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Committee accepts state crisis‑intervention grant to fund police mentoring partnership with Roca
Summary
The finance committee accepted an $84,458.79 state Crisis Intervention Program grant (no local match) to fund a one‑year mentoring partnership that pairs a police officer with 14 young adults and Roca staff for outreach and services.
The Holyoke City Finance Committee accepted an $84,458.79 Massachusetts Crisis Intervention Program grant on March 11 to fund a one‑year mentoring partnership between the police department and Roca, a nonprofit service provider.
Sergeant Zurheide described the program as a pilot that will enroll 14 young adults who will receive daily services from Roca and biweekly mentoring from a police officer assigned as an extra duty. Services include job training, assistance obtaining identification and licensing, education referrals and regular group “circle time” mentoring. The grant covers the overtime needed to compensate the officer for the extra duty; the sergeant said the program will not reduce the department’s everyday staffing because the officer’s overtime would be paid by the grant.
Committee members asked whether the grant would create backfill or other costs; Sergeant Zurheide said the overtime costs associated with the mentoring duty are covered by the grant and that the participant cohort and Roca staff will provide the daily wraparound support. The committee approved acceptance of the grant by voice vote.
The police department said the award is a pilot intended to test a more hands‑on mentoring approach with close tracking of participant outcomes over the year, and to inform potential future programming.
