On a warm Moroccan night in May 2015, Khalid Bachir looked at his computer screen and screamed for joy. It was midnight. His mother, father and twin brother awoke, startled, in the house they shared. Bachir stared disbelievingly at his
When you’re at a disadvantage in the workforce, it can be easy to give up hope for anything better. At the start of the most recent cycle of the “ESL for Customer Service” training program at Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center,
The Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development (OWD) has long dispensed workforce funds to various community-based organizations – 80 in the last fiscal year. But how can that regular contact be optimized to benefit Boston’s wider workforce development ecosystem? The OWD is addressing that question
Job training programs funded by the Neighborhood Jobs Trust (NJT) have made a significant impact on many participants’ economic well-being, a new report shows. The Fiscal Year 2015 report, released by the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development (OWD), found that
The Aloft and Element Hotels on D Street in South Boston are the newest, best example of how commercial development, done right, can create a windfall for a community. From its innovative use of Neighborhood Jobs Trust funds to a
While Boston’s newest skyscraper, the Millennium Tower, rose higher in Downtown Crossing, the fortunes of Jian “Jenny” Zhen Lao in nearby Chinatown fell further. An immigrant from Guangzhou, China, Lao was laid off in 2015 and spent the better part
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
The Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development (OWD) recently awarded $1.2 million in Neighborhood Jobs Trust funds to 17 community-based employment and workforce development programs. The trust mitigates the impacts of large-scale real estate projects by collecting linkage fees from developers to invest