[Mwa] New Year Update for MWA

[Deborah Mutschler]

Happy New Year!

 

Thanks to all of you that responded to our survey recently about the web-site. We appreciated all of your comments and have incorporated them into our plans.

 

Through the survey, we got a couple of comments from you saying that we haven't let you know enough about what we're working on. And it is certainly true that we've had our nose to the grindstone and haven't looked up much to talk about what we were up to. So here's an update for the new year.

 

I. New Publication: We received funding from the United Way of Mass Bay and SkillWorks to update the funding flow chart that we originally published in 2003. The work on that report is nearly finished and will be released by mid-February at the latest. The report is titled "Working to Succeed: Individuals, the Commonwealth, and Community Based Organizations," and highlights the role of community based organizations in the workforce development system as well as updating the funding flow chart. 

 

II. New Web-site/domain name: We are revamping our web-site with the help of Steve Rockwell at Management Consulting Services and a grant from The Boston Foundation's Vision Fund. The new domain will be www.massworkforcealliance.org and we expect our development process to be near completion by the end of February. We're very excited about capturing various aspects of workforce development discussions via blogs and will feature Alex Risley Schroeder as a blogger grappling with issues surrounding the development of green jobs. If you have a blog that focuses on workforce development please let us know. We'd like to link to you. Stay tuned for more information on the launch!

 

III. New Policy: The MWA board has spent the past year hammering out a policy proposal to create and fund pilot projects that would support five community based organizations and their partners. The pilot projects would allow experimentation with ways to better integrate ABE and Skills Training programmatically or systemically. Stay tuned for the final language and for information on how to help grow support for this legislative initiative.

 

IV. Finalized Merger/New Structure: MWA has finalized its merger with the Boston Workforce Development Coalition (BWDC). MWA membership is now open to organizations and individuals as well as the original coalition members. You can join MWA for a dues payment of $50 for individuals and $150 for organizations. One of the benefits of membership is the opportunity to serve on some MWA committees and thus have more direct input into our work. MWA members may now join our Boston Workforce Development Sub-committee, which will be chaired by Clare Shepherd. For inquiries about this committee you can contact Clare at cshepherd at bostonabcd.org. Members may also join MWA's Advocacy sub-committee. Email Deborah if you are interested in participating in either committee at deborah at massworkforcealliance.com.



Deborah Mutschler
Executive Director
Massachusetts Workforce Alliance (MWA)
6 Beacon Street, Suite 415
Boston, MA  02108

617-780-1770
deborah at massworkforcealliance. com
www.peer.mwapolicy. org

"The mission of the Massachusetts Workforce Alliance is to unite individuals, organizations and coalitions to advance sensible workforce development policy that creates true economic opportunity for low-income people."
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