Hello everyone,
I hope all of our local students and educators were able to enjoy their April school vacation, you all truly lucked out this week with all the great weather!
I was absolutely thrilled to attend Tuesday’s ribbon cutting celebration of the Westfield Peer Recovery Center! This truly special space will be opening its doors on May 5th to help support those in our community seeking assistance navigating their recovery journey. A huge thank you to the City of Westfield and the Gandara Center for all their work to create this new community resource to help change and save lives!
Later that day I made my way over to Westfield State’s campus to meet with the Student Government Association. Every year I look forward to this opportunity to update student leaders about all the work that is going on up on Beacon Hill. I have no doubt that many of these students will go on to be incredible leaders in our community and I hope to see them in the halls of our State House soon!
Sadly, a new report was released this week from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of New England which found that Massachusetts continues to outpace the majority of states in the number of reported antisemitic incidents. For many of us on the Commission, and especially for Jewish residents across the Commonwealth, this report did not come as a complete shock. It is just truly so sickening to me that Massachusetts continues to be one of the five states that collectively makes up more than 50% of antisemitic acts of hate in our entire nation. For the Commission, the work ahead of us is clear; Massachusetts must do better to root out hate, wherever it rears its head.
On Thursday I had the opportunity to join some of my colleagues from Central Massachusetts for a tour of Independence Hall in Shrewsbury. Independence Hall is a specialized recovery center to support veterans and their family members impacted by addiction. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to see first-hand the comprehensive, compassionate, and holistic care that they are providing to our Veterans that may be struggling.
This week Team Velis hosted office hours in Russell. Next week we will be hosting office hours on Monday at the Westfield Council on Aging from 12:30pm to 1:30pm and again on Wednesday at the Southampton Council on Aging from 9:30am to 10:30am. If you are unable to make office hours, I can always be reached by email, john.velis@masenate.gov, by phone, (413) 572-3920, and you can find me online at senatorjohnvelis.com. 
Best,  
John Velis