Leading theway: Activities helped provide additional spring through Great RecessionByTonyDobrowolskitdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com@tonydobrow on Twitter

PITTSFIELD >> Local nonprofitshave held their own in recentyears — even through the GreatRecession, a report has found,and that resilience has providedadditional spring to BerkshireCounty’s economic recovery.

Berkshire nonprofits generate

$2.4 billion in local economic ac-tivity, almost half of the coun-ty’s total economy of $5.6 bil-lion, according to an update ofa report that was officially re-leased on Tuesday.

Local nonprofits also gener-ate $1.44 billion annually in ex-penditures, are responsible for27,439 jobs, provide $100millionin tax revenue for state and localgovernments, and have led the

Berkshire economy in recover-ing from the recession, accord-ing to the report, which wascommissioned by the BerkshireChamber of Commerce.

“They’re helping to bringback the Berkshire economy,”saidWilliams College EconomicProfessor Stephen C. Sheppard.“Everything is not necessar-ily sunny in Berkshire County,but it’s better than it otherwise

would be.”“It would be a wildly different

place,” in the Berkshires with-out the local nonprofit sector,he said.

This is the third version of areport compiled by Sheppardand collaborator Kay Oehler. Itexamines five types of nonprof-its: arts and culture; education;health; human services and

PITTSFIELD

Berkshire Countynonprofits prove resilient

BEN GARVER — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Professor Stephen Sheppard speaks at Tuesday’s Nonprofit Business Network meeting about the state of nonprofits in the Berkshires.

ByClarence Fantocfanto@yahoo.com@BE_cfanto on Twitter

STOCKBRIDGE >> Selectman andFire Chief Ernest “Chuckie” Car-dillo submitted his resignationfrom both positions on Tuesdayafternoon, just a few hours be-fore his contract as chief was setto expire.

Cardillo and the town have

been caught in a dilemma fol-lowing a ruling from TownCounsel J. Raymond Miyares onMay 27 that he could not holdboth posts, according to stateethics law. State Ethics Com-mission Chief Counsel DeirdreRoney issued a “concurrence let-ter” two days later backing upthe Miyares ruling.

Cardillo said he waited untilthe last minute to submit the

resignations “in case anythingcame up.”

sue with the Miyares ruling andsubmitted a letter to the stateethics board asking for anotherlook at the complex state lawsurrounding a dual role for a se

ahead, and I’m anticipatingcoming to a satisfactory reso-lution,” said Select Board Chair-man Charles Gillett. He addedthat he looks forward “to the

STOCKBRIDGE

Cardillo quits both positionsThe selectman and fire chief submits resignations stemmingfrom dilemma following a ruling that he could not hold both posts

PITTSFIELD>> Ourcommunity ral-lied together totake a stand toeffect positivechange after thedisturbing newslast summer of ateen shooting indowntown Pitts-field — and Berkshire UnitedWay is proud to have assistedin facilitating some of the im-portant dialogues.

In November, 2014 Berk-shire United Way hostedits first mentoring panelto a packed house at SouthChurch in Pittsfield in re-sponse to the community’scry for an increase of men-toring for youth — knowingit would improve the likeli-hood that teens would makehealthy decisions, avoid

drugs and risky behaviors,and build aspirations fortheir future.

Sarah Shugrue, Manager ofWestern Massachusetts Part-nerships for the statewideMass Mentoring Partnershipand the facilitator of the men-toring panel said: “Mentoringis more than just a nice idea,it’s a research-based commu-nity improvement strategy.When kids thrive, it’s all be-cause of relationships.”

Making a differenceIn fact, Shugrue stated some

important statistics, includ-ing that youth who have men-tors are 52 percent less likelyto skip school, are 55 per-cent more likely to be enrolledin college and are 63 percentmore likely to reduce high-risk behaviors like violent ten-

dencies, and drug, alcohol andtobacco use. So it’s impera-tive that we increase accessto mentoring for our county’steens.

The success of this eventhas been multiplied tenfoldthroughout the county with avariety of individuals and or-ganizations taking on leader-ship roles to expand mentor-ing.

Mentoring matters; I thinkwe all know that. Each one ofus has a story of our role mod-els growing up — whetherthey’re our parents, older sib-lings, favorite teacher or ourfaith-based leader. We aspireas teens to be like the personin our life who took the time tohelp us foster our dreams.

Over the years BerkshireUnited Way has funded a num-ber of impactful mentoring

programs that work to helpteens make healthy decisions.In February a request for pro-posals was released by Berk-shire United Way to com-munity organizations notingmentoring as one of the keystrategies we wanted to in-vest in.

We’re excited to announcethat with the recommenda-tions for funding from ourcommunity volunteers and re-cently approved by our boardof directors, we are expand-ing mentoring across thecounty. We are continuing tofund mentoring at BarringtonStage Company, Flying CloudInstitute, Greenagers, Berk-shire County Kids’ Place, Rail-road Street Youth Project, LeeYouth Association and the Dal-ton CRA.

LIVINGUNITED

Mentoring helps youths make healthy decisions

KristineHazzardLive United

HAZZARD>>PAGE6

ByDick Lindsayrlindsay@berkshireeagle.com@BE_DLindsay on Twitter

PITTSFIELD >> The Polish Com-munity Club has been given twomonths to get its house in orderor risk losing its liquor license.

The city’s Licensing Boardwants an update in late Augustfrom club officials on whetherthey plan to reopen. The Lin-den Street club closed Jan. 1, twodays after the board approved anew manager of record, respon-sible for its all-alcohol club li-cense. John Barrett succeededStella Spence, who died in July,leaving the Linden Street organi-zation without someone formallyin charge.

“We wouldn’t want to see the[club] go out of business,” saidboard Chairman Carmen C. Mas-simiano. “You’ve been a vital partof the city of Pittsfield for years.”

liquor license

CLUB>>PAGE4

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“other.” The original reportwas released in 2009. It wasamended three years ago.

The original report foundthat Berkshire nonprofitsgenerated $1.9 billion inlocal economic activity in2006. The second version,which covered 2008, uppedthat total to $2.2 billion.This version is based ondata from 2012, four yearsafter the Great Recessionhit.

“I think the local non-profit community, despitethe struggles that it con-tinues to face, has donepretty well,” Sheppard said,when asked to compare theamount of growth from2006 to 2008 and from2008to 2012.

During a news confer-ence at Barrington StageCompany’s Blatt Perform-ing Arts Center, Sheppardsaid the nonprofit sectorhas rebounded to its pre-re-cession levels in 2006 fasterthan other areas of the Berk-shire economy.

“Other sectors of theeconomy have not come

back to those (pre-reces-sion) levels,” he said, “so theoverall economy remains 14percent below it’s previouspeak.”

The nonprofit sector wasable to rebound quicker dueto the considerable assetsthat some organizationshave, which provided themwith a “cushion” during dif-ficult economic times, “andallow them to spring backmore rapidly,” Sheppardsaid.

He also attributed the“entrepreneurial spirit” ofthe operators of nonprofitsas a reason for the quickerrebound.

“A lot of the nonprofitsare led by people who arecreative, and energetic andscrappy,” he said.

When asked the typesof jobs that nonprofits sup-port, Sheppard said the re-port contained “limited dataon wages,” but that thosepositions included a “wholerange of occupations.”

Other highlights from thereport:

• Berkshire County non-profits held $4.86 billion inassets in 2012, a increase of$3.55 billion since 2002. Ed-ucation nonprofits hold thebulk of those assets at $2.7

billion, followed by healthcare ($926.6 million); artsand culture ($701 million);“other” nonprofits ($337.6million) andhuman services($190.8million). Human ser-vice agencies were the onlygroup to experience a seri-ous decline in that field; theyheld $221.5million in assetsin 2002.

•Total nonprofit revenuein 2012 was $1.52 billioncompared to $1.11 billionin 2002 (in 2012 dollars ad-justed for inflation). Healthnonprofits led the way with$870 million in revenues.

• Nonprofit expenditurestotaled $1.39 billion in2012, up from $1.09 billionin 2002. Health nonprofitswere responsible for $801.8million of that total, whilearts and cultural organiza-tions contributed $73.8 mil-lion, fourth among the fivegroups listed.

• There were 373 non-profit organizations listedin the Berkshires in 2012led by human service agen-cies with 106.

Copies of the report areavailable at www.berkshire-chamber.com/nbn.

Contact Tony Dobrowolskiat 413-496-6224.

NonprofitsFROMPAGE 1

BEN GARVER — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Professor Stephen Sheppard speaks at Tuesday’s Nonprofit Business Network meetingabout the state of nonprofits in the Berkshires with Jim Kolesar.

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