Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) staff will continue to build upon and expand the work of the Berkshire Age-Friendly Vision 2020 Task Force. The goal is to create an age-friendly county.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) Age Friendly Berkshires will be working with AFB Committees, municipalities, regional nonprofits and businesses to support residents thru the Covid-19 pandemic, by coordinating and connecting residents to existing or new services and supports in the community.

Overall, current housing stock and residential neighborhood fabric do not adequately support senior residents as they age in most Berkshire County municipalities. Many seniors are "over-housed" in large family-sized homes, without more appropriate alternatives in their communities. This project proposes to address some of the zoning shortfalls that exacerbate this issue, and to encourage growth that follows the Massachusetts Sustainable Development Principles. Model bylaws, using the Smart Growth/Smart Energy Toolkit and other best practices will be drafted. BRPC will then work intensively with three municipalities (Egremont, Sheffield and North Adams) of varying population sizes, needs and resources, to implement up to two regulations each to encourage the production of sustainable housing to meet the needs of older adults aging in the community. This project will be easily adaptable to other municipalities.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) under contract with BTI for Age Friendly Berkshires will be working with AARP MA to hold a Community Conversation on Loneliness & Social Isolation on Thursday, May 28 from 10-12 via ZOOM.

This project will allow Age Friendly Berkshires to 1) Building awareness among residents in a 6-town sub-region (Becket, Washington, Dalton, Hinsdale, Windsor and Peru) about available transit options for elders, the disabled and other non-drivers 2) Survey residents and municipal leaders about their own/their town’s transit needs 3) Engaging residents/Towns in co-creating a solution(s).

This grant from AARP, will support Volunteerism as a means to increase community connections, health and well-being for participants; to match potential volunteers with local non-profits and municipalities who have open positions that need to be filled; to make better use of nonprofit networks and regional media while increasing community connections; to strengthen existing Volunteer databases; to train potential volunteer or municipal board members to serve their communities.

This grant from AARP, Massachusetts will enable Age Friendly Berkshires to create a dynamic, user-friendly website.

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) and the Berkshire Medical Reserves Corp. will work together to recruit new members into the Berkshire Medical Reserve Corps and to educate business owners in Berkshire County about their possible roles during a disaster response. BRPC will host a Leadership Breakfast at the Hotel on North for potential new members, with a business resiliency expert as a guest speaker. Participating businesses and organizations will also learn about major disaster risks in Berkshire County, and will learn about local emergency response groups that they can become part of.

The Berkshire County HIV Engagement Program (B-HIVE) builds upon existing outreach networks, prevention and harm reduction programs to coordinate and implement prevention messaging, strategic peer/street outreach that promotes HIV prevention, testing, and connections to care.

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) will aid under this project to prepare organizations to reunite children with their families in emergencies. Phase II will focus on outreach and education regarding the Plan.

This project will allow the County Health Initiative (CHI) to build capacity, and to sponsor an event corresponding with the release of the 2019 County Health Rankings.

In previous response exercises, it was reported that there was a gap in first responders' ability to meet the access and functional needs of the population. This gap has also been identified in several real-world responses. Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) will focus on meeting access and functional needs of the population in everyday incidents and large-scale incidents such as MCI or large-scale disaster response.

The Berkshire Public Health Alliance Senior Inspector to attend a national FDA Conference on Food Safety to be held in Denver, CO.

The Berkshire Public Health Alliance Senior Inspector to provide oversight and mentorship to the Franklin County Cooperative Services Inspector.

The Berkshire Public Health Alliance, as part of its food protection program, will reassess the food protection programs of at least two previously assessed municipalities, and assess at least one new municipality, in conjunction with the FDA's Retail Standards Grant Program.

The Berkshire Public Health Alliance, as part of its food protection program, will continue to assist communities in self-assessments of their food protection program and provide technical assistance on meeting Standards 2 and 7 of the FDA Federal Standards.

The Berkshire Public Health Alliance to continue to work both one-on-one with municipalities, as well as offering training, to allow Berkshire County Boards of Health to meet Standards 2 and 7 of the FDA Food Standards.

This project will allow the Berkshire Public Health Alliance to create templates and standards for board of health best practices to support uniform, efficient and effective board of health offices. The Alliance will work with several smaller towns to implement practices.

This grant will allow the Berkshire Public Health Alliance to provide technical assistance to small Boards of Health in areas where they are struggling. Several focus groups will be held with Boards of Health to determine areas that are challenging, materials will be gathered into a guide and in-person field assistance will be provided.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) will research existing guidance, plans and practices and compile information most relevant to establishing a Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention (NPI) in Western Massachusetts to slow the spread of illness.

Boston Medical Center (BMC) was awarded $89 million in funding to lead a research study with the goal of reducing opioid deaths by 40% in some of the most heavily impacted Massachusetts communities. BMC’s study is part of a bold, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid crisis. The approach of BMC's study will be to partner with 16 communities across the state to test the impact of a community-engaged intervention with an integrated set of evidence-based practices delivered across healthcare, behavioral health, justice, and other community-based settings. Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, via the Berkshire Opioid Addiction Prevention Collaborative, is the fiscal agent and the coordinator of the Pittsfield site.

This funding will be used to support the Berkshire Opioid Addiction Prevention Collaborative’s post-overdose engagement work in the Northern Berkshire region.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, through the Berkshire Public Health Alliance is coordinating the Berkshire Opioid Abuse Prevention Collaborative. The Berkshire Opioid Abuse Prevention Collaborative will develop and implement local policies, practices, systems and environmental changes to prevent the misuse or abuse of opioids, prevent or reduce unintentional deaths and non-fatal hospital events associated with opioid poisonings and increase the capacity of municipalities to deal with the growing problem.

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) will develop an accessible walking path behind the Dalton Senior Center Council on Aging Building. BRPC will also purchase ADA compliant seating, chess tables and outdoor exercise equipment for adults to use. These amenities are expected to increase use of this park by all ages.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) will participate in the Peer Technical Assistance Network Summit related to aging population.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) Age Friendly Berkshires will be working with the City of Pittsfield Disability Commission and AdLib to assess food pantry sites for accessibility by persons with disabilities and review the transportation network in the neighborhoods in which the pantries are located, with an eye toward improving access to pantries for food-insecure residents.

The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council (WRHSAC) Training and Exercise Committee has allocated funds to exercise the Regional Shelter Plans adopted last year. There will be exercises coordinated with each of the three Regional Emergency Planning Committees in Berkshire County.

This project will allow BTI/BRPC to study the feasibility of applying the national Village to Village Network model to a low-income, rural population. The project will focus on the north county municipalities of North Adams, Adams, Clarksburg, Florida and Savoy.

This project will transition the already developed Spontaneous Unaffiliated Volunteer (SUV) training developed for the Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council (WRHSAC) and transition it to the more engaging and user-friendly format of Adobe Captivate. The trainings are available on the WRHSAC website.

This project will transition the already developed Spontaneous Unaffiliated Volunteer (SUV) training developed for the Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council (WRHSAC) and transition it to the more engaging and user-friendly format of Adobe Captivate. The trainings are available on the WRHSAC website.

The Berkshire Public Health Alliance Public Health Nursing Program will offer Timed Up and Go (TUG) testing at flu clinics in the fall, and five Matter of Balance (MOB) classes in public health nursing contracted communities in the Spring.

The project will conduct an exercise series exploring how to hold public vaccination clinics during a pandemic.  This grant will allow the Public Health Program to review existing Emergency Dispensing Site Plans, conduct a Tabletop exercise in the summer and then hold three or more seasonal flu clinic drills in the fall to test the plan.

These funds are provided to regional entities and municipalities that received flu vaccine from the state or used Commonwealth Medicine flu billing project. These funds will allow the Berkshire Public Health Alliance to buy supplies necessary for large-scale outdoor flu clinics, purchase advertising about the clinics and to pay both logistical and clinical staff.