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Dear Partners and Supporters,
Welcome to our second annual Youth Issue with a focus on triumphs amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic! School is back in session - virtually in most of our communities - and we are working remotely with our school partners and youth-serving organizations across the Metro North region. Of special interest, see our Spotlight on Youth, including news about the 2nd Annual Youth Employment Forum and STEM Week. We have also highlighted some of the great work we have done with youth this past summer.
We look forward to working with you all this fall season to serve our region’s residents and businesses!
In partnership,
Chris Albrizio-Lee, President and CEO
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Meet our newest staff member!
Carlos Fuentes joined the MassHire Metro North Workforce Board as a Youth Specialist in October of 2020. Prior to joining MassHire MNWB, Carlos has worked in nonprofits working with teen leadership and teen employment. He is working on his Bachelors of Social Work and hopes to continue his education by working towards a Masters in Nonprofit Leadership. When not working, you can find Carlos in New York watching every Broadway musical he can or traveling to various places.
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Other Changes
Heather Derby, has moved from the Youth Team to become the Manager of STEM Programs, a new sector initiative under our Programs Department! Congratulations Heather!
In other news, Covid-19 has allowed us to rethink how we work and support our team. We have all been working remotely since March 2020. When our Fiscal Coordinator, Dwayne Hull, informed us that his circumstances required a move to Texas, we were able to say "Do what your family needs, but please stay on as a a core member of our team working remotely!" We are so pleased that although Dwayne is physically distant he is still part of our team.
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Diversity - Equity - Inclusion
In an effort to keep our work, both internally and externally, focused on the principles set forth in our Statement of Solidarity, we have engaged YWBoston to work with us on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for our full staff. We will be participating in their Inclusion Boston program during the month of November. The year-long engagement will consist of an organizational assessment, staff dialogue-based sessions, the development of an action plan and continued follow up and evaluation from the YWBoston team. We are grateful for this opportunity.
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 SPOTLIGHT ON YOUTH
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 MA STEM WEEK 2020
REMOTE STEM WEEK A HUGE SUCCESS
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For the past few years, the month of October has hosted Massachusetts STEM Week with much success and this year was no different – even as we faced down the COVID-19 pandemic. There was some uncertainty around the who and how, but with tremendous support from the state, Regional STEM Networks, and our region, once again we presented successful events during the weeklong celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math from October 19-23.
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Within our region we presented events statewide and locally, including 13 public and private events procured by Metro North STEM Network and MNWB. Pfizer (Andover) presented students and educators with a unique opportunity to explore the newly built gene therapy lab for Muscular Dystrophy. They learned first-hand from a group of diverse engineers about a day in the life of a Pfizer engineer. High School and Tufts University STEM Ambassador students came together in an informative session on navigating STEM interests as historically underrepresented persons in STEM.
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2nd ANNUAL FORUM ON
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT IN METRO NORTH
A Focus on STEM
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MNWB hosted its 2nd Annual Youth Employment Forum on October 15th, following last year’s Youth Employment Forum at Partner’s Healthcare. Unfortunately this year due to COVID-19 the forum needed to be held virtually, but it provided the opportunity for more partners to be involved,
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technology to be utilized in terms of presentations and various speaker panels, and the ability to record the webinar and send to attendees and our broader network. This year’s forum focused on diversity in STEM creating opportunities for our diverse youth population in a field that is lacking in diversity and predominantly white. We were honored to host a Q&A chat with Tarikh Campbell, Program Manager for Workplace Inclusion at Microsoft New England Research and Development, data presentation from Jennifer Leonard of Skills Library, and our employer panelists who spoke on working with young people: Reed Brockman, Nancy Conti and Debora Guimaraes. MNWB plans to host more virtual webinars/events focusing on these critical issues in equity and the workforce.
Recording found here. |
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2020 YOUTHWORKS SUMMER SUCCESS STORIES!!
MOSTLY REMOTE, A BIT HYBRID - WHAT A STRANGE YET INSPIRING SUMMER IT WAS!!
It went remote, for the most part, but once again, the YouthWorks Summer Youth Employment Program, in partnership with local municipalities, public and private employers, and virtual work-based learning projects from Commonwealth Corporation’s new YouthWorks strong initiatives, employed 407 youth across our urban and Gateway Cities, including Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Revere, and Somerville, giving them their first or early work experiences. Members of the MassHire Metro North Workforce Board Youth Team facilitated 15 hours of Signal Success curriculum virtually. The vast majority of these jobs were virtual and ranged from administrative duties in healthcare, professional development and curriculum tasks for an early learning center, public gardening projects, administrative services for a busy city hall department and more.
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Metro North STEM Network!
Check out the new Metro North STEM Network webpage!
- and -
Read all about our logo designer, Lamiya Muhameid, a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
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As COVID began to ravage our area, all plans were put on hold as both TND and IINE shifted our focus to immediate crisis response efforts. TND launched a hotline to support people impacted by the pandemic, and have since assisted over 2,000 community members with applying for unemployment, accessing emergency rental assistance, filing for taxes, applying for SNAP, and getting school-issued Chromebooks online. Meanwhile, IINE reached out to all of their past graduates to check in and see how they were doing.
We regrouped in early June to figure out how to move forward with delivering our training and helping people move past basic stabilization. To respond to our new COVID reality, we had to make some major changes to our original training plan, including broadening the focus of the curriculum from hospitality training to general professional development, and delivering classes virtually instead of in-person.
As we moved into these uncharted territories, we were nervous about how this new format for training would work. A highlight of our classes when they were in-person was the tangible sense of community that was created in class. When planning to make the switch to virtual class delivery, we couldn’t help but wonder if we would be able to foster the same atmosphere through our screens.
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Senator Kenneth J. Donnelly Workforce Success Grant
Metro North Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Maintenance Program
Recruiting First Cohort!
The Metro North Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Maintenance Program (MN-PACMAN) is currently recruiting for the first cohort tentatively scheduled for January/February 2021. MN-PACMAN is a 160-hour training program that will prepare Metro North residents for careers in Construction Trades and Facility Maintenance occupations. Curriculum will include an introduction to construction and facilities maintenance, financial literacy, and job readiness. Intake and enrollment will be coordinated by CONNECT in partnership with IINE. Interested candidates should contact Evie Heffernan at eheffernan@tndinc.org.
This project is funded by a Senator Kenneth J. Donnelly Workforce Success Grant (Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund FY’20 Appropriation) through the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and is administered by the Commonwealth Corporation.
Project partners include, Associated Builders and Contractors of Massachusetts (ABCMA), Winn Companies, International Institute of New England (IINE), CONNECT, MassHire Metro North Career Centers, and Medford Vocational Technical High School.
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Now recruiting for
B2 LIFE Job Training Program!
We are excited to announce that the new B2 LIFE Job Training Program is accepting new applicants that are residents of the Towns of Burlington and Bedford.
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In partnership with the Town of Burlington, the Town of Bedford, and MassHire, the B2 LIFE Job Training Program will focus on training residents of Burlington and Bedford for employment in the high demand industries of life science and health care. The program is flexible to the needs of residents’ individual career goals and availability.
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Covid-19 and Bridging the Digital Divide in Cambridge
With a grant from the City of Cambridge Covid-19 Fund, MNWB is working to help bridge the “Digital Divide” with the goal of increasing access to employment and training opportunities, particularly for those most impacted by the Covid-19 crisis
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The funds from the grant have been used to purchase Chromebooks and Mobile hotspots for 20 students of the Cambridge Community Learning Center (CCLC). As CCLC’s classes went online in the Spring, many students without computers and reliable internet service lost access to a critical support and CCLC scrambled to borrow laptops from libraries and purchase as many as they could afford for their students. But as things began to reopen in August/September, the libraries needed the laptops back for their patrons. Once again, many students lost access to learning. This grant will help allow students to continue their online learning with CCLC by providing free Chromebooks and Mobile hotspots with one year of high-speed internet service.
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Cambridge Brands Award for Retail Academy
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English for New Bostonians held the “7th Annual Raising Our Voices” award ceremony on October 22, 2020. As part of this year’s award, five employers were selected, state wide, to receive recognition for their commitment to improving the lives of their employees through helping them access English as a Second Language classes and programs.
This year, Cambridge Brands, was selected as one of the five employers to receive the award certificate, for their participation in the MassHire Metro North Workforce Board’s “Retail Academy” at Bunker Hill Community college, funded by a grant from the Walmart Corporation.
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Please do not hesitate to contact MNCC for any of your workforce needs.
During these difficult times the MNCC remain committed to providing continued services.
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CAREER CENTER SUCCESS STORY!
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MNCC Receives Award for Excellence in
Service to our Veterans!
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For many Veterans and their families, much of their time was dedicated to serving our country. When Veterans and their families need support connecting to employment resources in the Metro North region, it is our time to serve them. For this service, MassHire Metro North Career Centers were awarded with the Silver
Award by the Massachusetts Department of Career Services for their outstanding work in serving veterans.
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This is the 2nd year in a row that the Metro North Career Centers are the recipients of the Veterans State Grant (JVSG) Incentive Award! The staff at the Metro North Career Centers along with their partner Vet Reps, Dennis Pellegrino, Steve Fernandez and Rob Doucette, are constantly striving to provide excellence in service to our Veterans and their families. Much thought has gone into how they can continue to serve the Veteran population and with this grant award some of the ideas on how to continue supporting them in the upcoming year focus around technology support. A huge THANK YOU to the Metro North Career Center staff for their continued excellence and dedication to our Vets!
(Photo is from the 2019 MNCC Veterans Award Ceremony)
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