Massachusetts Competition 2

Springfield

Implementation Grant Winner

The Springfield team was awarded a three-year, $475,000 grant to implement their Springfield WORKS initiative, which focuses on engaging, aligning, and transforming Springfield’s workforce system to improve results for residents and employers.

Photo of Springfield bridge during the day.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Problem

Poverty rates are rising in Springfield, which has one of the lowest labor participation rates in Massachusetts, even though city employers have an acute need for qualified candidates to support operations and growth. Springfield WORKS teamed with more than 40 partners in the local workforce development system and identified several essential ways to address the city’s challenges and improve outcomes for workers and employers, including encouraging new thinking and better alignment and collaboration within the system.

Strategy

Springfield WORKS has pursued several strategies aimed at removing employment barriers for both workers and employers, including:

Using pilots that help residents find and succeed in career pathways while informing and improving the ways training programs are delivered and aligned
Working with employers to test and share the results of new practices aimed at supporting recruitment, retention, and advancement. Participating employers have become more aware of and responsive to challenges facing low-income families, including childcare, transportation, and scheduling.
Partnering with the early childhood sector to increase its positive impacts on both parents and children
Pushing for changes that can mitigate “benefit cliffs,” when increases in income are offset by larger decreases in public assistance, due to the worker exceeding income thresholds for the benefit
Using common language and measures to engage and connect workforce system partners as an ecosystem, rather than a set of fragmented programs

Vision

Springfield WORKS envisions a city where any resident who wants a job can find and succeed in one and employers can hire and retain all the qualified workers they need.