— Photo by TDM Photography.

Somerville residents and local officials gathered in Union Square plaza on
Tuesday, June 24, 2014 at 5:00 pm to celebrate the beginning of a partnership called the GLX MassWIN Workforce Initiative. The program will help low-income and minority residents of Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford get access to training and job placement on the construction of the Green Line Extension. An MOU was signed on Wednesday, June 18 to formalize the creation of the program.

The creation of the program comes after years of organizing by Jobs for
Somerville, a committee of Somerville Community Corporation. Jobs for Somerville formed in 2010 in response to the growing need for good local jobs. Recognizing that the Green Line Extension jobs will be good-paying union jobs with career pathways, members campaigned to create a program that would match local job seekers with the training and resources they need to get those jobs.

“This program will create opportunities for Somerville residents that will help stabilize the community,” says Jobs for Somerville member Van Hardy. “We are so excited to finally start this partnership so that all community members have the opportunity to benefit from the Green Line Extension.”

Jobs for Somerville members testified at MassDOT board meetings, held public actions and worked with elected officials. The group was enthusiastic about an innovative and successful model at the new UMass Boston Science Complex that called for an Access and Opportunity Committee comprised of community members, labor unions, the general contractor, and the project owner. Jobs for Somerville
brought the idea to Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey and MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott in a meeting last summer.

Davey and Scott were supportive of the idea and incorporated it into a program based on Denver’s Workforce Initiative Now (WIN). That program has placed over 150 low-income Denver residents in jobs on a transit expansion, providing training and support services that lead directly to job placement.

The GLX MassWIN program will provide a crucial opportunity for Somerville residents, only 15 percent of whom work in the city. Stable jobs will help to prevent displacement of low-income Somerville residents who live along the GLX corridor.

Jobs for Somerville would like to thank all the elected officials and partners who have made this possible: Mayor Joseph Curtatone and the City of Somerville, Senator Pat Jehlen, Representative Denise Provost, Representative Tim Toomey, former Representative Carl Sciortino, Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey and MassDOT staff, MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott and MBTA staff, Assistant
Secretary for Access and Opportunity Ronald Marlow, and the Sugar Law Center.