Where Opportunity Meets Potential: BV Hub’s Inclusive Workforce Approach

Located in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, Blackstone Valley Hub for Workforce Development (BV Hub) connects people in their community – from students to young adults and current workers – to high-demand, high-growth career pathways. Through job training, hands-on learning, and workforce-readiness skills, BV Hub ensures that the current and future workforce is ready to succeed.  

Recently, through a grant from Commonwealth Corporation’s Employment Program for Young Adults with Disabilities (YAWD), BV Hub formally expanded these training and education services to their community members whose needs weren’t fully met by existing programs. “Our training and education work naturally aligned with needs of people with cognitive disabilities,” says BV Hub President Joscelyn Young. 

To prepare individuals in their community with cognitive disabilities for the workforce, BV Hub needed to weave together workforce training and social and emotional learning. “It was most important to employers to have participants trained in professionalism standards like communication, rather than just industry-specific technical skills,” Young says.  

During a multi-month planning grant phase, BV Hub cultivated relationships with local employers, creating lasting buy-in and intentional program design. Through conversations with employers, BV Hub forecasted future job opportunities in their area that would be available and well-suited to their participants. Knowing that BV Hub was creating a pipeline of skilled workers in line with their needs, shares Young, "employers came in to meet participants and were invested in their individual journeys.” 

BV Hub also worked with a psychologist who specializes in individuals with cognitive disabilities to better understand where the barriers to employment lie. “We wanted to know the real-time experiences that get in the way of job retention, and how participants communicate, build skills, and manage stress,” Young says. BV Hub’s YAWD participants are between the ages of 18 and 25 and are often high school graduates looking for employment. Referrals come from schools, transition programs, therapists, and “once people understood the goal of the program, everyone was ready to refer and excited about the opportunity,” Young shares. For BV Hub, this period of studying the landscape and building a network was crucial to developing a program that led to real results. “We wouldn’t have been this successful without the planning grant. I couldn’t say enough good things about it,” says Young. 

BV Hub’s YAWD program trained individuals for roles in health care, social services, and education. Participants received hands-on training and earned certifications that will enhance their career opportunities. “Career exploration is important. The participants need to know what opportunities there are for entry-level work, career advancement, and transferrable skills. They are creating a real tangible career path,” says Young. To simulate real-world workplace scenarios and encourage adaptability, BV Hub uses role play. Through virtual and augmented reality, participants can also act-out steps in the job search process, like interviewing, tailored to their training path. 

The YAWD-sponsored program also changed how participants viewed their position in the world. “They learn how to work as a team, what’s appropriate in the workplace, how to interpret tone and communicate effectively,” says Young. “We create a safe space to talk about culture and tribe in the workplace and how the individual fits into it.” Doing this in a team environment also builds support networks and creates accountability. “They support each other constantly. Many of our participants were supposed to be hybrid, but they chose to be in person and spend time together because they feel good when they are here,” shares Young. BV Hub also hosts speakers with cognitive differences to share their career journeys, so participants can see what it might look like to be in the workforce. 

Each of these elements – building relationships with employers, exploring career paths, and learning how to succeed in the workplace – have allowed participants like Alyssa Carrier to land their dream jobs. Alyssa recently started a new role at HearJoy Audiology, a company that provides healthcare to the Blackstone Valley region. Alyssa’s own experience using hearing aids gives her a personal connection to HearJoy’s services and the clients it serves.  When she joined BV Hub’s program, she was having difficulty finding a job. BV Hub helped her refine her communication style for the workplace and become more adaptable to newness and change. 

Now, Alyssa is creating strong relationships with her teammates at HearJoy, and shares that her favorite part of her role is “my boss, Mary Ellen, and my coworker Megan.” She continues to develop an interest in audiology and hopes to “maybe one day get trained to become an audiologist,” she says. “I would definitely recommend this program to those who have disabilities and are having trouble finding a job,” Carrier adds. 

“Alyssa expressed an interest in learning more about audiology and was enthusiastic when she came to see the office,” shares Alyssa’s supervisor at HearJoy, Mary Ellen Rancourt. “She is capable on the computer and is helping to scan office records,” she added. 

Mary Ellen encourages employers to be more open to hiring people with disabilities and recognize the skills they can bring to the workplace. “Each candidate may have different skills, so there needs to be an opportunity to see what they can do,” she says. 

The YAWD program at BV Hub is building an ecosystem in the Blackstone Valley region that will continue to allow individuals with cognitive disabilities and their employers to thrive. “This is the best program I have interacted with in years,” says Young. “The way it is designed is thoughtful and rooted in the reality of the work. I will forever be grateful that CommCorp allowed us to focus on serving this population. It’s benefitting everyone involved.”