Lowell — MassHire Greater Lowell Workforce Board announced today they received a $2 million grant for the YouthWorks Employment and Training Program. This is the highest grant award for the program in the Greater Lowell Workforce Board’s history!
Awarded by the Commonwealth Corporation, YouthWorks is a state-funded youth employment program offering teens and young adults the experience needed to find and keep jobs. The YouthWorks program is administered by the Young Adult Career Center in Lowell, MA.
With this additional funding, the program will hire 446 young adults (ages 14-25) across the Workforce Board’s service area (8 communities). Training includes soft skills, hands on work experience, and a framework for accumulating knowledge that leads to skill certifications. As part of the program, 25 young adults will gain their driver’s license. The jobs and training workshops will focus on three High Priority areas in the Greater Lowell Region: construction, early education, and health/medical.
“These funds come at a pivotal time for our region’s youth,” said Kevin Coughlin, Workforce Board Executive Director. “These jobs will be vital in this post-COVID environment.”
Shannon Norton, Career Center Executive Director, said, “We are grateful to Commonwealth Corporation for the increase in funding which enables us to double our enrollments. This will increase access for our area’s low-income youth, providing them with valuable work experience and soft skills.”
“Young adults are the future of the workforce,” said Heather Donovan, Young Adult Career Center Manager. “Being able to provide high quality experiences and training to so many young people in our area allows us to make an outstanding difference in the future of not only the young people we serve, but the companies we work with and the greater communities at large.”
MassHire is located in Lowell, MA, and serves the communities of Lowell, Dracut, Billerica, Tewksbury, Chelmsford, Dunstable, Tyngsborough, and Westford. Its mission is to provide the public and private sectors with job training and placement into jobs within the Greater Lowell region.
