Common Pathways  
Bringing the community together to build a
common pathway to a better Worcester for all


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Clara Savage, Common Pathways Coordinator, 508.438.0515, CSavage@CMCHC.org
 

Common Pathways' Leadership Council Commits
To Help Create 1,000 Youth Jobs This Summer


Worcester, MA - May 22, 2006 – The Leadership Council of Common Pathways, an initiative to engage residents in determining priorities for improving the quality of life for all in Worcester, has committed to support and enhance a City of Worcester initiative to create 1,000 youth jobs this summer. In addition, the Leadership Council has pledged to back a collaborative effort aimed at year-around, sustainable jobs and skills training for people ages 16 to 21. As part of its mission, Common Pathways seeks to support and celebrate all youth-related activities and events throughout the city.

 

During Common Pathways' First Community Forum, which was held on November 30, 2005 at the YWCA of Central Massachusetts and attended by more than 150 participants, as well as during one-on-one interviews conducted during the summer and fall of 2005, people shared their most important likes and concerns about Worcester and what to do about them. They identified more than 350 specific likes, concerns and desired improvements, which Common Pathways has cataloged under 11 general themes. In alphabetical order, the themes are: City Governance; Culture and Recreation; Economic Development; Education; Environment; Housing; Medical and Social Services; People and Multiculturalism; Public Safety; Transportation; and Youth.

During the Second Community Forum, which took place on April 5, 2006 at Clark University, more than 115 participants reviewed the results of the First Forum, ranked the 11 themes, and previewed the next action steps. In alphabetical order, the 3 top-ranked themes are: Economic Development; Transportation; and Youth. As a result, the Leadership Council has chosen youth job creation and skills training -- which encompasses the 3 top-ranked themes -- as Common Pathways' first collaborative effort.

Under the overall Youth theme, Common Pathways seeks eventually to do the following:

  • Celebrate, add value to, and support existing youth-education programs and initiatives.
  • Advocate at the local and state governmental levels for more funding for year-around, sustainable youth jobs and skills training.
  • Establish a youth advisory panel in City Hall regarding youth-related issues, including jobs and skills training.

By the end of this year, Common Pathways is committed to researching and identifying indicators and benchmarks in order to measure the progress of each of the 11 themes, including Youth.

Regarding this summer's youth-jobs program, the City of Worcester's original goal was to create 500 jobs, or double the number created during the summer of 2005. The goal of Common Pathways is to help City Hall quadruple the 2005 number to 1,000 job, each of which will pay at least the minimum wage of $6.75 an hour. Worcester is receiving $305,000 in state funding for this summer's youth-jobs program, which is double the amount of funding the city had available for its 2005 program. The Worcester Community Action Council is managing the funding.

This summer's 8-week youth-jobs program begins at the end of June and seeks to match lower-income neighborhood youth with businesses in their respective neighborhoods. The effort replicates a model that the city's Pleasant Street Neighborhood Center used successfully during the summer of 2005. "It's looking at outputs and outcomes," says Jim Cruickshank, chair of Common Pathways' Leadership Council and executive director of the Oak Hill Community Development Corp. "Yes, it was the idea of getting youth employed for the summer term. But it was also reconnecting youth with neighborhood assets -- small businesses and large businesses are neighborhood assets -- and reconnecting business owners with neighborhood youth so that they get to know each other. It's building bridges and establishing relationships."

Transportation is a challenge facing jobs- and skills-training programs for any segment of the population, including youth. "So in getting a youth from Burncoat a job in Webster Square, there's transportation involved," Cruickshank says. "When we match local youth with local businesses, we reduce or eliminate that transportation challenge."

Because this summer's youth-jobs program builds on those in the past, the 2006 effort represents an increase in scope over previous years in terms of a lot more advocacy for the program and a lot more youth involved in it. "There were success stories to build on, from previous years, where youth transitioned a summer job into a permanent job," Cruickshank says.

Brand new for this year's summer youth-jobs program, is MCAS remediation for Worcester Public Schools seniors who failed the MCAS exam and are income-qualified for the free-lunch program. This will occur at local colleges and consist of MCAS mediation for 3 hours a day and a workplace internship for another 3 hours daily. Seniors from previous years who failed the MCAS exam will also be eligible to participate in MCAS remediation as long as they are ages 16 to 21 and income-qualified.

Another new aspect of the 2006 summer youth-jobs program is the involvement of Junior Achievement of Central Massachusetts. JA will use its network of volunteers to teach the "JA Success Skills" program to many, although not all, of the young people who participate in this summer's program.

For many of the young people who take part in this summer's youth-jobs program, it will be their first exposure to employment. "What we're hoping to identify are local mentors and local contacts like Paulette Lacoste of the Grafton Hill neighborhood, a local resident who works at Pernet Family Health Service," Cruickshank says. "She's volunteered to be this local contact/mentor for the Grafton Hill neighborhood. This is a lot of responsibility to place on an employer because 8 weeks can go by very quickly. For some small businesses, that's basically their training period."

Many Worcester businesses have expressed an interest in providing year-around, sustainable employment for young people who take part in this summer's youth-jobs program. "We're going to try to match not only geographic relationships but also interests-and-skills relationships," Cruickshank says. "Walter Thomas of Thomas Auto Body on Grafton Street thought that if he could identify a youth who had an interest in auto-body repair and mechanics -- that is, looking to develop a career -- he would be very willing, if everything worked out well, to retain that youth after the summer program is over because they'll both benefit. The youth will gain that initial experience in a career that they're planning for, and Walter will develop a relationship with somebody who's looking to make that their career. It's a win-win situation."

A common misperception is that Worcester lacks jobs at all -- or, at least, jobs that are not dead ends -- for young people. "There's job placement and then there's career development," Cruickshank says. "One of the things that Common Pathways is hoping for from the summer youth-jobs program, is that while young people will find employment, receive a paycheck and learn basic employment and financial skills, they will also see what a career path looks like. Then, if we can retain them in Massachusetts and in the Worcester area, that's an aspiration or hope that everyone shares. ... We're not looking to just get youth off the street. We're looking to also engage youth, to develop their own interests and career paths."

To hear a 2-minute-50-second conversation, in MP3 format, between Jim Cruickshank and Common Pathways' Steven  Jones-D'Agostino regarding the connection between Common Pathways' Youth theme and its two other top-ranked themes -- Economic Development and Transportation -- as well as all of the remaining 8 themes, visit Jim Cruickshank.

The mission of Common Pathways is to promote shared learning, reflection and broad engagement that improve community decision-making and quality of life for all residents of Greater Worcester. Common Pathways seeks to get myriad community, business, political, health-care and educational leaders as well as the general public to come together – and work together – to achieve common goals.

Common Pathways’ Leadership Council, the steering committee guiding the collaborative initiative, consists of the following  community, business, political,  health-care and educational leaders:

Common Pathways is part of a growing, nationwide trend of "healthy communities" initiatives, including ones in Boston, Providence, Baltimore and Denver. "Healthy" refers to all aspects of a community's quality of life, including health care. To learn more, visit Common Pathways. The website contains links to other "healthy communities" initiatives nationwide.

The Common Pathways website also contains a link to DataPlace, which was created and is being maintained by KnowledgePlex. Created by a distinguished team of founding partners and implemented by the Fannie Mae Foundation, KnowledgePlex is designed to support the efforts of practitioners, grantors, policy makers, scholars, investors and others involved or interested in the fields of affordable housing and community development. You can use DataPlace to data-mine for housing-related information right down to the Zip Code level. For example, it will show you the changes in Worcester median housing price, the changes in number of Worcester mortgages, and the change in Worcester home-buyer/home-refinancer reliance on sub-prime lenders from 1997 (the earliest year for which data are currently available) to 2004 (the latest year). You can access the data in chart, map and ranking formats, which you can download in PDF format.

For more information on the “healthy communities” movement, visit the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership. NNIP is coalition of "healthy communities" initiatives that is seeking to provide access to broad, deep data-mining resources to average Americans and well as to train them to use such resources in order to empower themselves to take action regarding issues affecting their neighborhoods.

Common Pathways' Community Forums were sponsored in part by Casey DZN, Christina P. O'Neill Photography, WCCA-TV/Channel 13,
Worcester Magazine, and The Pulse.

For more information on Common Pathways and the Community Forum, call Clara Savage, Common Pathways' coordinator, at 508.438.0515, or e-mail her at CSavage@CMCHC.org.

Attachments:

  • Common Pathways explainer, in Word format.
  • Common Pathways brochure, in PDF format.

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