Mill City Mentors Goes Virtual
/0 Comments/in Children and Families, News, Uncategorized /by competenow9/23/21 > LOWELL » The goal of Mill City Mentors is to provide support to area youth facing adversity by connecting them with a volunteer mentor to confide in and spend time with.
Mill City Mentors endured a major obstacle last year when the coronavirus pandemic struck, eliminating the program’s ability to have mentors meet face- to- face with mentees.
The program — part of Greater Lowell nonprofit Community Teamwork Inc. — was able to adapt.
With the nation in lockdown, Mill City Mentors switched to virtual mentoring, or eMentoring, in April 2020, according to Program Director Ed Banks. The new method of mentoring turned out to be a success and has introduced a new dynamic to the realm of mentoring.
Tewksbury residents Bruce Gorman and his wife, MJ Gorman, said life was already difficult for 9- year- old Luke Gorman
before the pandemic took hold. Luke is Bruce’s son from a previous marriage. Bruce had previously shared joint custody of Luke with his ex-wife. Now, Luke was living fulltime with him and his wife.
“A (Department of Children and Families) caseworker suggested after talking to Luke that it would be nice for him to have a mentor, a big brother, or someone who he could talk to who wasn’t a parent,” Bruce Gorman said.
“A neutral ground person,” MJ Gorman added.
The mentorship was set up at the beginning of the pandemic, with Banks serving as Luke’s “eMentor.” It worked out well, as Banks and Luke quickly developed a strong relationship, built mostly around a joint love for video games.
“Early on in the pandemic, no one really knew what was happening, so it was good for him to get some sort of socialization with someone outside of our family,” MJ Gorman said.
Charles Calenda is one of the Mill City Mentors volunteers, serving as a mentor to a 10- year- old for the past year.
“(The program) looked like a great way to get involved and kinda help build a brighter and more prosperous future for the kids,” said Calenda, a 25year- old medical student who grew up in Chelmsford.
“It was a very exciting and inspiring moment for me to be able to meet someone I’d be able to have an impact on,” he said.
Calenda acknowledges he was hesitant about meeting his mentee for the first time over Zoom, but the two quickly clicked.
“A lot of the mentorships would have diminished without this option,” Calenda said about the eMentorship program.
For anyone interested in mentoring an area youth or for those looking for a mentor for their family, apply at commteam.org/millcitymentors.
Mill City Mentors Program Director Ed Banks delivers a bike donated by Kevin Kuhs to a mentee. -courtesy of Community TeamWork Inc.
Luke Gorman, 9, of Tewksbury, is seen on a screen during one of his ementoring sessions through the Mill City Mentors program, which is part of Community Teamwork Inc.
By Aaron Curtis acurtis@lowellsun. com Follow Aaron Curtis on Twitter @aselahcurtis
Mill City Mentors Goes Virtual
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Seek Help, if Facing Eviction
/0 Comments/in Housing, News, Uncategorized /by competenowTrahan Hosts Livestream with Tips
By Amy Sokolow Boston Herald – Lowell Sun 8/9/21
For renters worried about making ends meet and having trouble making rent payments, or whose landlord has said they’re seeking an eviction for other reasons, housing advocates in Massachusetts have a few tips to help.
“ If ( tenants) get a notice to quit, they have to understand that it is just the first step in a very long process,” said Steve Meacham, coordinator of organizing for City Life/ Vida Urbana, a grassroots community organization in Boston.
He emphasized that tenants should not move if they receive that first communication. “ Without any opposition, the eviction process goes incredibly quickly, like a matter of weeks,” he said. “ If you raise defenses … you can fight off that eviction at least long enough to negotiate some alternatives.”
Another tip, shared with renters during a livestream hosted by U. S. Rep. Lori Trahan, D 3rd., of Lowell, on Friday, is to seek help — even if you’re not sure you qualify. “ Now more than ever, we’re working with people that have never even thought about asking for help before,” said Lindsey Richmond from Resources for Communities and People.
“ If you find yourself in a situation where you think you might be late on your next month’s mortgage or even rent, you reach out and see what kind of assistance you may qualify for.”
Another guest at Trahan’s talk, Connie Martin of Community Teamwork, emphasized the importance of having a complete application for rental assistance, which entails “carefully reading all the questions, getting all the documentation uploaded,” she said, She advised that renters talk with their landlords so they know to expect the application.
Finally, Meacham emphasized that each side has a legitimate case to win. “A tenant should recognize that their relationship with their landlord is a business relationship,” he said. “In every business relationship, each side has strengths and weaknesses, each side has tools that they can use to try to win.”
Cooking Up Success at Youthbuild
/0 Comments/in News, Uncategorized /by competenowBy Soben Pin | June 22, 2021 KHMER POST
“They’re hungry all the time. It was amazing when we started to serve breakfast, kids started to show up, then they wanted to do their math homework and wanted to work,” said Siobhan Sheehan, YouthBuild Program Manager of Community Teamwork, Inc.
Students from left to right: Misael Bruno, Zachary Saphangthong, Jasmine Touch, Siobhan Sheehan, YouthBuild Program Manager, and Anna Jabar-Omoyeni, Culinary Art Instructor. Photo by Soben Pin.
The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor since 2018, providing troubled youths an alternative path to job skills, while completing their GED equivalent certificate called “HISET.” It is considered a vocational training program, specifically targeting young people ages 16-24 who dropped out from high school, or are struggling to complete their traditional high school diploma, and in many cases also ran into trouble with the law.
Siobhan Sheehan, Youthbuild Program Manager of Community Teamwork, Inc.
“Lowell High School is a very tough place to be” said Siobhan. “It is very hard to be among 4,000 other kids, you get shuffled in these numbers and you easily get lost. When kids have trouble at home, single parents who owes back rents, it puts pressure on these young people, they are hungry and worry about if they’ll become homeless. They have no one to turn to. We’re grateful for our parent organization, CTI — Community Teamwork Inc which has temporary shelter assistance if needed and rental assistance. We are able to help some of our kids get through it by coordinating between units and help their families” added Siobhan.
While at YouthBuild, a vocational training program which runs for one year with each cohort of about 20-25 young adults, they learn carpentry and culinary skills. Today, I visited the first state-of-the art kitchen that was recently finished. It is funded by Cummings grants that allowed the program to extend into serving the students lunch. “It makes a real impact on them and you can see it every day” said Anna Jabar-Omoyeni, Culinary Art Instructor. “It’s one thing to come here to learn, it’s another when you break bread together, it creates the type of bond that gives them a sense of family.” Anna who owned the famous La Boniche, a French cuisine in downtown Lowell on Merrimack Street that operated for 27 years. In 2014, she closed the restaurant. “I was blessed to do what I did for a long time but when you get to that age, (50), you know you couldn’t do it too much longer,” so Anna worked as a catering chef for two years before coming to CTI in 2018. “Working with these young people, it feels like this is what my lifetime work was meant to be, passing on my knowledge to the next generation. It’s fun and rewarding to see their transformation on a daily basis” said Anna.
Anna Jabar-Omoyeni, Culinary Art Instructor.
With Anna, they learn how to debone a chicken, how to peel the onions in a professional way, aging the food, safety in food handling and sanitization. Every day they cook a different meal based on the menu chosen for that day. As part of the program, they also do community service by cooking for homeless shelters and charities.
Every week on Monday morning, they would pick up fresh produce for the week from the Merrimack Valley Food Bank. On the day I visited, a Thursday at noon, food was prepared for St. Paul Charities. They made pasta, individually wrap 75 hot meals and deliver to Elliott Church at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
“The kids learn about the value of being a part of the community,” said Siobhan. “They went on the wrong path because they don’t feel the attachment to the community. This is where the carpentry program became very successful — attaching them to the community by helping build low-income family homes for Habitats for Humanity, and building garden beds for the community. “They feel proud and take ownership of what they have done for their neighborhood. They tell their friends and families that ‘I did that’” said Siobhan.
Today I met with Misael Bruno, 19, who has completed the program and now interning at Tremont Pizza in downtown Lowell. “It wasn’t that hard” he said. “They just show me how they do their sauce and the way they make pizza dough,” Anna glanced him with a smile and said “it’s not hard, huh”. Misael added with a confidence, “I think I’ll be likely to get hired after the internship.”
Misael Bruno, 19.
“When kids graduate from the program, they earn a ServSafe Manager certificate (OSHA 10) that allows them to sufficiently manage a kitchen, so it gives them an edge. The first student interned at Tremont Pizza, first started as a dishwasher, but when they found out he had this certificate, he was promoted to the kitchen right away” said Siobhan. “We’re thankful for this grant that allows us to pay the students a stipend to work with their potential employer, where they will learn the work ethics and the scopes of their working environment before getting the real job.”
The internship is from 4-6 weeks, 18 hours per week. Students also receive a small stipend of $240 every two weeks for participating in the one year training program. “We train them to have ‘mental toughness’, there are timesheet which they have to clock in and out, coming to work on time or no pay for no show, they have to show that they want it for themselves too, then we see if we’re a good match” added Siobhan. “I had them wear an overall during the first year because they didn’t dress properly for the workplace. We train them for a job in the real world.” As part of the program, they also do math and reading as part of their academic work and have to pass an exam to earn their HISET certificate.
One of the students, Jasmine Touch, is interning at Andiamo Restaurant & Bakery in Andover because she likes to bake. She worked at four Dunkin Donuts stores before and intends to use her training to further her culinary interest.
The 3rd student, Zachary Saphangthong, who is making pasta sauce during my visit, was named Junior Chief because he is good with his cooking. “We also know he is smart, but he intentionally failed the test several times so he can stay on the program. His story made me cry” said Siobhan.
Zackary Saphangthong, 19.
He appeared in black jeans, worn low on his bottom, a cap turned to the side, and tattoos on his arms. Siobhan gave him a signal, he pulled up his pants and turn his cap, and put his mask on before entering the kitchen. A young handsome man indeed when the cap was turned to the front. He was open to tell me his story of why and how he found his path at YouthBuild.
“I ran into trouble with the law when I was 13. I got arrested for assault and battery and trespassing. I was under house arrest from 13-15”. At 15, Zackary was on the run, bouncing from house to house, selling illegal guns, he got caught and had to choose between going to jail or do community service. His choice was to do community service. After a few months at YouthBuild, he told Siobhan that he wanted a better life and wanted out of the gang life. That’s where his new journey started. Zackary is now 19 and is a Junior Chief working alongside with Anna. With help from the program, he got his driver license and saved enough money to buy his own car. He plans to attend Middlesex Community College in the fall to pursue an engineering major.
“Most kids here travel by foot. Most jobs require you to have a driver license and a car. It is nearly $1000 to help a student get their driver license which many kids can’t afford. It’s the poverty, when you don’t have that extra money it’s very hard to get a jump start. We are able to help 12 youths get their driver licenses, a few have jobs in Boston, others in other cities” said Siobhan.
The kitchen can hold up to six students at a time. Currently Anna teaches 12 students. They break into two groups and alternate daily. Six students per group. One day they do academics, the other they work in the kitchen. Beside making hot meals for local food pantries, they also have an opportunity to work alongside with Anna to provide state-of-art cooking and catering to many local events and fundraisers. It is the social enterprise part of the Culinary Art Program here at YouthBuild that is distinctive like no others. Anna catered 78 events in one year alone with her students prior to Covid-19. The largest party they served had 500 guests. “Next week, they will cater the Lowell House Open House cocktail party in which they get to dress up and serve in style” said Anna with excitement.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS – INSTALLATION OF SIDEWALK AND REPAIR/REPLACEMENT OF BITUMINOUS CONCRETE OF ITS PARKING LOT AND DRIVEWAY OF TWO ELEVATORS – Licensed Contractors Only
/0 Comments/in News, Uncategorized /by competenowCommunity Teamwork, Inc. (CTI) is requesting proposals from qualified, licensed contractors for the installation of a sidewalk and repair and replacement of bituminous concrete of its parking lot and driveway of two elevators located at 126 Phoenix Avenue in Lowell, MA. Specifications with instructions for interested contractors are available on request from: Phyllis Marion, Purchasing Coordinator, Community Teamwork, Inc. 155 Merrimack St. 2nd Floor, Lowell, MA 01852 pmarion@commteam.org 978-654-5656
All required submissions must be received no later than 1:00 PM on August 18, 2021. Community Teamwork, Inc. reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals not deemed in the best interest of Community Teamwork, Inc. This notice is provided for informational purposes only, applicants shall be subject in all respects to the terms and conditions contained in the actual request for proposals. CTI is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus Presentation
/0 Comments/in News, Uncategorized /by competenowLowell is first stop for pols on tour COVID-19 RECOVERY
7/19/2021 – By Prudence Brighton Correspondent
State legislators visiting LOWELL » Lowell Friday heard from local leaders about the challenges their agencies faced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the state can help with recovery. The Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus, which is chaired by Sen. Eric Lesser, a Democrat from Longmeadow, and Rep. Antonio Cabral, a Democrat from New Bedford, made Lowell the first stop in a three- city tour of communities along Interstate 495. In addition to Lowell, the group stopped in Methuen and Lawrence.
State Sen. Edward Kennedy of Lowell hosted his colleagues and agency leaders at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub on Canal Street. Other area legislators were also present to hear about what is needed to recover from the pandemic.
A common thread through the comments of agency leaders was team members stepping up and doing herculean work to keep serving their populations. That includes Lowell’s diversity and the challenge that serving a city where more than 70 languages are spoken presents.
School Superintendent Joel Boyd gave a detailed presentation of the school departments’ response to what he called an “unprecedented year in public education.”
Despite the health crisis, the school department was “able to meet or exceed every goal and target we established at the beginning of the year.”
Boyd said, “Schools were in need of extra help even prior to the pandemic. The pandemic exposed a higher need.” He reminded the legislators that when schools closed in mid-March, they were expected to reopen in two weeks.
That time frame kept changing and it was just two months before the start of the school year that it Salaries paid to child care workers are not enough, according to Frederick. She talked about a housing crisis in the region in both rental or owned properties. In Lowell, rentals were taking 52% of income and in Lawrence 58%.
She called rental assistance “staggering.” The figure for Lowell is $ 8.4 million; for Lawrence, $ 6.4 million; and $ 1.8 million for Methuen, she said.
Lowell Community Health Center Executive Director Susan Levine also spoke about her team’s quick response when the lockdown hit in March 2020, “During the pandemic, our team stepped up under extraordinary circumstances. Within 48 hours of the lockdown we had a virtual appointment system up and running. We quickly focused on providing COVID testing — and we provided critical access to vaccines as soon as they became available.” The Community Health Center offers services to roughly 50,000 people each year and 41% of them are best served in a language other than English, according to Levine.
The Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus is traveling to all 26 municipalities. Friday’s trip was the second the legislators have made. The first was to Malden, Revere and Chelsea.
Midsized urban centers are considered “gateway cities,” mid- sized urban centers that anchor Lowell is first stop for pols on tour became apparent that significant changes would be necessary. The normal timeline for designing a new program in education is six months, according to Boyd. We had to design three new systems of public education in two months.” The school year was shortened by 10 instructional days. But right now there is “no way to fully measure the impact” of curtailing the school year. Some students reported doing better with remote learning, but more struggled with it.
“The impact of COVID19 has been found to be more significant for some students and more moderate for others with that impact ranging from academic challenges to social and emotional wellness,” he said.
“Addressing these impacts require school- based resources that can be tailored by school communities to meet the individual needs of each child,” Boyd told the legislators.
These needs include non- instructional needs of students. For example, some schools require “upgrades to create classroom environments that are more conducive to teaching and learning now and into the future.”
CTI Executive Director Karen Frederick told the legislators, “We were able to keep our programs going. We never lost one day of service.”
But there were new challenges.
Families couldn’t get to food,” Frederick said. So CTI carried it to people, providing “724 meals daily.”
Just as Boyd said the pandemic made systemic issues more visible, Frederick said, “child care was in crisis before the pandemic.” regional economies with social and economic challenges.
At the Gateway Cities event in Lowell Friday, Christine McCall, the city’s top economic development official, speaks to the panel as state Sen. Edward Kennedy, standing, listens.
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Karyn Polito meets with Lowell small business owners to discuss American Rescue Plan recovery
/0 Comments/in News, Uncategorized /by competenowLt. Gov. Karyn Polito sat down with a half-dozen Lowell business owners inside Olympia Restaurant on Wednesday, July 15, 2021 to open a discussion about the best ways the state can use $450 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to jumpstart economic recovery across Massachusetts.
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L-R: Representative Golden, City Manager Eileen Donoghue, Lt. Governor Polito and Secretary Mike Keneally
LOWELL — Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito sat down with a half-dozen Lowell business owners on Wednesday morning to open a discussion about the best ways the state can use $450 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds to jumpstart economic recovery across Massachusetts.
The event marked her first stop on a statewide tour of small businesses and downtown areas, which will continue throughout the summer and will include visits to about two dozen city and town centers.
“Today is a way for us to get into the community and touch base to try to figure out what the next steps are,” Polito told the Sun. “We’ve put a lot of federal dollars into play to help these businesses stay afloat over the course of this past year, and now we want to make sure that they rebound and continue to be successful.”
In June, the Baker-Polito administration filed a plan to promptly spend $2.9 billion of the state’s ARPA funds on existing, proven programs to support key recovery priorities, including housing and homeownership, economic development and local downtowns, job training and workforce development, health care and infrastructure. The proposal expressly targets support for lower-wage workers and communities of color.
Included in the plan is $450 million for economic development, $100 million of which will be used specifically for downtown development, $250 million of which will support “investments and regional collaboration” aimed at invigorating downtowns and the final $100 million will be designated for supporting cultural facilities and tourism assets.
“We want to make sure that we are allocating the resources that we have authorized both in our economic development bill and the federal funds to make sure that we are reaching small, micro-businesses, minority-owned businesses, female-owned businesses, downtown businesses, so that we can continue to see them succeed,” Polito said. “It’s really important that they continue to be operational, because they are part of the fabric of the community.”
Wednesday’s round-table discussion was held at Olympia Restaurant, where the owners of businesses including Lowell Culinary, Humanity Boutique and Cobblestones of Lowell highlighted what they see as the biggest challenges that stand in the way of a thriving Lowell economy: affordable housing, a lack of on-the-job training and, particularly, workforce shortages.
“We’ve had four managers leave — two of them went to FedEx, one went to Amazon, and another is just trying to figure out what they want to do — so I think a lot of people are taking the time to re-evaluate what they want to do, and it leaves us struggling with, ‘where is our workforce going to come from?’ That’s the big question,” said Kathleen Plath, co-owner of Cobblestones of Lowell.
“We need to go from crisis mode to vision mode,” added Fred Faust, president of the local real estate company the Edge Group.
With Wednesday’s discussion being a jumping off point for the Baker administration, no concrete solutions to the issues mentioned were uncovered, however the business owners and city officials told Polito that they were grateful that she and Baker are keeping them in mind.
“Your visit today reaffirms the support that the administration has given us during the pandemic, and we look forward to working to get more relief and more support, so that we can make the wonderful lifetime investments that are going to benefit small businesses and the community as a whole,” said City Manager Eileen Donoghue.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL – ELEVATOR MODERNIZATION (2) – Licensed Contractors Only
/0 Comments/in News, Uncategorized /by competenowCommunity Teamwork, Inc. (CTI) is requesting proposals from qualified, licensed contractors for the Elevator Modernization of two elevators located at 126 Phoenix Avenue in Lowell, MA. Specifications with instructions for interested contractors are available on request from: Phyllis Marion, Purchasing Coordinator, Community Teamwork, Inc. 155 Merrimack St. 2nd Floor, Lowell, MA 01852 pmarion@commteam.org 978-654-5656
All required submissions must be received no later than 1:00 PM on August 16, 2021. Community Teamwork, Inc. reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals not deemed in the best interest of Community Teamwork, Inc. This notice is provided for informational purposes only, applicants shall be subject in all respects to the terms and conditions contained in the actual request for proposals. CTI is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
CTI Community Needs Assessment underscores need for affordable housing in Greater Lowell
/0 Comments/in News, Uncategorized /by competenowLOWELL — In at least three Greater Lowell communities, more than half of renters are what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers rent-burdened, meaning they spend 30% or more of their household income on rent.
By ALANA MELANSON | amelanson@lowellsun.com | Lowell Sun PUBLISHED: June 21, 2021 at 5:42 p.m. | UPDATED: June 21, 2021 at 5:43 p.m.
View full article with graphs on the Lowell Sun CTI Community Needs Assessment underscores need for affordable housing in Greater Lowell
or on our website https://bit.ly/3x0FDXC
In Lowell, it’s 55% of renters, in Tewksbury 53% and in Dracut 51%. Chelmsford and Billerica aren’t that far behind, at 45% and 43%, respectively.
The median gross rent for a two-bedroom apartment is highest in Westford at $1,940 and lowest in Tyngsboro at $1,115, but good luck finding an available apartment in a town with an effective 0% rental vacancy rate.
Since 2010, the rental vacancy rate across the region has dropped significantly, even with modest increases in total rental housing stock in communities like Billerica, Lowell and Westford, showing the demand far has outpaced the growth.
Even in Lowell — which has the greatest ratio of rentals at 58% of total housing units — the vacancy rate is only 5%. Every other Greater Lowell community is well below the state average of 38% of housing units occupied by renters, with most ranging about half that amount or less, creating a rental scarcity across the region.
These were among the findings of Community Teamwork Inc.’s 2021 Community Needs Assessment, underscoring the region’s need for more affordable housing.
“People need it, and the community does not have enough of it,” said CTI Director of Planning and Quality Improvement Ann Sirois.
CTI conducts a community needs assessment every three years as part of its strategic planning process.
“We do a whole host of things, but a big piece of it is really sitting down and trying to gather data directly from the community to try to find out what it is that everyone around here says that they need and what they think their neighbors need,” Sirois said.
She said CTI received nearly 1,500 responses directly from community members, interviewed 19 key informants from 17 organizations, conducted 18 focus groups with 133 different people and used publicly available data from a number of state and federal agencies.
The data collection began in fall 2019 and was wrapping up in early spring 2020 just before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Sirois said. With so much changing over the course of 2020 due to the pandemic — including a huge jump in the unemployment rate from 3.5% to 20% — as well as the national conversation on racism, these factors necessitated additional analysis of the impact of both on poverty that was also included in the report, she said.
Sirois said it wasn’t a surprise that there is a housing crisis in Massachusetts and the region, and talking to community members helped to determine what they need in order to get appropriate housing: better-paying jobs, education and training to obtain and sustain those jobs, affordable child care, medical and behavioral health care and transportation.
With so many people in the area dedicating large shares of their incomes to housing costs, it means many were at risk of a minor emergency jeopardizing their ability to pay their rent, and homelessness as a result — even before the pandemic, she said.
“Then, of course, we saw COVID hit, which was an extremely huge emergency,” Sirois said.
The lack of affordable housing has been an issue across the state. Several weeks ago Gov. Charlie Baker signed “An Act Financing the Production and Preservation of Housing for Low and Moderate Income Residents” to ensure long-term support for the Baker administration’s efforts to increase the production of affordable housing, diversify the state’s housing portfolio, modernize public housing, preserve the affordability of existing housing and invest in new, innovative solutions to address Massachusetts’ rising demand for housing.
The region’s aging housing stock and quality is also problematic, especially for families with young children, Sirois said. All units built before 1979 must be deleaded to house children age 6 and below and many owners don’t take on the costly process, often preventing families from renting available units. This problem is most prevalent in Lowell, one of the region’s more affordable communities, where 82% of units were built before 1980.
“In virtually every area, Lowell has the most significant needs,” Sirois said.
CTI Director of Development and Marketing Kathleen Plath said it’s particularly difficult to create affordable housing in Lowell because it’s not advantageous for developers unless the project is of a significant size, like 40 units. She said more attention needs to be given to assisting smaller developers and multifamily building owners to improve the quality of the overall housing stock.
CEO Karen Frederick said CTI often hears of many young people who graduate from UMass Lowell and Middlesex Community College and can’t afford to live in the region because the cost of rent is so high.
“We want to make sure there’s housing for everybody — for people starting off their careers, for seniors,” she said. “Affordable housing for seniors is critical as baby boomers continue to age into retirement, and for families, where there’s already been a critical shortage.”
While the assessment covers many diverse needs, Sirois and Frederick said one of the areas they were surprised to see consistently pop up in conversations was the need for more after-school and summer programming for older children — and this was before the child-care crisis that resulted from pandemic-related shutdowns, Plath said.
As communities start to look at how to best use their federal American Rescue Plan funding, the Community Needs Assessment can offer ideas of where to direct that money and address those needs, Plath said. She said CTI will engage with its partner organizations, municipal governments and school districts to share the results and encourage investment in the areas of highest need.
Frederick said CTI hopes people and institutions will take a look at the information in the assessment and that it will be “well used.”
“I have always believed in the power of the collective work, and if we work on things together, we’ll make progress,” she said.
One such organization that has already put CTI’s Community Needs Assessment findings into action is the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.
President and CEO Jay Linnehan said he used the previous assessment to help direct philanthropy within the foundation, and he will do the same with the new set of information as well, including a funders’ meeting focused on combatting youth food insecurity this week.
He said the pandemic in particular really brought to light how many people in the area are living “close to the edge” and their critical needs that must be met.
“The thing that a community foundation is all about is being boots-on-the-ground philanthropy in the community that you serve, and so it’s really important from my perspective to understand the needs of the community, and that needs assessment does that,” Linnehan said. housing
CTI Community Needs Assessment underscores need for affordable housing in Greater Lowell
Community Teamwork awarded $100,000 Cummings Grant
/0 Comments/in News, Uncategorized /by competenowLowell Nonprofit receives 3 years of funding from Cummings Foundation
Lowell, May 27, 2021 – Community Teamwork is one of 140 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 to $500,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s $25 Million Grant Program. The Lowell-based organization was chosen from a total of 590 applicants, during a competitive review process.
As a Community Action Agency, a Regional Housing Agency, and a Community Development Corporation, CTI helps nearly more than 54,000 individuals from 64 cities and towns in northeastern Massachusetts gain greater economic independence.
“We are beyond thrilled to receive this grant from the Cummings foundation. These funds will enable our YouthBuild organization to continue to train at-risk youth in the culinary arts and prepare them for future careers in the local hospitality industry, which is experiencing a serious labor shortage. We could not carry out our mission without the generosity of people like Joyce and Bill Cummings.”, stated Karen Frederick, Chief Executive Officer.
Community Teamwork will use the funding from the Cummings Foundation, to support its Culinary Arts Vocational Tract for at-risk youth interested in entering the hospitality industry. After a recent successful capital campaign, Community Teamwork was able to install a new state of the art commercial kitchen at its Youth Opportunity Center at 167 Dutton Street. Using the new funding Community Teamwork will be able to expand and solidify its catering program, with the goal of creating a YouthBuild Lowell Social Enterprise Catering Business, which will build on the solid customer base YouthBuild has created over the past couple of years. In addition, the creation of a YouthBuild Lowell Catering Business will offer additional work experience for its participants, provide financial education, and increased technical and soft skills to help increase their ability to be thrive and work in the private sector, once ready.
The Cummings $25Million Grant Program supports Massachusetts nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties.
Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings Properties. This Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 10 million square feet of debt-free space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.
“We aim to help meet the needs of people in all segments of our local community,” said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s Executive Director. “It is the incredible organizations we fund, however, that do the actual daily work to empower our neighbors, educate our children, fight for equity, and so much more.”
With the help of about 80 volunteers, the Foundation first identified 140 organizations to receive grants of at least $100,000 each. Among the winners were first-time recipients as well as nonprofits that had previously received Cummings Foundation grants.
“We have adopted a democratic approach to philanthropy, which empowers and impressive roster of dedicated volunteers to decide more than half of all our grant winners each year,” said Swets. “We benefit from their diverse backgrounds and perspectives; they benefit from a meaningful and fulfilling experience; and the nonprofits often benefit from increased exposure and new advocates.”
This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including social justice, homelessness prevention, affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. The nonprofits are spread across 43 different cities and towns. The following Lowell-based organizations received $100,000 grants from the Cummings Foundation: Community Teamwork, Inc., Merrimack Valley Food Bank, and Middlesex Community College Foundation. Mill City Grows is the only Lowell-based organization to receive a 10-year grant.
The complete list of 140 grant winners, plus more than 800 previous recipients, is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $300 million to greater Boston nonprofits.
About Community Teamwork
Community Teamwork is a catalyst for social change. Our driving mission is to help people help themselves with child care, family supports, nutrition, fuel assistance, housing, skills training, employment, financial education, and individual asset and small business development. As a Community Action Agency, a Regional Housing Agency, and a Community Development Corporation, Community Teamwork helps nearly 54,000 individuals from 71 cities and towns in northeastern Massachusetts gain greater economic independence.
About Cummings Foundation
Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings and has grown to be one of the three largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities in Marlborough and Woburn, and Veterinary School at Tufts, LLC in North Grafton. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
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For Immediate Release
May 27, 2021
Media Contact:
Alison Harding Cummings Foundation 781-932-7093
Media Contact:
Julia Ripa
978-654-5628