Workforce Investment Initiatives for Adults and Youth
Springfield, MA and Hartford, CT

An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — December 2-3, 2002

The purpose of this field trip was to showcase several exemplary career preparation and workforce development programs and strategies used by two communities. Visits were made to Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, MA and the Capital Region Workforce Development Board and the Youth Opportunity Grant program in Hartford, CT.

Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, MA

Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) is a nationally-recognized, pace-setting community college that provides a wide range of workforce development, career preparation, and adult training linked to the economic development needs of employers and the wider community in the Springfield, MA area. As the only technical college in MA, STCC offers a comprehensive array of credit programs in 46 specialized fields, including engineering technologies, business, health, human services, nursing, and the liberal arts and sciences, and enrolls over 7,000 students in day and evening divisions. STCC is located on the site of the former historic Springfield Armory and houses a 15-acre Technology Park which provides attractive lease space for a variety of technology and manufacturing companies. Businesses are attracted to the Tech Park for its physical resources, proximity to the faculty and highly-skilled graduates of STCC, and commitment of the college to economic development.

Bruce Stebbins, Chair of the Board of Trustees of STCC, provided an overview of the philosophy of the college, whose mission is squarely focused on economic and workforce development. Stebbins said that STCC calls itself an “entrepreneurial college,” because they not only offer a program in entrepreneurship and support a range of business development strategies, they “live the idea of entrepreneurship.” STCC is keenly responsive to employers and their needs and is able to develop new training programs to quickly respond to current labor market trends. Given its economic development mission, Stebbins said, STCC offers a range of contract training in partnership with employers and provides a large number of industry certifications to its students. Some of the partners in their contact training programs include Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, and Verizon.

One barrier to thinking entrepreneurially is when funding sources have too many strings attached to them or are too categorical. Stebbins said it is important to be accountable to your funding sources, but many strict accountability requirements can make it difficult to respond to the unique needs of the surrounding labor market and employers. Over 43 percent of the budget for STCC comes from the state, but is down from the 50-60 percent contribution in past years. As state funding declines, student fees have had to increase, Stebbins said. STCC also has significant capital costs, given their location on the Springfield Armory grounds. Long, red brick buildings, almost 100 years old, provide classroom and office space for some of the college’s programs. However, several of the buildings are in such disrepair they are not habitable, and STCC is hoping to either raise funding or get a special state appropriation to restore the historic buildings to useable condition.

Following the introduction to the college, the group toured the campus and visited various centers and programs.

Medical Simulation Lab

The Patient Simulation Center is equipped with two human patient simulators, one that can be adjusted to be male or female and with bodily functions programmed to display ages from a teenager to a 66 year-old; the other simulator is for a young child. Through the simulator training, health students can observe a variety of medical conditions and the impact on bodily functions such as blood pressure, pulse, breathing, coughing, and urination. The equipment can be programmed to simulate various medical emergencies, such as a heart attack, that would be handled by intensive care units, helping students learn how to respond with their own interventions or determine when it is necessary to call a physician. Students are monitored by a camera by their instructors so they can review and critique their performance.

STCC staff indicated they would like to offer students a larger clinic with a four-bed simulation center, but the cost of the patient simulators, hundred of thousands of dollars each, is prohibitive. But with more simulators, an instructor said, “Our students will be able to learn to take care of more than one patient in a crisis situation at a time.” STCC instructors said that several major medical organizations in the region are interested in sending their staff to STCC’s radiology lab for recertification classes because the equipment is state of the art. Unfortunately, only a relatively small number of students can take the training at any one time, because it is a very individualized program, and students must spend a lot of time on the simulators. The placement rates for graduates of this program in area hospitals and health care facilities are excellent.

Dental Clinic

Each year, the two-year dental program graduates 18 students, but there are 100-120 applicants for the program per year. “We look to see if students are truly prepared for the program,” said one instructor. The average age of a student is between 25-30 years old. Prospects for hiring are good, and most students find employment with a dentist in private practice with starting wages of approximately $30/hour.

After certain required classroom training, more advanced students work in the clinic and provide dental hygienist services, such as: sealants, tooth whitening, cleaning, fluoride, plaque samples, restorations, periodontal treatment, and x-rays. Community residents come to the clinic as patients and pay a small fee for services. Some students visit patients who are homebound, those in institutions, and those who are disabled.

In addition to the Dental Clinic, the AYPF group also visited a Physical Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy Program and Clinic, which is run in partnership with Springfield College (a four-year institution) and provides free physical rehabilitation services to individuals in the community as it prepares students for employment in the rehabilitation field. Overall, STCC offers 16 different health programs. Some are linked with high schools by aligning curriculum and providing career awareness through the Tech Prep [1] program. Other programs serve older adults seeking a career change. Graduates of all of these health programs have excellent prospects for employment.

Technology Park

Across the street from the original campus on the Armory Grounds stands the Tech Park, a group of newer office buildings, lab space, and classrooms. The buildings had previously been owned by Digital Computers, but when Digital left Springfield, STCC was able to purchase the land and buildings. STCC rents some of the facilities to other employers and organizations, including FutureWorks, the one-stop for Springfield. Several of the buildings house STCC programs.

One of the programs housed in the Tech Park is STCC’s National Center for Telecommunications Technologies (NCTT), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and industry partners. The Center provides various services including the development of curriculum for telecommunications, program improvement, preparing faculty to develop programs in telecommunications, and linking curricula and training to industry-recognized national skill standards. The Center has been funded by the NSF for six years, with the goal of moving the Center to self-sufficiency. But because the business climate, especially in the telecommunications field, is not good, the Center is having a hard time attracting private sector funding.

The Verizon Next Step Program was begun in the 1990’s to meet the needs of changing jobs in the telecommunications industry. This program is funded solely by industry, to prepare needed workers. STCC was selected by Verizon to be the lead college in the New England region for this training. Verizon technicians attend STCC one day a week to earn an applied science degree. While the program takes four years to complete, technicians have an incentive to stay because their salary increases with training. The curriculum was specifically developed for New York and the Northeast, and is updated annually to meet industry standards. To date, 422 employees have graduated the program at STCC.

STCC has a rich offering of other programs, including Mechanical Engineering Technology, which offers a Tech Prep program with the local high schools and has a placement rate for mechanical technicians of 90-100 percent in regional businesses.

One of the most unique programs at STCC is the Springfield Enterprise Center which includes an Entrepreneurial Center and Business Incubation Program for private businesses and for middle school, high school, and college students. The Enterprise Center is a one-stop location, providing a continuum of services for entrepreneurs from early growth to high-end supports. Offices of the Small Business Administration and the MA Development Fund are co-located in the Enterprise Center to make it easier to provide services to new businesses. Other services include business and technology support, making micro loans, and identifying retired executives to serve as mentors. A unique aspect of the Business Incubation program is its youth focus. Youth as young as middle school students are provided with the infrastructure to start a business: a small cubicle, a phone, Internet access, copier, computer, training in marketing and business plan development, guidance, and mentoring. Once students have achieved net sales of $25,000, they are moved from the student incubator to the student venture program, which helps the students apply for loans and understand more complex business transactions. As students become more successful, they are charged rent, although they receive the same benefits. One 13-year old student designs and sells personalized umbrellas. She wants to attend law school and is using her umbrella business to make money to support her studies. Other student businesses include hip hop fashion design, food and beverage products, jewelry, and bicycle renovation.

After touring the campus, the AYPF group met with President Andrew Scibelli and his senior staff, who discussed a number of issues related to funding, federal programs, and the mission of economic development.

Scibelli said that approximately 75 percent of STCC students go directly to work upon graduation, and 25 percent pursue further studies at four-year colleges. The student body is 27 percent minority, sixty percent of the students qualify for federal student financial aid, and 70 percent are first generation college-goers. The average age is 28, but is dropping as more students come directly from high school. With cutbacks in state funding, the cost of a credit hour has increased, and STCC has had to start charging a technology fee of $50 for every student to cover the costs of equipment and technology. The health program is the most expensive, and despite the need for more health technicians, Scibelli did not anticipate any extra funding for expansion.

The focus of the college is on economic development and preparing skilled workers to meet the needs of the region’s employers. Throughout the visit the entrepreneurial approach was visible. Business is viewed as a full and participating critical partner as well as the customer for the college. In the Tech Park, there are approximately ten businesses that rent space and employ nearly 1,000 people. About one fourth of these businesses are run by STCC graduates. STCC also provides 3,000 online courses, such as hydraulics, and provides IT certifications and tests to help meet employers’ needs. The Center for Business and Technology works to extend non-credit classes to businesses by working with the academic side of the college to adapt curriculum to specific business needs.

Despite its emphasis on workforce development, Scibelli said that there is very little connection between STCC and the local Workforce Investment Act programs, partly because the college does not want to compete with other smaller providers in the community. Also, while the one-stop for Springfield is located in the Tech Park, there is very little contact between it and the college and students. Scibelli hinted that the design of the law made it administratively difficult to participate as a service provider.

Scibelli’s staff discussed the college’s long-term involvement in the Tech Prep program. STCC has been involved with Tech Prep for many years, but at the start, the goal of the Tech Prep program was nebulous. Because many in the K-12 system did not know much about STCC and the jobs it prepares people for, STCC had to focus on increasing awareness of technical careers and postsecondary education technical training opportunities, as well as the need to prepare youth for high levels of study. Despite the presence of articulation agreements between the local high schools and STCC, students were not moving from high school to STCC on a regular basis. Staff realized that the single biggest issue in influencing future choices was for high school students to come to STCC and see their programs. Now, high school sophomores visit the campus, juniors take the college preparatory test to see how prepared for college work they are and explore by career cluster what is available, and seniors participate in transition activities. Because of these activities, high school students are more aware of the opportunities at STCC, and more are choosing to attend directly after graduation. In fall 2002, 98 Tech Prep students entered STCC, compared to 67 in 2001.

Dinner with STCC Partners

At the dinner meeting, AYPF participants heard from several other education and economic development partners of STCC.

Bill Ward of the Hampden County Workforce Investment Board (WIB) indicated that biotechnology is a key employment area to create high-end jobs in Western Massachusetts and that partnerships between major players are key to the community’s growth. The WIB relies on STCC for much of the training to meet labor market needs. He said that the boards of education and workforce organizations are intertwined and institutionalized, and there is a relationship of trust and creative competition. For example, he said the superintendent of schools sits on the WIB, and the WIB understands the importance of the K-12 system to developing a skilled workforce.

Joe Burke, Superintendent of Springfield Public Schools, detailed the challenges of preparing their students for a high skilled economy. In Springfield, there are 27,000 students, 48 percent are Hispanic, 29 percent African American, 2 percent Asian, and the remaining 23 percent of the Anglo population continues to decline. Burke said that student performance is an issue; therefore, the school district has begun to engage members of the community in a community campaign to define proficiency. “How do you define proficiency and how do you get buy-in from parents, employers, the public, and students to achieve it?” asked Burke. “We need real clarity about what proficiency targets are for all kids in this community and what it will take to reach proficiency for all segments of the community.”

Alan Blair, with the Economic Development Committee of Western Massachusetts, said that because energy and housing is so expensive in the Western Massachusetts region, businesses’ competitive edge must be productive and skilled workers. As a result, the business community is strongly supportive of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (the state academic standards) and school reform efforts to increase academic achievement. The business community understands that basic academic success is necessary to develop productive workers.

Because of competition with Hartford, CT over a highly mobile labor force, the Western Massachusetts region decided to create the Knowledge Corridor, which includes Western MA and CT and the cities of Springfield, MA and Hartford, CT. This corridor, or economic development region, consists of one million individuals, and 32 institutions of higher education, including two land-grant universities. STCC, along with the other economic development partners, is hoping that by creating a Knowledge Corridor and changing the perception of the area from one of blue-collar to one known for knowledge-based careers, they can attract businesses from the Boston area and support more businesses in the region. However, the governmental structures that are in place now do not capture what is really happening with this cross-border economic development strategy, said Blair. Federal programs, for example, should recognize this regional approach and provide for different funding, data collection, and accountability strategies.

Capital Region Workforce Development Board, Hartford, CT

The Capital Region Workforce Development Board (CRWDB) is the workforce investment board for the City of Hartford, CT. The AYPF group met with the leaders and key partners of the CRWDB before visiting several youth employment programs.

Tom Phillips, President of CRWDB, welcomed the group and introduced the Board’s partners, including representatives from business, education, and city government. CRWDB, whose motto is “Developing Tomorrow’s Workforce Today,” has worked hard to develop strong partnerships with other entities in the Hartford region, and to extend those partnerships to the service provider level. The Hartford City public schools, as well as the suburban school districts, and the local community colleges all sit on the CRWDB.

Hartford has a population of about 130,000. Thirty-seven percent of youth 18-21 do not have a high school diploma; 41 percent read at lower than Level 1 Literacy, 58 percent are students from non-English speaking families; and only 59 percent of 18-25 year olds are employed. The employers in the region are concerned that with the impending retirements of the baby boomer workforce and the low skill levels of the current student population, they will be facing a crisis in finding a skilled workforce. As a result, the CRWDB created a Task Force in partnership with employers, city government, and agencies to prepare 18-24 year-olds for work. The Task Force focuses on the hard-to-serve youth and provides the umbrella strategy for serving all young people in the city. As a sign of its commitment to youth employment, even in tight budget times, the city doubled funding for its summer youth employment programs, serving 1800 youth, up from the 900 served the summer before.

Driven by its focus on youth, Hartford applied for and received a Youth Opportunity! (YO!) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The YO! grant provides intensive services to youth in poor neighborhoods and supplements the city’s youth-focused strategy. Of the youth that participate in the YO! Hartford program, 50 percent have had experiences with drugs; there are more girls with babies than have graduated high school; 33 percent of youth have been arrested, and 75 percent of those who are incarcerated are illiterate. By 2010, it is projected that 80 percent of youth in Hartford will live below the poverty rate, and the median age in the city will be 23-25.

Ellen Brown, a member of the Youth Council [2] for Hartford, described efforts to engage the Youth Council and develop a strategic plan. They recently downsized the group from 60 to 30 and instituted a subcommittee structure to help focus their efforts. Next, they identified the challenges that need to be addressed in the strategic plan, which include:

• Getting parents and youth involved with the youth council.
• Finding the resources to serve youth, leveraging funding, and building sustainability.
• Balancing the needs of the City of Hartford with the 30 other surrounding towns that are represented on the board.
• Engaging new and different employers. As fewer and fewer low skill jobs are available, the Youth Council must reach out to different kinds of employers, especially small and medium sized ones.
• Marketing the program to youth and marketing the importance of education as workforce preparation.
• Coordinating all the youth services so there is neither duplication nor gaps in services across the metro region.
  Brown said that while this is very challenging work, one of the fortunate aspects of the Hartford region is the diversity and depth of youth programs already available in the metro area.

Jody Becker, Hartford Public Schools, works for the Superintendent of Schools. She indicated that in the past year there is a new mayor, a new superintendent, and a new youth manager, and they all have a passion for youth, resulting in more cooperation between the public schools and the CRWDB than ever before. High school graduation rates and college-going rates have increased. More opportunities exist for students to learn about and prepare for careers. Career and technical education has been upgraded, Tech Prep and career academies are in place in high schools, career centers have been created in high schools to allow an increased and organized focus on guidance, counseling, and providing mentoring support, and all students must have an individual learning and transition plan. A Youth Employment Skills (YES) Academy, supported by CRWDB, helps students prepare for summer jobs. Students are earning more industry certifications, such as Emergency Medical Technician and Certified Nursing Assistant, which many students use as a way to earn money to pay for postsecondary education. The CRWDB also offers many opportunities for students to learn job and employability skills and is a critical partner with the schools to help prepare students. The overall goal is to work more closely with employers to make sure students have workplace skills, said Becker.

Becker also mentioned two other activities to help high school students succeed. One program, called SONG (Save Our Ninth Graders) is focused on dropout prevention and another, SOS (Save Our Seniors) is a program to help seniors who are missing just a few credits graduate by meeting after school to make them up.

Ramon Rajano, Human Services, City of Hartford, and another partner on the CRWDB, echoed the themes of partnerships. He said that “Hartford became complicated by becoming so ambitious with the Youth Opportunity! Program.” Elected officials, the mayor and deputy mayor, and council members are all involved with YO! Hartford Center and other youth services. Rajano said that sustainability is created through partnerships. He also provided a historical view on funding for youth programs in Hartford. In the 1980s, funding for youth was largely concentrated in the Health and Human Service agency, then most of the youth money moved to the juvenile justice system to deal with safety and drug problems, and then it shifted to the Department of Labor because of youth and workforce development. Now the resources are moving into the education system because of the basic skill needs of our youth.

Nilda Jones, Manager of Youth Services, CRWDB, said that the focus of the Youth Council’s strategic plan is on workforce development, but that youth development is incorporated as well. The Youth Council recognizes that it needs the partnership of the K-12 system, Department of Labor, juvenile justice, and health services systems to help youth succeed. Jones said four goals of the Youth Council are to:

• Develop a comprehensive delivery system to leverage other resources.
• Promote partnerships to develop employability and life skills for youth.
• Promote academic achievement and encourage community-based and youth-serving organizations to enhance and reinforce the work of schools.
• Address the needs of out-of-school youth in the region (4,000 in Hartford and 6,000 in the surrounding region).
  Jones said the Youth Council’s strategy is to make a wide range of different programs and services available to youth and help them create a personal career learning plan and select the program that best meets their needs.

Bob Rath, Southend Community Services, manages the two locations of the YO! Hartford program. The program has increased the number of youth being served from 650 to 1,600 over the past nine months. Because the YO! Hartford program can only serve youth in a certain census track, the CRWDB decided to support the Youth Access project to allow exempted youth to participate in activities at the YO! sites. Another significant aspect of the YO! Hartford grant is a web-based case management and data tracking system. This system can track 14-21 year-olds throughout the city and across agencies, keeping track of the services they use and their outcomes. The data system also includes a mapping program that allows case managers to locate appropriate and needed services in any neighborhood in seconds.

One other option in the arsenal of youth programs and services in Hartford is a newly-constructed Job Corps Center. Employers in the Hartford region have come to accept that some members of their future workforce will be drawn from out-of-school youth, youth in the prison system, and those in foster care. Because they will be hiring from these pools, employers realized they need to target these youth to make them competitive workers. By working with the employer community, the city, and the state (Hartford contributed $2 million and Connecticut contributed $3 million), CRWDB finally received approval and funding from the Department of Labor to build a new Job Corps Center to help prepare out-of-school youth for employment.

Lauren Kaufman, Connecticut Business Industry Association (CBIA), described the involvement of the employer community in helping to prepare youth for employment and in partnering with the CRWDB. In addition to a major emphasis on “school-to-work” activities that include job shadowing, internships, and company tours, CBIA, in partnership with CRWDB, manages the Youth Employability Skills (YES) Academy. The YES Academy prepares high school students to get unsubsidized summer jobs. Students learn about resumes, work attitudes, dress, and self-confidence. The program also helps to make the connection between going to school, getting good grades, going to college, and getting a good job. Last year during spring break, 175 students voluntarily gave up their vacation to participate in the five-day academy. According to Kaufman, the program is successful because CBIA recruits employers to serve in the program as speakers and mentors (120 corporate volunteers participated in the last YES Academy), which is very attractive to students. Almost every student who participated in the YES Academy was successful in getting a summer job, which sends a positive message to other students encouraging them to participate in similar activities.

Site Visits in Hartford, CT

CTWorks Hartford, the one-stop site, connects employment, education, and training services into a coherent network of resources for the City of Hartford. CTWorks provides a range of services including labor market information, a job and talent bank, job search assistance workshops, a career resource library, vocational assessments, computer training, business services, youth services, and rehabilitation and social services. Over 15,000 individuals have come to CTWorks since its opening. About 400 Individual Training Accounts (under the WIA system) have been distributed. CTWorks has approved about 75 training providers statewide, many fewer than under the previous legislation.

At CTWorks, Workforce Training Associates (WTA), one of the providers of youth services, described their work with youth. WTA provides case management (assessment, referral, ongoing management) and job search assistance for youth. WTA serves about 325 in-school and 175 out-of-school youth at various locations in the community. WTA staff work with school counselors to identify early on the students at-risk and in need of extra help. They also provide long-term follow-up for youth once they have been placed in a job. WTA serves as the liaison with employers, so that if there are any problems on the job (late arrivals, attitude problems, etc.), the employers know to call WTA, who will work with the youth. WTA staff is also active in job development. Lastly, WTA reaches out parents to create a supportive partnership for the youth and to get a commitment from the family to participate in the year-long program.

Another program for youth, Computers for Kids, is provided onsite at CTWorks. Out-of-school youth, ages 17-21, participate in GED test preparation and computer training. Students come with issues like homelessness, drug abuse, and pregnancy, and the program works with the one-stop to deal with those issues. Youth work on their GED half the day and learn web design the other half. Students create a web-based portfolio with their own home page that includes a research project and resume. While the intense schedule, fit into four weeks, is not for everyone, some students appreciate the fast pace of the class because it fits with their need to quickly enter the labor market.

The YO! Hartford Center serves about 150 youth on any given day, from 9:00 AM to 7:30 PM. Services offered include comprehensive case management, a three-week job readiness program, assistance from job developers, and lots of mentoring and counseling. The Center employs 15 youth development specialists who each have a caseload of 40-60 youth, depending if they work with in-school or out-of-school youth. Contractors are hired to help youth develop job readiness skills. One contractor, Our Piece of the Pie, works with in-school youth, and Career Team, another contractor, works with out-of-school youth and is linked to the one stop, CTWorks. Once youth find a job, a Job Club at the YO! Center helps them deal with issues that might cause them to lose their job, such as being late, dressing inappropriately, missing work, or not being able to accept supervision or feedback. The youth development specialists follow up with youth two weeks after being hired, then once every quarter. Depending on the needs of the youth, follow-up can continue for one-two years.

The YO! Center also encourages older youth to help younger youth. College students have come to the center to help youth ages 14-16 develop a college counseling and preparation manual to be used by younger youth. The college students helped the teens understand the college admissions process, financial aid, and what is required for college preparation and then assisted them with the writing of the document. The college students also provided a great deal of informal mentoring and served as role models.

In a short meeting with several youth at the YO! Hartford Center, it was clear that the most important aspect of the program from the youths’ perspective was the relationship with the youth development specialist. Those asked stated that their counselor made the difference in their success, that their counselor did whatever was necessary to help them, and that they were a trusted, adult mentor and friend.

The last visit was to Our Piece of the Pie, a PEPNet awardee [3], a youth business incubator program in Hartford. Our Piece of the Pie runs several youth businesses, including a youth newspaper, boat building, art cards, sound recording, ceramics, furniture repair, and manicuring. The programs work with foster care and adjudicated youth to help them develop skills to smooth the transition from a residential program to work and the community.

Youth can select the business activity they would like to work in and attend the program after school. The program helps youth, ages 14-21, to develop life and employability skills and provides opportunities for youth to have structured work experiences in the youth business. Our Piece of the Pie lives in two cultures: one of youth development and one of business. While students learn about the technical aspects of managing a business and producing products, they are surrounded by a host of caring adults who provide guidance and support. In the program, everyone is a mentor, a mentee, or both.

Each student business has support from the community. For instance, the youth newspaper, Voices from the Street, is printed for free by the Hartford Courant ten times a year, with 10,000 copies distributed to local schools.

Our Piece of the Pie considers work to be a powerful motivator for learning. The program provides integrated learning that connects school and work in a supportive environment. The director of the student newspaper project said, “We don’t give out A’s or F’s, we give out paychecks or pink slips – that is how our students understand their performance.”

Summary

This trip allowed participants to see two approaches to workforce development for youth and adults in medium-sized cities and regions. Both regions were actively engaged in looking for ways to create a skilled workforce to meet the needs of local employers. Entrepreneurial activities were used in both locales with positive results. Both locales provided a wide range of programs and services to meet the needs of the individuals who wanted training. At Springfield Technical Community College, a long list of career training opportunities for adults was offered; in Hartford, the city has pulled together a range of programs for youth to learn job skills and prepare for work. Both locales recognized the value of partnering to provide the necessary services, and the two regions are starting to work together in the creation of a new economic development region called the Knowledge Corridor.

It was also evident in both cities that the K-12 system was viewed as the starting point for developing a highly skilled workforce. Employers and workforce professionals supported efforts to improve teaching and learning in the public schools and there were many links between the public schools and the workforce system. Additionally, both communities were moving toward a K-16 or lifelong learning system, where all aspects of education and training were integrated and supportive of each other.

A few comments from trip participants help capture some of the other lessons learned:

• I was reminded that relationships are often the key to success. At both sites, established working relationships had been in place for some time. It appears that in both sites the current state of effectiveness is a result of long-term effort to build the relationships/systems.
• Perhaps the comprehensiveness of each site’s strategies speaks to the value of “visioning” and long-term planning.
• Clearly, Springfield’s education, economic development, Chamber and WIA systems are demonstrating the effectiveness of community collaboration toward a seamless workforce system.
• A strong, dedicated leader, such as Tom Phillips [CRWDB], makes a big difference in getting all parties on board, as well as the clearly defined shared mission of all the partners and collaborators.
• It is clear from the presentation that employers can play a significant role in preparing young people for the workforce, and that young people respond well to having members of the business community take an interest in them. What seemed to work here was having the employer association organize the employer part of the program since there is still the assumption that “government-types” don’t understand business needs, even though the majority of WIB members are from the business community. We must address this issue if we want to encourage business involvement in workforce development programs.
• It is hard to balance accountability and flexibility in federal law. It’s hard to walk the line of making sure money is spent effectively while not being burdensome. Also, particularly with youth, but even with adults, the best and most effective programs are those whose workers want to make a difference, care about the people they interact with, and love what they do. And that’s something that can’t be legislated. It was reassuring to see that these people do exist.

Contact Information

Dr. Andrew Scibelli
President
Springfield Technical Community College
One Armory Square
Springfield, MA 01105
413-755-4405

Dr. James J. Dowd
Assistant to the President
Springfield Technical Community College
One Armory Square
Springfield, MA 01105
413-755-4405
jdowd@stcc.edu

Thomas A. Goodrow
Director
Entrepreneurial Institute
Springfield Technical Community College
One Armory Square
Springfield, MA 01105
413-755-4118
tgoodrow@stcc.mass.edu

Gordon Snyder, Jr.
Executive Director
Principal Investigator
National Center for Telecommunications Technologies
Springfield Technical Community College
One Armory Square
Springfield, MA 01105
413-452-0425
gsnyder@stcc.edu

Cindy Nothe
Tech Prep Coordinator
Springfield Technical Community College
One Armory Square
Springfield, MA 01105
413-755-4480
cnothe@stcc.mass.edu

Dr. Joseph Burke
Superintendent of Schools
Springfield Public Schools
195 State Street
Springfield, MA 01102
413-787-7000

Thomas L. Phillips
President and CEO
Capital Region Workforce Development Board
99 Pratt Street, 5th floor
Hartford, CT 06103
860-522-1111, ext. 12
860-722-2486 - fax
tphillips@capitalworkforce.org

Alex Johnson
Chief Operating Officer
Capital Region Workforce Development Board
99 Pratt Street, 5th Floor
Hartford, CT 06103
ajohnson@capitalworkforce.org

Jim Boucher
Acting Director of Youth Opportunity and
Youth Access Programs
Capital Region Workforce Development Board
99 Pratt Street
Hartford, CT 06103
860-522-1111
860-989-4386 – cell
jboucher@capitalworkforce.org

Nilda Torres
Manager of Youth Services
Capital Region Workforce Development Board
99 Pratt Street, 5th Floor
Hartford, CT 06103
ntorres@capitalworkforce.org

Lauren Weisberg Kaufman
Vice President
Connecticut Business and Industry Association
350 Church Street
Hartford, CT 06103
860-244-1900
860-278-8562 – fax
kaufmanl@cbia.com

Jody Becker
Hartford Public Schools
860-695-8401
jbecker@hartfordschools.org

Bob Rath
Executive Director
Southend Community Services
99 Pratt Street
Hartford, CT 06106
860-296-5068
bob.rath@scservices.org

Our Piece of the Pie
Southend Community Services
427 Franklin Avenue
Hartford, CT 06114
860-296-5068-ph.
860-296-3477-fax

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[1] Tech Prep is funded under the Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act and supports programs that develop sequenced, articulated programs beginning in high school and connecting with postsecondary education in a specific career area.

[2] Youth Councils are organizations that focus on an overall youth-serving strategy for a workforce investment area and are a required element of Workforce Investment Boards under the Workforce Investment Act.

[3] Promising and Effective Practices Network (PEPNet) is a best practices network managed by the National Youth Employment Coalition. PEPNet awardees are selected from youth programs nationally based on their effectiveness in purpose and activities, youth development, workforce development, organization and management, and evidence of success

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