Q-MoB Offers Briefings on Benefits for Rural Berkshire LGBTQ Community

03:58PM / Friday, April 11, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Q-MoB is sponsoring two informational briefings for the LGBTQ community regarding health insurance, Social Security, and food stamp benefits.

The organization states the briefings are in response to potential impacts from executive orders and the new Congressional budget.

The briefings are being organized by Q-MoB's Ombudsman Advocacy Team, which is recruiting volunteers to assist rural LGBTQ individuals in understanding and potentially protecting or restoring federal benefits. Experts from Berkshire Health Systems Advocacy for Access Program, Elder Services of Berkshire County's SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs of Everyone) Program, and an Ecu-Health Care SHINE counselor will lead the sessions. Support for the briefings is provided in part by Berkshire United Way.

The briefings will take place at the Berkshire United Way conference room in Pittsfield:

April 15: LGBTQ Briefing: Protect Your Soc. Sec., Medicare, Affordable Care Health Insurance, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
April 29: LGBTQ Briefing: Medicaid/Affordable Care Act/SNAP 101, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

Q-MoB's Executive Director, Bart Church, stated that rural LGBTQ individuals, particularly those over 60 and/or who are transgender or gender diverse, may be disproportionately affected by potential benefit changes due to factors such as isolation and historical economic disparities. The organization aims to educate the community to proactively protect their benefits.

Individuals interested in attending the free briefings can find registration links on the Q-MoB website. LGBTQ individuals interested in volunteering for Q-MoB's Ombudsman Advocacy Team can find more information online.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

Greylock Youth SummerFest

Come join in on the wealth building fun! August 3-8. Click for event details. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Dalton Considers Updating its Municipal Code

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
01:21PM / Thursday, August 27, 2026

DALTON, Mass. — The town is considering updating its original 18-year municipal code to 2026 standards.

During a recent Select Board meeting, General Code New England account manager Zach Dumont outlined the 18- to-24 month process.

General Code New England is a division of the International Code Council, which writes all the statewide building codes across the United States. For the last 18 years, the organization has been the codifier for municipalities.

"We work with communities to build, maintain, and update your local municipal code. That is your collection of bylaws, ordinances, regulations, and any other legislation you've ever adopted," Dumont said.

Once the project is complete, the town would have a fully updated set of books and an improved eCode360 site, he said.

"The way the process would work is we would put together a scope of work, a timeline, a price point, and everything that we would want to touch or do as a part of the code project," Dumont said.

When a municipal code is built, it has a general lifespan of about 15 to 20 years, and although that is a long time, it goes by very quickly, he said.

View Full Story