There are a few handfuls of designated community action agencies that truly stand out among the rest. Making Opportunity Count (MOC), located in Fitchburg, Ma., has thrived through their community outreach, providing systems, programs, and collaboration for low-income individuals and families to build pathways out of poverty.

According to their website, their mission is to empower families to achieve economic security by eliminating barriers and creating opportunities. Nicole Michaud, Vice President of Advancement, said it best when asked about MOC’s clients:

“We’re here for people facing serious crisis like potential homelessness, and we’re here for people who find themselves needing a little extra support, especially since the pandemic when unemployment soared and we could help through our emergency assistance program to pay utilities or rent,” she stated. “If we aren’t able to assist clients ourselves, we will find other resources and be that connector for the local community. We do everything we can to help people avoid crises moving forward.”

Making Opportunity Count serves the 30 cities and towns that span the North Central Massachusetts region. Most recently, MOC has grown programming to include behavioral health and a youth innovation center located in Fitchburg.

The Counseling Center at MOC launched from staff recognizing that there was a need to support mental health in the local area, as well as an additional and important need to create another opportunity out of poverty. Their website states that all services are designed to meet clients’ individualized treatment needs through consultation, collaboration and coordination of care that respects their strengths and differences. Additionally, the center is committed to inclusive care and serves people of all ages, backgrounds, and types of needs.

The Counseling Center offers a variety of languages to bring mental health care access to non-English speakers, and has prioritized diversifying the Center’s staff through a variety of strategies including an intern program. Through grant funding, the Counseling Center provides paid practicum opportunities for students of color attending Fitchburg State University and other colleges in the area. The initiative removes barriers to care, keeps clients engaged, and fosters a relationship between patients and therapists while providing financial support to their interns.

Currently, The Counseling Center is serving over 200 clients since becoming officially licensed in July 2021 and has nine therapists on staff.

Making Opportunity Count also continues to further develop their Youth Innovation Center, located in the Cleghorn neighborhood in Fitchburg, MA.

The Youth Innovation Center looks to provide resources to enable youth in the area to explore and research anything that they might be interested in pursuing for their future. It was designed by the center’s Youth Founders, a core group of young individuals who guided MOC in what they wanted the space to look like, feel like, and what should be included and focus on.

“[The Youth Innovation Center] aims to be a space for them to have the resources to explore what interests them,” said Michaud.

The Center’s space includes a multimedia room for podcasting, music editing, vlogging, and other digital arts, partnered with the Fitchburg Access TV station; a makerspace with a dry studio for artwork and creativity, in coordination with the Fitchburg Art Museum; and an open floor plan for performances or wellness activities.

Additionally, the Center looks to include a mentorship component to assist youth in exploring their interests and hearing from real-life experiences in the local community. “It’s flexible and fluid; we built the space to be able to accommodate future generations of youth,” she said.

The Center is looking to open in July 2022, after final construction is complete.

Several opportunities that MOC brings to the community could not have been possible without the assistance of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce.

“We appreciate the diverse program offerings and networking opportunities from the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce,” said Colby O’Brien, Senior Director of Advancement at MOC. “We love getting to know the different community drivers in the area and fostering relationships, such as AIS, who is providing the furniture for the Youth Innovation Center, and the local businesses and financial institutions who support us.

“What sets MOC apart from other agencies is our holistic approach to services that are driven by compassion – and that is what is needed in the community,” O’Brien said. “We get to see the impact we have on the community – from kids in Head Start or WIC to elders receiving Meals on Wheels. It’s great to see how quickly our staff respond with resources in such a caring and compassionate way and the positive impact the agency has in our community.”

You can learn more or donate about the Making Opportunity Count’s Youth Innovation Center on their website, www.mocinc.org. If you are interested in becoming a patient or learning more about The Counseling Center at MOC, please visit www.counselingatmoc.org, or follow MOC on Facebook @makingopportunitycount and Instagram @ making_opportunity_count.

The Elect North Central Coalition, composed of leading business, educational, media and community organizations, will host a forum with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sonia Chang-Díaz at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 7 at the Fitchburg Access Television studios.

The program, to be moderated by Fitchburg-Leominster All Politics (FLAP-TV) host Kevin Cormier, will be streamed live and then available for viewing on demand at fatv.org. Questions will focus on issues of concern to the diverse communities and businesses of North Central Massachusetts.

The coalition has extended invitations to additional gubernatorial candidates – including Democrat Maura Healey and Republicans Geoff Diehl and Chris Doughty – to participate in similar forums.

State Sen. Chang-Díaz has represented the Second Suffolk District since 2009. 

Elect North Central is a coalition of organizations dedicated to making the democratic process accessible and assuring that local and regional issues are examined and addressed by candidates running for office. The coalition plans to invite the Democrat and Republican candidates for governor to debate in advance of the general election in November.

“The members of Elect North Central include a broad cross-section of leaders in media, education, community, and business organizations, and was formed to provide residents an opportunity to hear the candidates on issues affecting them and the region,” said Lea Ann Scales, Vice President of Enrollment and Public Affairs at Mount Wachusett Community College, the chair of Elect North Central. “As we have since coming together in 2018, we will continue to collaborate on projects that will engage candidates and voters, and provide a platform to ensure the voices and concerns of our region are heard.”

The Elect North Central Coalition includes the Clinton Item; Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts; Faith Based Community Coalition of North Central Massachusetts; Fitchburg Access Television (FATV); Fitchburg State University; Gardner News; Leominster Champion; Leominster Access Television (LTV); MassLive; Minority Coalition of North Central Massachusetts; Making Opportunity Count; Mount Wachusett Community College; NewVue Communities; North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce; Spanish American Center; State House News Service; Three Pyramids, Inc; United Way of North Central Massachusetts; Vocero Hispano Newspaper; Worcester Business Journal; Worcester Telegram & Gazette; and WPKZ FM 105.3.

The Chamber is pleased to announce two promotions. Sandie Cataldo, who joined the staff in 2015, has been promoted from Economic Development Manager to Senior Economic Development Manager, and Maribel Cruz, who joined the staff in 2021 as our Community Business Advisor, has been promoted to Economic Development Manager.  The promotions were made to better reflect their responsibilities and seniority, recognize their success and contributions to our organization, and better align with the changes we have made at the Chamber’s economic development arm, the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation. Please join us in congratulating them on their well-deserved promotions!

Originally founded in 1924, Foster-Healey Real Estate, Inc. has thrived in the local North Central Massachusetts area for nearly 100 years.

President Richard Healey became a realtor at 26 after graduating from Colby College in 1977, and took over running the family-owned business after his father had passed in 1982. Since then, Healey and his wife has owned and operated the company under his father’s principles, and for the last fourteen years, they have worked together with their son Taylor, who knew he wanted to be a realtor and get more involved with the business.

“Real estate is much more about problem-solving, rather than being a salesman,” said Healey. “People need places to live or had a house to sell, and they needed our help.”

What sets Foster-Healey apart from the other larger national companies is that they are a local-focused firm.

“We are a local firm. So much of local business is talking about shopping local, and when you look at real estate firms, most of them offer the same technology that we’re offering, but they’re owned outside of the local area.

“We like to say, ‘We’ve been here, and we’ll be here.’ If someone has an issue, they know that they can call me,” said Healey. “Our agents are local, have local knowledge, and we have state-of-the-art technology through drone and aerial photography, as well as Matterport technology for 3D tours.”

The 3D Matterport tours are included in every house they sell on the market. According to their website, “A Matterport Tour is an immersive, 360º virtual experience. It is a great tool for engaging our potential home buyers by allowing you to really feel like you are walking-thru the home. What is so neat about the tour, is the fact that you can press the play button at the bottom of the screen, sit back and enjoy a walk-thru video. Or you can click on the circles located on the floor to move from room to room. This is a great option if you are wanting to see a specific room and you don’t want to sit through the entire tour to get there.”

With approximately 800-1,700 consumers viewing the tours each month, they are able to control what rooms they want to view, rather than a standard virtual walkthrough. This game-changing technology provides the opportunity for people to control where they are going in the house listed. The camera revolves 360 degrees and there is a camera every 6 feet, which is then digitally stitched together and measures everything, which can prove to be beneficial for making sure your couch fits, or how high the ceilings are without having to leave the comfort of your own home. As an immersive technology, it allows the consumer to really understand and dive into the question, “Is this my house?”

“Very little replaces the actual touching, feeling everything, and looking around in person,” said Healey, “but the Matterport tours really help to make that first decision for the consumer, and saves sellers from so many people having them walk through the house.”

Through the pandemic there were a lot of adjustments. Fortunately, Foster-Healey and other real estate businesses were described as essential businesses. Although both buyers and sellers are now feeling more comfortable doing things in person, both parties still really heavily on technology to be able to assist them.

The Matterport tours are especially convenient if a consumer is from the Boston area, and looking to move further away from the city, as they realize they can work from home or go into the city once or twice a week, or even once or twice a month. “We want to make sure we get our listings up on the internet in the best possible way.”

In 2024, Foster-Healey Real Estate, Inc. will be celebrating their centennial of being in business in the local North Central Massachusetts area, and for a large portion of that time, they have been a Chamber member with the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. In fact, President Healey was a former chairman of the board in 1995.

“It’s a great opportunity of other local businesses to interact with each other and other local businesses, and the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce provides us that opportunity,” he said.

For Healey, he believes that the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce keeps the economy up and the local businesses thriving.

Foster-Healy Real Estate aims to continue to try to make sure that they have state-of-the-art services and continue to be involved with what’s happening around them. They are located at 50 Central Street, Leominster, MA, as well as 26 Pearson Boulevard, Gardner, MA and can be reached at info@foster-healey.com for more information on finding your next home.

State House News Service

Colin A. Young

Warren: Rising Rates May Send Buyers To Rural Markets

So many people are fighting for the precious few homes for sale in Massachusetts that the intense competition in April propelled the median sale prices of both single-family houses and condos to new record heights, real estate market watchers at The Warren Group said Tuesday.

“The median single-family home price of $560,000 marked a new all-time high for Massachusetts,” Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group, said. “Under normal conditions, this would be a reason to celebrate, but only if you currently own a home and you’re looking to sell and don’t need to buy a new home. With such limited inventory — not only across Massachusetts, but also across the country — finding that next place to live will prove to be challenging.”

There were 3,862 single-family home sales in Massachusetts last month, a 14.8 percent drop from April 2021. The median sale price increased 9.8 percent from the $510,000 mark established in April 2021 to its new all-time high, the Warren Group said.

April sales were about equal to sales in April 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic, but the median price since then has soared 30 percent from $430,000 to $560,000, The Warren Group said.

The 13,580 single-family home sales in Massachusetts so far this year represent an 11.1 percent decline compared to the first four months of 2021 and the year-to-date median sale price of $510,000 is up 9.7 percent from the same period in 2021 and up 26.9 percent from the same period in 2020.

Potential buyers in search of a condo did not fare much better last month. The 2,149 condo sales in April 2022 marked a 15.2 percent decrease from April 2021. Meanwhile, the median sale price “took off like a rocket in April,” Warren said, shooting up 11.6 percent on a year-over-year basis to $530,000.

“As the spring and summer housing markets continue to heat up, it will be interesting to see where prices go from here,” he said.

Among Massachusetts’ 14 counties, Nantucket leads the way with an April median sale price of $1.627 million and was the only county to post a drop in median price from last April (down about 20 percent from last year’s mark of $2.025 million). There have only been 40 homes sold on Nantucket so far this year (with a median price of $2.223 million) compared to the 70 sold at this point last year.

Martha’s Vineyard is close behind as Dukes County last month reported a median sale price of $1.325 million, up almost 33 percent from $1 million last April. Like Nantucket, year-to-date sales on the Vineyard are down markedly — there have been 61 homes sold in Dukes County this year ($1.1 million median price) compared to 109 at this point last year.

Plymouth County most closely mirrors the statewide picture. April sales there dropped more sharply from April 2021 than the average (down 21 percent versus the statewide average of down 15 percent) but the median price in Plymouth County ($530,000) was closest to the statewide number of $560,000 and Plymouth’s 12.5 percent growth was similar to the statewide 9.8 percent figure.

Only two counties — Hampshire and Franklin — saw sales increase from April 2021 to April 2022 and only Hampshire County is ahead of its 2021 pace four months into 2022 (though Franklin County is within a handful of sales of its 2021 mark).

“Meanwhile, as interest rates continue to increase, buyers will continue to expand their searches to more rural communities — adding even more competition in markets that have historically been more affordable,” Warren said.