SPRINGFIELD/CHICOPEE – The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts has awarded over $800,000 in grants to 18 nonprofit organizations in the region. The grants will work to provide direct financial assistance and support to non-English speaking and immigrant individuals and families who are impacted by COVID-19. Several of the organizations receiving grant money are in both Chicopee and Springfield.

One Chicopee organization receiving help from The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts is the Valley Opportunity Council (VOC). Melissa White, director of programs at VOC, said that this grant will provide direct and immediate assistance to those struggling with rent and mortgage payments.

White said that VOC has seen an increased need during the past year due to COVID-19. Many families who have never had to use their services before are now struggling to make ends meet due to lost jobs or reduced hours.

VOC’s rent and mortgage assistance program is for those who need help paying rent or mortgage during this time. It provides help with payments and also intensive case management and collaboration with a landlord or the bank to come up with a plan to help the household get back on track, said White.

“This program is new and was started due to the pandemic. The Community Foundation has been a huge support for this program. We received an initial grant in the summer that also supported the program so we were also able to support 21 households with $50,000 at that time,” she said. “The Community Foundation is really great to work with. Their focus is on supporting the Greater Hampden Country area. They’re really flexible in terms of the funding and it allows us to be able to support a lot of households.”

Another local nonprofit who received The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts grant is the Community Upliftment Program. The organization was established in 2017 and works to provide the Nepali community with citizenship, English classes and more.

Subash Majhi, principal CEO of the Community Upliftment Program, said the funds will be used to support their current clients. Majhi said the organization received around $20,000 from this grant during the first week of March. The program currently has 38 clients and the money will be divided among them.

“We divided money for each client and we are giving this check for utilities and house rent for those who were affected by COVID-19,” said Majhi.

Home City Development will also be using the grant money received from The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts to help their residents with rent. A majority of Home City Development properties throughout the city of Springfield are low income housing. 

According to Waleska Estrada, portfolio manager for the Home City Development, many of their residents have struggled in the past year with COVID-19.

“We saw so many people losing employment or having hours reduced and there was a real struggle to keep up with the expenses of staying housed. So that’s why we made the effort of reaching out to any community agencies that could help in order to ensure that our tenants stayed housed. We’re not in the business to evict tenants, it’s the last thing we want to do, however as a landlord we also have expenses that we have to maintain. So definitely the help from The Community Foundation was much needed,” she said.

The grant money will be used to help residents with rent arrearages.

“The grant was designed to assist individuals who were impacted by COVID-19 who may have lost their employment or have reduced hours of work and, as a result, are having a difficult time being re-employed because of limited English proficiency and such,” said Estrada.

Home City Development has identified these individuals and is working to help them keep their housing and pay off debt, according to Estrada.

“We’ve seen tenants that have lost their jobs and they’ve applied for RAFT and they’re waiting to get that decision made and they’re falling behind. There’s other tenants that don’t even qualify for that and they’re falling behind, so there’s different factors that have impacted them because of the pandemic,” she said.

Holyoke/Chicopee/Springfield Head Start has also received grant money from The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. The funds will be used to help the migrant families in their program.

“We really enjoy working with our migrant families. They work very hard,” said Janis Santos, CEO of Head Start.

Two of the top needs for these migrant families over the past year have been emergency food and technology. Many families did not have access to technology or did not have enough computers in their home during the pandemic.

“We thought it was a great opportunity for us to write for the migrant program and really target those two areas and really be able to provide those services to our migrant families,” said Lori A. Chaves, director of Family Services.

Head Start has received $12,000 from the grant and will work to alleviate both the technology issues and the food insecurity these families have faced due to COVID-19. Given their reliability and reputation, Chaves said the families will be thankful for this help from Head Start.

“I think one of the key things with the underserved population is about trust. Sometimes the migrant families are in an isolated group and they really only trust certain agencies and I think because we’ve been around since 2004, we are a well-established agency with the migrant population. So I believe the dollars coming straight from our agency being able to support the families will really go a long way,” she said.

According to Katie Zobel, president and CEO of The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, they are proud to be able to help these organizations during such a difficult year.

“We are grateful to the state legislature for partnering with us to distribute funds immediately to organizations serving our immigrant communities. These organizations are trusted providers to many individuals and families that were ineligible or unable to access federal benefits or whose needs are evolving as this health and economic crisis continues,” she said in a press release. “Trust is essential for those who may be reluctant to seek assistance, including undocumented immigrants, so the Foundation is proud to partner with community organizations who have built that trust.”