Welcome to the Massachusetts Workforce Association's Exclusive Member's Only Newsletter: The Quarterly Voice! Look for this publication in your inbox each quarter, detailing MWA's work for you!
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- COVID-19 Public Policy Response
- State Legislative Advocacy
- U.S. Mayor's Conference and Skills Summit Recap
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- Roundtable with Congresswoman Trahan
- Career Center Briefing at the State House
- MWA in the News!
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- COVID-19 Communication and Virtual Convening
- 2020 Annual Meeting Update
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- 2020 Member Survey Launched
- MWA New Website is Live
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- Committee Updates
- Call for MWA Board Nominations
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MWA wants to hear from you!!
Please take a few minutes to fill out MWA's first annual Member Survey.
We appreciate your time and expect that this brief survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete. Your feedback is important, and will help us continue to add value and improve our offerings over the coming year.
Should you have any questions, please contact
Tonja
.
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MWA
advocates for public policies and resources to support our members in meeting the talent needs of local businesses and connecting job seekers to employment and career pathways.
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COVID-19 Response
MWA has been proud to represent our members during these times of great uncertainty. Like you, we have been adjusting to the new "normal" and will continue to adapt as things evolve.
While we might be working remotely, the work has not ceased. We are advocating at the state and national levels for resources in relief bills and new policies responding to the needs of businesses and job seekers. Tonja is co-leading the Online Resources Workstream, which is part of EOLWD's Road to Re-Employment Initiative. The Webinar Learning Community MWA helped lead is informing that effort. Raija developed a Business Resource Guide to help collate information for MWA members to use with their business customers. In addition, we have been holding weekly COVID-19 calls where members can share information and hear from guest speakers.
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State Legislative Advocacy
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For the first three months in 2020, MWA was focused on the FY2021 budget. Between coalition building, State House meetings, and member engagement, we were building support and champions for the MA workforce system.
In addition to the meetings and events listed below, MWA helped prepare members for budget outreach. In particular, we provided one-pagers on key programs, data sheets on workforce regions, and assisted members in drafting and disseminating letters of concerns to local legislators.
With our members and partners, MWA also held meetings in the first three months of 2020 with the following Legislators/Officials:
- Quarterly meeting with Secretary Acosta
- Monthly meetings with Alice Sweeney and Cheryl Scott
- Senator Comerford, Chair, Joint Committee on Public Health
- Senator Jehlen, Chair, Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development
- Senator Lesser, Chair, Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies
- Representative Hay, Vice-Chair Joint Committee of Labor and Workforce Development
- Representative Gregoire, Chair, Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight
- Representative Michlewitz, Chair, House Committee on Ways and Means
- Representative Stanley, Vice-Chair, Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government
- Representative Wagner, Assistant Majority Leader
While COVID-19 has forced us to rethink our advocacy strategies, our commitment to ensuring you have the support and resources needed to carry out your work has not wavered. Earlier this week we sent a letter to the Governor, Lt. Governor, and House and Senate leaders. Click
here
for a copy of the letter. We will continue to adapt our strategies and engage the Legislature and Administration during these challenging times.
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Federal Advocacy and National Coalitions
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Building relationships with the MA federal delegation and colleagues across the country continues to be a priority for MWA:
In
January 2020
, Tonja traveled to D.C. for the
U.S. Conference of Mayors, Workforce Development Council's Winter Meeting
. At this gathering of workforce professionals from around the country, Tonja learned about best practices, common challenges, and what could come next as Congress works to reauthorize WIOA. A belated
congratulations to Trinh Nguyen, Director of Workforce Development for the City of Boston, who also attended the meeting and was elected as the next President of the Workforce Development Council
.
In
February 2020,
Raija joined a broad cross-section of MA workforce colleagues at the
National Skills Coalition Skills Summit and Lobby Day
. The Skills Summit was an opportunity to not only receive some training and guidance in federal advocacy but also to share best practices from the Massachusetts workforce development system. At the Summit, Raija built relationships with colleagues from in and out of state. She also
visited six of the MA Congressional delegation offices
to advocate for increased funding for WIOA and support for other skill building programs and policies that would benefit Massachusetts workers and businesses. A particular highlight was being able to share best practices from Massachusetts with workforce development leaders from other states. In one breakout, Raija highlighted how the
Workforce Training Fund
was established with leadership from the business community in Massachusetts to create an ongoing incumbent worker training funding stream. In meetings with Congressional staff, Raija shared stories about the challenges and opportunities our local businesses and job seekers are facing, and innovative initiatives like the
Career Technical Initiative
.
Since mid
March 2020
, MWA has focused on shifting its advocacy efforts in response to the COVID-19 crisis. As such we have:
- Participated in multiple meetings with state workforce associations around the country to generate ideas for a comprehensive federal response to COVID-19.
- Joined other workforce associations in a WIOA workforce letter to Congress and the MA delegation.
- Held calls with House Ways and Means Committee staff and Chairman's Scott's staff to talk about national efforts around training, unemployment insurance, and helping businesses and dislocated workers through this unprecedented crisis.
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MWA
is a thought-leader for workforce development, sharing best practices and elevating our members’ local expertise and strengths statewide and nationwide.
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Standing Room Only at State House Career Center Briefing
In February, MWA hosted a MassHire Career Center Briefing at the State House. The standing room only event was hosted by Senator Comerford, Senator Lovely, Representative Vega, and Representative Ferrante. We were also joined by Secretary Acosta, two job seekers, and an employer out of Springfield, MA. The event was a success and we are grateful for the dozens of MWA members who joined us and encouraged their local Reps and Senators to attend as well. We would like to make this an annual event as we look to grow supporters and champions of our workforce development system.
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As the Region 1 liaison, Tonja continues to interact with workforce leaders across the country. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis which led to NAWB postponing their 2020 conference, Tonja was scheduled to help lead a workshop at the conference about the importance of state workforce associations. Tonja has participated in weekly NAWB calls as they put together their national strategy in response to COVID-19 and virtually convene stakeholders for best practice sharing.
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In February, Tonja and EOLWD's Patrick Mitchell had an OpEd placed in MassLive on the importance of apprenticeship models. Click
here to read the OpEd. Thank you to MWA member MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board for their assistance with the OpEd!
Raija had a blog post published on Commonwealth Corporation's blog on the important training that was offered to MassHire staff on substance use, addiction and integrating trauma-informed practice into workforce development. Click
here to read the post.
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MWA Hosts Education and Workforce Roundtable with Congresswoman Lori Trahan
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In January, MWA co-hosted, with the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, a Workforce and Education Roundtable with Congresswoman Lori Trahan at Middlesex Community College in Lowell. Nearly 45 participants from business, workforce development, and higher education gathered for an intimate discussion with the Congresswoman about the federal Higher Education Act and her work on the Labor and Education Committee.
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WIOA State Plan Submitted to US DOL
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Since early 2019, MWA participated in the State Plan Advisory Committee. Led by the MassHire State Workforce Board, MWA worked to ensure local input was considered in the development of the 2020-2024 Massachusetts WIOA State Plan.
T
o read the submitted report, go to the state plan website
here
.
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MWA
convenes our members for strategic partnership development,
peer-to-peer learning and networking opportunities.
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Right before the COVID-19 state of emergency began, MWA was one day away from holding its first large convening of 2020. In collaboration with the MA Association for Community Action, we were scheduled to host almost 100 attendees at our spring event:
Addressing Inequality Through Workforce Development Partnerships.
We had also planned to hold our first Member Networking event following the conference. While these events have been postponed for now, our commitment to quarterly in-person quality convenings remains.
While we fight this pandemic, we know that meetings in person will be restricted. MWA has joined the rest of the world in using Zoom and holding virtual meetings. We will continue to use this means, and explore others, for convening members during this crisis. When possible, we look forward to holding in-person gatherings in a safe way.
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Raija met with
9
member directors and MWA board members over the past quarter (for a total of
23
1:1 meetings since September). These conversations have helped MWA understand the challenges our members face, but more importantly, the strengths and expertise they also provide to the workforce system and their individual regions. We have also discussed MWA board recruitment and membership structure.
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MWA Launches New and Improved Website
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We are happy to announce that our website is now LIVE! The
new MWA website (
www.massworkforce.com)
includes information about our members, many workforce development resources, a blog and event calendar. In addition, the website has a members only portal where you can register for log-in access to MWA Board meeting minutes, committee information, workshop materials, and more.
We look forward to adding more information to both the main website and members' portal. We hope you will take a look and let us know what you think!
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As was announced earlier this month, the in-person 2020 MWA Annual Meeting in the Berkshires has been postponed. However, over three weeks in June we will hold virtual sessions on some of the topics we had planned to cover at the Annual Meeting (one session each week for 60 to 90 minutes). We hope members will find the topics to be timely, informative, and engaging. Look for more detailed information in the weeks ahead!
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The Governance Committee continues to meet monthly. It has focused its efforts on creating a recruitment mechanism for new board members, developing an on-boarding process, and finalizing an annual survey for members. In addition, the Committee is providing guidance to MWA as we move online and adjust our offerings during the COVID-19 crisis.
While our active Board recruitment efforts are on hold, the Committee is soliciting potential nominees for the MWA Board from members. Click
here
to view that e-mail with links to the board member job description and nomination form.
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The Membership Committee has met three times this quarter (January, March and April). The Committee has focused its efforts on gathering feedback from members about a membership structure that would include two categories, affiliate and champion:
- Affiliate is a designation for any organization in the state’s workforce system that is not part of MassHire. These organizations (could be chambers, CBOs, training providers, educational institutions, unions, WIOA mandated partners, etc.) would join MWA because they see a value in what we currently offer in terms of leadership, advocacy and convening.
- Champion is an option for private sector or workforce system providers who would like to sponsor an MWA event, meeting, or publication.
The Committee has reviewed a variety of membership organizations to see how they structure and communicate their membership offerings in developing these two options. Feedback received has been positive thus far and several members have offered suggestions of local organizations in their regions who may be interested in becoming members. Finally, the Committee has discussed allowing this to be an evolving structure as we learn more about who is interested in becoming a member, what a reasonable fee structure would be, and how MWA can strategically grow while acknowledging capacity challenges with its current staff size.
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The Public Policy Committee has met monthly this quarter. It has focused its efforts on developing a FY2021 budget strategy, planning and executing the MassHire Career Center Briefing, and using the newly created public policy issue selection process to evaluate the Governor’s new career technical initiative. The Committee also held a special meeting open to all members focused on the CTI proposal and responding to Senator Lesser's request for suggestions for an economic development bill.
Just this week, and based on the Committee's engagement, MWA sent a workforce letter to state leaders outlining the needs and challenges our workforce system is facing based on the COVID-19 crisis. You can read the letter
here
and it is also linked above. Over the next two months, the Committee will focus on creating a framework for MWA’s first federal and state public policy agenda.
We hope members continue to use the committee structure as a way to participate and help instruct MWA's work. Members should also see committee engagement as professional development opportunities for staff.
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