Local Non-profits receive $51,500 from District Attorney’s Forfeiture Community Support Grant Program

November 18, 2021 -Springfield- Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni presented eight local non-profits with community support grants totaling $51,500.

Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni, stated: “We are delighted and proud to provide resources to very worthy organizations doing important work to help people here in Hampden County. This money is ordered forfeited by the court and comes from the illegal narcotics trade, which, with my office’s effort, is now being redirected to help kids in our communities stay safe and avoid crime. It is a wonderful way to turn the bad into the very good.”

This year’s recipients are:

Serving Our Students: $9,000 To assist in SOS’s support of hundreds of Springfield Public Schools’ children, the grant will provide aid  in their outreach and recognition efforts through scholarships to the Boys and Girls Club summer camp, gift certificates for school uniforms, and plaques honoring individuals academic achievements.

New North Citizen’s Council: $8,000 For the Deborah Hunt Prevention Education Drop-in Center to assist individuals in accessing vital services such as: mental health, substance use treatment, recovery support, and covid-19 screenings. The funds will help individuals with transportation to treatment programs, access to telehealth screenings with care providers, as well as socks, gloves, hats, and covid-19 prevention PPE.   

Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club: $8,500 To knock down barriers to inclusion for underserved youth. Funds will be used for appropriate rowing gear, registration fees, and athletic equipment for outreach to schools. 

Performance Project: $7,000  In order to expand their reach in the community, the grant will fund the construction and furnishing of a new dance and theater floor to be used by youth in the peer support programing.

M.O.R.E.: $3,000 In support of M.O.R.E.’s youth center. Funding will help build out a library and furnish the space with books, tables, and chairs. As well as enhancing the music program through purchasing instruments and sound equipment.

Holyoke Boys & Girls Club: $8,000 Currently the facility is operating  with one working twenty year old scoreboard in their gym. The funds will provide two scoreboards in the centrally located facility in Holyoke that services hundreds of kids with after school programing.

Black Men of Greater Springfield: $5,000 The grant will assist in underwriting the cost of the Saturday school and youth mentorship programing that runs throughout the school year. The program includes providing youth with mentors, tutors, guest speakers, and activities instructors.  

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County: $3,000 The long-term mentoring program that matches youth in one-to-one mentoring relationships requires a great deal of outreach and recruitment of volunteers. The grant will assist in these efforts through purchasing materials and boosting the agencies profile at community events.

The District Attorney’s community support grant program is dedicated to working with non-profit organizations in Hampden County to foster drug education and anti-drug programs, along with neighborhood crime prevention initiatives. As part of this initiative, the Hampden District Attorney’s Office makes funds available through a discretionary donation process that provides monetary support for important community-based prevention efforts. Under Massachusetts’ drug forfeiture law, district attorneys’ offices are allowed to expend funds received by way of drug forfeiture orders for the purposes of drug rehabilitation, drug education, and other anti-drug or neighborhood crime watch programs.

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