Fall 2023
Dear Friends of the Brick House,
I hope the summer has been good for you! Life has been busy at the Brick House. In the past two years we’ve installed a new roof, laid down new flooring, built a new music studio and created a quiet room for teens to decompress, thanks to the generosity of supporters like you.
Our teen center has been well-attended, with over 100 youth participating, and the joyful noise of young people enjoying our programming has been wonderful to hear, even when I am chained to my desk with other tasks. Our first year of Project Amp, a prevention/early intervention mentorship program funded by the MA Department of Public Health, has been a resounding success! We are happily returning to Mohawk Trail Regional School, and will be expanding this program this year to more schools in Franklin County.
Our Parents and Families program is preparing a fall season of events. We will continue hosting open hours on Tuesdays to connect people with resources. Our Coffee Hour / Hora del Café will continue every Thursday and Parenting Together will be twice a month on Mondays. We also hosted a family game night this summer that was well attended. We plan to host more of these events this fall.
We will also be conducting needs assessments for our programming and the community at large. This will include surveys, focus groups, key stakeholder interviews, and community listening sessions. We hope you will participate in this process. The better we understand community needs, the more effectively we can serve the people of Turners Falls, Montague, and Franklin County as a whole.
One issue that has been painfully apparent this summer is the rising economic stress for at-risk people in the area. As you know, housing affordability and living costs have been a growing concern in our region. Adding to the challenge, we are experiencing an influx of migrants pushed north from states like Florida and Texas. Our local farmworkers have also lost income due to the heavy rains, and many other people across the region are struggling to make ends meet. To address this crisis, we are looking to expand our capacity to provide basic needs support for the at-risk population in the Turners Falls area.
To better address this crisis, we are hiring a new Parents and Families Coordinator. Their main role will be connecting those in need with basic resources, and expanding our capacity to provide assistance. But to do that we also need your help. While grants pay for our staff, we still need more funds to help people with food, as well as with gas, diapers, toiletries, rent, and energy bills, items not supported by our grants or state contracts.
We hope to see all of you at the Brick House in the near future, and look forward to your input in our assessment process. Thank you for your continued support. Without you, all of this would not be possible. Your contributions make all the difference.
Be well,
Tom Taaffe, PhD
Executive Director
Brick House Community Resource Center
ttaaffe@brickhousecommunity.org