Thirty-five participants ages 15 to 22 completed the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center’s YouthWorks summer job readiness program this year, helping bolster local economies across Franklin and Hampshire counties.
According to MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center Executive Director Maura Geary, the organization connects locally-owned businesses that are seeking extra staffing with high schoolers and young adults who are facing employment barriers. Geary said these barriers include income, disabilities, homelessness, foster care, lack of transportation and/or belonging to a marginalized community. Instead of putting the burden on small businesses, MassHire pays for the young employee’s income and worker’s compensation while they work.
“We’re trying to level the playing field a little bit,” Geary explained.
After program participants complete classes for career readiness on topics like financial literacy, resumes, cover letters, interview skills, and soft skills like managing conflict and communication, MassHire matches participants with a business that fits their interests. This year’s 25 employers stretched across countless fields, including assisted living, survival centers, bookstores and hair salons.
Geary said a $527,000 grant from the Commonwealth Corporation funds the YouthWorks program. For the Commonwealth Corporation to allocate this money to branches like the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center, it pulls funding from the $15.2 million that is dedicated to MassHire in the state’s budget.
“A program like this that’s state-funded doesn’t happen without strong state leadership,” Geary told attendees of an Aug. 22 YouthWorks celebration at the Greenfield Public Library before introducing the keynote speaker, state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton.
“If you had told me this was going to cost more than that, I would’ve thought it was far worth it, because of what this program is for all of us,” Comerford said. “Programs like YouthWorks are absolutely vital. They close the gap, they create opportunity and they ensure every young person like you who are brilliant [has] a path forward.”
Geary said YouthWorks aims to serve as both a career launch pad for the young participants and an extra boost for local economies. She added that the program helps participants find the right fit or figure out the wrong one sooner rather than later while simultaneously spreading the word about local businesses and helping them hire staff.
During her speech, Geary thanked the employers.
“You don’t just provide jobs; you all created really supportive, meaningful experiences, and your investment in the future workforce in our region is going to pay off for all of us.”
To the young participants listening and munching on pizza at their tables, Geary said, “Today is all about you.” After speeches, the YouthWorks team handed out certificates to the high schoolers and young adults honoring their completion of the program.
Seventeen-year-old Lucas Pisano of Northampton worked at Forbes Library this summer, just a short walk from his home. Through YouthWorks’ orientation training and his days of loading carts and sorting books at the library, Pisano said the program helped him step outside his shell. Although he plans on leaving the library eventually to become a math teacher, he said this impact will follow him.
“I’m very, very introverted, and I’ve been trying to work on talking and being in large groups,” Pisano said. “Within the last year, I’m trying to talk more, and this program actually helped me.”
Emma Hauser, 17, of Orange, helped out at Fox Hollow Dog Training in Gill, where she explored her love for animals and started seeing dogs in new ways.
“They’re all different,” Hauser said of her canine students at Fox Hollow Dog Training. “Dogs are just as complex as humans are. Training and watching them think and grow and problem-solve just as we would, it’s an amazing thing to see.”
Hauser said she plans to stay working at Fox Hollow Dog Training while pursuing a tattoo apprenticeship.
“I’m in the process of finding who I am,” she said, “so this program has helped with that.”