Berkshire Bridges Working Cities Snags $25,000 Grant| 03:23PM / Tuesday, December 17, 2019 | |
 Funding will be used to explore an Employer Resource Network (ERN), a service that embeds success coaches in the workplace to reduce turnover by creating custom solutions that remove barriers to work. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is awarding Berkshire Bridges Working Cities additional funding to sustain the Working Cities Pittsfield initiative into its fourth year.
The funding of $25,000 will enable the next stage of its work creating a just, thriving and safe Berkshires for all. This milestone also unleashes the opportunity to pursue additional tactical funding for projects to implement the Working Cities principles.
The new award was granted after an extensive application and interview process involving more than a dozen community leaders. The Berkshire coalition includes members of the nonprofit, school system, city government, resident and business communities. The interview was held last month at Greylock Federal Credit Union's Community Empowerment Center in Pittsfield.
"We are excited to continue this work," said Alisa Costa, initiative director for Working Cities Pittsfield. "We learned a lot of important things and we believe we know what needs to come next to move us closer to a just, thriving and safe Berkshires for all."
Funding will be used to explore an Employer Resource Network (ERN), a service that embeds success coaches in the workplace to reduce turnover by creating custom solutions that remove barriers to work. The ERN employers also meet monthly to devise ways to solve common staffing and retention issues.
"After more than two years of ascertaining Berkshire employers' workforce needs, through grants administered via the Economic Prosperity Impact Council of Berkshire United Way, I have witnessed common threads in numerous industries that can be addressed by the ERN," said Huff Templeton, a workforce development consultant and Executive Committee member of Berkshire Bridges Working Cities.
The Employer Resource Network is a national organization supporting retention in more than 27 communities across the country.
"This is an innovative solution that can work for both employers and employees. We all want a thriving workforce and business community, and the ERN is achieving this in communities in other parts of the country that strongly resemble the Berkshires," Templeton said. "The ERN is also successful in cities like Schenectady, N.Y., and we are hoping to introduce the concept to other parts of the Commonwealth."
The Working Cities Challenge Initiative is a grant competition organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and funded by private foundations. It is designed to advance collaborative leadership in smaller, post-industrial cities to transform the lives of their low-income residents. Launched in 2013, the competition benefits many resurgent communities in Massachusetts and has also expanded to Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont with the eventual goal of spreading across the entire region.
Pittsfield received its original Working Cities Challenge grant in 2016. The 10-year vision of the Pittsfield initiative is for all residents to experience a just, thriving and safe community and has supported efforts like Working Cities Wednesday, a monthly networking night hosted by the coalition. It also supported Bridges Out of Poverty workshops for residents and organizations, including the city of Pittsfield, the Getting Ahead program, which has graduated over 100 participants, and the Community Navigator program, which has connected hundreds of residents to needed resources. The coalition intends to continue these efforts through a variety of public and private funding sources.
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