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Dear Partners and Supporters,
Hope you are having a great start to the fall season! In this issue, we are happy to share some updates from our busy summer, as well as some exciting things we are working on this fall. With the end of summer and schools back in session, many of our youth-focused programs are back in high gear. Take a look at our “Spotlight on Youth” section to see what our youth team is working on!
October is also when the annual statewide STEM Week takes place, and we have been fortunate to be the coordinator of STEM Week activities in the Metro North region. We’re excited about all the great events planned for next week, get in touch for more info!
Finally, take a look at our other stories and updates from a Board member, sector projects, and MassHire Metro North Career Center. There is a lot going on, as always, all of which wouldn’t be possible without all of our partners across the region.
We look forward to continuing to work with you all during this fall season!
In partnership,
Chris Albrizio-Lee, President and CEO
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Meet our Newest Staff Members!
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Aisha Necoechea joined the MassHire Metro North Workforce Board as the Vice President of Programs on October 4, 2021. Prior to joining the Board, Aisha spent the last five years working on organizational strategy, development, contracts management and compliance, fundraising, finance, and partnership initiatives at a non-profit that focuses on education and skills training. Previously, Aisha worked for 13 years at a refugee, asylee, and immigrant multi-service organization where she began her career providing direct services to clients in the workforce development department and ended by managing the adult education, business development, case management, employment, and skills training programs. Aisha holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Religious Studies from Emmanuel College.
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Hillary Bradburn, Senior Director of Workforce Initiatives, joined the MassHire Metro North Workforce Board in October 2021. Prior to joining the MNWB, she worked at the International Institute of New England in Boston as the Education and Skills Training Manager, where she oversaw English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and job training programming for refugees and immigrants. She has also worked at the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Des Moines, Iowa, where she delivered ESOL classroom instruction and case management to newly arrived refugees. Hillary holds a Masters of Arts in International Relations from the University of Indianapolis and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, French, and Spanish from Indiana University.
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Saladin (Sal) Islam, Youth Programs Specialist, joined MassHire Metro North Workforce Board in September 2021. Sal is a long time resident of Somerville, MA. In the last decade, Sal has worked with a number of organizations that provide employment and enrichment for young people. He joined MassHire MNWB after his two year tenure as the City of Cambridge’s Youth Employment Coordinator, but continues to build on the work that he started there in this new role. Sal has a passion for his community and has given back to the organization that offered him his first job – Groundwork Somerville. From Green Team member, Sal has grown in the organization to be their Board Vice President.
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Maryanne Nadeau Ham joined the MNWB team in October 2021 as the Northeast Advanced Manufacturing Consortium’s (NAMC) Executive Director. NAMC is overseen by four MassHire Workforce Boards, one of which is MNWB. Maryanne has pivoted her work as a career and technical education leader to promote sustained collaborations between industry, academia, and workforce development to support the Manufacturing industry in northeastern Massachusetts. She is passionate about creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce. She is a founding member and Chair of Massachusetts Girls in Trades, a partnership of governmental, education, and union organizations with a shared goal of creating pathways to the union construction trades for high school women, alumni, and middle school girls.
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Other Changes
Congratulations are in order for several members of our team for well deserved promotions:
Trey Walsh is now Senior Director of Youth Programs, Dani Smejkal is now Director of Workforce Systems, Cyndy Chapin is now Director of Employer Partnerships and Carlos Fuentes in now a Youth Programs Manager.
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 SPOTLIGHT ON YOUTH
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2021 YOUTHWORKS SUMMER SUCCESS STORIES!!
The YouthWorks Summer program continues to grow, innovate, and thrive as over 470 young people ages 14-21 in the Metro North region were employed throughout our six YouthWorks partner communities in Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Revere and Somerville.
Employment opportunities ranged from 100% remote and hybrid remote/in-person to best suit each young person’s preference and with all appropriate precautions taken due to the pandemic. These young people also had the opportunity to participate in micro-career pathway courses offered by Commonwealth Corporation education partners, which included web design, digital office skills, introduction to healthcare, and information technology, as a way to gain exposure to in-demand industries and skills throughout our region.
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In the City of Everett young adult workers had the opportunity to engage in the Mystic River cleanup project while also learning about environmentalism, climate change, invasive plant species, and cleanup projects designed to strengthen the shoreline and improve the wildlife habitat. For many students we spoke to, working outside on this project was a breath of fresh air (literally!) after a long school year of zoom classroom sessions.
We want to thank all of our partners throughout the region who worked with and hired our young people and for investing in their communities during this challenging time. Their contribution resulted in paid employment opportunities for hundreds of young people, workforce readiness and in-demand skills training, and confidence building needed to succeed in the working world and invest in their future!
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Connecting Activities – Job Fair 2021
The last year and half has been one of the toughest ones for our Connecting Activities school partners and the work that we do. However, we have managed to make it work, whether it was meeting with over 200 students through zoom or hosting multiple events for our schools. This school year, WE ARE BACK IN PERSON! Each of our seven school partners-Cambridge Extension, Chelsea High, Everett High, Malden High, Revere High, Somerville High, and Woburn Memorial- have agreed to host an in-person job fair for their students!
Our Youth Program Specialists have been working hard to secure employer partners who are hiring 16-year-old students and older to our fair. Market Basket, Primark, Old Navy and Continental Pool are just few of the employers who are eager to find employees and bring employment opportunities to our students. Our goal with these job fairs is to make sure our students find their first job or find a placement where their career may begin. The dates of our Job Fairs are:
- Chelsea High Job Fair – Friday, November 5th - 2:30-4:00pm
- Everett High Job Fair – Tuesday, October 26th – 2:30-4:00pm
- Malden High Job Fair – Wednesday, October 27th – 1:30pm-3:00pm
- Revere High Job Fair – Monday, November 1st – 1:00-3:00pm
- Somerville High Job Fair – Thursday, October 21st – 2:30-3:30pm
- Woburn High Job Fair – Friday, October 29th – 2:30-4:00pm
We are still looking for more employers to join our job fair! If you are interested or may know someone who is interested in participating in our job fair, please have them reach out to Carlos Fuentes, Youth Programs Manager, at Cfuentes@masshiremetronorth.org
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Follow the work of our Youth Team on new, dedicated Social Media!!
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 October 18 - 22
(inclusive of the weekends before and after) |
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Fall is here and with it comes MA STEM Week. This year, MA STEM Week take place October 18-22 – including weekends. STEM Week offers informative, fun, events to excite and engage students, educators, businesses, organizations, and communities across Massachusetts in STEM. Whether you want to be a Geo-Scientist, a Social Epidemiologist, an Accountant in Biotech, a Cyber Hunter, a Test Pilot, an in-house Attorney, or Technician, STEM Week has something for everyone.
In collaboration with new and returning partners, MassHire Metro North Workforce Board and Metro North STEM Network have lined up exciting STEM events for the Week.
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Some events being presented this year include:
- Beyond Doctors and Nurses: Diverse Healthcare Careers Panel
- Comcast: A Day in the Life of a Field Technician
- Managing the Skies: Aviation Professionals Panel
- Tufts University STEM Ambassadors Panel
- Verizon and 5G
We are excited to highlight the many in-school and out-of-school STEM events that will take place during the week as well. For more details, follow Metro North STEM Network on Twitter @MN_STEM and use #mastemweek in your comments and posts.
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2nd Cohort for PACMAN!!
The second cohort of the Metro North Pre-Apprenticeship Construction and Maintenance Training program (PACMAN) started last month at Medford Vocational Technical High with 11 students, including residents from Revere, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Winthrop, Medford, and Cambridge. PAC-MAN is a ten-week, 160 hour training consisting of Principles of Construction, Job Readiness and Financial Literacy. All graduates will have the opportunity to enter paid apprenticeship employment with either trade members of the ABC-MA Builders or Winn Companies.
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Thank you to our partners for all your hard work and your commitment to the PACMAN program: International Institute of New England, CONNECT, MassHire Metro North Career Centers, ABC-MA, and Medford Vocational Technical High School.
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.
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IBEST at WORK
If you are a business looking to enhance your incumbent worker training to ensure that all your employees receive all the information needed to be successful after completing training please CLICK ON THE FLYER to learn about the IBEST at Work free training program that provides your training program with an ABE/ESOL instructor to contextualize the course for English Language Learners and Lower Level Learners. A perfect way to promote diversity equity and inclusion.
This program is offered free of charge through a generous grant from the Walmart Corporation.
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VIRTUAL MANUFACTURING TRAINING
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PACMAN is recruiting for its 3rd Cohort - Classes begin February 2022!
Click on the Flyer to learn more!!
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Virtual Manufacturing Training! Upcoming information session on
Oct. 28 @ 11 AM.
Click on the Flyer to learn more!!
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Panel on Mentorship!!
Reed Brockman, PE, the Youth Council chair for MassHire Metro North Workforce Board, served on a panel discussion for the Conference on Advancing Transportation Equity convened by Transportation Research Board and supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation on September 10th. The focus of the discussion involved people working on the front lines of transportation equity and justice within community-based and non-profit organizations. Reed was asked to join a session entitled “Panel Discussion: Building Lasting Connections through Mentorship”. The panel consisted of two other people: Dr. Carol Lewis, Professor and Director at Texas Southern University (an HBCU school), and Tasha Steiner, a young electrical engineer from the DC Metro area. Each of the three were selected because they have very different arenas in which they mentor: Dr. Lewis focuses on college students, Ms. Steiner focuses on young professionals and Reed mostly works with the K-12 community. The following are among the questions discussed:
- What should a mentee consider when looking for a mentor?
- A lot of focus is given to finding a mentor who is several steps ahead of a mentee in their career. Can you speak to the value of peer mentors and the role they could play in your career path?
- Are there topics that you should never discuss with a mentor?
- What advice would you give your past self at the beginning of your career path?
- At what stage in your career can you become a mentor?
- Think about ways to guide mentees, what are those resources?
As this was the sole live panel presentation offered at that particular time slot, the attendance in the session was overwhelming and the questions could have continued for hours. Among the takeaways from the session were:
- Often, the best mentor-mentee relationships are between people with a common passion for an aspect of a profession. There have been discussions of the values of a mentee being able to see themselves in a mentor, but in reality this can transcend anything that would be statistically collected.
- The mentor-mentee relation needs to be sincere: the mentee should not have other motives such as using the mentor to find them a better job, and similarly the mentor needs to give the necessary time and have open ears when working with a mentee.
- K-12 schools need to conscientiously give opportunities for older students to experience being a mentor to younger students and this sharing attitude should be fostered throughout not only K-college, but through life.
- While there is value in a mentor being steps ahead of a mentee, peers can also be mentors, and a mentee can regard anyone and as many people as they want as a mentor.
- The oft repeated words were “listening”, “sharing” and “caring”.
As a benefit of being a panelist, Reed was given full conference registration, and although he was fully busy with work, he attended several sessions over the four days of this conference, and he found this to be one of the most interesting conferences he has ever attended, and looks forward to playing an active role in similar conferences in the future. While his particular session was not necessarily aimed at making changes needed to achieve transportation equity, most were highly targeted and clearly spelled out areas that need improvement, as well as giving detail to efforts to bring about such changes.
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CAREER CENTER SUCCESS STORIES!
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GO FOR THE GOLD:
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 Gold Award by the Massachusetts Department of Career Services for their outstanding work in serving veterans.
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This is the 3rd year in a row that the Metro North Career Centers are the recipients of the Jobs for 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. 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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The MassHire Metro North Career Centers and Workforce Board attended Chelsea Day on Saturday September 25th to share information on accessing MassHire services.
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Sonia Caal-Escobar, a Metro North Career Advisor, managed the MassHire table at Chelsea Day. She did an incredible job representing MassHire Metro North and engaging with the community! We spoke to many Chelsea residents, a couple Community Benefit Organizations and even some employers. Thank you to your team’s dedication and commitment to the region!
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