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About SkillWorks › Grantees

Community Health Worker Initiative of Boston

Lead Agency: Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD)

Community health workers are an essential but often overlooked part of the public health system. They work in diverse settings and under myriad titles to improve access to health care for underserved populations.

Action for Boston Community Development received a SkillWorks implementation grant in April 2007 to lead a broad-based partnership in: increasing employer investment in training and promotion; developing recognized career pathways; and establishing a recognized postsecondary certificate program for community health workers. The initiative is focused on incumbent community health workers and helping them advance along a pathway within the occupation. The end goal is to assist the workers in making progress toward achieving family self-sufficiency. The initiative is also working on a public information and policy advocacy plan to tackle structural issues, such as third-party payer reimbursement issues that constrain the career advancement opportunities of community health workers.

Key partners include: Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries; Bunker Hill Community College; Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Mass. Department of Mental Health; Mass. Community Health Worker Network; and the Mass. League of Community Health Centers. The partnership's employer partners include: DotWell (Codman Square Community Health Center, Dorchester House Multi-Service Health Center); Whittier Street Health Center; East Boston Neighborhood Health Center; Partners in Health/Brigham and Women's Hospital (PACT Program); and ABCD's public health division.

Emergency Medical Careers Partnership (EMCP)

Lead Agency: Northeastern University, College of Professional Studies

The Emergency Medical Careers Partnership (EMCP) seeks to address the employment needs of the emergency medical services industry in greater Boston, while providing new opportunities for low-skilled individuals to move into medium-skilled, higher paying jobs. The EMCP seeks to meet current and projected vacancies for chair car drivers, EMTs, and paramedics and to accomplish two goals:

1. Build a new pipeline of workers from community-based GED programs
2. Provide incumbent workers with opportunities to advance up the EMT/Paramedic career ladder through training and credentialing.

The EMCP will provide support services, peer-to-peer learning, clinical and experiential activities, mentoring, and career coaching in addition to support participants in completing the curriculum. In addition, the partnership will utilize hybrid and online learning methods and will involve employers in the updating and re-design of curriculum modules. Finally, the partnership will support community-based GED providers to link their curriculum with college-level standards and will dual-enroll students in the EMT-basic program.
The EMCP plans to serve 536 participants over four years.

Key partners include: X-Cel, Inc; the Dimock Center; LifeLine Ambulance; Boston EMS; Cataldo Ambulance; the Massachusetts Ambulance Association; and the Boston Private Industry Council

Healthcare Training Institute (HTI)

Lead Agency: JVS

Project Description: HTI will provide a continuum of career advancement services—workplace education, college transition, coaching and student support, pre-employment training and placement—and allied health and nursing pathways with major healthcare employers.

Key goals are to: 1) help low-income workers and community residents improve their skills, enter college, and fill vacancies in high-demand occupations offering family-sustainin wages; and 2) institutionalize relationships with colleges that will enable continued skill development and career advancement.

HTI plans to serve 895 participants over five years.

HTI’s partners include: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Children’s Hospital; Hebrew Senior Life; Marina Bay; Bay Cove Human Services; Massachusetts General Hospital; Bunker Hill Community College; Mass. Bay Community College; MissionWorks and the Mission Hill Jobs Collaborative.

Hotel Training Center (HTC)

Lead Agency: BEST Corp (Boston Education, Skills & Training Corp.)

The Hotel Training Center (HTC) provides skills training and job placement services for under employed and unemployed individuals seeking entry to the hospitality industry and incumbent workers seeking skills upgrades or advancement within the industry.

With SkillWorks funding, HTC will increase its training capacity, add individualized career counseling services, and enhance educational offerings to satisfy the critical demand for well-trained employees in the growing Boston hotel and food service sector. In particular, HTC will build out its pre-GED, GED and post-secondary preparation programs for workers.

Participants who graduate from the pre-employment training program will start at positions paying at least $15.23/hour. Incumbent workers will train for advancement in culinary, food service, and guest service positions paying $40,000 to $70,000 annually.

HTC plans to serve 565 participants over five years.

Key partners include: UNITE HERE Local 26; Greater Boston Hotel Employer Local 26 Trust Funds; Starwood Hotels and Resorts; the Copley Square Hotel; the Omni Parker House; the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts; Project Place; Julie’s Family Learning Program; and the Boston Private Industry Council.

Workforce Solutions Group (WSG)

Lead Agency: Crittenton Women’s Union

The Workforce Solutions Group (WSG) is SkillWorks’
public policy advocacy grantee. Funded since Phase I, WSG has expanded its capacity and executive leadership for the next SkillWorks phase.

WSG will focus on implementing SkillWorks’ public policy vision, focusing both on increasing the resources available for workforce development and changing the workforce system so that it better meets the needs of workers and employers.
Key areas of focus include: support for sector partnerships; workplace ABE/ESOL; integration and collaboration of the workforce system with the public higher education system, particularly community colleges; and youth workforce development.

Key partners include: Massachusetts Communities Action Network; Mass. Workforce Board Association; Massachusetts Business Roundtable; Workforce Investment Association of Massachusetts; Massachusetts AFL-CIO; Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies.

Year Up Financial Services Partnership (planning grantee in 2009)

Lead Agency: Year Up

Year Up’s core program prepares young adults to launch livable wage careers and begin the journey to a post-secondary credential through a one-year, intensive pre-employment program. With a SkillWorks planning grant, Year Up will develop its capacity to deepen and sharpen its post-placement supports and services. Year Up will focus in particular on developing a strategy for helping participants complete at least one year of post-secondary education and for helping participants access career advancement pathways in the financial services industry.
Key partners include Cambridge College, State Street Corporation, and Bank of America.

Green Jobs Initiative Grantees

In the spring of 2010, training grants were awarded to two organizations to implement their green job training programs:

Energy Efficiency Technician Apprenticeship Program (EETAP)

Lead Agency: Asian American Civic Association (AACA)

Energy Efficiency Technicians combine the skills of an energy auditor with the basic skills of a weatherization worker. EETAP will target low-come, minority, immigrant/bilingual, unemployed and underemployed residents of Metro Boston.

Services provided to participants will include case management, career coaching, pre-vocational English, on the job training, and classroom instruction. Through a unique arrangement of the apprenticeship program, participants will be working at partner employers and earning wages throughout the entire training program.

Key partners include: Clean and Smart, LLC, OSHA-Braintree Area Office, Conservation Services Group, and Next Step Living.

Chinatown Green Collar Career Pathways Program

Lead Agency: Chinese Progressive Association (CPA)

The Chinatown Program seeks to prepare limited English proficiency workers from Chinatown and the Boston area for weatherization jobs at a living wage with long-term union career pathway.

CPA is a member of the Green Justice Coalition, which recently influenced the state's and the utilities' new $1.4 billion plan to expand energy efficiency programs across the Commonwealth. The utilities committed to creating several weatherization community mobilization pilots around the state of which will utilize a unique model linking the bundling of weatherization work with the training and hiring of local residents. The Chinatown Program is the first of these pilots.

Key partners include: International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35 and the Aulson Company.

Contact:
Mark Liu, Green Justice Coordinator, CPA mark@cpaboston.org
617-357-4499
www.cpaboston.org

In 2009, energy efficiency/weatherization workforce partnership planning grants were awarded to four organizations leading planning processes and with proven workforce development track records:

• Asian American Civic Association (AACA) for their green facilities maintenance program (BEEMS);
• JFYNetWorks for a project to expand access to weatherization training and jobs for low-income/public housing residents in Chelsea;
• Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP) to develop a regional training partnership with CAP agencies in Boston, Quincy, and Southern Middlesex County; and
• Urban League of Eastern MA (ULEM) to develop their solar/photovoltaic installation training program.

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