BIC is the only program in Berkshire County that focuses exclusively on meeting the unique challenges of a continuously growing immigrant and refugee population.
Tag: Berkshire Immigrant Center
‘No Visible Bruises’ presentation to highlight the prevalence of violence against women
The book is ultimately a manifesto that turns a regressive notion about the causes of domestic violence on its head by illustrating domestic violence as a public health problem with solutions.
Bits & Bytes: Dylan Perrillo Orchestra; Fair Saturday in Williamstown; Monterey makers’ market; CoA luncheon
As an adjunct professor in Connecticut’s community college system, David Bosco has taught courses in American history, labor history, state and local government, and business law.
Business Briefs: Appeal letter party; Donoyan joins Main Street Hospitality; human resources workshop; Jewish Women’s Foundation grants; Stockbridge Chamber annual meeting
Main Street Hospitality Group CEO Sarah Eustis has announced the appointment of H. Jackson Donoyan as vice president of operations.
Bits & Bytes: Berkshire Bach season opener; public charge rule workshop; ‘Mankiller’ at Mason Library; Adam Foss at Williams; Jamie Laval at Dewey Hall
On Wednesday, Oct. 30, from 6 to 8 p.m., the Berkshire Immigrant Center will host a workshop on the federal government’s new changes to the public charge rule.
Bits & Bytes: Celebrate Stephentown; B’Shalom Chorale concerts; Du Bois talk; ‘The Opioid Crisis in the Berkshires’; flower show call for entries
On Sunday, Aug. 18, at the Lenox Town Hall, the Maimonides Society of the Berkshires will present “Opioid Crisis in the Berkshires,” a forum exploring the local impact of the opioid addiction crisis.
Our Golden Doors
Jonathan and Fatima’s success story today — car parked outside and apartment whose rent they pay on time and which comfortably houses a growing family — was made possible by the very hard work, and very long hours, of many people, coordinating their assistance among many local social service organizations.
Bits & Bytes: Public meeting with Andrea Harrington; citizenship scholarship; Barrington Stage New Play Award; Autism Awareness Month call for art; free tax preparation
The Literacy Network of South Berkshire has launched Berkshire County’s first scholarship program to support immigrants in their pursuit of U.S. citizenship.
Cancellations due to snowstorm
Due to the likelihood of a major winter snowstorm this weekend January 19-21, the following events have been cancelled or rescheduled.
One World Concert to support mission of Berkshire Immigrant Center
Berkshire Immigrant Center is the only organization in the county offering comprehensive immigration services for the more than 10,000 foreign-born residents of Berkshire County—a number that equates not only to 10 percent of the County’s population, but also the only growing segment of the region’s population.
Bits & Bytes: One World Concert; Winter Studio Festival of Plays; gov’t shutdown impacts museum exhibit
The Berkshire Museum will be open to visitors Tuesday, Jan. 15, and Wednesday, Jan. 16, in light of the cancellation of a planned closing due to the federal government shutdown delaying the arrival of the “Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion” exhibit.
Bits & Bytes: ‘Scrooged’ at the Mahaiwe; ‘Plant Shadows’ at BBG; ‘Monument Man’ book launch; immigration attorney workshop; Oakes & Smith at St. Paul’s
A dark comedy update of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” directed by Richard Donner, “Scrooged” stars Bill Murray as cynical television executive Frank Cross and Karen Allen as his kind-hearted girlfriend, Claire Philips.
Business Briefs: Barr-Klarman arts initiative recipients; new Berkshire Immigrant Center board members; grants for Shakespeare & Company; Salisbury Bank promotes Goewey; YMCA award for Schmick
The Berkshire Immigrant Center welcomes Jenn Gomez, Helen Moon and Colin Ovitsky, all of Pittsfield, to its advisory board.
Business Briefs: Lenox seeks cultural district designation; Jewish Women’s Foundation grants; new Barrington Stage board member; William Pitt Sotheby’s names brokerage manager; BTCF grant deadlines
A cultural district must be a walkable, compact area centered on existing amenities, but the benefits of the designation extend beyond formal downtown borders.
Berkshire Immigrant Center to host free citizenship workshop
According to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Berkshire County has the most diverse foreign-born population of any county in the state.
‘Long process’ bears fruit for 23 new U.S. citizens in ceremony at Rockwell Museum
“A good citizen truly embraces the meaning of the words spoken by Elie Wiesel when he said, ‘No human being is illegal.'”
— Joan M. McMenemy, first justice of Berkshire County Juvenile Court
Business Briefs: Summer pop-up gallery; Dr. Alsdorf joins CHP; Massachusetts Nonprofit Network issues census report; Salisbury Bank awards scholarships
Dr. Stephen A. Alsdorf has joined the primary care staff at Community Health Programs in Great Barrington.
Hundreds demonstrate at Park Square against Trump immigration policy, joining 700 nationwide protests
“We need immigrants. We don’t need a wall around this country.”
— U.S. Rep. Richard Neal
Bits & Bytes: Daniel’s Art Party; CATA art book; ‘Battle of the Bartenders’; Voodoo Orchestra at Club Helsinki Hudson; ‘Backdoor Poetry’ art exhibit
The book “You Can’t Replace Yourself” draws from 25 years of poems, paintings and drawings created in Community Access to the Arts’ weekly arts workshops.
Business Briefs: Excellence Award for Berkshire Immigrant Center; LEEF grant recipients; EFSP application sought; artists’ guild name change; business-growing seminar
The Richmond-West Stockbridge Artists Guild has changed its name to the Guild of Berkshire Artists.
Bits & Bytes: Stockbridge Earth Day roadside cleanup; family preparedness workshop for immigrants; Villages in the Berkshire information session; craft beer workshop; Aston Martin rally
The Aston Martin Owners Club of North America will hold the Berkshires’ first-ever Aston Martin car rally Saturday, April 14, organized by Lance Sterman of Stockbridge, the owner of an antique Aston Martin.
Rise: Monument Mountain students organize against racism, sexism and gun violence
RISE joins a growing wave of students and educators bringing social movement action into the classroom and education into social movement action throughout the country.
‘Ignorant and reprehensible’: Berkshire County reacts to Trump’s vulgar tirade about immigrants
Trump’s comments came in the run-up to the birthday of iconic African American civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King and the seventh anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti that killed nearly 250,000 people.
Bits & Bytes: ‘Know Your Rights’ workshop; Jonathan Dee at Stockbridge Library; West Stockbridge Chamber Players harvest concert; Miles Sanctuary tour; library book giveaway
‘Know Your Rights’ workshop presenters will offer detailed information for local immigrants on their rights as well as the legal resources available to them.
Berkshire County immigrant advocates, elected officials call DACA rollback ‘immoral’ and ‘despicable’
“It was unfathomable to me that this president could do something so cruel, so un-American and, quite honestly, something that’s just bad policy.”
— Brooke Mead, director of the Berkshire Immigrant Center
Bits & Bytes: Citizenship naturalization ceremony; Baseball Day at Berkshire Mall; Woofstock; GBLC Hullabaloo; BNRC community celebration
Berkshire County residents who immigrated to the U.S. from around the world will be sworn in as new naturalized citizens against the backdrop of Norman Rockwell’s iconic “Four Freedoms” paintings.
ORANGE ALERT: The (almost) daily outrage
If Congress fails to act, immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children could face deportation as early as March 6 to countries where many left at such young ages that they have no memory of them.
News Brief: Berkshire Immigrant Center stands with DREAMers
“The new federal action will create significant concern for the estimated 10,000 immigrants in Berkshire County as they face yet another anti-immigrant message from this White House.”
— Brooke Mead, director of the Berkshire Immigrant Center
Anne Harrison, 74, of Lenox
She volunteered with Berkshire Women for Women, the Berkshire Immigrant Center literacy mentoring program, and donated regularly to local cultural and social justice organizations.
Business Briefs: Pittsfield Better Block; new BCC education department; reading app aids literacy; BIC pop-up fundraiser; Williamstown Community Chest grants
BCC’s new education department will introduce learning as a cohort model–students will go through the same classes together as a group, with online and face-to-face component.
New leadership at Berkshire Immigrant Center in the time of Trump
For its new leader, the search panel chose a familiar face, Brooke Mead, who has been at BIC for 15 years, for many of those years the center’s only full-time staff member.
Business Briefs: Greene exits Berkshire Immigrant Center; BerkShares Ambassadors program; new trustees for Stockbridge Library; Shred Day at Salisbury Bank
BerkShares Ambassadors will grow into “community economists” who can expand awareness and usage of BerkShares and are empowered to build relationships with their peers, community leaders, community banks and more than 400 businesses that participate in BerkShares.