Next week, the Elizabeth Freeman Center will reopen its main office in Pittsfield at its new location at 66 Allen Street in the center of Berkshire County’s urban hub.
“Most of our programming is done through our central office in central county, which has been for many years at 43 Francis Avenue. All of our hotline, 24/7 hotline, our counseling, our children's program, disability justice, money school, our administrative and financial staff- All of those are housed in our central location," explained Divya Chaturvedi, who became the organization’s new executive director in September following a 16-year stint by Janis Broderick. “Our office is full, our needs are increasing, our cases are increasing, and we have outgrown the current space. We have very few rooms that that can hold private, confidential meetings with clients. Our staff struggles with that. We have a really tiny waiting area when we have multiple families who have experienced trauma and kids in the same space. It's retriggering and retraumatizing many times. It poses a burden on not only the survivors, but on the staff as well.”
The situation has been exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in March 2020.
“Our hotline calls have increased 324%, our cases are getting more complex," Chaturvedi told WAMC. "We are seeing many, many families who are here in our office looking for a shelter, a safe place to stay.”
Among other pressing needs, the old headquarters that sat in a residential neighborhood overlooking downtown Pittsfield from a hilltop proved difficult for survivors and staff with disability issues because it lacked an elevator.
“There was discussion about building a new office on an adjacent lot to our current 43 Francis Avenue [location], but the cost was very prohibitive," said Chaturvedi. "It was anywhere from $6 million to $8 million. So, for many years, there's been discussion, talk, and trying to find solutions. And just this year past year, this opportunity came up.”
Chaturvedi says the 66 Allen Street location adjacent to city hall, the police station, and the Berkshire Immigrant Center’s offices will have ample space to provide confidential counseling to Berkshire residents in crisis.
“These will be safe, private, dignified spaces for survivors," she said. "We will have a large reception area and a large waiting room area for families and survivors. We had a really tiny waiting area, as I just mentioned before, so having access to a larger space would be really useful when we have multiple families. We also have an overflow waiting area, so, when we have multiple families, we can accommodate them. We will also have a dedicated room which will be for children, especially for our shelter guests and their kids. If there are families with multiple kids who wanted a more private space, we could have that. We would also be able to run children's programming with children's groups from this area.”
The move is accompanied by a $2.5 million fundraising campaign for the center.
“It was a million dollars for the purchase, you need a million dollars for all the repairs and renovations that are- Some of them are immediate, some of them are going to be coming down the line in the next year," explained Chaturvedi. "And we want to create a reserve fund for future repairs and renovations because we want our programming and operational support to remain completely separate and untouched because we use that for our for our programs and all the programs that we run.”
The official opening for the Elizabeth Freeman Center’s new 66 Allen Street headquarters in Pittsfield is December 16th. It also operates offices in North Adams and Great Barrington, as well as on-scene services at safe locations throughout Berkshire County.
