Latest news with #FoodBankofWesternMassachusetts
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Springfield WORKS program allows people to move up in career by filling in gap from lost benefits
SPRINGFIELD – Joelene Christmas did all the things she needed to get ahead: She earned a degree Holyoke Community College and excelled in a job in its line cook program. But when she was offered a promotion to become an event planner, she felt she had to turn it down. 'I said, if I take this promotion I could lose my subsidized housing,' she said. 'The promotion doesn't pay me enough.' Welcome to the 'cliff effect' that puts people who are working low-wage jobs in a quandary. They do everything to get ahead but when they have an opportunity for promotion, being put in a higher income bracket means they can lose needed subsidies for child care, housing and health care which can't be made up. Christmas did take the job and lost $200 a month in food stamps, but her children aren't going hungry because a new initiative led by Springfield WORKS called Bridge to Prosperity is helping her make up the difference. That now gives her a chance to earn more and develop the job experience to move up the career ladder. 'It is difficult to make ends meet,' she said. 'I feel trapped and I don't like feeling trapped …I want to move forward, I just don't know how.' The Cliff Effect Program has been years in the making and was kicked off in February with a total of 18 clients statewide including seven in Western Massachusetts, said Anne Shecrallah Kandilis, initiative director for Springfield WORKS. The cliff effect doesn't just keep people from gaining financial independence, it also leaves employers unable to promote good workers into positions with more responsibility, she said. People often think of benefits for housing, child care, food stamps and health care as a package but they are each granted individually and have their own income thresholds so it is difficult to sort through the loss of finances. The pilot program essentially provides people the extra money and other assistance that allows them to jump from a $16- or $17-an-hour job to one that may earn $20 or $25 an hour and fills in the gaps for lost benefits until they move ahead again and become financially independent, she said. 'We want to help people in low wage jobs who want a career,' Kandilis said. 'It is about identifying people who might be ready.' The project took years to create and is done in partnership with at least 14 agencies and funders including the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, United Way of Pioneer Valley, the Massachusetts Economic Pathways Coalition and the MassMutual Foundation. It has now secured about $2.6 million, some of it in state money with the help of Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, and Reps. Carlos Gonzalez, D-Springfield, and Patricia Duffy, D-Holyoke. It is now working to raise another $2.6 million so it can grow to 100 people by the end of the year, Kandilis said. Gomez called the program a transition to economic independence that makes sense. 'The cliff effect is one of the barriers and a structural flaw in our system that penalizes progress,' Gomez said. 'Families who are doing everything right, working, advancing, striving find themselves worse off.' While the program provides financial support to make up for lost benefits, it also assists with individualized job coaching and help with financial management. In two years, clients also receive a $10,000 asset building payment to support life-changing investments such as purchasing a car or finding a better place to live, said Kristen Joyce, program director for the Cliff Effect Program. The program is very individualized so that it helps people with what they need. For example, Rachel Keenan, who works at Baystate Medical Center in the business department, has now applied to a hospital-sponsored nursing training program through Holyoke Community College so she can become a nurse. In the meantime, the Cliff Effect Program is assisting her with paying health insurance premiums which increased as she received a raise. Keenan inherited a house from her parents but the roof is failing and if she doesn't replace it, she could lose her insurance. Cliff Effect is helping her replace the roof so she has an affordable and safe home and can build equity that way. 'It has been a huge help. The roof will make a huge difference,' she said. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Valley groups aim to walk people back from financial cliff with new program
SPRINGFIELD — Springfield WORKS and United Way Pioneer Valley will host a celebration Thursday for the Bridge to Prosperity Cliff Effect Pilot Program launch. A community initiative of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, this pilot program is designed to tackle the 'cliff effect,' which occurs when families experience a sudden loss of public benefits when their income rises, often leaving them financially worse off despite earning more. The initiative is crafted in collaboration with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The event will feature remarks from speakers including state Sen. Adam Gomez and state Rep. Patricia Duffy, and a moderated discussion with pilot program participants. The event will be held 12 to 1:30 p.m. at the TD Bank Building, 1441 Main St. 'Many people in our region work hard to lift their incomes but lose crucial benefits too soon, preventing them from earning a living wage. The Bridge to Prosperity Pilot bridges that gap by providing cash payments and financial coaching to support people as they transition off public benefits and into sustaining jobs,' said Laura Sylvester, public policy manager of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. 'We're ... hopeful it will inspire statewide change.' In the pilot program, participants benefit from personalized coaching to help navigate finances, employment, and career growth, and receive connections to additional support in the community as needed. Each participant receives a monthly bridge payment based upon their estimated cliff effect impact, with an additional $10,000 asset-building payment at the end of the program. These payments are designed to stabilize families and will help mitigate potential losses in benefits while they work toward moving up the career ladder and achieving lasting economic security. 'Our pilot launched in February with 18 participants, seven here in Springfield, and we're already making a difference,' said Kristen Joyce, Bridge to Prosperity program director. 'Bridge payments helped one family stabilize their housing and another purchase food when their SNAP ended. Another participant was able to start training to become a nurse after years of only dreaming of it.' The program is aiming to serve up to 100 families in 2025. To learn more about the Bridge to Prosperity Cliff Effect Pilot Program, visit or contact Kristen Joyce at Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
For communities relying on federal funds, things changing ‘every 5 minutes'
SPRINGFIELD — The city will reapply for state money to rebuild West Street on the Springfield approach to the North End Bridge over the Connecticut River. The city hopes to replace $4 million in federal money that was to have gone to the street improvement, part of a $20 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that's been scrapped, said Christopher M. Cignoli, public works director. Cignoli said he feels confident not only in the state money but in continued federal support for such basic transportation projects as roads, bridges and culverts. He bases this on experience with the earlier Trump administration as well as faith in the state through whose hands much federal transportation money flows. But he was at the UMass Henry M. Thomas III Center at Tower Square for hours Wednesday along with heads of other city departments and leaders in other municipalities, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and heads of not-for-profits hoping to find out the future of federal funding for the Pioneer Valley from the state's director of federal funds and infrastructure, Quentin Palfrey. 'I'm just trying to get the lay of the land,' said Andrew Morehouse, executive director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The Food Bank, with its headquarters in Chicopee, is to date missing $440,000 in delivered food due to service cuts and budget restructuring ordered by the new Trump administration. 'We are fundraising. We are doing food collections, trying to get what we need,' Morehouse said. 'We are bracing for cuts to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).' Mayor Domenic J. Sarno summed up the mood of the 30-or-so officials in the conference room. 'Things aren't changing daily now, they're changing every five minutes,' Sarno said. Palfrey, a one-time official in the Obama and Biden administrations and Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said major Biden-era legislation — the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — raised funding in the state and are still on the books. The infrastructure bill alone allocated $6 billion in federal funds to support over 190 projects across the state. 'Yeah, it's a dynamic environment,' he said. 'And you know, that is a challenge, I think, for a lot of our partners in cities, towns and tribes. And one of the resources that I think that our office offers is really to work in partnership with communities to give good information on what's going on. ' Palfrey's office takes a whole-government approach to pursuing federal funds using MassDOT and MassTech, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. 'We have a number of issues around urban forestry, around water, around broadband, around clean energy and environmental justice, resiliency, decarbonization,' Palfrey said. 'So it really runs the gamut of programs that's been true in terms of the new resources that Congress has made available.' Major transportation projects, like the Cape Cod bridges and, in Springfield, west-east passenger rail, were also top-of-mind. For passenger rail, the federal government has already announced a CRISI — Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements — grant of $108 million in federal funding announced two years ago and another $37 million for rail improvements reliving a 'chokepoint' at Springfield Union Station announced in October. MassDOT also previously received a $1.75 million CRISI grant for preliminary engineering for the Springfield Area Track Reconfiguration Project. The Healey administration steadfastly says it's 'full steam ahead,' the governor's words, on west-east rail. 'And we're working hard to move those programs forward,' Palfrey said. But the Trump administration says it wants to link transportation funding to places with higher marriage and birth rates. More Western Mass. Content Read the original article on MassLive.
