Young people who participated in Boston’s summer jobs program last year showed greater job readiness skills, higher academic aspirations, and more positive attitudes towards their communities, according to a study released this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Of
Before a room of people interested in economic fairness, John Hickey shared how his family strove from disadvantage to stability. In the 1950s, he said, his Irish immigrant parents were able to buy a house in the city and raise five kids
Communities across the United States have started launching children’s savings account (CSA) programs to help families save for their children’s college futures. But Boston’s CSA program, whose pilot is set to launch in Fall 2016, stands out in an important
The Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, in partnership with Boston Public Schools, has rolled out the Tuition-Free Community College Plan to help low-income eligible BPS graduates better afford college. The plan, launched June 1st, will pay for up to three years of
Mayor Walsh has announced the creation of the Urban Farming Pathways Initiative, a jobs training program for citizens returning from incarceration. The program, which will be overseen by Youth Options Unlimited (YOU) Boston, will train 25 young people in urban agriculture
Lawrence Brown, 26, needed a hand. When the Boston Center for Youth and Families streetworker program (which works with at-risk youth to de-escalate street violence) met Lawrence, they found a determined young person who needed employment. They referred him to Operation Exit,
When he first arrived in the United States 10 years ago, Richard Mutyabule made ends meet for his family by taking a job as a pathology research assistant. For some, it might have been a decent job. But Mutyabule had
The Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), a division of the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, recently launched a first-of-its-kind credit-building program for young adults ages 18-28. Over the course of a year, the program aims to introduce young people to the
At a parent breakfast at the Otis Elementary School in East Boston, Elsa Flores leads an early literacy workshop in Spanish to a packed cafeteria of 40 parents. Meanwhile, in a kindergarten classroom upstairs, Malika El Hadeg leads the same
At YMCA Training, Inc., it sounds like an angel getting its wings: The Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development supports YMCA Training, Inc. through three different funding streams: the Neighborhood Jobs Trust, Community Development Block Grants, and the Workforce Innovation and