Mayor Robert F. Sullivan's June Champions Update

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The Mayor's Champions Update

Dear Brocktonians,

Welcome to my monthly newsletter! It gives me great pleasure to report that the City of Brockton is now officially in the green designation for COVID-19! I am so grateful to the residents of this City who have been taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of all those who live and work here. If you want to invite other folks to sign-up and receive this newsletter, you can do so HERE.

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COVID-19 Update

On May 29th, Governor Charlie Baker lifted all COVID-19 restrictions and rescinded the Commonwealth's face covering order, stating that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear a face-covering or social distance indoors or outdoors except for in certain situations. For more details on the exceptions visit here.

While this news is great, we must be a bit more cautious in our City. Our community has just recently reached the ‘green’ COVID designation. Our average daily incident rate per 100,000 people is at 8.0, while communities like Boston, Randolph, and Worcester all have incident rates below 5.o. Therefore we must take a more measured approach to the City's opening so we can lower our daily average even further.

As Mayor, it is my duty to make sure that everyone is safe and healthy, which is why since the beginning of May, my staff and I have worked diligently on a comprehensive vaccine rollout campaign. Since May 14th, my staff and the Board of Health have been holding Community Vaccine Events at Vicente's, America's Food Basket, and Price Rite. These events, which include free food and music, have been greatly successful in getting folks vaccinated in the City.

As of June 4th, 49.3% of Brockton residents have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. That's 48,953 people! We will continue to hold these community events in addition to our pop clinics until everyone who lives and works in the City is vaccinated.

City Hall is now Open!

City Hall is now open to the public. The lower level entrance to the building will remain unlocked, but other doors will continue to be locked to streamline visitors past our security desk. Masks will continue to be required for all inside City buildings until Brockton is in the “green” classification as designated by the state for two consecutive weeks.

New Look to the Vaccine Website!

In an effort to ensure Brockton residents are receiving accurate information regarding the vaccine, we have redesigned our City Vaccine page! On the page, you will find up-to-date statistics regarding the vaccine, videos explaining why it is safe to get vaccinated, a vaccine calendar, and a whole host of vaccine-related forms and resources. You can see the new website here.

Got my Second Dose!

On May 11th, at a vaccine clinic organized by the Brockton Board of Health for City Hall staff, I received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine!! I encourage everyone to get the vaccine so we can do our part to save lives and return to life before the pandemic.

Congratulations Graduates!

I have had the distinct honor and privilege to attend the commencement/graduation ceremonies of Cardinal Spellman, New Heights Charter School of Brockton, the Keith Center, Huntington School, and my alma mater Brockton High School. CONGRATULATIONS to all of the graduates. I look forward to all of the special things you will accomplish in the future!

Summer Youth Programs

As the summertime quickly approaches, there are a plethora of summer programs that will be made available to the youth of our City:

Brockton Community Schools are offering summer programming for kids of all ages beginning July 6th-August 20th. For more information, visit this link or check out their Facebook page @joinusinlearning.
The annual “Brockton After Dark” program will begin on July 6 and end on August 26. This is a program that, for over ten years, has kept the youth of the city in safe places during summer evenings. Click here to register.
There are still jobs available for the MassHire Greater Brockton YouthWorks Summer Jobs Program. To find out what jobs are available, email youthworks@masshiregbwb.org

“Brockton Open for Business” Initiative

Businesses in Brockton have struggled to recover from the shutdown and many are still closed. It is vitally important to the future of our City that we help our businesses to rebound quickly. In order to help with that goal, I launched the “Brockton Open for Business” Initiative to focus on improving our City service delivery and decreasing unnecessary red tape on businesses. If you have any insights into how we can make the City better for businesses, please email your suggestions to openforbusiness@cobma.us.

Honoring the CJTF!

In an effort to honor the eight members of the Community Justice Task Force, I presented each member with Mayoral Citations at City Hall. The Task Force put together a list of 49 recommendations geared towards addressing issues of racial inequality in 5 areas of our local government: policing, education, public health, housing, and economic development. I could not be prouder of these eight members. Once again, thank you to Phyllis Ellis, Pastor Mark Oliver, Pastor Robert Connolly, Michael Curry, Nessie Dubuisson, Darren Duarte, Michael Williams, and Carlito Weaver! These eight members are truly among the best that the City of Brockton has to offer.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

In an effort to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the City of Brockton chose to highlight one restaurant from the North, South, East, and West sides of the City. The restaurants selected were Maui, Chinatown, Bamboo Café, & Chang Chun. These 4 restaurants were presented a Mayoral Citation for their years of service to the City of Champions. Congratulations!

Haitian Flag Day

I proudly issued an official proclamation declaring May 18th as “Haitian Flag Day.” It was an awesome day and reminds me of just how proud I am to be the Mayor of a majority-minority City. The diversity of this City is truly our greatest strength.

Keep Brockton Beautiful Day

It was a pleasure to participate in the 16th Annual “Keep Brockton Beautiful Day” in the City of Champions. My office had a team of 10 people and we cleaned the perimeter of Marciano Stadium. Thank you to all those who participated in Keep Brockton Beautiful Day. My goal is to make it so that this outstanding day of community service doesn’t just happen once per year, but multiple times per year.

Marvin Hagler Day

On Sunday, May 23rd, the City celebrated Marvelous Marvin Hagler Day at Marciano Stadium. It was truly an incredible, star-studded, event and was a fitting tribute for the Champ. I was fortunate enough to open the ceremony and express gratitude to Mae Lang (mother of Marvelous Marvin Hagler) and the entire Hagler Family on behalf of the City of Champions. Thank you to all the celebrity guests who were on hand to honor Marvelous. It was truly a great day for the City and is a day I will never forget.

First-ever LGBTQ+ Flag-raising!

On June 2nd, I officially proclaimed the month of June Pride Month in the City of Champions, becoming the first Brockton Mayor to do so. In addition, we raised the first-ever LGBTQ+ Flag at City Hall at a historic flag-raising event. I am thankful to everyone who attended and who contributed to making the day so special. I am especially grateful to the Brockton High School Choir for lending their beautiful voices on this monumental day (a video of their performance can be seen here).

Grants:

Thanks to grant funds from the 2020 COVID-Safe Cooling Program the City of Brockton was able to purchase table fans and air conditioning units to be distributed to the most vulnerable residents. Effective as of June 1st, 2021, applications for the “Keeping it Cool Brockton Program” are now being accepted at Council on Aging. The deadline to apply will be Wednesday, June 30, 2021. For the link to the application click here.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Friday, June 11th, the Board of Health will be holding a free COVID-19 Vaccine Mobile Clinic at Price Rite at 240 E. Ashland St. The event will go from 3 pm to 7 pm.
Saturday, June 12th, the Board of Health will be holding a free COVID-19 Vaccine Mobile Clinic at Vicente’s Supermarket at 689 South Main St. The event will go from 3 pm to 7 pm.
Sunday, June 13th, the Board of Health will be holding a free COVID-19 Vaccine Mobile Clinic at St. Patrick’s Church at 335 Main St. The event will go from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm.
Saturday, June 19th the City of Brockton, in partnership with the Plymouth County DA, Brockton Police Department, and New Life Temple of Holiness, will hold a Gun Buy Back event. For more information see the flyer to the right.
The 3rd annual Father's Day Peace Walk will take place on Sunday, June 20th from 9 am -11 am. The walk will begin at Vicente's Market (160 Pleasant St.) and will end at City Hall (45 School St.). More information in the flyer below.