Revere Works Coalition Awarded $100,000 by Urban Agenda Grant Program
February 17, 2021
The Revere Works coalition, led by The Neighborhood Developers (TND), was awarded $100,000 by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development through the Urban Agenda Grant Program. The funded project’s main goal is to build a continuum of soft skills, computer literacy and computer skills training programs. It will leverage in-kind support from the City of Revere, laptop lending libraries housed at Revere Community School and TND, and funding from the Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Health Policy Commission.
This grant is the third awarded to Revere Works through the Urban Agenda program, which helped seed the coalition of City departments, workforce training agencies, and educational providers serving Revere residents through coordinated workforce development planning, programming, and employer and community engagement. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, programing was focused on building the skills needed for employment in the travel and hospitality sector, and has since shifted to accommodate the new, post-pandemic demands of the workforce.
COVID-19 has accelerated the move to virtual hiring platforms, which require job seekers to be computer literate and possess basic English skills—a significant hurdle for the more than 25% of Revere residents who do not speak English fluently. Revere Works will build new bridges between organizations to formalize client referrals from one provider to another, and subsequently into jobs. For instance, job seekers who aren’t eligible for Moroccan American Connections in Revere’s (MACIR’s) IT job training program will be referred to ESOL, computer literacy, or soft skills trainings to better prepare them for future enrollment. After completing these trainings, the job seekers would be referred back to MACIR. Additionally, job seekers could enroll in TND construction and building maintenance pre-apprenticeship program or other advanced training opportunities.
The training continuum includes:
- Women Encouraging Empowerment’s ESOL, English, and job training classes;
- Revere Community Schools’ advanced ESOL and computer skills classes,
- Moroccan American Connections in Revere’s Tech Support Job Program and soft skills training, including internships and IT job placement;
- TND/CONNECT’s soft skills training and one-on-one financial coaching; and
- A formalized referral system to move participants along the workforce development continuum.
The Revere Works coalition includes Women Encouraging Empowerment, Revere Community Schools, Moroccan American Connections in Revere (MACIR), TND/CONNECT, Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Community Health Improvement, and the City of Revere. The City of Revere has recently developed a Revere Works website that serves as a central hub for job seekers and employers. The website can be found at https://www.revere.org/revere-works.
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Contacts: Danielle Osterman, dosterman@revere.org, Rafael Mares, rmares@tndinc.org