|
|||
|
ORIGINS In spring 2003, Pat Larson (former coordinator of the the North Quabbin Adult Education Center) and Tim Cohen-Mitchell (executive director and founder of Young Entrepreneurs Society) discussed how the region's educational and support services might be re-configured to better help the area's unemployed, underemployed and otherwise marginalized young people achieve economic independence. They drafted a concept paper for a reconfiguration, calling it 'QuabbinWorks College'. They shared the paper with the North Quabbin Adult Education Task Force, a committee sponsored by the North Quabbin Community Coalition. Members of the Task Force liked the concept and added some of its recommendations over the course of several months. PILOT EFFORTS: BESTWorks (2003-2004) During this time, Pat and Tim attended a meeting at the Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board (FHREB) in Greenfield, MA where another group of providers were preparing to submit a grant proposal in response to the Commonwealth's BEST Older Youth Initiative (Building Essential Skills through Training). The Initiative sought to fund the planning and implementation of a number of innovative 10-month pilot program models aound the state to help vulnerable older youth (18-24) improve their basic (literacy and numeracy) skills, develop job readiness and workplace skills, receive vocational or sectoral training, and transition into paid employment. Pat and Tim shared the QuabbinWorks College concept with this group, encouraging them to include the North Quabbin region as a pilot sites along with Greenfield and Amherst-Hadley-Northamption. This they did, and the group's 'BESTWorks' proposal was approved that summer. That autumn, Jeff Aho was hired by the FHREB to coordinate BESTWorks in the North Quabbin region. He recruited and vetted a group of young people fitting the BEST demographic profile, who soon began attending ABE/GED classes at North Quabbin Adult Education Center, receiving job readiness training from the Career Center, and culinary arts training by the Franklin County Technical School. Other organizations provided training in mediation (Quabbin Mediation) and financial literacy (YES) at all three of the region's BESTWorks sites. Participants received a variety of support services such as childcare and transportation, along with career counseling and job placement and support. The results were modest in terms of the numbers of youth served -- one caveat being that 18 of the 25 youth were from the North Quabbin -- but there were some solid gains made by participants, and some valuable lessons learned by BESTWorks partnering organizations. Unfortunately, there were no resources to sustaint the program beyond the pilot phase, resulting in the loss of the staffing, structures, policies, procedures, participants, relationships, materials, memories that had made the project possible. PLANNING: Pathways to Success by 21 (P21) (2005) FHREB received planning funds through another Commonwealth Corporation effort, Pathways to Success by 21. Covering four areas with the REB's service area (including North Quabbin), this effort involved youth serving agencies, schools, and youth in identifying the key needs of youth in the region and the gaps in youth services. The process was facilitated by an advisory group and a consultant who conducted interviews, focus groups, and led a 2-day forum resulting in a white paper on needs, strategies, and plans. Commonwealth Corporation has made no funding for implementation available to date, but there are hopes that the state legislature may allocate workforce development monies to P21-inspired efforts in the future. |
||
