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Date: 4/12/2022
HOLYOKE – Community stakeholders are banding together to create better outcomes for the city’s at-risk populations.
The Holyoke Hub Community Mobilization Initiative, a partnership of the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, city services, the public schools and as many as 45 different agencies and nonprofits, aims to break down silos and increase collaboration to maximize services for at-risk children and families in an effort to prevent them from becoming justice involved.
Partner agencies gathered with Ed Caisse, coordinator of the Sheriff’s Departments’ high-risk re-entry program and a driving force behind the Holyoke Safe Neighborhoods Program, Mayor Joshua Garcia and Holyoke Public Schools Superintendent/Receiver Anthony Soto at Holyoke Community College on April 6 to announce the initiative, which has been in development for approximately a year and a half.
“What this has always been about is community agencies working together to really impact youth and families and really build our community,” said Caisse. “You’re already doing that, but with the Holyoke Hub, we’re going to be able to take that to a whole new level and I’m so excited about that.”
Through the new program, participating agencies and nonprofits will meet weekly to discuss cases in a holistic manner in order to determine appropriate services that could most effectively meet the needs of the individual or family in question and provide solutions to yield the best possible outcomes.
While initial discussions regarding the program revolved around children in Grades 4-6, Caisse said the Holyoke Hub would service residents of all ages. Identities would be kept confidential, identified only by a “situation number.” The program will begin by discussing situations referred by participating agencies, though Caisse said once more established the initiative may begin accepting members of the public seeking assistance directly. An online presence will eventually be established as well, he said.
Caisse said the schools would be a significant focus and partner in the initiative. For his part, Soto said he identified two major areas of need for the school district during a recent six-month listening tour – improved connections with community partners and a more positive learning environment for students with a focus on trauma-informed practices, social-emotional learning and mental health.
“Partners have felt they haven’t been let in the doors of Holyoke Public Schools for way too long and I want to remove those doors for those who want to help. For those who want to know what’s going on, we want to let you in and we want to work together,” he said. “This is why I’m so excited about this Holyoke Hub initiative. We’re going to have representatives from the schools [and] representatives from different agencies taking a look on an individual case-by-case basis at students and what they need in terms of wraparound services that we can provide as a community … This is just one lever toward creating that positive learning environment we want to see in our schools.”
The program is modeled after similar initiatives that were implemented in the city of Chelsea and replicated in Springfield. Caisse credited City Councilor Israel Rivera and the school district’s Director of Social Emotional and Behavioral Supports Giselle Rojas with playing significant roles in making the program a reality, saying they have “been at the table every Monday” planning the initiative.
“The Hub is not its own entity. The Hub is a collaboration of a host of different entities and organizations and service providers within the city of Holyoke. That’s what makes the Hub. Without everyone that’s here, there is no Hub,” Rivera stressed. “So we can’t just say, ‘The Hub is going to handle this.’ We are as a community going to come together to make the Hub an agency that is going to help change the narrative, change the community and work with everyone overall. To me, the most important piece of the Hub is developing the community relationships among the service providers. Once our relationships are strengthened, we can service more people more effectively and more efficiently.”
A 29-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, Caisse said when he initially began his community outreach work 11 years ago, he thought his focus would be on the community and identifying crime and quality of life issues in the neighborhoods, but quickly found the focus had to shift. A survey, he said as an example, indicated 65 percent of children in South Holyoke had never attended an after-school program.
“The reality is the issues in our community, they’re comprehensive and they’re deep and they’re generational. For me over the past 16 years at the Sheriff’s Department, I have seen firsthand what has led these inmates down the wrong road,” he said. “The number times I’ve said, ‘This guy never had a shot,’ so what we want to do is give the next generation of youth a shot.”
As a result, Caisse’s work with the Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative has included offering community youth sports programming, creating mentoring opportunities and creating avenues through which families can receive essential services. However, once the connection to an agency was made, that was where his involvement stopped. The Holyoke Hub, he explained, is the next step to bridge those gaps and create a review process to assess the case’s progress collaboratively.
“It’s a level of accountability in a sense,” he explained.
Garcia said the city was “rich with resources” and was happy to see a focus on the “three Cs” of coordination, collaboration and connection to bring those together. He later told Reminder Publishing he was not surprised by the level of collaboration taking place to make the Holyoke Hub a reality.
“I’m very fortunate to have lived in a community that looks out for our down and out on their luck – my family being one of them growing up that benefitted from the compassion of the city of Holyoke,” he said. “We want to continue that spirit with the goal here of improving the quality of life here, regardless of what corner of the city you live in.”
Garcia added the coronavirus pandemic had exacerbated many of the city’s existing issues, making the timing of the Hub’s launch especially important.
“I think now more than ever it is critical to recognize the impact the pandemic has had in our already distressed communities through the mandates. That right there in itself has created a new layer of problems,” he said. “It’s going to be important that as we try to navigate a post-pandemic environment and also deploy limited resources on the city side that I have control over to be streamlined, focused and specific so we are clear in what our objectives are and producing effective outcomes. The best way to deploy limited resources and navigate these challenges is through collaboration.”
Representatives of participating entities began training on April 8 and 11.