The MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board Strategic Plan outlines our goals and related actions over a six-year plan (2020-2025). Check out our PowerPoint for some highlights of the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan.
Strategic Plan
Six-Year Plan
Download Strategic Plan
Strategic Plan 2020-2025
MHFHWB Strategic Plan 2020-2025
Letter from the Board
June 2020
Dear Community Member:
The Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board is a community board appointed by chief elected officials in Greenfield and Northampton. Our charge is to oversee public funding for workforce development in the Franklin, Hampshire, and North Quabbin regions. Our mandate is to keep abreast of economic development, worker training, and education needs. Our goal in this document is to share useful information about our community with other planners in the region—city, town, and county officials; people wishing to live or work here; and those seeking to start or relocate businesses in our region.
We see this as a region of great potential: one where entrepreneurship and innovation thrive, where quality of life issues remain at the forefront of planning, and where many businesses are committed to the advancement of workers and their families, not just to their own profitability. We are proud of our accomplishments in relation to our last strategic plan, summarized in this document, and we came together with great enthusiasm to identify strategic initiatives for the next five years.
Then in Spring 2020, a global pandemic—Covid-19-- rocked our country and the world. Our unemployment rate went from 3% to 15.7% in the space of a few weeks. Employment in the bustling Food Service, Accommodation, and Retail sectors plummeted. We experienced terrible losses, faced business and 2 workforce challenges we never imagined, and have gradually realized that life may never be quite the same.
At first, we assumed we would have to re-build our plan from the ground up. Interestingly, we find that is not the case. Our Strategic Initiatives seem still, more than ever, appropriately focused on preparing jobs seekers for a rapidly-changing world; drawing on business partners to elucidate the demands of the evolving workplace; ensuring the Board and Career Center are recognized as thought leaders and change partners in that world; and putting issues of quality jobs, diversity, and inclusion front and center so that we all benefit from the economic recovery sure to come.
Our priority industries also seem more important and relevant than ever. Manufacturing and – obviously – healthcare sectors remain strong and vibrant. Gratitude for our strong, responsive agricultural sector has broadened and deepened as we have come to recognize just how essential a safe and healthy regional food system is. The Educational Service sector is struggling, but never have we been more in need of what it has to offer – the tools to learn, change, and adapt to a new world.
Our Initiatives are unchanged, but our strategies will have to adapt. This plan maps out Year I Strategic Activities, which have already flexed to include very different ways of operating and providing services than foreseen. Years II-V will doubtless bring new and different challenges. We present this plan as an invitation to all in the community to join us in our mission: to shape, nurture and sustain a regional workforce system that promotes the economic well-being of a diverse workforce and employer base. That mission too is the 3 same, but it is newly-informed with a sense of urgency and hope.
Sincerely,
Susan Surner
Chair MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board
Background
The Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board began updating its Strategic Plan In September 2019. First, the Board reviewed its accomplishments in relation to the prior Strategic Plan. A few highlights include:
- Establishment of the Franklin Hampshire Manufacturing Skills Initiative, which places 90% of its graduates into well-paying manufacturing jobs, supported by an Advanced Manufacturing Roundtable that meets quarterly.
- Support of expansion of Healthcare training options in Medical Office Management and Medical Assisting, and new education/training in clean energy
- Establishment of the Special Projects/Industry Coach position, with proven effectiveness in industry-specific job coaching, placement, and retention
- Support of a study of job growth and creation in the Pioneer Valley Food System, leading to greater awareness of opportunities in this sector.
- Innovative bridge-building training activities with Adult Education partners.
- Expansion of services into the greater Ware region.
- Development of work-based learning in STEM for students and teachers.
- Securing a 1.1 million-dollar USDOL grant for youth – Summer Jobs & Beyond – the Board’s first major competitive federal grant and one of only ten awarded in the country.
The Board acknowledged that major goals in the area of Business, Community, Visibility, and Youth Services were attained: a more detailed report appears in the Appendix. However, the Board also noted some missing elements and areas where much remains to be done. Opinions elicited from Board members included the following:
- “We need to increase the access and participation of a wider diversity of job seekers.”
- “We need opportunities for job seekers and employers to develop cultural dexterity.”
- “With low-skill, low-pay jobs increasingly automatable, and growing income disparity, we need to prepare job seekers for new but challenging opportunities.”
- “We need specific feedback from employers regarding issues they are having in hiring or maintaining employees; and we need strategies to address them despite limited funding.”
Next, the Board reflected on economic and demographic changes in the region in the seven years since the last plan was developed: some of those are reflected in Table I.
Table I
The Franklin Hampshire Workforce Region Then & Now
| 2010-2012 | 2019 | ||
| Unemployment Insurance Rate | 5.5 | 2.9 | DOWN |
| Size of Labor Force | 133,148 | 143,631 | UP 7.9% |
| Number of Businesses | 7,391 | 7,695 | UP 4.1% |
| Employers over 100 | Roughly the same at 124 | ||
| Number of Jobs | 88,350 | 98,284 | UP 11.2% |
| Business Size Expansion: | |||
| 5 to 9 employees | 1,183 | 1,216 | UP 2% |
| 10-19 | 802 | 822 | UP 2% |
| 20-49 | 488 | 525 | UP 7.5% |
| 50-99 | 140 | 188 | UP 12.8% |
| Demographics | 87.7% white between 2 counties | ||
| Overall funding for WD | $5,241,021 | $3,148,981 | DOWN 40% |
| Average Wage Across Industries vs. Statewide | 65% of Statewide Average of $1,112 | 67% of Statewide Average of $1322 | |
| Median Annual Wage - Across Occupations | $42,822 | 86.4% of Statewide Average of $48,680 |
A Picture of the Region in 2019
The Franklin/Hampshire workforce area covers all of Franklin and Hampshire counties and four towns in northwestern Worcester County. The Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board serves forty-seven towns and three cities (Easthampton, Greenfield, and Northampton). The region is predominately rural (27 of the towns in the area have populations of less than 2,000). It is the largest of 16 Workforce areas in the state in the geographical area, but the 5th smallest in labor force size. However, the labor force grew by 5% in the past four years. The estimated population in 2019 is approximately 245,000, which is about 3.5% of the State’s total population. The total land area of the region is approximately 1,400 square miles, 17% of the State.
Although the Franklin/Hampshire area has a much lower percentage of minorities than the state (9.2% versus 21.1%), the minority population is growing. The region also has a higher than average educational attainment level. Among the population 25 years and over, the population with no high school diploma or equivalent was just 6.5 % and those with a Bachelor or advanced degree were 41.2 %. For Massachusetts as a whole, the respective percentages were 9.7% and 42.1 %. Although the Franklin/Hampshire area has a relatively low percentage of school dropouts in the population, it is this group that faces many difficulties in achieving labor market success, especially those who are between the ages of 16 and 19. Data from the 2000 Census shows that these young school dropouts had an unemployment rate of over 25% and an additional 28% of this population was not participating at all in the labor market. For that reason, there is a heavy emphasis on youth services in our region, with WIOA Youth Year-Round and Connecting Activities programs working hand-in-hand out of our Career Centers. Our WIOA Youth programs have long targeted the much harder-to-serve out-of school youth population.
The Franklin/Hampshire area, like Massachusetts, experienced a steady increase in the labor force population and a decrease in unemployment between the 2008 recession and 2019. The area has gone from a high of 6.8% unemployment in 2012 to a rate of 2.9% in February 2020. Average weekly wages have increased but still lag well behind the state at 67% of the statewide average.
Small employers dominate the Franklin/Hampshire area. In March of 2018 over 75% of area employers had fewer than 10 employees and only 1.8% of employers had over 100 employees. Not only are wages only 67% of the statewide average, but in a recent period, Franklin/Hampshire wages increased at a slower rate than the state’s increase.
Updated Labor Market Analysis affirmed the Board’s conviction that the most striking feature of the Franklin/Hampshire (F/H) economy is the importance of the Educational Services sector. This sector accounts for nearly 1 in 4 jobs (22.9%) in F/H, compared to 1 in 10 (9.3%) statewide. Moreover, half of those jobs are located at the College and University level.
Additional key data points that informed our subsequent Strategic Planning sessions include the following:
- Payroll jobs are increasing at a much slower rate in F/H, compared to the statewide rate. Between 2nd Quarter 2012 and 2nd Quarter 2019, Massachusetts jobs increased by 11.7%, while F/H increased by only 7.6%. As in the rest of the state, the Healthcare and Social Assistance sector is prominent in the F/H economy, comprising 18% of area jobs. The highest concentration of jobs is in Ambulatory Services but the next highest is Social Assistance, where jobs have more than doubled in the past five years.
- Manufacturing is thriving in the region, especially in Franklin County, where it is still 13.6% of all jobs, making it the third largest industry. It is the second largest in terms of private sector jobs. Moreover, average wages in manufacturing outstrip our overall averages wage by 22%. Manufacturing wages are 39% higher than in the Healthcare/Social Assistance sector, for example. Finally, manufacturing in specialized, high tech niche sectors is growing. Between 2013 and 2019, Franklin County's employment in Machine Shops increased by 86%.
- When it comes to the high technology sectors of Information and Professional and Technical Services, the F/H employment structure differs sharply from the rest of the state. While these two well-paying sectors comprise 12.1% of all jobs in the state, the respective share in F/H is a third of that, and even lower than it was ten years ago.
- Whatever the priority industries identified for the region as a whole, the F/H region must be mindful of industry sectors that are thriving in our region in particular. These include:
- Arts, Recreation, and Entertainment sectors, including a burgeoning Outdoor Recreation industry; and
- Agriculture & Sustainable Food Systems, including occupations in growing; value-added food processing; distribution; serving and selling; managing food waste; animal care; farm/nursery management; and agricultural entrepreneurship.
Alignment With Other Relevant Strategic Plans
With this updated picture of the region in mind, the Board took time to consider existing major plans with which it is critical we align, including the Massachusetts Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act State Plan, The Pioneer Valley Regional Workforce Plan,1 the Franklin Regional Council of Governments’ Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Plan, The Plan for Progress, and the Hampshire County Strategic Agenda. Several themes emerged from a review of these plans that Board Members felt were important:
- Promoting jobseeker readiness and versatility
- Attending to workplace diversity and inclusion
- Building Career Pathways
- Keeping a focus on the targeting and/or development of quality jobs
- Valuing mobility and advancement
- Building on assets and existing strong businesses
- Recognizing and capitalizing on uniqueness
Review and Reaffirmation of Priority Industries and Occupations
In addition, the Board reviewed Pioneer Valley Workforce Planning data, which is now updated regularly by the state as part of the Regional Planning process under the Governor’s Workforce Skills Cabinet.
This data supports our identification of Healthcare/Social Assistance, Manufacturing, and Educational Services as our top three critical Industries. Under the top three priority industries, the Plan also identifies the top ten critical occupations in the Pioneer Valley region. They are as follows:
Healthcare and Social Assistance Occupational Groups, specifically:
- Social & Human Service Assistants
- Direct Care Workers (RNs, Nursing and Medical Assistants, Personal Care Aides)
- Technical/Clinical Workers (Dental Hygienists, Pharmacy Technicians, LPNs/LVNs, Medical Records/Health IT, Physician Assistants, Occupational and Physical Therapists)
Educational Services Occupational Groups, specifically:
- Educators (all levels, and all fields, esp. members of diverse populations, and including vocational-technical, STEM, and trades educators)
- Teachers’ Assistants
Advanced Manufacturing Occupational Groups, specifically:
- Supervisors
- Production Workers (Including CNC Operators, Machinists)
- Inspectors, Testers, Quality Control Workers
Cross-Industry Occupations such as those that are IT-related, Professional Services, Back-Office Administrative Support, and Logistical Supports.
Challenges, Strengths, and Policy Implications
The following continue to be challenges to our work:
- We have the largest geographical span and lowest population of any MA workforce region, leading to some of the lowest allocations of state/federal resources, but with some of the highest potential costs when it comes to such things as transportation (e.g. costs of helping disadvantaged job seekers get to training or even basic services; costs of staff outreaching services to clients).
- Similar to the rest of the state, our birth rate is down and there is a steep increase in the percentage of our population who are senior citizens or workers nearing retirement age.
Conversely, our region has very unique workforce development strengths that we can call upon. Among these strengths are:
- The powerful Five College Network – an economic engine which helps sustain and generate countless small businesses in our region.
- The identification of Northampton as one of the top ten places to spend retirement years, and the geriatric/retiree housing/community living career paths emerging.
- The pronounced interest in and commitment to renewable energy/energy efficiency and other varieties of green jobs in the community and in businesses, with the recognition that this direction will ensure their ability to compete and survive: on this issue, the Franklin Hampshire region has been ahead of the curve.
- A strong, collaborative youth development network.
- A strong, collaborative adult education network, including outstanding workplace education (UMASS) and ESOL (Center for New Americans and International Language Institute) components, as well as innovative literacy “transitions” approaches (The Literacy Project).
Policy implications include the following:
- Educational Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing should remain our priority industries since they employ significant numbers of people, have the greatest potential for good wages, and serve as a generator of economic activity in our region.
- While numbers of jobs are not currently substantial, distinct positive trends in agriculture and green industry development lead us to promote awareness of and attention to these areas.
- Strategies must consistently take into consideration and attend to our wide geographical span, rural nature, poverty rates, continuing scarcity of broadband access in some areas, issues of digital literacy, an aging workforce, and limited community college and technical training access.
Additional strategic issues related to our priority industry areas that our work takes into consideration include:
- The proliferation of jobs in-home care and extended care, but also the high attrition rate of individuals in these fields.
- Genuine skill gaps in such occupational areas as healthcare practitioners and healthcare support, and significant replacement worker needs in manufacturing.
- The aging workforce, the eager-to-work disabled workforce, and the declining youth population. Not only must we help employers be proactive in planning for changes in expectations and commitments that increased older worker presence in the job market will bring; we must also convince them that investing in youth readiness and making space for differently-abled workers will soon be not a luxury but a necessity if they want to remain competitive.
Consideration of the data, priority industries, unique assets, and our challenges led the Board to arrive at four major Strategic Initiatives for the next five years. What follows are those Initiatives and how we plan to measure our progress in forwarding them, as well as Year I Strategic Activities to meet our goals. At the end of each year, the Board will measure its progress and change or adapt Strategic Activities as needed.
MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board Strategic Plan 2020-2025
Mission
To shape, nurture, and sustain a regional workforce system that promotes the economic well-being of a diverse workforce and employer base.
Vision
- To be widely recognized as a high performing workforce development board by the community, aligned with but not constrained by relevant regional and state plans;
- To have comprehensive strategies in place for addressing the workforce needs of each of our prominent industry sectors;
- To have documented success in system changes/enhancements that benefit all job seekers (youth, adults, dislocated, re-entry, differently-abled, diverse, and others), as well as employers.
Strategic Initiative One
Prioritize jobseeker readiness, versatility, and potential for advancement through creative programming and partnership.
Measures:
- Sustained readiness training
- Increased placement rates
- Increased retention rates
- Repeat employer customers
Year I Strategies:
- Support/promote the Work Readiness Lab concept being developed by the Career Center.
- Provide employer partners guidance and support in improving retention, increasing advancement potential, and developing quality jobs.
- Engage additional community partners in utilizing and/or contributing to Career Center/Workforce Board services and programs.
- Utilize youth resources to: a) promote collaboration between youth-serving agencies with regard to pre-employment/employment services; b) increase work-based learning opportunities; and c) assist schools in developing priority industry career pathways.
Strategic Initiative Two
Convene targeted growth businesses to stay up-to-date on employer needs, and to ensure knowledge and utilization of state and regional economic development and workforce development resources.
Measures:
- Increased number of employers engaged in partnership projects.
- Increased number/percentage of Direct Hire employers holding recruitments, participating in Career Fairs, or in related activities.
- Increased knowledge of the challenges/opportunities of growth business sectors, leading to the development of new targeted strategies to address needs.
- Increased Workforce Training Fund applications and use of other state resources.
Year I Strategies:
- Broaden/expand Manufacturing Roundtable to include new members and increase the utilization of state and local services and best practices.
- Utilize Healthcare UP Employer Group to develop best practices in retaining/advancing healthcare workers; then expand to other employer partners in future years.
- Engage a wider array of Education Sector employers in specific hiring and workforce development activities.
- Convene or co-convene Industry Focus Group in at least one additional sector per year to stay on top of emerging business/job trends.
Strategic Initiative Three
Increase visibility of the Franklin Hampshire Workforce system through a MassHire Franklin Hampshire marketing campaign to promote our services: employer, job seeker, economic development, rural policy advocacy, etc.
Measures:
- Increased awareness of MassHire Franklin Hampshire system.
- Increased utilization of MassHire Franklin Hampshire services by employers, job seekers, and community partners.
- Increased support of MassHire Franklin Hampshire funding and initiatives by the legislative delegation.
- Increased influence of MassHire Franklin Hampshire priorities on education, economic development, rural policy development plans.
Year I Strategies:
- Ensure the Workforce Board and/or Career Center participation in all relevant local and regional economic development groups.
- Connect with relevant representatives in major municipalities to share information pertinent to the cities and raise awareness of resources and potential collaborations.
- Engage all Board members in utilizing the workforce system and connecting their business colleagues and home communities to workforce services/resources/projects.
- Increase outreach to legislators via the Workforce Board and/or Career Center staff, and Board member support.
- Feature Legislators/Board Members at more programs/ completions/graduations/ special events.
Strategic Initiative Four
Work with community partners to identify and address leading-edge workforce issues, including but not limited to: access to jobs, quality jobs, diversity and inclusion, and the impact of automation, technology, and climate change on the work of the future.
Measures:
- Issues identified with plans in place to address them.
- Strategies developed and tested, with learnings incorporated into practice in future years.
Year I Strategies:
- Promote employer training on issues of diversity and inclusion, starting with the Board itself.
- Continue support of Five College Diverse Teacher Workforce Coalition initiatives; apply learning to other industry sectors.
- Plan/pilot creative transportation solutions for job seekers.
- Seek funding and/or partnership to ensure MassHire Franklin Hampshire's role in responding to workforce development issues related to the Re-Entry population, the opioid crisis, and other critical populations.
Conclusion
We are frequently asked, “What are the skills needed in today’s workplace and the workplace of the future?”
Again and again, employers came back to so-called “soft skills.” But a closer look at those soft skills yields a more complex picture. A survey of Pioneer Valley employers conducted by Greenfield Community College2 found that four out of five employers identified the following as the most critical skills needed:
- The ability to effectively communicate orally
- Ethical judgment and decision-making
- The ability to work effectively with others in teams
- The ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings
- Critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills.
As one of our Board members noted “Soft skills are actually hard skills.” And they are essential skills. But they can be learned through the right combination of readiness, education, and training. Educators and job seekers have that challenge to meet.
But the rest of us also have a challenge. A report by MIT called “The Future of Work” observes:
“Today’s challenge, and likely tomorrow’s, is not too few jobs. Instead, it is the quality and accessibility of the jobs that will exist and the career trajectories that will be offered to workers, particularly to those with less education….”
"New and emerging technologies will have a profound effect on the work of the future and will create new opportunities for economic growth. Whether that growth translates to higher living standards, better working conditions, greater economic security, and improved health and longevity in the United States and elsewhere depends on institutions of governance, public investments, education, law, and public and private leadership.3”
The working partnerships known as Workforce Boards have that opportunity and that challenge.
Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board Appendix
Final Report - Performance in Relation to Strategic Plan Goals 2013-2018; Summer 2019
I. Increase frequency and depth of contacts and relationships with priority industry sector employers.
Strategies
- Document current practice/partners and identify potential improvements/enhancements
- With or without grant funding, build on strong working relationships to implement creative and effective approaches to working with key populations
- Seek funding to work collaboratively with partners to address persistent weaknesses or gaps
Impact
- Developed and sustained significant employer support in manufacturing training. Established a quarterly Manufacturers Roundtable as an ongoing venue.
- Successful Creative Economy Summit & BUZZ Networking events for arts entrepreneurs/businesses with help from FHWB Special Projects Coordinator.
- Even without grant funding, sustained and utilized Healthcare and Clean Energy/Green Jobs networks as needed.
- Established a Special Projects/Industry Coach position and proved its effectiveness in providing industry-specific job coaching, placement, and retention.
- Secured funding for and succeeded at a variety of industry sector partnerships: green jobs, healthcare, homecare.
- Helped to prompt expansion of Healthcare options, e.g. in Medical Office and Medical Assisting.
- Mass Workforce Alliance Food Systems study was completed and released with FHWB support.
- Insufficient progress in developing OJTs, although did support 4 OJTs at Kennametal with EOHED $ as part of a strategy to encourage expansion.
II. Refine/expand our ability to work effectively with community partners to serve homeless and ex-offenders, among other special populations.
Strategies
- Engage more employers directly in education/training initiative
- Track and support the growth of jobs/training in areas critical to regional identity
- Expand staff specialist/coach roles in priority industry areas
- Intensify use of OJT
Impact
- Strong Career Center and WB support of successful Secure Jobs Connect and Western Mass Homeless Network activities.
- Leadership role in designing and implementing Community College Transformations initiatives.
- Developed effective Bridge programming in Healthcare and Manufacturing with the assistance of community partners.
- Secured multiple grants in the past five years successfully addressing gaps between educational/career pathways.
- Significantly increased the number of WIOA-eligible participants in the Manufacturing Skills Program.
- Increased connections to Houses of Correction in Franklin and Hampshire counties. Working with Greenfield Community College on re-entry program Manufacturing Training, both pre- and post-release.
- Increased partnership with Holyoke Community College, benefiting Hampshire Co. participants.
III. Draw on Board member expertise and contacts to increase the visibility of FHWB and impact of services.
Strategies
- Increase the visibility of the FHWB in Hampshire County & other areas
- Engage FHWB members personally in new member recruitment, program review, and analysis, advocacy & other areas
- Ensure every FHWB member contributes to youth employment goals through either a donation, a youth work experience, or assistance in engaging an additional business in youth employment activities.
Impact
- Implemented a variety of activities in the Ware region for the first time: office hours, manufacturing event, recruitment, training, Youthspeak.
- FHWB members conducted visits to Rep. Scibak, Kocot, Mark, and others to highlight the need for increased Connecting Activities funding (achieved).
- FHWB members were able to effectively review/analyze training outcomes through the use of improved tools.
- FHWB Youth Component in Just Roots/FCCDC "Growing Together" USDA grant.
- Youth placed in internships at FHWB member businesses including Northeast Solar and Atalasoft.
- FHWB members directly and successfully assisted with transition to WIOA, senior staff transitions at FHCC, and One-Stop Career Center procurement.
- West County FHWB meeting to Focus on West County issues and potential activities, leading to active participation in workforce initiatives by Superintendent/Mohawk Regional.
- Established the WIOA partners group, including several Board members.
- The leadership team for Hampshire Co. Strategic Agenda
- The leadership team for Pioneer Valley Regional Planning
IV. Improve the quality, not just the quantity, of business relationships.
Strategies
- Solicit employer input; hone employer engagement
- Increase focus on employer workshops/seminars
- Increase direct referral of job seekers to employers
- Establish a local, collaborative “rapid response” strategy for projected lay-offs that complements and enhances the state Rapid Response program.
Impact
- Completed FHWB database of employers, sortable by industry sector and engagement activity
- Legislative advocacy secured inclusion of Northampton as an eligible city for Youthworks funding – the first of many summer projects implemented.
- Youth Career Services Fair in Northampton continued: 18 employers; 76 youth; 10 schools/programs
- Completed updated vacancy survey of area manufacturers
- Wake Up Wednesday Concept developed by Career Center
- The Manufacturing Skills Initiative (MSI) has graduated over 150 participants from its 12-week CNC Operator program and maintained an 84% job placement rate over 6 years of operation, vigorously supported with donations and legislative advocacy by the business community.
- Multi-year AMP IT UP initiative prompted a wide variety of business tours, school presentations, Celebrate Manufacturing events, billboards, and publicity.
- Demonstrated effectiveness of Industry Coach/Direct Referral activities.
- Worked with COG and WBs in Vt and NH to mitigate the effects of Vermont Yankee closure.
V. Engage a variety of partners in helping youth in transition develop a focus, gain skills, and achieve goals.
Strategies
- Provide a diverse mix of career development/transition activities for out-of-school youth
- Ensure every youth completing a program has a Next Step Plan and Back-Up Plan.
- Increase the level of awareness and utilization of Youth Service Council education/employment resources in area high schools
Impact
- YSC meeting established a baseline for measuring School Engagement in School to Career
- Developed expertise in STEM internship and externship through a partnership with Collaborative Educational Services.
- Researched Career Planning tools and approaches and integrated into partner school with increasing success.
- New and improved youth website.
- Transitioned WIA Youth Council to WIOA Youth Career Connections Council with strong partner support.
- Established annual youth events such as YouthSpeak and other opportunities such as Youth Career Day.
- Secured first FHWB USDOL grant ever (1 of 10 in the country) and implemented highly successful Summer Jobs & Beyond project with Community Action helping 250 youth into college or career.
Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board Members June 2020
Officers:
- Chair: Susan Surner, Surner Heating Company, Inc.
- First Vice-Chair: Anthony J. Scibelli, Cooley Dickinson Health Care
- Second Vice-Chair: Mark Ailinger, Linda Manor Extended Care Facility
Members:
- Kecia Bossie, Big-Y
- Tara Brewster, Greenfield Savings Bank
- Maureen Carney, Hampshire Franklin Labor Council
- Mark Dore, Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission
- Clare Higgins, Community Action Pioneer Valley
- Andrew Linkenhoker, Smith Vocational & Agricultural High School
- Durand Lively, Paragus Strategic IT
- Susan Maedler, Catholic Charities – Worcester County
- Kenneth Messina, Rapid Response – Department of Career Services
- Laurie Millman, Center for New Americans
- Shardool Parmar, Pioneer Valley Hotel Group
- Cindy Peeters, Smiths Interconnect
- K. Rudy Renaud, Hampshire Franklin Labor Council AFL-CIO
- Maria-Judith Rodriguez, Amherst College
- Dr. Yves Salomon-Fernández, Greenfield Community College
- Cody Sisson, Sisson Engineering Corporation
- Zoy Soulis, Director, Greenfield Department of Transitional Assistance Office
- Diana Szynal, Franklin County Chamber of Commerce
- John Waite, Franklin County Community Development Corp.