Northampton Mass in Motion CHII-final report-WF6-10-20
2020 Community Health Inclusion Index and Mass in Motion mini-grants
Strategic Planning for Accessibility Plan
Northampton Community & Resilience Hub
Description of the project you completed and how it met its objectives
With CHII grant support, we built a consortium of public health, social service, civic, and municipal
officials to complete the initial space and program planning for a future Community & Resilience Hub.
Because of the high prevalence of physical and psychological disabilities in frontline communities,
especially our homeless, the project included a focus on accessibility over basic ADA/AAB requirements.
The Hub will be a downtown physical facility with a coordinated program for Frontline communities as
well as all residents who face chronic and acute stress due to disasters, pandemics, climate change, and
other social and economic challenges. It will serve and target programs for the 1% (homeless, SRO
residents and others under the most severe chronic stress), the 15% (below the poverty line), the 40%
(housing‐burdened and under chronic stress) and the 100% (those at risk of acute, but not generally
regular chronic, adverse events), by providing access to resources, developing a network of neighbors,
and building social resilience. During normal times, which continue to be times of stress for Frontline
communities, the hub will coordinate resources, distribution, and services as a consolidated entry point
for the Frontline communities; improve service delivery; and provide programs for the entire community
to build social capital. During acute stress, major disruptions and recovery, e.g. a heat wave, severe
storm, disaster, or pandemic, often exacerbated by climate change, the hub will serve all residents
providing a safe place, acting as the heart of the operating city, and providing needed supplies and
services in preparation for, during, and in recovery from major disruptions.
Description of any changes made due to Covid‐19
The original grant was to identify strategic opportunities for improved accessibility working with our
Disabilities Commission. We had two productive Disabilities Commission meetings when Covid‐19
struck and forced the indefinite cancelation of those meetings and most stakeholder interviews. Covid‐
19 highlighted the huge burden on frontline communities, most clearly highlighted when we needed to
create an emergency Covid‐19 homeless shelter in the Northampton High School.
As a result of the overwhelming Frontline community chronic stress, we initiated Community &
Resilience Hub planning and convened, virtually, a diverse stakeholder group, using CHII support.
Number of people reached by this project and how they were reached
Actual Reach: We used two forums for this project. In January and February, we met with our eight
person Disabilities Commission, of whom five or six have a disability and serve as forceful advocates.
From April through June we meet every two weeks with new 31‐person Community & Resilience Hub
planning group. The vast majority of the participants in this group serve clients with disabilities but few
have disabilities themselves. Because of the limits in reaching populations with disabilities starting with
Covid‐19, we were limited to reviewing the stakeholder interviews that our Mayor’s Task Force on
Panhandling conducted in 2019, including direct interviews with most of Northampton’s downtown
homeless population, many of whom have disabilities.
Potential Reach: The Community & Resilience Hub, once developed, will serve the entire community,
with daily programming for homeless and the most stressed 1% of the city’s population, the heaviest
programming for the 15% of the population below the poverty line, and significant programming for the
40% of the population facing housing and other burdens. We know that the prevalence of disabilities is
much higher in these populations. We do not have a good enough demographics, but we believe that
the potential is to serve approximately 1,000 people with disabilities.
At least two measurable outcomes from use of the CHII
We created a space and programmatic outline for a planned Community & Resilience Hub, which
will allow us to move to site selection and seek future funding for the site, and will serve those in
chronic need, including those with disabilities.
We build a consortium, a strong partnership, of nine different city departments and 18 different
social service and civic organizations, with a consensus on need, opportunity and approach.
We received the commitment of $200,000 of CDBG funds for the project, to be used as matching
funds for future grants we apply for to make the project a reality.
How your project addressed people with mobility limitations and how they were engaged
We identified that the users of the Community & Resilience Hub, especially Frontline communities that
have our primary focus, will have greater mobility limits than the population as a whole and just
meeting the ADA and AAB standards will not be enough. We heard input from our Disabilities
Commission, which includes members with and advocating for those with mobility limitations and we
indirectly heard from advocates from the social service organizations participating in our collaborations.
Covid‐19 limited the kind of stakeholder outreach that we know we must do before we develop the hub.
How your project addressed people of color and how they were engaged
We identified that the users of the Community & Resilience Hub, especially Frontline communities that
have our primary focus, have far greater percentages of people of color than the community as a whole.
Some members of our planning consortium are people of color, but Covid‐19 limited the kind of
stakeholder outreach we know we must do before we develop the hub.
How your project focused on policy, systems, and/or environmental change
Our Community & Resilience Hub focused on how we build synergy by a coordinated hub for Frontline
Community support, day programming for homeless populations, and chronic and acute stress. We had
universal agreement that this hub is needed and is a policy change from less coordinated programming.
A description of how your relationships with partners were impacted and any relationships
Our 31‐person planning group, made up of nine city departments and 18 social service and civic
organizations, is a new partnership that will continue as we move forward. Most of the groups had
worked together or at least were aware of the other groups but in developing networks working on a
joint project (i.e., the Community & Resilience Hub) is one of the best ways to build stronger bonds.
A description of how your Mass in Motion strategy/leadership/structure was impacted
Northampton Mass in Motion partners (Planning & Sustainability, Health Department, Mayor’s Office)
were deeply engaged and committed to this project. Our vendor, CES‐Healthy Hampshire, was involved
in the conversations and we hope to use the next (FY21) Mass in Motion budget to engage them to help
with the necessary stakeholder outreach that we could not do during the Covid‐19 peak.
A budget of how the funds were spent
All of the CHII funds ($5,000) and a match of city funds from contributions donated for this project
($4,999) were spent to hire a space planner for a detailed space and programmatic plan.
Evaluate the support you received from the Health and Disability Program/ MA in Motion
Mass in Motion provided us with monthly calls to talk through and think about our project. They were
incredibly supportive and worked with us to revise our project when Covid‐19 made our initial work plan
impossible. By far our largest challenge was the inability to engage stakeholders at the level we think is
critical. We have moved many of our meetings to virtual meetings, but stakeholder engagement,
especially for homeless and Frontline Communities, means visiting those populations. We can do that
during Covid‐19, but could not do that during the peak shelter in place period.
List any other activities completed or planned as a result of CHII assessments
We have allocated CDBG funds as seed funds for the next step, are currently applying for grants and
doing fundraising to support future steps, and are going to be working on agreements with our primary
partners.
What is at least one next step your community has identified coming out of your work this year?
We need to create a Community & Resilience Hub, and do not have the luxury of waiting until after
normalcy (i.e., Covid 19 widespread vaccinations) returns.