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Getting Answers: Homeless struggle to find shelter

Getting Answers: Homeless struggle to find shelter

by | Dec 5, 2022 | In The News

By Mary Wilson and Olivia Hickey
Staff Reporters
Published:  Dec. 1, 2022
GREENFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) -For people experiencing homelessness, winter is a brutal challenge. In Greenfield, the homeless shelter is at full capacity, but plans are underway to expand it. We’re getting answers on the need for housing in greenfield and how relief may not come soon enough.

In the heart of Greenfield, there’s a place where all are welcome, and stigmas are broken. “Not referring to people as “the homeless” or “homeless people,” that situation should not define their need for help,” said Claire McGale of the Recover Project.

The Recover Project is led by people who have first-hand experience with addiction and homelessness, like McGgale. “So we have folks who are incredibly building their recovery, despite the fact that they’re sleeping outdoors, and it’s hard enough when you have a bed,” she said.

Finding a warm place to stay in Greenfield becoming increasingly difficult, leaving Amber Sullivan, who is fleeing domestic abuse, with few places to turn. “I feel a lot of people think of homeless people as being on drugs and alcohol or pure laziness, and that’s not it,” she said…[CONTINUE READING]

Peer Recovery Center in Ware Receives Activation Fund Grant

Peer Recovery Center in Ware Receives Activation Fund Grant

by | Nov 15, 2022 | In The News

By  Miasha Lee

WARE – The Ware Regional Recovery Center has received a 2022 Activation Fund grant from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts.

The Ware Regional Recovery Center is a program of the Western Massachusetts Training Consortium. A peer-driven support center where folks with lived experience and early recovery come together and provide support to one another through offering activities, various groups and meaningful one-on one connections. The grant funds will help the center provide outreach support, educational materials, promotional brochures, technology, and signage. It will also support the relaunch of the center in its new location at 52 Main St. and a new name, the Recovery Center of H.O.P.E. (Healing Ourselves with Peers Everywhere).

Executive Director Kristel Applebee of the Western Massachusetts Training Consortium said, “We wanted community members to have a sense of ownership around their peer recovery support center and to be more reflective of the eighteen towns and communities around us. We want center participants to be contributing citizens in their community and ambassadors for what recovery can be like and what’s possible.”

She continued, “We are absolutely thrilled at receiving this grant. This is our first time receiving a grant from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts. The focus of these grants in particular are supporting organizations going through transition. We’re really grateful for their partnership and this funding.”

Applebee told Reminder Publishing this grant affords them to focus on three primary areas. The first area is providing furnishings for their space. They want to create a welcoming environment for everyone coming through their doors. The second area is in education and outreach; being able to meet people where they’re at in their recovery journey, reducing stigma for those in recovery, and encouraging those in recovery to share their lived experience in support of others. The third area is marketing; making sure the Quaboag region including all 18 surrounding communities have a sense that there’s a new peer recovery support center in Ware and they’re welcome to come help create it.

“It’s a place for them to connect with community resources, to find jobs, housing and primarily to connect with other people who have lived experience in recovery,” Applebee added. “They can find a new way to be in their community as they find their way with a new identity and go through the process of healing.”…[READ MORE]

Greenfield domestic violence vigil offers ‘survivor-centered space’

Greenfield domestic violence vigil offers ‘survivor-centered space’

by | Nov 2, 2022 | In The News, Uncategorized

A woman photographs messages written on a T shirt at the Clothesline Project on the Greenfield Common Thursday evening. 

By BELLA LEVAVI

Staff Writer

GREENFIELD — In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, two Greenfield-based groups held a candlelight vigil on the common on Thursday to honor survivors, grieve the lives of those lost and connect survivors with social services.

“This is a survivor-centered space,” Katri Schroeder, community organizer with the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition (NELCWIT), said during opening remarks. “There is nothing in the world like feeling the power of being in a community space where we get to say our truths without shame and without stigma.”

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that 47,000 women and girls worldwide were murdered by intimate partners or other family members in 2020. Schroeder noted the U.S. has seen an 8% increase in these numbers over the last decade.

In addition to the candlelight vigil, the event — organized by NELCWIT and the Salasin Project — included a T-shirt display as part of The Clothesline Project. Attendees used markers to decorate T-shirts that were then hung around the Greenfield Common, using an art form to share people’s experiences with gender-based violence…

‘Community Baby Shower’ in Greenfield to share baby items, resources for families

by | Sep 16, 2022 | In The News

Mollie Hartford, development and outreach director with It Takes a Village, sets up a display at the Community Berkshire Baby Box Shower in 2019. Contributed Photo[/caption]

By MARY BYRNE
Staff Writer

GREENFIELD — A group of local and regional agencies is returning to Court Square on Saturday for a “Community Baby Shower” to raise awareness of the resources available to families with children.

“What’s really great about this type of event is that a family or young parent could come and meet a whole lot of different resources at once,” said Mollie Hartford, development director at the Huntington-based nonprofit It Takes a Village, one of the participating organizations. “It can be really tricky for a parent to navigate finding out about resources on their own.”

The baby shower, hosted by the Franklin County Perinatal Support Coalition, will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Court Square. A series of organizations will provide information, raffle prizes, and other free gifts for parents and parents-to-be. There will also be baby clothes and other baby items available for free.

The organizations include: The Birthplace at Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Center for Human Development, Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin, Community Action Family Center, Community Action Head Start and Early Learning Programs, Criterion Child Enrichment, Healthy Families, Moms Do Care EMPOWER, the Salasin Project, ServiceNet, Collaborative for Educational Services, Greenfield Health Department, and Women, Infants and Children.

“This event is going to have so many resource agencies from around Franklin County,” Hartford said… [READ MORE]

Art, Connectivity, and Community Bring ‘aWAREness’ to Recovery

by | Sep 8, 2022 | In The News

Terri Thompson of The Consortium and Abaigeal Duda, Peer Recovery Project Coordinator for the Ware Regional Recovery Center (Recovery Center of H.O.P.E.).[/caption]

By Marcella Comerford, Reporter
[email protected] 

September 8, 2022

WARE, MA – A show solely catering to the artworks of those in recovery does not show up often, yet the community impact of such a show can be enormous, bringing out the faces of addiction in ways unusual and profoundly human, opening channels of communication and understanding through art. Workshop13 and ArtWorks Gallery partnered with the new, soon to be opened, Ware Regional Recovery Center to present “Bringing aWAREness to Recovery Art Exhibition,” featuring artists in recovery from drugs and alcohol.

The opening was held on National Overdose Awareness Day, August 31, 2022, coinciding with the start of National Recovery Month in September. [CONTINUE READING] (more…)

Greenfield resident explores topics ranging from racism to mental health in poetry reading

Greenfield resident explores topics ranging from racism to mental health in poetry reading

by | Jul 28, 2022 | In The News

By BELLA LEVAVI
Staff Writer
Published: 7/24/2022 3:03:34 PM
Modified: 7/24/2022 3:00:32 PM

GREENFIELD — Kimberly “Kemah” Wilson started her poetry reading by keeping the mood light with a song about meatballs.

From this song, the Greenfield resident transported listeners across a variety of topics including LGBTQ pride, racism and America’s future.

Wilson presented her reading at The LAVA Center on Saturday afternoon. Most people in the crowd knew Wilson personally and said they were touched by her work.

“The pieces had such a span of thought and insight,” commented Wilson’s friend, Mindy Bragon.

[CONTINUE READING]