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The City of Somerville is looking at ways to improve the chances of local residents and immigrant workers to land jobs in construction and other key sectors through various workforce jobs initiatives.
By Jim Clark
At last week’s catch-up regular meeting of the Board of Alderman on February 14, the report of the Committee on Housing and Community Development’s meeting on February 6, included details regarding development of and funding for the local hiring and workforce development First Source program, and report on the outcome of FRIT’s recent job fairs for Assembly Square, including Somervillians getting jobs.
An agenda item requesting that the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development and the Director of Economic Development report to the Board on plans for the future development of and funding for the local hiring and workforce development First Source program, and report on the outcome of Federal Realty Investment Trust’s recent job fairs and current local-hiring efforts for the positions available at Assembly Square, including plans for evaluating and monitoring actual results in terms of Somerville residents getting hired for local jobs has been completed, according to the Committee report.
Speaking on behalf of the Committee, Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang told the Board that the city has been developing a strategic plan for the city’s role in workforce development, following up on the recommendations of a 2013 report by a committe that the mayor appointed called the Somerville Jobs Advisory Committee.
Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang reported on the findings of the Committee on Housing and Community Development’s February 6 meeting.
According to Niedergang, Director of Economic Development Tom Galligani feels that workforce development is an important part of his work and that he has assigned a key staff person, Ben Sommer, to spend 60 percent of his time in this area and take the lead on these issues.
Niedergang added that Sommer is connecting Somerville residents with jobs, and that Director Galligani pointed out that the city has developed a $15,000 grant to help with a workforce development plan.
Niedergang expressed that he thought it was great to see that there was some money fort this plan, but that the city needs to spend whatever is needed to develop a viable plan and to implement it.
The Ward 5 aldermen then went on to report on the workforce job training program that the Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) runs with funds from the city and the state.
Both Meredith Levy, the Deputy Director of SCC and Van Hardy, the president of its board, were in attendance at the Committee meeting.
Levy reportedly told the Committee that the First Source program presents a model to get employers to pull from a pool of Somerville residents and that there is a huge waiting list of people wanting to get into the program, primarily immigrants.
Niedergang pointed out that many of the immigrants seeking employment have language issues and need help getting up to speed with their job search skills.
Levy reportedly said that First Source does not necessarily train people, but tries to stabilize the applicants’ situations and coach, help with the resume and direct them to other programs where they can actually get the training.
Levy told the Committee that the City of Cambridge has 13 full time staff members whose primary duties are workforce development and job training, whereas the City of Somerville barely has one.
According to Levy, the First Source program trains people for all sorts of jobs, including immigrants with advanced degrees but are unable to get jobs here because their certifications are not recognized here.
A related agenda item requesting that the City Clerk notify the Chief Executive Officer of Greentown Labs to appear before the Board to describe its selection of non-union or union contractors and plans for local hiring in its upcoming expansion construction project, since the City of Somerville and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center contributed $2 million in loans to support this expansion was also completed, as reported to the Board.
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I hope that when Somerville residents are being considered for jobs, they don’t forget to include those in the older category.
Too often older residents find themselves without jobs due to downsizing, and it’s a lot harder for them to find work in many cases.
Many businesses prefer to hire younger workers who are starting out because they can pay them less than to hire older workers who have more experience and may demand a higher wage.
Perhaps it would be in the City’s interest to encourage businesses to hire older workers who may find it harder to get work over younger ones who may only be looking for a stepping stone to another profession.
This is a great point, Linda, that often gets overlooked. Like in many other areas, older people are marginalized. I have been looking for full-time employment for over two years, and there has been next to no help available to me. The SCC program referenced above was never able to refer me for a job appropriate to my skills. Like many other agencies, they need to show their funding sources that they assist “diverse” people – and “diverse” can translate to almost any category but older, American-born workers. Another agency in Boston told me that if I received even $1 in food stamps they could assist me, but otherwise the only assistance they could offer was to suggest that I take a basic computer course or basic workplace skills training, at a cost of hundreds to thousands of dollars. I know many other older people in similar situations, but because we are not collecting unemployment and are managing to pay our debts by working whenever we can, we do not show up in employment statistics.
Better have other contractors hire from Somerville because god only knows SCC doesn’t…especially if they are union.
Should private companies be in control of who they hire? If I had to pay someone to do something, I would find the best person I could, regardless of where they live.
MarketMan, I agree with you. I think the difference comes when the city is giving you a special deal or helping to finance the project. In this case that money comes with strings. If you want freedom to hire who you want, don’t ask for a handout.
Some of our Alderfolk wanted to demand specific wage guarantees out of builders in exchange for the $$. This, I feel is especially dangerous because it can become a case where the city is directly subsidizing wages and inflating costs on projects.
Right MarketMan, but we need to interfere with government control. We all know how well that works.