More than 400 youth, community leaders and families gathered to celebrate and view art created by youth in Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) programs at the highly anticipated 7^th Annual DYS “Share Your Art, Share Your Voice!” event on Tuesday, May 14.

Held at WGBH Studios in Brighton, this year’s statewide event featured 260 art pieces for sale created by 100 young artists.

All the creativity showcased was developed by youth in the care of DYS (youth in residential programs, in the community, and Y.E.S. youth). Young people submitted artwork for the showcase, were paid for their participation, and could sell their work. This year the event raised $7,887.24— 15.59 percent more than last year.

This event reinforces the Commonwealth’s investment in educational and workforce development for youth in DYS programs. For the last decade, the agency has used arts education as a youth engagement strategy and opportunity for positive youth development.

Outside of the Art Gallery, more youth artwork was displayed featuring programs and community partnerships where guests met and spoke with the artists, learned more about the various services, and participated in hands-on demonstrations and educational activities. Partner booths included Actors’ Shakespeare Project, representing community and residential theater-arts programming; Bridging the Opportunity Gap programs including Diesel Works featuring original handmade metal work for sale; and Exclusive Tees, the youth-led custom silk screen social enterprise run by Commonwealth Corporation – just to name a few.

Gio, a teen who participated in the Diesel Works Welding Program in Holyoke, expressed how grateful he was for the opportunity to learn a new trade. “Because of this program, I plan to pursue a career in welding,” he said. “I never thought I would be interested in this but I actually like it a lot. It’s fun.” Gio explained that without the program, he probably would be doing something he shouldn’t.

After viewing the art and networking, attendees were led into the WGBH auditorium for an array of live performances by the youth. First welcomed by  DYS Deputy Commissioner Ruth Rovezzi who stated how proud she is of the youth and acknowledged their hard work, the audience watched performances that included hip-hop dance, poetry and rap, drumming and singing.

For the past seven years, Commonwealth Corporation has supported the DYS Arts Showcase and would like to thank everyone who participated and made a purchase. If you weren’t able to buy any pieces, no worries! An online store will be up in a few weeks of youth Arts available for purchase!

 

Young men who recently completed a YouthWorks program in Fall River, learning both technical skills and soft skills to prepare them for the workforce, had the opportunity to discuss their experiences in the program with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Rosalin Acosta on Thursday, March 21.

The twelve program participants, unemployed and low-income men ages 18-21, had 100 percent attendance in the training component of the program and were finishing internships at Whirlpool Corporation’s Fall River manufacturing plant, the largest plant in the world dedicated to commercial laundry. They all passed the OSHA 10 certification, too.

Before the lieutenant governor and secretary had a private conversation with the program participants, Polito told them that their involvement and honest feedback will help Massachusetts expand the program.

“Your participation helps us perfect it, make it better, and make it more available,” she said.

Polito mentioned that since 2015, the Workforce Skills Cabinet has invested more than $50 million in training equipment and educational infrastructure through the Skills Capital Grant Program. That equipment has landed in classrooms and technical schools like Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School, which ran the three-month welding training after school hours for the program participants and coupled that training with the Signal Success soft skills curriculum developed by Commonwealth Corporation.

“That’s awesome. That’s the technical skills these employers said they need,” she said. “That’s why we want the employers to engage and offer up internships and opportunities to get students into workplaces, to actually see in real-time why the skill matters, why that exposure can make a difference. You go into the workplace and you’re seeing the real, practical application of your skills.”

Acosta said the expansion of Youth Works from a strictly summer job program to a year-long program, with opportunities such as the Fall River program, are critical to addressing the skills gap and helping employers fill jobs with trained and capable employees. She also stressed the importance of the soft skills taught through the Signal Success curriculum.

“I know companies like Whirlpool and many employers who say to me, ‘We can teach them the technical stuff – we got that – but what we really need is someone along the way to show them the qualities of reliability, teamwork and collaboration,” she said. “Signal Success is not only a requirement for this program, but we have launched that in many schools, and that curriculum continues to grow because we know the importance of that.”

The MassHire Bristol Workforce Board served as the lead agency in developing and running the program. Tom Perreira, executive director at the MassHire Bristol Workforce Board, said that in developing the program focused on delivering the skills that employers were looking for, and said the program’s success was only possible through the partnership with Commonwealth Corporation, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, Diman High School, the Bristol Workforce Board staff and the MassHire Fall River Career Center.

To the program participants, Perreira said, “I’m proud to say we had 100 percent retention in the program. All of you have showed a great commitment, and we know this is a great first step on a career ladder.”

Rep. Carole Fiola spoke about the Legislature’s support for programs that provide this kind of work training. “The only way Fall River and our community is going to do well is if every one of you young men do well,” Fiola said. “This is important. You know why? Every one of you is important.”

Nearly 100 workforce development professionals, educators, and substance use and addictions recovery providers from across the state gathered on June 13, 2018 at Worcester State University to learn about the substance use disorder (SUD) workforce. Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Rosalin Acosta, welcomed participants and encouraged them to strengthen relationships while increasing their collective knowledge of SUD jobs, career paths and strategies for supporting and growing this critical workforce.

The full day program included presentations, a panel discussion and opportunities for networking and focused discussion among professionals from similar regions in the state. Here are some highlights:

• Jen Parks from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Addiction Services shared a brief history of the evolution of SUD services and snapshot of the current service delivery model. Click here to view her powerpoint presentation.
• Pat Emsellem, Chief Operating Officer of SSTAR in Fall River, provided an employer’s perspective on the qualities that are critical in the SUD workplace and shared strategies that her agency has put in place to support and retain staff. Click here to view the SSTAR powerpoint presentation. Click on the following links for video clips that were embedded in the presentation: Cleveland Clinic Clip; Varieties of Lived Experience; Overcoming Fears, Financial and Time Challenges; and Workforce Development Strengthens Families.
• Panelists representing the Career Centers (JVS CareerSolution), the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC), and North Shore Community College shared their experience with recruiting and coaching adults interested in pursuing training and employment in this growing field. The final panelist, an employee from PIER Recovery Center of Cape Cod, shared how his personal experience with addiction led him into this field where he now works as a director of two recovery support centers. Click here to view the powerpoint presentations used during the panel discussion.
• Throughout the day, audience members were seated at tables with colleagues from their geographic region which provided the opportunity for networking. A lunch time facilitated discussion allowed each group to identify strategic approaches to developing stronger partnerships within their region.

Resources

For copies of the handouts provided at the Forum and the Careers of Substance resource website, see links below:

Careers of Substance Website
Addiction Education Provider Listing
Career Center Listing
DPH Recovery Coach Information Handout
MRC Job Placement Specialist Listing

 

On Monday, May 21^st Commonwealth Corporation and JobsFirstNYC co-hosted a webinar on Employer Solutions to Recruitment & Retention Challenges in a Tight Labor Market.  Nearly 100 participants from Massachusetts, New York and other states joined us for a rich conversation.

The webinar began with a presentation on research that JobsFirstNYC had conducted on the impact of online applications and embedded personality assessments in screening out individuals who are likely good candidates for positions.  Their research illuminated several alternatives to online pre-hire assessments that are being used successfully by large retail and food service businesses.

We then learned about three really interesting and different models designed to help businesses be successful in hiring and retaining workers, and workers be successful in managing work and life responsibilities.

• Aaron Bence from the Center for Open Hiring at Greyston explained the inclusive hiring approach that they have used over the past 35 years at their food manufacturing facility in Yonkers. The Center for Open Hiring at Greyston is officially launching on June 12^th and will seek to share the lessons and practices they have developed to help other businesses think differently about their hiring practices and consider adopting inclusive hiring approaches. Click here for the Center for Open Hiring at Greyston powerpoint presentation.
• Marie Downey from BEST Hospitality Training explained how strong partnerships with employers in the Boston hospitality industry have informed all aspects of their training and education programming–from screening criteria for participants, to curriculum development and even some components of training delivery. A few of the newest features to their program are implementing a U.S. Department of Labor registered pre-apprenticeship program and an articulation agreement with Bunker Hill Community College to offer college credit for some of BEST’s training. Click here for the BEST Hospitality Training powerpoint presentation.
• Jordan Runge from Managed by Q, an office support company, was inspired by Zeynep Ton’s book, The Good Jobs Strategy. Jordan shared how high turnover rates among their cleaning services workers led them to research the reasons behind involuntary turnover among employees within the first three months of employment. They developed a pilot program which involves a navigator whose focus is supporting workers in a number of ways to remove the obstacles that may prevent them from showing up to work. Click here for the Managed by Q powerpoint presentation.

The webinar wrapped up with a Q&A facilitated by Marie Davis from the 100K Opportunities Initiative.  This allowed webinar participants to follow-up with questions about each of the models.

Click here for the full webinar recording on YouTube.  While the entire webinar is worth watching and listening to, below are the approximate time breaks by presenter if you are looking to listen to just part of the session.

00:00-14:00 Introduction, summary of tight labor market conditions, JobsFirstNYC research

14:01-23:40 Aaron Bence, Center for Open Hiring at Greyston

23:45-38:55 Marie Downey, BEST Hospitality Training

39:00-52:10 Jordan Runge, Managed by Q

52:20-1:24:15 Q&A with Marie Davis, 100K Opportunities Initiative

The bustling atmosphere at Food 101 Bistro in South Hadley had all the signs of a busy Friday night: a full house, waiters covering several tables at once, delicious smells wafting from the kitchen. But this particular occasion was not a Friday night. In fact, it was a graduation ceremony, the culmination of a 9-week training program where program participants learned all the ins and outs of the restaurant business, and that day their skills were on display. 

Carl was seated at the table next to mine. He was attending the graduation to support some family members, and he himself had graduated from the same program nearly a year before. Between one of the four gourmet courses served, he shared some of his story with me.

A veteran, Carl had enjoyed culinary arts dating back to his time in high school. When he returned from service, he was looking for a job and the opportunity to refresh some of his high school skills. He found his solution in the Holyoke Community College Culinary Training Program funded by the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund.

Several of the skills were familiar to Carl, but he also received training in a variety of areas that were new and essential to understand the food and hospitality industry including food and wine pairing, conflict resolution, ServSafe, OSHA 10, TIPS, and more.

In addition to the significant amount of training and certifications, participants had the opportunity to work directly with Chef Alan, owner of Food 101 Bistro and their lead instructor. “When people start the program, no one really knows what they want to do,” the chef told me, “but throughout the program they get the feel and the energy of a real restaurant.” They receive training in both the “back of the house” or kitchen, and the front of the house which requires customer-service.

When they’re not training at Food 101 Bistro, they’re putting in the rest of their 20 hours a week at a brand-new facility in Holyoke funded through a partnership with MGM and Holyoke Community College. The HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute boasts brand new equipment, kitchens with enormous ovens, stoves, and everything you would find in a restaurant, in addition to classrooms, computer labs, and individual study spaces.

Carl was part of the first cohort of participants that got to learn in the training facility. In addition to culinary skills, participants work on math and reading, and learn how to price a menu. They finish the program with every skill they need to be successful in a restaurant.

Since completing the program back in the fall of 2017 and re-entering the workforce, Carl has enrolled in Holyoke Community College and is on his way to earning his associates degree in Food Service Management. He is currently working as a chef in a restaurant and also signed on to work as a culinary arts lab tech and instructor with HCC. He taught classes to men and women in custody at Hampden County Jail that provided them with skills they can apply to a job in the food industry upon release.

Carl finds teaching to be incredibly rewarding. “I want to be an instructor when I’m done with my degree. This has been a great stepping stone. It’s like an internship,” he said.

Carl is one of 55 people to complete this program to date. Recent graduates are excited about the upcoming opening of the MGM casino which promises an increase in jobs in the very industry they’ve spent the past few months training for. Kermit Dunkelberg, Assistant Vice President of Adult Basic Education and Workforce Development, noted at the graduation, “Employers are hungry for talent. With the skills you have built here, you’re what they’re looking for.” The Executive Chef of MGM himself attended the graduation.

The day ended with high spirits as proud family members hugged their loved ones, graduates shared excitement about upcoming job fairs and interviews, and program managers and instructors committed to continue to support graduates even after they completed the program. Kermit repeated the mantra “This isn’t about a job; this is about a career.”

As for me, I left the event feeling inspired, hopeful, and grateful that I’d saved room for dessert – the crème brûlée was the best I’ve ever had.

Written by Erin Clark

At Commonwealth Corporation, we are dedicated to workforce development within Massachusetts, a state that is heavily reliant on its aging labor pool. As increasing numbers of the working population retire we are facing an inevitable shortage of skilled talent.

The need for workers is great—and yet Massachusetts sits in the bottom half of states by employment rate for people with disabilities,  at approximately 36.6 percent. One solution to the worker shortage in Massachusetts: employ more people with disabilities.

While the rate for acquiring a disability increases as one gets older, recent data suggests that most people with disabilities are within the working ages of 18 to 64. This suggests that there are other forces contributing to the employment discrepancy between people with disabilities and people without. There is a great deal of variability in the shares of people with disabilities by state highlighted in the 2017 Disability Statistics Annual Report.

Commonwealth Corporation would like to convene experts in the field who are interested in this topic. Therefore, using the hashtag #CommCorpChat, we will be hosting a Twitter Chat on April 25th from 1-2pm to discuss the various challenges that make it difficult for people with disabilities to engage fully in the labor market.

During this chat we hope to engage workforce development professionals, employers, training providers, and those within the disability community to come together to bring forth unique ideas and possible solutions. We will explore the following questions during the chat:

1. What are best practices for PWD who chooses to disclose their disability to an employer?
2. How can workers contribute to the de-stigmatization of physical and or mental disabilities?
3. How can a PWD address a gap in their resume when they re-enter the workforce?
4. How can career centers and other workforce development organizations work together with PWD to support their job search?
5. Many hiring procedures draw from normative processes that can exclude PWD from suitable positions. How can employers create a more inclusive hiring process?
6. How can workforce development strategies better support PWD in obtaining the skills, confidence, and support needed to procure a ‘good’ job?
7. How can employers and the disability community collaborate to create a welcoming work environment for PWD?
8. What advice would you give to PWD who want to re-enter the workplace but worry that their benefits will go away as a result?

We look forward to engaging in a dialogue that will assist in tackling the systemic issues that have contributed to this employment disparity. We hope you can join us @commcorp_MA!

 

Resources

A Framework for Building a Disability-Inclusive Organization
Ideas for Writing an Accommodation Request Letter to your Employer
The Americans with Disabilities Act Questions and Answers Booklet
A Guide To Digital Inclusion For Recruiters

On January 26, 2018, Commonwealth Corporation hosted the event: Facing the Future of Care: Innovations in Recruitment and Retention of Home Care Workers. Held at the Worcester Senior Center, our audience was filled with home care employers, workforce board and career center staff, directors of home care and long term care associations and community college staff.

The event focused on changes in the health care workforce in Massachusetts, particularly the incredible growth in occupations involved with delivering care to individuals in their homes. Paul Harrington, from the Center for Labor Markets and Policy at Drexel University, shared our research and projections for the home care workforce, particularly related to personal care aides (PCAs) and home health aides. Strikingly, Paul noted that 1 in 10 new jobs over the next 10 years across the U.S. are projected to be in these home care occupations.

We also convened workforce professionals to share the work they are currently undertaking with employers to try and solve some of the challenges home care workers and employers are facing, including unpredictable schedules, transportation access, and benefit cliff effects.

Rebecca Gutman from 1199SEIU and Lisa Marschke from the Center from Health Policy and Research at Commonwealth Medicine presented on workforce supply and demand trends and recruitment strategies for PCAs to meet the needs of consumers through MassHealth’s PCA program.

Teri Anderson, the Executive Director of the Franklin Hampshire Employment and Training Consortium, shared a home care employer partnership she and the workforce board are convening that is working on strategies to support workers in getting more consistent hours of work and addressing transportation challenges in the region.

Click here to see the presentations from the event.

The presentations were followed by small group discussions and a Q&A for presenters. One of the biggest take-aways was that the traditional ways that employers have addressed workforce shortages in the past are not going to be enough to meet the growing demand for home care services. These challenges call for strong and effective partnerships among employers themselves and between employers, workforce development, education/training institutions and workers. Exploring new approaches to solving these challenges is the only way we will be able to provide the care that some of our most vulnerable neighbors need.

We thank the Worcester Senior Center and the students and staff of Quinsigamond Community College’s culinary arts and hospitality program for providing the space and refreshments for the event.

Facing the Future of Care was part of our event series related to Commonwealth Corporation’s Health Care Workforce Initiatives. Check out http://commcorp.org/events/ for any upcoming events.

 

A recently released report from Giffords Law Center, PICO National Network, and the Community Justice Reform: Investing in Intervention: The Critical role of State-Level Support in Breaking the Cycle of Urban Gun Violence highlights the impact of the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative (SSYI) and Shannon Community Safety Initiative, evidence-based violence prevention and intervention programs at work here in Massachusetts:

Excerpt from the report:

Massachusetts has demonstrated its commitment to addressing youth violence by providing funding and technical assistance to two statewide competitive grant programs: the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative (SSYI) and Shannon Community Safety Initiative (Shannon CSI).

Working in tandem, SSYI and Shannon CSI have stitched together a comprehensive network of violence prevention programs and social service providers that support at-risk Massachusetts youth from adolescence to adulthood. Because Shannon CSI targets a much younger population and focuses on long-term prevention, it is more difficult to assess its immediate impact, but program sites are consistently associated with a reduced number of arrests and assaults.

Evaluations of SSYI grantees, however, paint a clear picture. Between 2013 and 2016, Lowell, Massachusetts, saw overall firearm-related activity drop by 22%, gang-related criminal activity decline by 31%, and nonfatal shootings plummet by 61%. With the cost of gun violence estimated at just under half a million dollars per gun homicide, it’s easy to see how SSYI is producing meaningful savings for Massachusetts taxpayers. A 2014 report estimates that SSYI programs in Boston and Springfield saves the state at least $15 million per year.

SSYI is a multifaceted, community-based strategy that combines public health and public safety approaches to reduce violence among proven-risk, young men ages 17-24. It operates in 12 communities across the state disproportionately impacted by violence and serves thousands of people each year.

Commonwealth Corporation provides program management and technical assistance for SSYI on behalf of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

Click here for the full report.

Recently, we released a series of reports that we produced with the Center for Labor Markets and Policy at Drexel University (CLMP) under contract with the Office of the State Auditor.  Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012—“An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs Through Increased Transparency, Efficiency and Innovation” directed the Massachusetts Office of the State Auditor (OSA) to “conduct a comprehensive review of the impact of [Chapter 224] on the health care payment and delivery system in the Commonwealth and on health care consumers, the health care workforce, and general public.” Over the past few years, Commonwealth Corporation and CLMP interviewed more than a dozen stakeholders and conducted focus groups of health care employers and workers. We analyzed publicly available data to understand how the industrial and occupational structure of health care employment in the Commonwealth has changed.  Below are a few highlights from the various papers detailing the results of our work.

Shift from inpatient to outpatient settings

The health care industry is in the process of transforming care delivery systems and shifting focus from inpatient to outpatient settings. From 2012 to 2015, outpatient providers, including doctor’s offices and home health agencies, added 4.2 jobs for every 1 job created by inpatient providers, such as hospitals and nursing homes.

Growth in occupations with stagnant wages

Direct care workers such as home health aides and personal care aides are anticipated to be some of the fastest growing occupations through 2024.  Unfortunately, these jobs have had stagnant wage growth since 2004, while wages for workers in all other industries have grown 8 percent.

Direct care occupations with similar skill requirements pose challenges for employers

Home health aides, personal care aides and community health workers/social and human service assistants share very similar requirements in terms of abilities, knowledge, skills and behavioral traits.  They require minimal formal training or education.  This means these occupations are very substitutable for one another.  Small differences in wages, hours and work setting can pull workers from one occupation to another.  This is a real challenge for employers who depend on external systems of reimbursement (such as Medicaid and Medicare).

Total number of nurses increased, those with associate’s degree declined

While the total number of nurses has increased since 2010-2011, those with only an associate’s degree have declined, offering some evidence of up-skilling in certain settings, such as hospitals.

 

For more information, you can find links to the detailed reports below:

 

Selected Health Care Support and Direct Care Occupations in Massachusetts
This special topics report summarizes publicly available data and information gathered through interviews and focus groups with employers, workers, labor leaders and state officials in order to understand the labor market context of three already large and fast growing health care support and direct care occupations: home health aides, personal care aides, and community health workers (CHWs)/social and human service assistants.

Characteristics of Workers and Jobs in the Massachusetts Health Care Industry
The paper examines changes that have occurred in the demographic traits and the employment patterns and earnings of the state’s health care workforce between 2011, the year before the passage of Chapter 224, and the most current year for which data are available, 2015.

Developments in Certificate and Degree Completions in Health Care Fields of Study in Massachusetts, 2001-2012 and 2012-2015
This paper provides information on trends in postsecondary completions in health care-related fields of study in Massachusetts over the 2001 to 2012 period, representing the period before the passage of Chapter 224, and over three years following the enactment of Chapter 224, 2012 to 2015.

Health Care Employment, Structure and Trends in Massachusetts
Fundamental changes have occurred in the way that health care is delivered in Massachusetts in recent years and this is reflected in the changing nature of demand for labor among the various component industries that make up the health care and social assistance sector. This paper examines the nature of these changes along a variety of labor market related dimensions and makes some observations about the outlook for growth and future change in health care diagnostic and practitioner occupations and in health care support/direct care occupations.

Mass Layoffs in the Health Care Industry in Massachusetts, 2004-2016
This paper examines mass layoff activity within the state’s health care and social services industry relative to other major industry sectors over the 2004 to 2016 period, just before and after the implementation of Chapter 224.

Profiles of Fifteen High Growth Health Occupations in Massachusetts
This research brief presents a profile of 15 occupations in the Massachusetts health care industry. These occupations were selected on the basis of their importance within the state’s health care industry, either because of strong growth in employment or because of the emerging importance of the role that workers in these occupations play in the changing health care service delivery environment in the state.

Summary of the Health Care Workforce Transformation Trust Fund Grants
As health care employers align with the goals of Chapter 224 and cost controls begin to alter the delivery of health care services in differing ways within the sector, providers are changing some of their business processes, occupational job descriptions, and staffing structures. In anticipation of these changing skill and knowledge demands, Chapter 224 established the Health Care Workforce Transformation Fund. The Fund, which is administered by Commonwealth Corporation, was designed to support training and education activities that help health care employers address workforce challenges related to their efforts to meet the cost containment and quality improvement objectives of Chapter 224.  In 2015 and 2016 Commonwealth Corporation awarded training grants to 59 organizations. The organizations spanned the state and included health care providers in every health care sector. This paper provides information about the training grant applications and the 59 grants.