Federal grant nixed for Springfield violence intervention program for women
August 16, 2025
About four years ago, Breasia Mitchell was living at a women’s shelter in Holyoke. She had been in an abusive relationship for years, and shelter staff there referred her to a violence intervention program for young women and mothers at Roca. Though Mitchell credits the program with changing her life trajectory, Roca has less capacity to help young women like her, because the U.S. Department of Justice this spring terminated a grant that brought in about $1 million to the women’s program in Western Massachusetts.