Sentinel & Enterprise News - $1.6M in Grants to Help Local Workforce Boards

News Article

By Cliff Clark

The North Central and Central Massachusetts Workforce Boards have received more than $1.6 million in grants to provide training for individuals for high-skilled manufacturing jobs and the disabled who are looking for meaningful employment.

"The disability grant for the training program is very exciting," said Lisa Marrone, Leominster's economic-development coordinator, at a press conference announcing the grants at the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday morning that was attended by U.S. Reps. Niki Tsongas and Jim McGovern.

"It not only provides a career path for disabled workers, but it also opens up a whole other avenue for employers who have not considered this talented work pool," Marrone said of a $1.14 million grant provided by the U.S. Department of Labor's Disability Employment Initiative to the workforce boards for training the disabled.

Part of the grant, $640,000, will be used by the NC Workforce Board to facilitate training for disabled individuals for careers in health care, manufacturing, hospitality and financial services over three years. The balance of that grant, $500,000, will be used by the Central Workforce Board for training the disabled for careers in human services, health care and customer service.

The grant will also provide the means to coordinate the many agencies who work daily at helping the disabled.

"The grants will allow us to provide enhanced services to people with disabilities under the new Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act, and connect employers to this untapped talent source of qualified and skilled individuals who happen to have a disability," said Tim Sappington, director of the Leominster-based North Central Workforce Board.

That was welcome news for Theresa Kane, chief operating officer of the Clinton-based Polus Center for Social and Economic Development, who said that all too often, many of the agencies providing services for the disabled don't know what the other is doing.

"Instead of people reinventing the wheel and doing things on their own, this project is pulling people together," Kane said, adding that those disability service agencies often "don't know where the jobs are."

She said people with disabilities want to work, "just like every one of us," because it gives them an identity and a sense of purpose, and provides a living for them and their families.

"This is an opportunity for us to introduce them to some of the opportunities they may not have known about, and introduce the employers to a critical untapped talent pool," Kane said.

Kane's optimism was echoed by McGovern.

"This grant will help people with disabilities find jobs that promote independence and purpose by providing them with training and skills needed to succeed in the workplace," the Worcester Democrat said.

A grant of $534,154 was also announced Tuesday that will be used to help train 80 eligible unemployed individuals in advanced manufacturing skills to meet local industrial demand.

"The single biggest challenge is finding the talent pool to fill these jobs," Tsongas said.

The Lowell Democrat complimented both workforce boards on their successful grant applications, citing the stiff competition for federal dollars.

The grant will be used by Mount Wachusett Community College and the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership to provide training in industrial readiness and quality control, and computer numerical-control operator training.

Tsongas explained how important grants like these can be to a region.

"No one of us can do it all," she said. "We all have to understand the role we play, but the federal government has to be a strategic partner, and one way we can do that is to provide the funds that local communities can take advantage of to fuel the industries that seek to work here."

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