NEWS & EVENTS

To the PIC Community,

After a busy spring, we are looking ahead to a ground-breaking summer. We are partnering with Mayor Walsh and his team as they kick off their first summer jobs campaign. Boston's summer jobs program was recently featured in an online article from the Atlantic, which demonstrated the enormous impact youth employment can have on both students and employers. From industry lunches and cold calls to local CEOs, Mayor Walsh is working hard to bring every company in Boston on board this year. We are excited to see his team's hard work and enthusiasm for this initiative pay off. This would be a great summer to bring a teen into your office for the first time.

In our last newsletter, we acknowledged our 2013 corporate contributors. In this edition, we would like to thank the PIC's foundation partners who generously support our various programs and initiatives, including longtime partners like the Verizon Foundation, which supports STEM education through Classroom at the Workplace, and new partners like The Aspen Institute which is funding the Opportunity Youth Collaborative. A full list of foundation partners can be found at the end of the newsletter.

Respectfully, Neil Sullivan

2014 Mayor's Summer Jobs Campaign

Employers, have you considered hiring a high school student this summer?

Each summer, businesses across the city bring Boston Public School students into their offices as a critical investment in our future workforce. Summer jobs instill leadership skills, provide youth with money to help out with expenses at home, and give students valuable work experiences to plan for a future career. Employers benefit by filling summer vacancies, meeting real business needs, and diversifying their workforce, while also helping to prepare the next generation of workers to succeed in the economy.

This year, Mayor Walsh wants to see new companies take part in this important city-wide initiative. Read this year's summer jobs recruitment letter from Mayor Walsh and PIC Chair Gary Gottlieb. Hiring is easy and the PIC will help at every juncture. Participating employers receive PIC staff support for both supervisors and students throughout the summer.

For more information, please contact Josh Bruno, Director of School-to-Career and Employer Engagement, at [email protected].

Life Sciences Opportunities for Boston Teens

On May 8, Vertex Pharmaceuticals hosted a roundtable discussion with Mayor Walsh for local life sciences organizations to discuss hiring Boston teenagers for summer jobs. We were so glad to see Vertex, Genzyme, Novartis, Merck, Boston Scientific, Pfizer, Biogen, Polaris, Ironwood, Amgen, and the Broad Institute at the table. We know that these critical players have the ability to develop life sciences employment opportunities for Boston teenagers. Last summer, Vertex and Genzyme had extremely successful experiences hiring high school students and both companies are growing their youth employment programs for 2014.

In addition to the Mayor, the group also heard from two students who were lucky enough to land jobs in the life sciences last summer. Rayford Leconte's (right) experience at Genzyme changed his future career plans, opening up new possibilities in science and business. After graduating from Boston Latin Academy, he'll be going back to Genzyme this summer before heading off to college. Chris Acosta (left) from Boston Green Academy will also return to his summer job from last year at Vertex's Learning Lab. Once at college, he hopes to get into the laboratory and study bio-engineering.

For more information, please contact Tara Raposa, Assistant Director of School-to-Career, at [email protected].

Assessing the State of STEM in Boston

Click here for full report.

This spring, the Boston STEM Network released its first report "Assessing the State of STEM in Boston". The report provides a baseline measure of BPS students' achievement and interest in STEM subjects and careers. The report also describes system capacity to offer informal or out-of-school time STEM opportunities to BPS students through partnerships with community-based, higher education, and industry providers.

"Assessing the State of STEM in Boston" will help guide local government, the school district, educators, out-of-school time programs, businesses, and other stakeholders in the community as they make decisions about resource allocation and focus. The Boston STEM Network, as a community of cross-sector stakeholders with a vested interest in increasing our students' interest and achievement in STEM, will measure outcomes against the findings in this report to assess progress and impact moving forward.

The Boston STEM Network brings together cross-sector stakeholders to support students in their pursuit of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and careers. The Boston STEM Network is comprised of representatives from K-12 education, public and independent higher education institutions, the business community, local government, out-of-school time programs, and philanthropic partners.

To learn more or get involved, please contact Julia di Bonaventura, STEM Network Coordinator, at [email protected].

Opportunity Youth Collaborative

The PIC's newest initiative focuses on developing education and career pipelines for "opportunity youth": 16-24 year-olds who are neither in school nor at work. In Boston, there are over 12,000 of these individuals who face limited options for advancement. Though many are high school dropouts, many more have a high school diploma or equivalent credential but have yet to connect to postsecondary education or employment.

In 2013, the PIC and the Boston Opportunity Agenda received a planning grant from The Aspen Institute to take on this challenge. The result is the Boston Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC), a cross-sector coalition of individuals focused on collective impact strategies for opportunity youth. During the last year, the Collaborative has researched the characteristics of opportunity youth in Boston and the local landscape of available programs and services for this population. A group of youth peer leaders has conducted focus groups and surveys with fellow opportunity youth through the OYC Youth Voice Project. Results from this research and field work are helping the Collaborative map pathways that will re-engage and support opportunity youth in education and employment.

To learn more, please contact Austin Kupke, Opportunity Youth Coordinator, at [email protected].

Workforce Training Fund Program RFP

The Workforce Training Fund is a state fund enacted into law in July 1998 and financed entirely by Massachusetts employers. Its purpose is to provide resources to Massachusetts businesses and workers to train current and newly hired employees.

On April 30, 2014, the Commonwealth Corporation released a new Request for Proposals to fund regional training capacity pilots. Lead applicants must be Massachusetts-based training providers with demonstrated capacity to deliver training to incumbent workers. Applications are due by June 16, 2014.

To learn more about this opportunity, please contact Joseph McLaughlin, Director of Research and Evaluation, at 617-488-1314 or [email protected].

PIC Giving Update

In addition to employer partners and corporate contributors, the PIC is supported by organizations that provide program specific foundation grants. Thank you for making a difference for the people of Boston:

2013-2014 Foundation Grants

Aspen Institute

Bank of America Foundation

Barr Foundation

BNY Mellon Charitable Giving Program

Boston After School & Beyond

Boston Opportunity Agenda

Hyams Foundation

Liberty Mutual Foundation

Mott Foundation

Red Sox Foundation

SkillWorks