Latest news with #RevitalizeCommunityDevelopmentCorporation
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Hundreds of volunteers gather in Springfield for Green N Fit Neighborhood Rebuild
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Hundreds of volunteers worked together Saturday morning to clean up a Springfield neighborhood. Since 1992, Revitalize Community Development Corporation has been helping out in the Springfield area, especially at their annual event, Green N Fit Neighborhood Rebuild. Mass. DCR awards thousands of dollars in grants to expand and protect urban forests 'We've got a great team of people working on 11 homes and one, The Miracle House behind me, which has eight men living there, it's a transitional home for them,' said Colleen Chanley-Loveless, President and CEO of Revitalize CDC. 'We're creating a garden, raised garden beds, for vegetables they won't be able to plant.' Revitalize CDC has brought the western Mass. community together, but also volunteers from up and down the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. 'People giving back, neighbors helping neighbors, and there's so much negativity in the world and it's really nice to be able to experience this,' Chanley-Loveless said. 'It's more of an experience. It's a lot of hard work too, but it's just an experience meeting other people.' Over 600 volunteers and 80 organizations all came together to clean up Calhoun Park and select surrounding homes. 'It's awesome, all these guys back here are also 413 guys,' said Ryan McConnell, a junior on the Springfield College football team. 'I'm from Wilbraham, and it's nice to be able to come over here, give back, but then also to be around in the summer and off-season and be able to see what we've done.' The Springfield College football team volunteered as a part of their annual Give Back Day, helping to clean up the park, create paved walkways, and landscape, heard about the impact they will have on the community. 'I know for this house, especially, they were giving us a little rundown before, the history behind the house and all the people living in it and what it means to them and means to this community to be able to have a nice place for them to come out and really appreciate,' McConnell said. Unfortunately, with the rain, the volunteers were not able to paint on Saturday, but they were still able to make a positive and lasting impact on the community. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump administration rescinds grant to address asthma in Western Massachusetts
SPRINGFIELD — A $1 million federal grant funding efforts to decrease asthma in Western Massachusetts has been terminated, Governor Maura Healey's office announced on Friday. The grant from the Environmental Protection Agency went to the state Department of Public Health, which was working with Springfield-based Revitalize Community Development Corporation. About $900,000 was left to be spent, Healey's office said, and it was intended to go towards improving ventilation and removing mold in homes in Chicopee, Holyoke and Springfield. 'It's devastating,' said Colleen Shanley-Loveless, president and CEO of Revitalize Community Development Corporation, which got some of that grant funding to support a program that remediates people's homes to address asthma risks and triggers. Springfield ranked fourth in the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America's Asthma Capitals 2024 list, which takes into account asthma prevalence and emergency room visits and fatalities. The city was ranked number one on the list in 2019. 'The need is overwhelming,' Shanley-Loveless said. 'It's very frustrating and it's very devastating for the people we're trying to work with.' A spokesperson for Healey's office said the EPA told the state that the grant was being terminated 'on the grounds that the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities. The objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.' When asked for comment, an EPA spokesperson said in a statement: 'Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn't have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and preferencing on the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment. Partisan actors can spin this grant cancellation in any which way they choose, this is an 'environmental and climate justice' grant, not about asthma.' Revitalize Community Development Corporation was subcontracted by the state to work on a three-year program that had already started and expanded the in-home remediation work it does, Shanley-Loveless said. Under the grant, the group sent specialists into homes to assess how they can be remediated to be healthier. They coordinate with contractors on tasks like mold remediation, vent cleaning, and replacing carpets, which can accumulate dust and trigger asthma, Shanley-Loveless said. 'With this funding, we were able to help those that might fall through the cracks that would be in need of these services,' she said. Shanley-Loveless hopes the federal government will reconsider the decision so her group can 'get back to doing the work we do best.' The decision is 'misguided,' said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. 'We have used these grants to address the root causes of asthma in communities that have been historically underserved — places where too many children struggle to breathe because of preventable environmental conditions. Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, Chicopee Mayor John Vieau, and Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno all expressed their frustration the grant cancellation in statements Friday. 'I know firsthand, for my youngest daughter Chiara has had to deal with a serious case of asthma,' Sarno said in a statement. Sarno made an appeal to President Donald Trump. 'Mr. President, many people who voted for and supported you and/or their family members and friends are afflicted with asthma and now you turn your back on them?! In the name of public health, I ask President Trump to review and reverse this edict.' The state Department of Public Health submitted a 'formal dispute' over the EPA's cancellation, according to the governor's office. Federal judge throws out claim against treasurer's office related to unclaimed property Man convicted in 2011 Hells Angel Berkshire triple murder denied habeas corpus appeal BJ's, Target to be included in former Eastfield Mall replacement, report says
