This year, Berkshire United Way is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Originally known as the Pittsfield Community Fund Association, the nonprofit pools local philanthropic efforts and directs it towards pressing needs in the community. This afternoon, it kicks off its centennial with a celebration at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts featuring remarks from Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Dr. Frances Jones-Sneed. Former North Adams Mayor Tom Bernard became the organization’s President and CEO in 2022. He tells WAMC that the non-profit undertook a community survey to help shape its mission for the century ahead.
BERNARD: Unsurprisingly, we know that income inequality and the struggle folks have to meet their basic needs is top of mind for a lot of folks. Coming out of the out of the pandemic, but just across the board, we just know that there's needs for mental health and behavioral health supports because of economic conditions, ongoing stress or mental health challenges, substance abuse challenges, violence in the family, and there's just not enough intervention available to support those. And the thing that really came up was, as grateful as the community was for the work that we did during the pandemic, one of the things that we pulled back on was our role as a collaborative leader, in that role of convening and bringing people together, and people were hungry for us to reestablish that role. And that's something we've done over the past few years. So, taking that data and conversations with our board, staff, and funded partners, we're going to be reframing our funding priorities and focusing on school and career readiness, we're going to be focusing really deeply on mental health, which is a new area for us to forefront and highlight. It's certainly been embedded in a lot of the work we do, but what we heard really clearly from community partners and from our board is the mental health struggle in the Berkshires is strong. It's connected to substance misuse and recovery. And it's a space that as we move into it, we will do it with a lot of humility, and we know we have a lot to learn, and not to presume that we have solutions, but wanting to partner with the community to support everyone. And then it all builds towards household stability, that equitable access to economic prosperity. So, we'll continue to do volunteer work that focuses on food security and providing clothing. We did a great event back in January that distributed clothes to 500 or 600 people. We are not, and nor do I expect us to become, a housing agency, but we really want to partner with the folks in the community and throughout Western Mass who are focused on housing. We know it's a deep, deep crisis, and we want to be there to partner with advocacy efforts where we can. And then, the work that we do in career and workforce development is going to become stronger, as is- We've done work with community navigation and expanding that where we can, to strengthening the infrastructure for financial coaching in the region. So, when you take all that together, our vision is one of a community where everyone thrives.
WAMC: When you talk about, say, entering the mental health world or entering the housing world, break it down for us on a systematic level. Like, you turn your attention to this topic as the Berkshire United Way- What happens next? What translates that into material benefits for folks in the community?
One of the first things is, we are a member of the Mass 211 Call to Talk network, which is your free access line that connects people to whatever services the supports they need. It's a great system across Massachusetts, and it's underused here in the Berkshire. So, we want to, working at the state level, strengthen that system to know that when people need Call to Talk or the 988 suicide prevention line, which is also connected, that they're getting connected to that, what can be lifesaving support in a moment of crisis. So, we have a tool, we're going to hone to a point where it works as well as it can, we're going to- This is why I said, you know, doing learning. We really want to do a landscape analysis of what's happening in the mental health and substance spaces here in Berkshire County, so that we can understand what role people need us to play. And I think it will first be part of this work that we do, this this convening, networking, organizational capacity building, because whether you're talking about mental health or early childhood education or pathways for young adults or household stability, one of the things we know is that we work with incredible organizations throughout the Berkshires. We work with about 28 different organizations, and they all do this amazing mission-focused work. And one of the things that we add in addition to the direct investments that we make in our partners in the community is creating space for building networks, building a place where people can come together and problem solve, and do that work that they can't necessarily do in their day-to-day work serving the people that they serve because they’re head down and the demands are so heavy. And to that point, and going back into the education and youth development space, one of the things that we see as really critical is supporting not just programs and not just the early education, which is foundational to so much that happens as young people get into school, as they move through life, is knowing that we need to do a better job, all of us, in supporting the early childhood educators, the mental health professionals, the folks who are on the front line, who are dealing with the challenges in the community who may be experiencing burnout, who may be experiencing their own stress, because these are professionals but they're also people with lives and families and rent payments and car repairs and healthcare issues. Those supports aren't always there as well. So, making sure that we're supporting the educators, and one of the ways that we've been able to do that is working with early childcare providers and with Representative [Tricia] Farley-Bouvier is to start doing some really focused advocacy at the state level with Department of Early Education and Care to really start to shift reimbursement rates and make sure that there are rich, robust, relevant professional development opportunities. There is a lot of regional inequity in how those supports are provided to these incredible folks doing this critical foundational work here in the Berkshires.
