A Publication of the

Olneyville Neighborhood NewsJanuary 2012 Volume 8, Issue 1

66 Chaffee StreetProvidence, RI 02909phone: 401-351-8719

fax: 401-351-0019email: info@olneyville.orgweb: www.olneyville.org

NON PROFIT ORG.US POSTAGE PAIDPROVIDENCE, RI

PERMIT # 354

Olneyville Neighborhood News is published four times a year by the Olneyville Collaborative. It is distributed for free to homes,businesses and other agencies in the Olneyville neighborhood. Its production is made possible by Olneyville Housing

Corporation, Rhode Island Department of Health, Our Neighborhoods, and by its advertisers.Submissions are welcome and should be sent to Johanna Walczak at walczak@olneyville.org.

Olneyville Neighborhood News / Noticias de OlneyvilleOlneyville Neighborhood News / Noticias de OlneyvilleOlneyville Neighborhood News / Noticias de OlneyvilleOlneyville Neighborhood News / Noticias de OlneyvilleOlneyville Neighborhood News / Noticias de OlneyvilleJanuary 2012 Volume 8, Issue 1

YouthBuild Students Learn ThroughService at St. Teresa’s Food Pantry

The City’s new Green & Healthy Homes Program iscoming to areas of Olneyville and Valley! The new initiativewill retrofit 125 housing units with free comprehensiveweatherization assistance programs designed to providehigh-quality whole home health, safety, and energyassessments and upgrades. In addition to providingassistance for home weatherization and other energyefficiency upgrades, the Green & Healthy Homes Initiativewill provide funding to deal with health and safety issues,such as lead-paint hazards, mold and pests.

One of the major objectives of the City’s Green and HealthyHomes Initiative is to increase the participation of minoritycontractors to perform the work in helping residents lowerenergy bills, remediate lead, mold and other health risksand safety hazards. The City has already qualified twominority contractors to perform the home retrofits and willbe seeking to add to this in early 2012.

City Launches Green & Healthy HomesInitiative in Olneyville and Valley

Continued on page 3....

YouthBuild students at the food pantry

For the past few months, a group of YouthBuild Providencestudents have volunteered at St. Teresa’s Food Pantry, inOlneyville. They have worked under the leadership of foodpantry director, Lorraine Burns, apassionate advocate for endinghunger and homelessness inRhode Island. After first meetingLorraine, YouthBuild student Raisashared, “I am proud that I can joinsomeone like her in making adifference.” You can see Raisa’simpact every Friday in YouthBuild’sweekly Service Learning program,led by program coordinator ElijahStephenson. In addition to hisvolunteer leadership as anAmeriCorps member, he is a firstgeneration college student at Community College of R.I.and a graduate of YouthBuild himself.

Elijah explains service learning as “an extension of ourextensive academic curriculum. Service Learning takestheory and puts it into practice.” YouthBuild DirectorAnthony Hubbard comments, “Service Learning is a keycomponent of our American History program, whichexplores the role of the individual in society.” Anthony notes,“Our students’ volunteerism at St. Teresa’s is particularlyinspiring because many have experienced hunger and

homelessness, living in shelters, on thestreets, or with extended family members and friends.Much of our development efforts here at YouthBuild consist

of meeting the very basic needs thatLorraine works tirelessly to address.”Anthony continues, “St. Teresa’s hasgiven YouthBuild students anopportunity to build character andaddress the very issues that pushedthem out of traditional schoolsettings.”

YouthBuild students have contributeda great deal through their service toSt. Teresa’s. Current student Raynardstates, “My jobs every week are alittle bit different. I’ve organized food

donations and served clients food.” Raisa pipes up, “I thinkit is important that we learn how a non-profit operates andteenagers give voice to the issues.” YouthBuild has alsobegun to make small renovations to St. Teresa’s interiorspace, securing windows and doing some cleaning. Thisspring, Anthony announces, “YouthBuild students will paintSt. Teresa’s exterior walls.” This is a new development forthe partnering non-profits. Elijah Stephenson concludes,“This partnership is very meaningful to our program andstudents. It is a personal issue not only for me but mystudents. We are proud to work with Lorraine and extendour reach as long as we can.”

-by Elijah Stephenson

Free Tax Return Preparation!

How much did you pay last year for your income taxreturn? Did you know that you can have your tax returnprepared by IRS trained, certified preparers, for FREE,right here in Olneyville? The VITA (Volunteer IncomeTax Assistance) site at Olneyville HousingCorporation, 66 Chaffee St., will open on January17th.

IRS e-file is the most accurate, safest, and fastest wayto file your tax return. You can get your refund in aslittle as 10 days. Our tax preparers have an extremelyhigh rate of accuracy! Please call 351-8719 ext. 106for an appointment.

¡Preparación de Impuestos Gratis!

¿Cuánto pago el año pasado por su declaración deimpuestos de ingresos? ¿Sabia usted que puede llenarsu declaración de impuestos por un personal entrenado ycertificado del IRS, de GRATIS aquí en Olneyville? Ellugar para la Asistencia Voluntaria de Declaraciónde Impuestos (VITA siglas en ingles) es en OlneyvilleHousing Corporation, 66 Chaffee abrirá en Enero 17º.

El archivo electrónico de IRS es la forma mas precisa,segura de llenar su declaración impuesto. Puede tenersus impuestos en tan solo 10 días. ¡Nuestro personal queprepara las declaraciones de impuestos tiene una tasamuy alta de precisión! Por favor llámenos al 351-8719ext. 106 para una cita.

ON THE

SQUARE

Olneyville Neighborhood News A publication of the Olneyville Collaborative January 2012 Volume 8, Issue 1

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The Steel Yard Designs New Fence Panelsfor William D’Abate Elementary

On Thursday December 15th, a delivery of over 2,000 donatedgifts arrived at William D’Abate Elementary to a gym full ofbright eyed eager children who had beenanticipating this day all year. The event,known as Gingerbread Express, is in its21st year at D’Abate and provides eachschool student with a unique bag of toys,clothes, and holiday cheer. GingerbreadExpress is sponsored and organized bythe National Education Association ofRhode Island (NEARI) Children’s Fund,which provides financial assistance andservices to public school children in needacross the state, from eye exams andglasses to clothing and shelter.

D’Abate is special in that it is the onlyschool in Rhode Island where every child receives gifts inDecember. The bags of gifts are unique and specific to each

child, considering their age, grade, gender, and interests,as well as wish lists by the students and their parents of

what they need or want. The donation ofbackpacks, clothes and toys areespecially appreciated this year, as manyfamilies are struggling to make endsmeet in the face of layoffs and hardeconomic times.

A long list of honored guests attended theevent, including several family membersof William D’Abate, for whom the schoolis named, Students from CarmenRodriguez’s class, room 205, and AmyLopes’ class, room 206, prepared specialperformances with Mr. Deep Positivitythrough Project Citizen for members of

the Providence Police Department, Providence FireDepartment, and the State Police Department.

Gingerbread Express Brings Joysand Toys to Students at D’Abate

Over 300 children and their families enjoyed a myriad ofactivities, performances, and food at the festive “WinterWonderland” neighborhood celebration on SaturdayDecember 10th at the William D’Abate Elementary School.Over 15 neighborhood organizations provided games,activities, and arts and crafts. The crowd watched engagingperformances by the Providence Dancing Cop, Tony Lepore,who invited the children in attendance to participate in streetsafety lessons, and Providence-born-and-raised hip hopemcee Jon Hope, who brought positive messages of peace,justice and hope for a better future. Special guests that dayincluded Ward 15 Councilwoman Sabina Matos, Ward 6Councilman Michael Correia, and Providence Mayor AngelTaveras.

The Winter Wonderland festival was organized by theOlneyville Collaborative, a coalition of neighborhoodorganizations, after our annual Fall Festival was canceled inOctober due to heavy rains and snow that weekend. Thankyou to all of the participating organizations, sponsors,donors, and volunteers who helped to pull this together inless than two months. A special thank you to our sponsors:Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Citizens Bank,Neighborhood Health Plan of RI, and YouthBuildProvidence; to the businesses who donated food, raffleprizes, and more: Aramark, Sodexo, Cozy Caterers, Coca-Cola, Dunkin Donuts on Manton Avenue, State Towing,Lopco Contracting, Olneyville NY System; and to the manyother businesses, organizations and volunteers who madethe event possible.

Winter Wonderland Festival Revives theSpirit of Fall Festival this Holiday Season

The Steel Yard is excited to announce the success andcompletion of three sessions of their 2011 Bank of AmericaWeld to Work Program. Through intensive training, localresidents learned metalworking and job readiness skills.Participants worked on both team and individual projectsincluding designing and fabricating fence panels for theWilliam D’Abate Elementary School. To help guide theirdesigns, the school’s principal Brent Kermen met with theparticipants to talk about the importance of the school tostudents and the Olneyville community.

Inspired by the school visit, participants designed three ofthe nine panels portraying imagery with themes oneducation, recreation, and the environment. Weld to Workparticipants expressed great enthusiasm for this fenceproject. After completing the program, Olneyville residentAkeem Malcom shared that what he enjoyed most aboutWeld to Work was “being a part of bettering [my]neighborhood through creativity and metalworking.” Thepanels will be painted and installed at the school nextyear. Principal Kermen hopes that the work alreadycomplete will help William D’Abate fundraise to replacethe rest of the fence around the school.

-by Alma Carrillo

Funding for this program comes from the U.S. Departmentof Energy State Energy Partnership through the State ofRhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources, the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development, the RhodeIsland Foundation and the Open Society Foundations,made available by the Coalition to End Childhood LeadPoisoning.

Several community–based organizations are providingoutreach and education services for the Green & Healthy

Homes Initiative, including Olneyville HousingCorporation, Childhood Lead Action Project, English forAction, Meeting Street, the Aperion Institute andProvidence Green Pathways.

If you are interested in weatherizing your home,applications are now being taken. Contact theChildhood Lead Action Project for an appointment:785-1310 x301 (English); 785-1310 x214 (Spanish).

-by Roberta Aaronson

... “Green & Healthy Homes Initiative” continued from page 1

Bank of America Weld to Work Session 2participants in front of their environment-themed

fence panel for D’Abate Elementary

Bank of America Weld to Work Session 3 participants withprogram instructors Tim Ferland and Frank Barada with a

railing they fabricated during their three-week trainingD’Abate students eagerly pose witha gingerbread woman