By Izzy Bryars, The Berkshire Eagle
NORTH ADAMS — Four organizations in Pittsfield, North Adams and Great Barrington are among a dozen communities across Western Massachusetts that will receive a share of $14 million in federal project funding secured by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield.
The Berkshire County projects, including funds for a childhood education center, cybersecurity facility and community center expansion, are part of 15 projects across the 1st Congressional District for which Neal requested for Community Project Funding in fiscal 2026.
“From North Adams to Oxford, I partnered with community leaders throughout the district to explore different funding opportunities that will best serve the needs of my constituents,” Neal said. “These investments will strengthen our infrastructure, expand educational opportunities, and improve quality of life for families and businesses across the district for years to come.”
Neal submitted these project requests, and depending on the type of project, the funding came from different federal agencies funded by one of 12 appropriation bills — the annual spending laws that Congress passes to fund government programs — his office said.
These are the Berkshire County organizations that received funding.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
In North Adams, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts received $1.2 million of seed money to develop an on-campus early education center.
The money will act as “foundational funding for the project,” said MCLA Director of Communications Bernadette Alden, as the college looks at creating a childhood education facility that would address two key community needs: providing early childhood care options that would also serve as an “experimental learning laboratory” for students in the college’s education programs.
“We’ll be engaging community partners and other funding sources to help bring this important facility to fruition,” she wrote in an email to The Eagle.
As for who could participate, Alden said the school was still in the exploratory phase of determining the center’s structure and enrollment model, but it could potentially serve faculty, staff, students with young children and broader North Adams families.
“The specifics would be shaped as planning develops, and we better understand community needs and capacity,” she said.
Berkshire Innovation Center
Pittsfield’s Berkshire Innovation Center received $735,000 that will help start a cybersecurity training and testing room inside its William Stanley Business Park building. The center provides regional manufacturers and businesses with research and design equipment, specialized lab space and training facilities.
Executive Director Ben Sosne envisions a room where companies can take courses to meet changing industry cybersecurity requirements, enhance data security skills and learn from other companies that have done the same.
Local companies that the center partners with, like General Dynamics, Sinicon Plastics and Synagex Modern IT, have evolving cybersecurity needs to keep up with their industries. At one recent event, he said, the center asked manufacturers what cybersecurity concerns they had.
“Every hand in the room went up,” he said. “If you are making parts in the defense industry or making medical devices, there are strict requirements for what it has to look like and how employees handle information.”
Sosne said different communities in the state have similar resources — noting that in 2024, Neal secured funding for a similar facility in Springfield — and said he appreciated the congressman’s acknowledgement of cybersecurity challenges.
“As everything comes online, issues around cybersecurity are only growing,” he said. “With this [new facility], we feel we can be among a much broader ecosystem of partners.”
Berkshire South Regional Community Center
The community center in Great Barrington received $1,015,000 to expand its North Wing. The center already offers year-round child care programs, but Executive Director Jenise Lucey said the funds will allow the center to expand the campus to include infant and toddler care.
It also will add 1,300 square feet of space to the fitness center, add an adjacent room dedicated to movement and wellness, and will allow the center to spread out equipment in the currently congested space, as well as potentially buy more equipment to meet a growing need.
The expansion has been in the works for years, and planning was first made possible by a donation of an acre of land in 2017 from the Great Barrington Land Conservancy.
“The support from Congressman Neal’s office now helps turn that vision into reality,” Lucey said. “This investment will also be instrumental in helping us leverage additional funding needed to complete the project.”
Each year, Berkshire South welcomes more than 200,000 visits and serves over 220 children through year-round child care programs, Lucey said. The center currently runs year-round child care programs for two years, nine months through 14 years, out-of-school programs, vacation week programs and summer camps.
The preschool program can now take 20 students per day and often is full, she said. With this expansion, the child care programs would allow for infant and toddler care in separate but connected spaces and allow for an additional 20 spots combined year-round.
Berkshire Community College
The community college will receive $995,000 toward creating a new Trades Academy in a vacant, defunct power plant building located on BCC’s main Pittsfield campus.
“The Berkshire Community College Trades Academy will train the next generation of makers, builders, and problem-solvers; offering cutting-edge, career-driven education that is built for the real world,” the project request said on Neal’s website.
Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Community Impact Jim Mancall said the college was “deeply grateful” for Neal’s support that will help the project, which has been in the works for about a year, move into design and planning phases.
“Reimagining the Stanley Power Plant on campus — currently used for facilities operations and storage — will enable the college to respond to the growing demand for high-skill and high-wage job opportunities in the trades across the Berkshires,” Mancall said.
