Trahan Celebrates $1.5M for YouthBuild
Community Teamwork Promotes Amy Weatherbee to Director of Planning and Quality Improvement
Siobhan Sheehan
CTI’s YouthBuild Program Manager, elected to Vice President of the Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition
Sean Wilson
Joins CTI as Deputy Division Director of Residential Programs
September Newsletter
Tavernier Place in Action
2021-2022 Winter Weather Emergency Plan
Lowell Transitional Living Center will be the primary destination for any individual adult seeking shelter, and will serve as the front door for emergency winter overnight services.
Anyone looking for placement should call the shelter at (978) 458-9888 before taking guests to the building to ensure an appropriate disposition. Once there, they will be triaged for a bed at LTLC.
If LTLC is full, staff there will call Life Connection Center at (978) 997-0588 for additional resources, including potential placement in a bed at The Sanctuary, or placement at the non-congregate hotel site.
Individuals should NOT be referred directly to Life Connection during an emergency event, nor should they be sent to “get a hotel room”.
During weather emergencies, additional hotel rooms will only be made available after all available congregate beds at both LTLC and The Sanctuary have been filled.
If LTLC alerts The Sanctuary that they are full, and the Sanctuary is full, Life Connection will alert CTI to secure additional hotel rooms if those are available.
If an individual needs a warm place to wait while a bed is being determined, the Eliot Day Program will be open from 8am to 2pm. In the event of significant snowfall, they may delay opening by one hour to allow for snow removal. Their holiday schedule is as follows:
- Closed on Thanksgiving Day (Take-out Thanksgiving dinner from 11am – 1pm) and Christmas Eve (Friday)
- Open on New Year’s Eve (Friday), MLK Day (Jan 17th, 2022) and President’s Day (Feb 21st, 2022)
If you encounter an individual who appears to be in distress related to the cold, and who seems to be significantly impaired by mental illness, a Section 12 may be appropriate. You can call the Lahey Emergency Services Program for evaluation support. (978 455 3397 or 800 830 5177)
The Bill of Rights
New center named for Rita O’Brien Dee
Tewksbury resident Rita O’Brien Dee, surrounded by friends, family, and colleagues, was honored by Community Teamwork in Lowell for her half century of service to the organization. The Rita O’Brien Dee Center for Behavioral Health & Development will be a resource for Community Teamwork and providers across the community who are working with children with behavioral, emotional, and developmental challenges. (Paige Impink photo)
By PAIGE IMPINK News Correspondent paige@yourtowncrier.com
TOWN CRIER – Oct 16, 2021
TEWKSBURY — She thought she was attending a board meeting to accept a donation from a supporter of Community Teamwork, a vital services organization she works with in Lowell. But, when Rita O’Brien Dee saw her face on colorful t-shirts and friends and family under a festive tent, she realized something else was going on.
Community Teamwork CEO Karen Frederick welcomed O’Brien Dee and explained the surprise.
“We’d like to welcome Rita and acknowledge more than a half century of service to the community, and to the Community Teamwork family by dedicating The Rita O’Brien Dee Center for Behavioral Health & Development,” said Frederick.
Through a generous anonymous donation and a subsequent grant from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, Community Teamwork was able to establish the program, located at the James Houlares Center on Phoenix Avenue in Lowell. The center will be the headquarters for programs and services that promote healthy social-emotional development for children, increase children’s success in school, strengthen children and families, and mitigate adversity through trauma-informed care.
According to Child and Family Services Division Director Meghan Siembor, “This opportunity could not have come at a better time… This opportunity enables us to meet a critical need and address a significant public health issue — children’s mental and behavioral health.”
Siembor praised O’Brien Dee.
“Her love for children is unparalleled as is her passion for giving back to the community,” said Siembor. “It truly is an honor for me and the staff across the Division of Child and Family services to be able to develop this Center in her honor.”
O’Brien Dee was visibly moved.
O’Brien Dee has been involved with Community Teamwork for 56 years. As a single parent raising five children on her own, she faced difficult struggles trying to work, put food on the table, and keep a roof over the heads of her family.
O’Brien Dee started her career as a teacher aide at Head Start, and earned her Associate’s Degree and quickly became an early childhood teacher at the center. O’Brien Dee was in the classroom for 27 years.
Upon retirement, O’Brien Dee joined the Head Start Policy Council and Community Teamwork’s Board of Directors. O’Brien Dee is also a member of many CTI committees and supports numerous initiatives.
According to data collected by CTI, mental health has emerged as a prominent community need, jumping from the fourth-most cited community need to the second-most cited need from the prior survey cycles. The impact of the pandemic is notable.
Key information also points to mental health as the most pressing issue in the community behind the need for better housing, according to CTI’s data for the greater Lowell community.
O’Brien Dee is known in Tewksbury for her participation in the Friends of the Library, the Tewksbury Historical Society, and is an active member of the Tewksbury Senior Center, Garden Club, the Democratic Town Committee, and is a former election worker.
O’Brien Dee has been an inspiration and example of giving back to the community, not just in Tewksbury, but in the greater Merrimack Valley.
If you would like to donate to help support the new Rita O’Brien Dee Center for Behavioral Health & Development, please contribute to the Greater Lowell COMMUNITY Foundation c/o The Rita O’Brien Dee Center for Behavioral Health and Development
http://homenewshere.com/tewksbury_town_crier/news/article_9bbbe5f6-2c57-11ec-b58a-cfe577fff7e4.html
https://www.commteam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/TOWN-CRIER-ARTICLE-ON-ROBDrev.docx
