Life Issues Headway

Life Issues Headway – Gardner MA

The City of Gardner Massachusetts has accomplished successes in making headway with various Life Issues, including, but not limited to:

GardnerMagazine.com asked Gardner MA Mayor Michael Nicholson about what headway Gardner has made with life issues. Here’s what he had to say:

Mayor Nicholson: The main things that we’ve been trying to do here, too, is, again, make it that people feel safe here in Gardner. We’ve hired a prevention coordinator in our health department whose job is to work with our different substance abuse organizations. The Gardner Community Action Team, Alyssas Place, the AED Foundation, Gammha, all of those, and bring them together into the table and so that we can work as a cohesive unit and really meet the problem head on, so that we don’t have to catch up in the end. And if we can help prevent a problem while at the same time finding those resources. For people who are going through those issues, they feel a connection here and they feel like they can be safe and call this place their home. And realize that people just make mistakes sometimes and sometimes peoples lives get in the way and their decisions have long term effects. But we want to show that there’s a path forward and that the community is willing to stand with them. In terms of domestic violence, we funded a new domestic violence advocate over at the Gardner police station and will be filling that position soon. To make sure if someone’s going through a dangerous situation in their home lives, they have someone to go to for help. Because a lot of times people just don’t know what to do. And when you bring all of those things together and you find that people feel like there’s some form of relief. With food insecurity, we’ve done a lot of work with our schools to really make it so that our students don’t go hungry, offering a free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to all of our students at Gardner Public Schools, and continuing that in the summertime, so that if someone’s home life is just not in the best financial state, they don’t go hungry. There’s a lot of our students in Garden Public Schools = If they don’t eat at school, they don’t eat, And that’s not right. So we found ways to help get the nutrition to those students on a permanent basis. And it went even if they’re not students. Working with the CAC and with Growing Places. Future plans for a new food distribution location over at the Waterford Street School, soon to be community center, thats what were trying to do there too. And in our employment skills, we’re constantly working with Mass Hire and the Wachusett Business incubator. With our economic development office here at City Hall. That if someone’s looking for a new skill or a new way to better themselves. Or even just resume writing skills. We’ve got resources for people to reach out to