Driving Our Community Forward

For 18 years, the Johnson Dealerships and Greylock Federal Credit Union have paired up together to support Berkshire United Way by donating a new car or $10,000 to a lucky participant in our annual campaign.

Winners have mostly been workplace donors from businesses and organizations such as: Precision Tool, General Dynamics, Cranwell, Town of Dalton, Canyon Ranch, Crane Currency, Marland Mold, City of Pittsfield, BMC, BCC, Onyx Specialty Papers, and Berkshire Children and Families. All of them had great stories about how much a new car helped them, and how fulfilling it is to support Berkshire United Way.  Sally Rice, the 2014 winner from Crane Currency noted that, “This was the first brand new car I have ever had.”

On May 10^th, we gathered at the Johnson Dealerships to celebrate the ways in which all of Berkshire United Way’s donors, together, are driving the community forward with their generous donations.  We heard from volunteers who led a successful cross-sector coalition, Face the Facts: reduce teen pregnancy, about how the community came together to forge solutions no one person, agency or company could do alone.  And with great anticipation, we learned the 2018 winner.

Berkshire United Way board member, Mike Stoddard, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Greylock Federal Credit Union, draws the winning car ticket at the Driving Our Community Forward event on Thursday, May 10, 2018.

Great things happen when we work together.  Thank you to all of our donors, and congratulations to Michelle Little of Pittsfield!

Jennifer Kerwood
VP of Development

Improving financial futures all year long

Each April, the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) encourages people to take action to improve their financial futures. Here at Berkshire United Way, we work year-round to help families along the path to sustainable incomes. We support programs that match individuals seeking employment with open jobs, and provide college students with paid internship opportunities. 

Click for resources on how to unlock your financial future.

Free tax preparation through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is another way we are helping build economic prosperity for all. On March 24, 2018, Berkshire United Way hosted a taxathon at Berkshire South Regional Community Center. In addition to free tax prep, our community partners at Berkshire Community Action Council - Fuel Assistance, Community Health Programs – Women, Infants, and Children, Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires, and Greylock Federal Credit Union, were on hand to provide information on financial literacy programs.

Thank you to everyone who played a role in making this VITA season a success – clients, volunteer tax preparers, greeters, host sites and other community partners. Preliminary reports indicate 109 tax returns were filed by Berkshire United Way, resulting in over $101,000 in additional funds circulating in south county communities.  In addition, 593 returns were filed by our VITA partners in Pittsfield (Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity) and the hilltowns (Hilltown Community Development Corp.) which resulted in an additional $861,000. I’d also like to give a special shout out to our VITA hosts – Berkshire South Regional Community Center, Community Health Programs, and October Mountain Financial Advisors in Lee. We could not have done it without you!

I invite you to email me at jsingley@berkshireunitedway.org or give me a call at 413.442.6948 x32, if you are interested in using your time and talent to help others improve their financial future.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Julie
Program Manager, Community Impact

#Talking is Power

May is Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month and you’ll likely see an increase in national marketing and ad campaigns throughout the month on this very important topic.

Here in the Berkshires, we’re planning a large celebration and we hope you’ll join us! #Talking is Power is the theme of our celebration. A theme that epitomizes the approach taken by individuals and organizations who launched the Face the Facts: reduce teen pregnancy coalition in 2010.

Face the Facts was developed in response to the growing number and rate of teen births in the Berkshires. The initial goal of the coalition was to reduce the number of teen births in Berkshire County by 50% by the year 2020.

The coalition implemented several strategies to achieve this goal, all of which embrace the fact that #Talking is Power:

• They worked with local schools to ensure students in all 13 school districts received sexual health education.
• They increased access to reproductive health services for students in every Berkshire County high school as well as Berkshire Community College and MCLA.
• They held workshops to provide parents with tools and information that help them when talking about sexuality.
• They worked with local pediatricians to make sure sexual health was discussed during teens’ well visits.
• They launched a marketing campaign using billboards, posters, YouTube and Pandora to educate teens and their parents on common myths.

Taconic High School students, with Marcie Simonds, Allied Health teacher at Taconic, on the set of a Myth Busters video.  The Myth Busters video series were produced by the Berkshire United Way led Face the Facts: reduce teen pregnancy coalition as part of a social norms campaign aimed at Berkshire County teens.

Last spring, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released the most recent data on teen births across the state. Berkshire County’s teen birth rate had decreased by 52%*, exceeding the coalition’s goal five years ahead of schedule.

That’s a result worth celebrating, and we intend to do just that as we recognize those throughout the community who are Driving Our Community Forward through the sometimes difficult, but always important work required to build a stronger community.

We hope to see you on Thursday, May 10^th from 5-7 p.m. at The Johnson Dealerships in Pittsfield, where we will keep the “talk” going.  You can register for this free event here.   I hope to see you there!

Kat Toomey, Coordinator of Positive Youth Development

* Between 2010 and 2015, the most recent year for which data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is available.

Community rallies to prepare children for kindergarten

Do you remember how you felt the first time a school bus rolled to a stop and you bid farewell to your backpack-bearing child?  Perhaps you were biting your lip to stop your tears from spilling over as butterflies flitted about inside.

Every parent wants their child to have a great experience at school – to learn new things, make new friends, and remain excited about going every single day. After all, you’ve prepared for this day for quite some time. But did you know school success begins long before that first day? Pittsfield Promise, a Berkshire United Way-led coalition made up of community members from various community sectors, is committed to helping every child get the skills they need to succeed.

On April 6^th, eighteen tables staffed by 20 volunteers from local agencies that work with young children, gathered in the community room at the Berkshire Athenaeum for the sixth annual School Readiness Fair. When the doors opened at 10:30 in the morning, over 15 families were lined up, ready to engage in fun, educational activities designed to foster kindergarten readiness skills.

Activities—all of which can be replicated at home—included making puppets and retelling stories, creating buildings and animals with household items and tape, using bingo markers to trace letters, and rolling dice to identify numbers. Highlights of the event included using Ozobots (tiny robots) used to learn simple coding, riding a school bus for the first time and participating in a free developmental screening called Ages and Stages.

Kelly Bevan McIlquham of Berkshires Macaroni kids helps a young child trace letters with a bingo marker. This was just one of several activities offered at the recent School Readiness Fair held at the Berkshire Athenaeum.

Completing the Ages and Stages screening helps children, aged birth to five, get the best start in life. This simple developmental questionnaire asks you about skills most kids have at that age, to help determine if your child is on track. If s/he needs a little extra practice in a specific area, a Child and Family Community Engagement Coordinator will identify activities you can do to help set your child up for success. 

To schedule a free screening, call Jenn Faulconer at 413.441.0974. After the screening is completed, activities will be suggested to support your child’s growth at home and in the community, creating a path to school readiness.

Stephanie Adornetto

Coordinator of Early Childhood Development

FIESTA the Berkshire United Way!

We are the Cormiers, lovers of everything that Berkshire County has to offer, due in large part to the good work Berkshire United Way does for the community. My wife Leslie and I started our journey together almost 14 years ago, meeting in Boston; me, fresh out of college, and Leslie recently moving from Guatemala. In our time together in Boston, we had our first child, saw the Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years, watched the Patriots win a few Super Bowls and the Celtics an NBA title. Hopefully that timeline leads you to mid-March 2008, when we decided that moving back to the Berkshires to raise our young family was the right thing to do for our future.

Matt and Leslie Cormier, co-chairs of FIESTA, 3rd Annual Berkshire United Way Dance Party.

Flash forward to present day. We now have three daughters, and both of us work for Guardian Life Insurance Company and are active contributors to the Berkshire United Way – both monetary donations through Guardian’s workplace campaign and through various volunteer opportunities. Most recently, we were given the opportunity and honor of co-chairing the most exciting party of 2018; the 3^rd Annual Berkshire United Way Dance Party (FIESTA) on Friday, May 4, at the Stationery Factory in Dalton. Having attended the previous two mega-successful “Movers and Shakers” parties, we jumped at the chance to assist in making this year’s party the best yet. Whether you are already a contributor or volunteer for Berkshire United Way or you have never given to the organization, please block your calendars for the evening of Friday, May 4, to come together as a community and celebrate the great work Berkshire United Way does, and at the same time contribute to their efforts to Build a Stronger Community!  You can learn more about this fun-filled event and purchase your tickets here. I look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you, in advance, for your support.

Matt and Leslie Cormier

Co-chairs, FIESTA, the 3^rd Annual Berkshire United Way Dance Party

Paid internship opportunities – it’s EPIC!

Do you know a college student coming home for the summer? If so, please encourage them to apply for an internship through Berkshire Business Interns (BBI). BBI is offering more than 30 paid summer internship opportunities at leading Berkshire County Businesses. BBI is a program of Lever, a Berkshire United Way Community Partner and active member of our Economic Prosperity Impact Council (EPIC). Paid internships for young adults is just one of the strategies employed by EPIC to build a pathway to sustainable income for Berkshire County residents.

By providing lucrative and meaningful employment opportunities for young people here in the Berkshires, we increase Berkshire businesses’ access to the best talent, and create opportunities for college students to be exposed to cutting-edge businesses and careers.  The ultimate goal is for these interns to choose to live and work in the Berkshires once they graduate. This is an economic win for our community as well as for our young people.

Karen Vogel, director of community impact at Berkshire United Way, is pictured with Jackie Kays, positive youth development intern.

If you are interested in learning more about the EPIC work that is taking place here in the Berkshires, I invite you to email me at jsingley@berkshireunitedway.org or give me a call at 413.442.6948 x32. 

Oh, and about those internships...make sure you tell the college students in your life to apply soon!  Positions are currently being filled.

Julie
Program Manager, Community Impact

Providing local teens with “Tools for Change”

On Thursday, April 12^th, 112 high school students from across the county will gather at Hancock Shaker Village for the 12^th annual 411 in the 413 youth conference. Created and organized by their peers, and supported by Berkshire United Way, Railroad Street Youth Project, and Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, the conference offers a unique opportunity for students from 13 high schools to come together, meet new friends, delve into their passions, while navigating the challenges young people face in today’s world.

The conference features 22, one hour-long workshops covering topics selected by youth, which are organized into four tracks: The Arts, Compassion in Action, Wellness, and Adulting. “I think this conference is such an amazing opportunity for students to learn and explore outside the classroom. Things like therapy, yoga, self-defense and how to pay for college will help us a lot in the future,” said Julie Xu, of Miss Hall’s School and 411 in the 413 Horizons intern at Berkshire United Way.

Students launch a bottle rocket during a workshop at the 11^th Annual 411 in the 413 youth conference.

The theme of this year’s conference is, “Tools for Change.” Zoe Hypolite, member of Mira’s Alliance for Philanthropic Sustainability (MAPS) and the Diversity Coalition at Miss Hall’s School, and Madison Quinn Pittsfield High Class of 2018, founder of the nonprofit, “Strong Little Souls,” will share their personal “Tools for Change” with attendees in a keynote address.

Be sure to follow us on our Facebook page for inspiring photos of ‘Tools for Change!’   These young people are our future!

Kat Toomey

Coordinator of Positive Youth Development