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North Adams 'Rises' for Elizabeth Freeman Center

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, holding an 'Enough' sign, declared October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Mayor Jennifer Macksey proclaimed October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the city on Tuesday at the start of Elizabeth Freeman Center's Rise Together walk.

The annual fundraiser and awareness event was held in six communities across the county beginning Sept. 16 in Pittsfield.

Local officials and community members marched down Main Street to First Congregational Church and back to City Hall to stand against gender-based violence.

The center's goal is to reach $150,000; as of Friday afternoon, the center has raised more than $88,000.

Macksey spoke to the crowd gathered before the walk about how domestic violence has touched many lives, including her family.

"As you know, domestic violence has touched my family and my friends, and this event just brings us all together to cherish memories. So today I honor. I don't even want to say honor. I proclaim October Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but I specifically want to shout out and remember Jillian Tatro, Jordan LaBarre, and especially my cousin Brittany LaBombard," Mayor Macksey said.

Tatro, of North Adams, was murdered in 2022 (her husband was charged); LaBarre of Pittsfield was murdered in Colorado this year (a man she knew has been charged); LaBombard of North Adams was murdered in Nebraska in 2023 (her estranged husband was charged).

The Freeman Center served 2,045 survivors and 2,183 children during fiscal 2025; 276 of those clients were in North Adams. 

"Whereas domestic violence and sexual assault are not public health and safety issues we want in our community, they affect individuals and families of all backgrounds, identities and communities and whereas the trauma of domestic and sexual violence impacts not only the victims of survivors themselves, but also their families, their friends, their workplaces, their schools, their neighborhoods and the entire community," Macksey said.

State Rep. John Barrett III also spoke on how important the work the Elizabeth Freeman Center is doing.

"This is an organization like I say I'm so proud to be affiliated with in the job that you've done, because there's so many of us here that have been touched by domestic violence, sexual violence, and especially in all ages of our communities. So I think today, we are not only symbolically talking about it, but we're celebrating the work that's been done, and must continue to be done over the next several years," Barrett said.

Executive Director Divya Chaturvedi said she joined the center around the same time last year during the walks and was moved by the speeches and movement

"I joined EFC last year right before the Rise walks, right during the week of Rise walks. And then when I attended the North Adams walk, it was something else. It's a somber walk. It's a realization of what truly happens when you are facing domestic violence. And the importance of our work and what we do," she said.

She explained the many programs and preventative programs the center does. The center's website says Berkshire County has a rate of restraining orders 37 percent higher than the state average.

"We get over 3,500 hotline calls in a year, which is a huge number, and we serve over 2,000 survivors every year, and equal number of children that they bring," Chaturvedi said. "We have survivors from every town, almost every town in Berkshire County, big and small. Some of the numbers are so big for the population of that town, and that shows you the scale of the problem.

"Domestic violence can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone. And as they say, everyone knows someone, and our numbers are reflective of that." 

The center's memorial sign held the names of 18 victims of domestic violence murders in the county since 2006.

"There have been 18 murders since 2006 which seems such a huge number to me when I joined this county," she said. "We will never forget their names. We carry their names at every walk. We will remember them, and we will make sure that they are never, ever forgotten."

North Adams Updated on Schools, Council President Honored With 'Distinction'

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
12:31PM / Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Superintendent Timothy Callahan gives a presentation on the school system at Tuesday's City Council meeting. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council got an update on what's up in the school system and its president was inducted into the mayor's Women's Leadership Hall of Fame.

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, as the city's first woman mayor, established the Hall of Fame in 2022, during March, Women's History Month, to recognize local women who have had a positive impact on the city. Past inductees have included the council's first woman president Fran Buckley, Gov. Jane Swift and boxing pioneer Gail Grandchamp. 

 

She described President Ashley Shade as a colleague and a friend and a former student. 

 

"Ashley is known not just for her leadership, but for her compassion, her ability to listen, to understand and to stand up for those whose voices are often gone unheard," the mayor said. "She has been a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ plus community and marginalized communities at both the local and national level here in North Adams."

 

Elected in 2021, Shade is the first openly transgender person to hold the role of council president in Massachusetts. She also leads the first-ever woman majority council in the city's history. 

 

The McCann Technical School graduate also has served on boards and commissions, "always working to make our city more inclusive, equitable and welcoming," said the mayor. "Ashley not leads not only with strength, but with a heart, and our community is a much stronger place because of it."

 

Shade, wearing her signature pink suit, was presented with a plaque from the mayor designating her a "woman of distinction."