education Law Unit and the Disability Benefits Project for those of you who don't know, CLA provides free civil legal services for low income folks in Western and Central Mass. We have a range of units from housing and family law benefits and employment to CORI and reentry. A veterans unit and then we have a subsidiary, the Central West Justice Center that provides humanitarian based immigration relief. I don't personally have any updates, but I see there are other folks on here from CLA who are coming up at the beginning of the alphabet, and so maybe they do. Thanks.

John McCarthy: USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services)
My name is John McCarthy. I'm from United States citizenship and immigration service. I'm the community relations officer. I have my information in the chat. I've also put in the chat a website for the newest program out, which is keeping families together, which has to do with receiving, applying for and receiving a parole in place for people who are married to an American citizen have been in the United States without admission of parole for 10 years, also their stepchildren if they have the proper credentials. So if there's any interest in regard to that, the website is in the chat. You can take a look at that or get in touch with me. I also have been putting on programs for the new N 400 program. As you may know, the there was a change on April 1st and the fee structure for applications for USCIS and as part of that. The N. 400 form went from 20 pages of a form to 14 pages. So there are a number of changes in that form. If anyone wants a presentation on what the changes are. Q&A period on filling out that form, if you have a group I'd be happy to put something on for you. Just get in touch with me at my website. Thank you.

Jennifer Yekel: MSPCC
Hi, everyone! I'm Jennifer Yekel with MSPCC / Elliot in the Survivor Services Program. I'm a vocal clinician in the Holyoke Office. We do individual therapy, group therapy, case management for survivors and caregivers usually ranging from ages 3 to 21. We give trauma related presentations and also presentations just on general psycho. We are accepting new clients. There's pretty much no wait list at this time, so we are able to assign very quickly. Same with our IHT program. They are looking for referrals as well.
My info is in the chat, so if anyone's interested, just let me know.

Gloria Penagos: Holyoke Community College Culinary Arts
So, HCC is providing this just free job training. We have hotel, and we have Para educator or para professional trainings. So, for example, for land cooking hotel is just 5 weeks. They will have this training for 5 weeks, and they will be able to have the certification. They have to pass this, but they will be able to have the certification to get a job. So I know how many clients you have. And thanks to you, actually, we are full for the 1st one in September, but we still have for the night time classes. And for educators or so we are full, but we will open in January 2025, so more than welcome. My information is in the chat. The flyer is there as well, so thank you so much.




Gerardo Torres: Way Finders
Thank you, Ed. Hi, everyone. My name is Geraldo Torres. I'm a resident advocate volunteer for Way Finders. And I've been working, too, with Ed Caisse. And this is my 1st time here. Thank you, Ed.

Georgie Brown: One Holyoke
Hello! I'm Georgie. I'm a community engagement coordinator for One Holyoke.
Not a ton coming up for us. We do have our final cleanup of our Keep it Clean Campaign, which will be on Sunday, September 29th and we have some financial wellness classes coming up. I'll put my info in the chat and our Facebook. Oh, the other thing is, we've been doing movies in the park. So we have our final movie on Wednesday, October 4th and that'll be for showing Inside Out 2 in Eli Park. So I'm going to put a link to our Facebook page in the chat, if anyone wants to kind of keep up with our events and stuff.
Yep, that's it. Thanks.

Flor Diaz: Valley Opportunity Council
Hi! Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Flor Diaz. I'm the Community Coordinator for the Valley Opportunity Council program. I have a couple of things. I actually added my information to the chat and our flyer. This includes a QR. Code to apply for our WIC benefits. Our WIC is a nutrition and nutrition education program for pregnant women, breastfeeding infants and children under 5. Also foster kids. We are actually hosting a trunk or retreat on October 30th . It’s a Wednesday from 4 to 6. If anyone is interested in joining us, send me an email and I'll have a spot for you. We are also promoting a new program it’s called Refer friend program, where, if a person refers another person to our WIC program and as long as the 1st the person referred completes an appointment. They both get a $25 Gift card. I will add those flyers on the chat any questions you can call me or shoot me an email. Thank you.

Faith Sarisley: CrossPoint Clinical Services
Hi, everybody! My name is Faith, and I'm the marketing and community Relations Coordinator for CrossPoint Clinical Services. I left my contact info in the chat as well as our website, link at CrossPoint, we provide faith based and traditional mental health counseling services as well as other things, from our four offices throughout Massachusetts. The closest one's right here in West Springfield. We also have many health and wellness options, such as life coaching, personal training, things like that open to anybody and everybody available virtually as well. And we also wanted to highlight. We have two marriage workshops coming up that both start next week. We accept insurance for these programs; as well for you or anybody you may know who could benefit from them. Please spread the word.

We have the 7 principles for Making your Marriage Work, which is for currently married couples, as well as Saving your Marriage before It Starts for engaged couples right now. These events are both available virtually, and you can learn more and sign up for any of these programs in the event section of our website that I listed in the chat section or on our app that we just released. But thanks everybody, and have a great day.

Diosdado Lopez-Martinez: The Support Network
Good afternoon. I’m Diosdado Lopez-Martinez with the Support Network. Basically, what we do is we work with family and the school to help their children with mental health issues or special education. So we will help them navigate the whole school process an IEP or 504. So I left my number. So my cell phone number so anyone can call and we will explain it a little bit more. Thank you.

Damasco Santiago: Tapestry, Syringe Access Program
Good afternoon Ed, Damasco Santiago from Tapestry Syringe Access Program. Just a couple updates; this weekend, we will be hosting our monthly community syringe pickup. We meet with community members here at 306 Race Street on Saturday morning at 9:45, and we go out to the community, and we pick up discarded syringes and just a further note, I am posting the number for any citizen in the city of Holyoke. That may be out in the community walking around, especially now that we have children. We have a syringe pickup, hotline that in case anyone finds a discarded syringe out in the community. They can call this number and leave us a detailed message, and I'll send out my outreach team to collect those in the community. So I'm going to be posting in the chat right now and thank you for having me.

Corrine Ryan: Community Legal Aid
Hi, everyone, Corinne, from Community Legal Aid. I'm the managing attorney for Springfield. Happy to see so many of my colleagues on here. Julia already talked about, sort of what we do. Also happy to introduce Ben Abbott. This is his first meeting. He's a case manager in our family preservation project, which is the project that helps DCF involved families. So I'll let Ben talk about that as we get further along in the alphabet. It's great to see you all.

Carl Borden: Boy Scouts of America
Okay, Carl Barton, with the Boy Scouts of America, soon to be renamed Scouting America. A couple of things, next Thursday we have our Distinguished Citizen’s Award Dinner. I recommend anyone who wants to rub shoulders with who’s who or the others, I placed it in the chat group we are honoring the Sheriff of Hampden County. So all you police officers, you may want to come out, and you know, celebrate your boss again.

Last month we had over 30 families express interest in joining programs in Holyoke from an event. Other scholarships. So if you want to rub shoulders with people, it's also our big fundraiser to fund our scholarships. Last year we did over 300 youth scholarships. Right now we're on track to doing at least 300, if not 400 this year, so that money's desperately needed. Especially because in Holyoke, from that backpack event, we had over 30 families express interest in joining. That means we're going to have a 300% increase in scouting in Holyoke. So we're really looking forward to growing the program there. That’s all I wanted to say. Thank you, Ed

Tammi Benson: United Way Of Pioneer Valley
Tammi Benson, United Way of Pioneer Valley. We have food pantries in Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke. We offer financial wellness programs, host, suicide prevention, Hotline called manage. We also manage the EFSP, which is the Emergency Food Shelter Program in Hampden County. We host, the volunteer connect portal for other nonprofit agencies in need of volunteers, and we host an onboard series where we work to match potential board members to local nonprofits.

Sasha Viands: Girls Inc. of the Valley
Hi! How's it going? This is Sasha Viands, she/her as pronouns, and I'm the new Volunteerism and Community Engagement Coordinator for Girls Inc. of the Valley, some of you all may have seen me with Planned Parenthood before. I am now with Girls Inc. Anna Gerena was my predecessor, so I hope to hope to fill her shoes and do a good job. We have an obviously lots of volunteer and internship opportunities available and so if there are any college students or any of you, are interested in volunteering with Girls Inc. I will drop my email in the chat and looking forward to connect with you on this new role. So thanks for having me, Edward.

Ben Abbott: Community Legal Aid
Hello! So Corinne introduced me a little bit. I'm Ben Abbott. I'm the case manager for the Family Preservation project with Community Legal Aid in Springfield. So the family preservation project works with families that have any DCF involvement for neglect, which are almost all cases. We provide legal representation ahead of potential child removal by DCF to help advocate to help make sure rights are respected. We also have me a case manager, and we have a parent advocate. So we have people who will go to DCF and visit with clients. We'll look over materials from DCF. Some of the casework we provide is helping make sure that the things that really do need to get done for them are getting done, and so we advocate for the children to be able to stay in the home and for the case to be closed when it can really be closed. We haven't had too many people up in Holyoke yet, but our team is now fully staffed, so we're open for more referrals. And I've left my email so anybody can contact me if you have questions. Thank you.

Aylin Fernandez: UMass Amherst Doctoral Student
Hi! I'm I'm Aylin Fernandez. I'm from UMass Amherst. I'm a doctoral student in the FAM lab under supervision of Dr. Evelyn Mercado. And FAM for those who don't know stands for Family Relationships, Effective Science and Minority Health. So we're really interested in exploring the different experiences of diverse communities, especially those of Latino background. So we currently have a project right now that aims to explore the effects of discrimination and racism on Latino families predominantly, parents and adolescents. And so we're actively collecting for that, and are always seeking different ways that we can get families involved. The way that we do that is, with connecting with the community a lot. And we are very big on having a bidirectional relationship with those that serve us. We also explore a lot of community events. And we recently were at the back to school event, which is really phenomenal and a lot of similar events. So we're always interested in seeing what different community events are going on, held in by different organizations. So I'll send again my information in the chat along with our website. So please contact us if there's something that you see maybe fit for us to attend and share those opportunities. But we also host workshops and different opportunities for youth to come visit our lab to understand what research is that we do to get them exposed to university level research and to see that as an option for them as well. And some other workshops that we do are to reduce stress for youth. How to cope with emotional stress, how to cope with the winter blues. And so we try to find a way to give back to our community by providing these informed workshops on how we can support them, and how they can learn to support themselves as well throughout different stressful experiences. So I'll leave my information again below. But thank you for having me today.

Angelique Rodriguez: Holyoke Community College
Hi, everyone! My name is Angie Rodriguez, and I am the admissions and community outreach counselor at Holyoke Community College. I have been attending these meetings for a while now. So I really appreciate the platform to talk about HCC. The biggest things right now updates for us are that the fall semester is filling up. It's possible to still apply, but the classes are kind of slim picking, so we suggest students are preparing to apply for the spring as well. If you're interested in applying for the spring, or want to know more of what that entails, feel free to refer people to connect with me personally. My information is in the chat. The last thing I also want to touch on is the mass educate program that we are promoting. This is now a free community college program for residents in Massachusetts who are 18 and older, have graduated high school and a couple of other requirements are needed for that program. I'll drop a flyer in the chat regarding the qualifications for mass educate. But again, if you want to connect with me. Get help applying all those things. Please feel free to thank you.

Aneida Molina Flores: Healthy Homes Coordinator at Revitalize CDC
Hello! Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Anita. I'm a healthy homes coordinator at revitalize CDC. For those who haven't heard of Revitalize the CDC stands for Community Development Corporation. So we're not affiliated with the National CDC. But we are a base, a nonprofit organization based in Springfield. We are located at 240 Cadwell Drive, and we have a variety of different programs. Revitalize originally started in critical repairs for homeowners in Hampden County. So things like stairs, replacing windows, any health hazards or safety concerns. We have a couple of programs.

We have a HUD, healthy homes program that's federally funded. And it's open to homeowners in Hampden County who have to meet an income requirement as well as some other eligibility requirements that information can be found on our website. One program that I currently work with is our Holyoke DASH program. DASH stands for Doorway to a Safe and Accessible Healthy Home. So this program is specific to Holyoke residents so they can be homeowners or tenants, and it is essentially geared to individuals, adults and children who have asthma, respiratory conditions, or any mobility, difficulties, or impairments in the home. What we do is we conduct a healthy home, assessment and identify any triggers in the home that could be affecting their asthma. So, for example, it could be an old carpet that needs to be removed, or that there's cockroaches or mice pest issues in the home that also could be affecting their asthma. Same goes with the mobility. We'll do an assessment of you know any difficulties getting in or out of the bed difficulties in the bathroom, using
The toilet things like that, and then from there we are able to determine what supplies we can provide for that individual to hopefully help them, you know to be safer in the home as well as stay in the home longer. I have already put my information in the chat, and all of the different programs that we also offer are on our website. But I'll also just put the flyer that is specific to Holyoke residence in the chat here as well, because I do not believe that it's on the website, but feel free to reach out to me. With any questions. Thank you.



Alyssa Golden: Community Legal Aid
Hi, everyone! Alyssa Golden, I'm the supervising attorney of the criminal records and reentry unit at Community Legal Aid. You all have heard from lots of us. I put my contact information and a little bit about what we do in the chat. We work with folks who have criminal records, and are, you know, trying to overcome all sorts of civil barriers related to accessing public and subsidized housing, facing denials of affordable housing programs because of their criminal record employment denials, denials from educational programs and technical programs, professional licensures. As well as criminal record stealing and expungement matters, we also do a lot of Know your Rights Trainings and trainings for direct service providers about kind of the civil or collateral consequences of the criminal court system. And we have direct referral systems set up with lots of community partners. So if that's something that you think would be useful, that's another reason to reach out. Thank you.

Aleyx Bernard: Palante Transformative Justice
My name is Aleyx Bernard. I work with Palante transformative justice here in Holyoke, located at 220 Linden Street. I'm the drop in and Operations Coordinator and we have a couple of new things coming up this Tuesday, the 17th. We have a Know your Rights Training. That's going to be presented by the Mental health legal advisors committee, so they'll be coming and they'll do a little cookout, but also we will be doing a know your rights training at the same time. So it's a little duo. We're open to ages 13 to 19. We have a drop in space from 3 to 7. So if anyone wants to have youth come in, they're more than welcome. We do a lot of things and have community resources here as well. So thank you.

Adlyn Colon: Holyoke Community College
Hi, good afternoon, everybody. I'm Adlyn Colon. I work for Holyoke Community College, adult education at the Picknelly Center. We offer high set or GED preparation classes, evening and day programs. Also online for adults any age. I heard of some of the programs that only take up to 25. We do. We do take any age of older than 16. And right now we have filled the September classes, and we are taking applications for the November cycle, and I forgot to put my phone in the chat, but I put my information in the chat. I am also working with Way Finders, as a volunteer, as a resident advocate, working with the community engagement team and try to help and assist residents of any services they have within the community. Thank you.

Edward Caisse: Hampden County Sheriff’s Office
I just have a couple of things. We're getting ready for our upcoming Basketball League and it takes about 120 volunteers over a 12 week period. So we're always looking for a few good men and women. If anybody is interested in coming out and being a volunteer. Usually the commitment is one hour per week depending on what position you're involved in. It could be two hours per week, or three hours per week depending on what the commitment is.

We are always looking for volunteers. In fact, the volunteer management is the hardest thing in terms of driving the leagues, so I just wanted to throw that out there. If anybody is interested, please reach out to me. Secondly, I just wanted to mention that Mount Marie is actually holding a fundraiser, and it's going to benefit the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative for some of the work that we do in the community like the Basketball League. A lot of people don't know this. I don't advertise it too much, but it costs us about $19,000 to run a basketball league, 11,200 for the referees alone. So there are expenses involved in a lot of the work we do.
We have family fun nights every month, that average about $350 a month.

We have a shoestring budget, so when an agency like Mount Marie does a fundraiser to benefit us, it's really appreciated because we're always scratching to find resources to be able to do some of the things that we do. So I sent the flyer out today. They're actually doing a Quarter Auctions. I don't know too much about what a Quarter Auction is, maybe some of you do, but it's on Sunday, September 29th but I did want to remind that the proceeds were going to benefit the work that we do in the community.

Lastly, I just wanted to say, Thank you for everyone that came out, and certainly for all the volunteers, as this is just a picture of the first shift of the volunteers at the back to school event. This was our 13th Annual Back to School Event. I remember when we started in 2012, we gave away 350 backpacks, and because of the agency partnerships, particularly the agencies that typically come on this networking meeting and almost all of your agencies have been involved in the back to school event in some capacity. So I just truly wanted to thank everyone for the continued work with us. Now we're up to trying to give out 2,500 backpacks a year, and we can't do it without the agency support. And not just coming out that day to volunteer. We gave out approximately $40,000 worth of supplies and almost all those supplies were donated. So I just want to thank everyone that has been involved in whatever capacity you were involved. Thank you so much. That's all I have today. Our next networking meeting is going to be October 10th at 1:00pm. So thanks again for all the work that you guys do, particularly for the Holyoke community

We started the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood initiative in 2011. And it was really to try to make an impact. And I'll say this, since I see the graduation rate today was 74.6% when we started in 2011, the graduation rate was 48%. So to see the growth in it. And I know a lot of it has to do with all of you, all the agencies that are actually supporting the youth and families, and the collaborations and working together to really give people in Holyoke Hope.

I just want to end with saying, Thank you so much for all you guys do individually, and what you do collectively working together as collaboration. So have a great week. Hopefully, we'll see a lot of you guys soon and definitely, hopefully, we'll see you next month, so take care, and have a good rest of the week

CHAT NOTES:

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

Socrates Montas
Community Based Youth Clinical Services (CBYCS)
80 Commercial Street | Holyoke, MA | 01040
Office: 413.234.4568 Fax: 413.846.0447
smontas@gandaracenter.org

We have short waitlists for all programs: In-Home Therapy. In-Home Behavioral and Intensive Care Coordination! Please send referrals our way. If you have any questions, also please feel free to reach out.

Damasco Santiago
Program Manager Tapestry Syringe Access program. 306 Race St., Holyoke, Ma. 01040. (413) 315-3732 Ext 104. dsantiago@tapestryhealth.org

Edward Caisse
Hampden County Sheriff's Office, ed.caisse@sdh.state.ma.us, (4130 858-0225

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

Aneida Molina Flores
Healthy Homes Coordinator
Revitalize Community Development Corporation
240 Cadwell Drive
Tel: (413) 472-6852
Springfield, MA 01104

Melany Mendoza
Manager of Community Engagement WesternMass Mass Mentoring Partnership mmendoza@massmentors.org 413.218.6595

Amanda Carrier
WIOA Case Manager
Valley Opportunity Council
205 High St. Holyoke, MA 01040
413-273-8602
acarrier@valleyopp.com

Shaundell Diaz
Three County Continuum of Care | Home (talentlms.com)

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

Sidney Richeux
( 413-433-2671) Sricheux@gandaracenter.org

Carol Borden
www.wmascouting.org next Thursday DCAD dinner

Sasha & Ana
Ana Ascencio (They/Elle) - Farm Program Coordinator at La Finca (24 Jones Ferry Road) aascencio@nuestras-raices.org

Alyssa Golden
Criminal Records/Reentry Unit Supervising Attorney @ Community Legal Aid (413) 582-1377 agolden@cla-ma.org We represent people in criminal record sealing and expungement proceedings, employment and educational opportunity denials due to criminal records, and public and subsidized housing denials due to criminal records.

Corrine Ryan, CLA
Here's the link for the Tenant Forum: Registration Link

Julia Popkin,
Staff Attorney, Education Law Unit and Disability Benefits Project at Community Legal Aid, jpopkin@cla-ma.org

Gerardo Torres
Hello every one my name is Gerardo Torres I am a Resident advocate a volunteer of Way finder in Holyoke. Nice meeting u my first time here. My email is gerardotorres586@comcast.net

Melany Mendoza
Manager of Community Engagement WesternMass, Mass Mentoring Partnership mmendoza@massmentors.org
https://massmentors.org/

John McCarthy
From USCIS Website for Keeping Families Together Process https://www.facnh.com/papaconversationgroups

Megan Benway
Healthcare for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) at the Department of Veterans Affairs. 413-584-4040 ex. 2122
Megan Benway- megan.benway@va.gov

Maddy Crudele (ABN)
About the workshop: https://africanbn.org/ow/ Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/orientation-workshop-for-foreign-trained-professionals-tickets-808411559737?aff=oddtdtcreator Contact: maddy@africanbn.org

Flor Diaz
WIC Program / (413)214-1933 fdiaz@valleyopp.com

Georgie Brown
Community Engagement Coordinator OneHolyokeCDC, georgianna.brown@oneholyoke.org
OneHolyoke Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oneholyoke

Damasco Santiago
Tapestry Syringe Pick-Up Hotline: (413) 650-2679

Carol Boden
Scout meeting tonight Mount Tom across from library DCAD dinner next week
carl.borden@scouting.org.
https://www.wmascouting.org/2024DCAD is the direct link

Sasha Viands
SViands@GirlsIncValley.org / 413-335-0059

Aleyx Bernard
aleyx@palanteholyoke.org Drop in and admin coordinator at pa'lante transformative Justice 413-200-0624

Adlyn Colon
acolon@hcc.edu, 413-552-2927. HCC HiSET program -

Old Business / New Business
Next Meeting is Thursday, October 10th on Zoom

Close Meeting 2:30pm
Contact Information:
Edward Caisse
Hampden County Sheriff’s Department
(413) 858-0225
ed.caisse@sdh.state.ma.us
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