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Chicopee, Holyoke benefit from grant

Dave O'Reilly of the Massachusetts Lottery and Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan display the $5,000 contribution made to help combat litter in the city.Reminder Publications photo by G. Michael Dobbs
By G. Michael Dobbs, Managing Editor

HOLYOKE Anthony Figueroa didn't know what he would have done this summer if he hadn't landed a job with the Holyoke Housing Authority.

Figueroa has been busy with cleaning grounds, painting and other duties thanks to state funding to the city through a Shannon Grant.

And despite the fact Figueroa is working, rather than taking it easy, the teen said with a smile that he likes it.

Figueroa was one of the success stories presented at a press conference on Friday at the Toepfert Apartments on North Summer Street attended by Holyoke and Chicopee officials who praised the effects of a $890,000 grant that is shared by the two cities. The grant has been used to fund programs for teens to prevent them from getting into trouble and for additional police presence in key neighborhoods to address gang violence.

In each community the Boys & Girls Clubs have been partners with the police and the city's Housing Authorities. Bruce Thompson of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke called it a "brilliant concept."

Betsy Daley of the Chicopee Boys and Girls Club said the Chicopee Housing Authority donated space that has been used as a youth center. At the start of the program she said the organization hoped to have 50 teen participants. Instead it has attracted 275.

She admitted the success has been "a little overwhelming," and added there are thousands of youth within walking distance of the Chicopee club.

Chicopee Police Chief John Ferraro said the program has been a "real success." He said the department has been able to expand patrols and coordinate its efforts with the officers assigned to the city's high schools. He added there has been an eight percent drop in crime in the area near the Boys & Girls Club.

Holyoke Police Chief Anthony Scott said the program had been working great until Governor Deval Patrick announced he was cutting its funding and putting more resources into another law enforcement program. Scott said he had used the funding for an effective gang suppression unit. He said 21 days after Patrick's decision there was a gang-related homicide in the city that he believes was due to the cutback of the gang suppression unit.

State Representative Michael Kane (D-Holyoke) and State Senator Michael Knapik (R-Westfield) explained the Legislature has restored the Shannon Grant funding, although at $11 million it is only level funded. Currently communities are filing applications with the Executive Office of Public Safety for grants and Knapik said competition among the municipalities is greater than the first round of awards. Holyoke and Chicopee are applying for $1.5 million.

Politics aside, Holyoke teen Sydney Allen is thankful to have been given a job through the program. A high school student who dropped out when she became pregnant, Allen has earned her GED and will be attending Holyoke Community College to study accounting in the fall.

The program has given her to opportunity to "fulfill my dreams and goals."