North Adams Resident Wins Children's Trust Award

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Children’s Trust has announced North Adams resident Bethany Prince-Malloy, Associate Coordinator of the Family Center of Northern Berkshire County, is the recipient of its Faces of Prevention award, which honors and recognizes family support professionals across Massachusetts who support families and prevent child abuse.

Prince-Malloy lives in North Adams. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Plymouth State University.

"Bethany truly believes in building protective factors in families," said Amy Hall, Program Manager of Family Support Programs at Child Care of the Berkshires, who oversees the Family Center of Northern Berkshire County. "When the news came out about the baby formula recall, Bethany spent the full day on the phone with families, the pediatrician's office and with other service providers and stores, working to ensure that families knew about the recall and had the formula they needed. She went the extra mile to make sure families had what they needed. This is just one example of many different things Bethany does to support strong, healthy families."

Prince-Malloy started at Child Care of the Berkshires as a family support worker a decade ago. In that role, she helped connect families to resources and made referrals to other programs that support families’ needs. As Associate Coordinator, she continues to provide family support while also overseeing parent education programming and playgroups.

"I love the idea of prevention work. It’s the best avenue of social work," said Prince-Malloy. "I love the work we do. We’re strengthening families, mentoring them, showing them how to be successful parents. We empower families so that can be the best families they can be."

In her role as Associate Coordinator, Prince-Malloy now supervises family support professionals. 

"I’m backed by a wonderful team who make things happen here," she said. When the baby formula recall was announced, Prince-Malloy and her team started receiving calls from families desperately in need of formula. The Family Center provides emergency formula for families in need and became a hub during the recall and shortage to help families find formulas for their babies.

Children’s Trust Family Centers are community hubs where parents go to get support navigating the joys and challenges of parenting. They can tap into community resources, learn new parenting skills, get individualized family support during times of stress, meet other families, and participate in activities and programs that support them in their caregiving role. A 2019 Family Center evaluation survey found that 95% of parents found support from others through playgroups and 93% of parents found that playgroups helped them deal with the challenges of parenting.

The Children’s Trust funded Family Center of Northern Berkshire County supports 11 towns in northern Berkshire Country, including Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Florida, Hancock, Lanesboro, Monroe, New Ashford, North Adams, Savoy, and Williamstown. In Fiscal Year 2021, the Family Center of Northern Berkshire County provided 13,637 diapers to families, 94 cans of baby formula, 100 boxes of food, 63 bags of clothing, and 28 baby boxes. 

The Family Center also gave away 51 free books to parents who engaged in the 123 virtual playgroups, and 44 books to the families who engaged in the Story Walks on The Born Learning Trail. These are some of the many ways the Family Center supports families.

"We triaged calls to make sure families knew about the recall and to get the formula where it needed to be," recalls Prince-Malloy. "I am thankful for my team who became a ‘jack of all trades’ to support families and get them what they needed. Our team was driving all over the place to different stores to find formula. It was a chaotic time but we were able to support our families and that’s what it’s all about."

North Adams Hopes to Transform Y Into Community Recreation Center

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Thursday, May 02, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey updates members of the former YMCA on the status of the roof project and plans for reopening. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has plans to keep the former YMCA as a community center.

 

"The city of North Adams is very committed to having a recreation center not only for our youth but our young at heart," Mayor Jennifer Macksey said to the applause of some 50 or more YMCA members on Wednesday. "So we are really working hard and making sure we can have all those touch points."

 

The fate of the facility attached to Brayton School has been in limbo since the closure of the pool last year because of structural issues and the departure of the Berkshire Family YMCA in March.

 

The mayor said the city will run some programming over the summer until an operator can be found to take over the facility. It will also need a new name. 

 

"The YMCA, as you know, has departed from our facilities and will not return to our facility in the form that we had," she said to the crowd in Council Chambers. "And that's been mostly a decision on their part. The city of North Adams wanted to really keep our relationship with the Y, certainly, but they wanted to be a Y without borders, and we're going a different direction."

 

The pool was closed in March 2023 after the roof failed a structural inspection. Kyle Lamb, owner of Geary Builders, the contractor on the roof project, said the condition of the laminated beams was far worse than expected. 

 

"When we first went into the Y to do an inspection, we certainly found a lot more than we anticipated. The beams were actually rotted themselves on the bottom where they have to sit on the walls structurally," he said. "The beams actually, from the weight of snow and other things, actually crushed themselves eight to 11 inches. They were actually falling apart. ...