Page 55 - BusinessWest Sept. 29, 2021

HCC Women’s Leadership Luncheon Series
Sept. 29, Oct. 27, Nov. 24: Holyoke Community College (HCC) will continue its monthly Women’s Leadership Luncheon Series this fall. During each session, participants will join prominent women leaders for discussions on relevant topics and ideas to help their leadership development. They will also have the opportunity to form a supportive network to help navigate their own careers. The fall dates and topics are:
• Sept. 29: “Do Something Every Day that Scares You” with Pattie Hallberg, CEO of Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts;
• Oct. 27: “Just Go for It,” with Helen Gomez Andrews, co-founder and CEO of the High End; and
• Nov. 24: “Journey to and from Exit Zero,” with Sharale Mathis, vice president of Academic and Student Affairs at HCC.
The cost of each session is $25, with the exception of the three-part Vision Board class with Turner, which costs $99. The cost for the full, six-session series is $120. Cost, however, will not be a bar- rier to participation. If pricing is an issue, contact Michele Cabral, HCC’s executive director of Busi- ness, Corporate and Professional Development, at [email protected]. Space is limited, and advance registration is required. To register, visit hcc.edu/ womens-leadership.
Northampton Jazz Festival
Oct. 1-2: The Northampton Jazz Festival will kick
off on Friday, Oct. 1 with a Jazz Strut in downtown Northampton, and free performances are scheduled that first weekend of October in the event’s return after a pandemic-year hiatus. The headliner for this year’s event is the Art Blakey Centennial Celebration,
Continued from page 38 residence into a less
supervised two-bed home.
“We helped move him out of a nursing home and
recreated a life that would work for him and his inju- ry,” Cooper said.
For another resident, it has meant regaining the ability to eat without assistance and working toward being able to stand and walk again with less help. “We push 150% to get the residents in all our homes into the communities they live in — reuniting them with family members, keeping them involved in activities outside the residences.
“We are not into just housing people,” he added. “We want to get people out and into society to do whatever they want to do. We are not just ‘housers’ of our residents.”
One key to success, he said, is the trust that devel- ops between staff and residents.
“The job is about making relationships and being motivators, getting people to invest back in them- selves — helping them to understand their situation happened, but it is not the end of the world. There is life, there are resources, there is a way you will now live that is different from before, but you will eventu- ally get to a point where you can enjoy your life.”
He added, “I tell staff all the time that the house will get clean, the floors will get swept.”
Cooper noted that “what we need to build is relationships through consistency and being there. We are the people the residents see every day and depend on and trust for support. Once a relationship
performing at the Academy of Music on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Festival attendees will be required to wear masks, following pandemic protocols as per the city of Northampton. In a collaboration between the Northampton Jazz Festival and the Downtown Northampton Assoc., patrons sporting a new Jazz Fest tote on Saturday, Jazz Fest Day, will receive a dis- count at participating downtown merchants; totes will be available for purchase at all festival perfor- mance venues on Oct. 2. The Oct. 1 Jazz Strut will run from 5 to 10:30 p.m., starting at Pulaski Park. Local and regional trios and quartets will perform
at the following venues: Wursthaus, 6:30 p.m.; the Dirty Truth, 7 p.m.; Spoleto, 7:30 p.m.; Progression Brewing Co., 8 p.m.; and the Deck Bar, 8:30 p.m. Each band plays for two hours, and the schedule
is subject to change without notice. The full lineup of festival performances on Oct. 2 is as follows: the Alex Hamburger Quartet, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Northampton Center for the Arts; Sullivan Fortner Solo Piano, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at CLICK Work- space; Northampton Expandable Brass Band, 1:30 to 1:55 p.m., marching from Bridge and Market Streets to Pulaski Park; Manduca Sexta, 2 to 3 p.m. at Pulaski Park; the ZT Amplifiers Artist Showcase, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Northampton Center for the Arts; Lioness, 3 to 5 p.m., First Churches of Northampton; Cocoma- ma, 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Pulaski Park; and the Art Blakey Centennial Celebration, the only ticketed event, 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Music, $15 to $50 at aomthe- atre.com. The festival’s headliner, the Art Blakey Cen- tennial Celebration, is a multi-generational ensem- ble of musicians led by members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. The five messengers, and the eras they performed in the group, are: alto saxophonist Bobby Watson (1977-81), tenor saxophonist Bill Pierce (1980-82), trumpeter Brian Lynch (1988-90), trom- bonist Robin Eubanks (1987-88), and bassist Essiet Okon Essiet (1989-90). Joining them are pianist Zac-
is built, residents will go to appointments with you, allow you to do personal care and take suggestions. They understand you are in this with them.”
Richard Johnson, who works under Cooper as a site manager, echoed his comments.
“We are all about making the residents feel com-
“What makes me feel good is to see some sort of normalcy return to their lives and for them to get to a certain level where they have control.
fortable,” said Johnson, whose job includes coordi- nating volunteer opportunities for residents such as cooking and serving meals for the homeless or pre- paring and distributing COVID hygiene packages for seniors.
He also arranges for residents to attend events like Springfield College’s recent “Be the Change” presen- tation that was held to promote community service. Staff and residents attend events together but without any indication of their association.
Johnson said such outreach is about the residents continuing to “build relationships” on their own terms and improving their integration skills.
“One of the residents who attended the Springfield
cai Curtis and drummer Jerome Gillespie, the latter with the responsibility — and talent — to ‘channel’ Blakey, according to the ensemble’s bio.
Free Educational Webinar for Businesses
Oct. 5: The Springfield Regional Chamber (SRC) will partner with MassHire BizWorks, a division of the MassHire Department of Career Services’ Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, to offer a free educational webinar for businesses. From 8:30 to 10 a.m., participants will meet leading authorities
Agenda
and learn how the state’s economic-development programs can be applied to their businesses. SRC will offer the webinar in collaboration with all cham- bers throughout Western Mass., and the webinar
will outline the tools and resources that are avail- able through MassHire BizWorks and local chambers of commerce to assist business owners. Since its inception in 2012, MassHire BizWorks has enhanced and aligned the resources and services available to businesses throughout Massachusetts. BizWorks partners with agencies in workforce development, economic development, and education to help businesses grow and thrive. The BizWorks model offers assistance to employers for every stage of the business cycle. Services are available for business growth, expansion, maintenance, and downsizing. Ken Messina, of both BizWorks and the Department of Labor’s National Rapid Response Workgroup, will lead the webinar’s presentation. To register, visit dev.springfieldregionalchamber.com/events/details/ bizworks-6144.
College event told me that it was the most comfort- able he has felt in years in terms of being out in the community and talking to people,” he noted. “Every- thing was free, and he just liked being able to go up to a vendor, get nachos and a drink. That engagement on his own was important to him in building a sense of normal for himself.”
Johnson said he builds relationships with the residents through “really hard, honest conversations through which I learn how to navigate and pick up on what they like and what they want to do.”
He noted that transitioning into more active com- munity engagement is not always easy for residents with their disabilities, but he enjoys helping them make that transition and working with Cooper to find related opportunities.
Cooper added that it is this “giving someone a chance to have possibilities and control in their life again” that gives him job satisfaction.
“A lot has been taken away from our residents,” he went on. “The life they were used to living is no lon- ger. They are not living with their families. They can’t just go out to the store or into the kitchen to make what they want to eat or jump on an airplane and travel. What makes me feel good is to see some sort of normalcy return to their lives and for them to get to a certain level where they have control.” u
Kimberley Lee is vice president of Resource Development & Branding at MHA.
New Way
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SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 55
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