Skip to contents
In This Issue:
Congratulations to Yvette Medero
The day after Mayor Thomas Menino delivered his State of the City Address, he chose BWH as the venue for an important announcement about his plans to launch a new five-year workforce development initiative—a public/private partnership that has come together to address the gap between the needs of employers for more skilled workers and of workers to access jobs that pay a family-supporting wage. Menino also announced that BWH’s own Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, will chair the Workforce Development Committee of the Boston Private Industry Council and serve as a member of its board.
The Mayor unveiled that he is directing $1.5 million in linkage funds from the Neighborhood Jobs Trust to workforce development. With the help of The Boston Foundation and other philanthropic groups, Menino plans to raise $5 million for the project in the next six months and $25 million over the course of the full five years.
At Wednesday’s press conference held in the hospital’s Duncan Reid Conference Room, Gottlieb welcomed the crowd, commended the Mayor on his efforts and re-affirmed Partners’ commitment to Menino’s agenda of providing economic opportunity for Boston residents, particularly those just beginning their career paths.
“It seems that every week another scientific or medical breakthrough occurs which will help save lives in the future. Today, we are here to talk about something that is much more basic and immediate but equally important to saving lives—building a health care labor force in Boston,” said Gottlieb before introducing the mayor.
“We cannot wait for better economic times to help those workers who need the help right now,” said Menino, who described the health care industry as “one of the few bright spots in today’s economy,” before turning over the podium to Paul Grogan, director of The Boston Foundation, one of several foundations that are providing monetary resources for this workforce development initiative.
“We ought to be proud that we have leaders and institutions that really want to make a difference,” said Grogan, making it a point to thank Gottlieb and Menino for their efforts.
“The initiative’s aim is to expand the local workforce in a way that is authentic to employers’ needs,” added Grogan, who together with Menino, will lead the effort to raise the remainder of the money to ensure the initiative’s success.
The press conference concluded with testimonies from Partners employees who have benefited from existing City-sponsored workforce programs. Remarks from BWH’s Yvette Medero and MGH’s Delmy Suarze shed light on the success of such programs.
Medero, a mother of two, attributes her career success at BWH to her involvement in Project RISE, a collaboration of Partners HealthCare and the City of Boston that provided Medero with career opportunities and ultimately helped her attain her current position as an assistant in the Department of Human Resources.
“Thank you to the City of Boston and BWH for making Project RISE possible and for enabling me to provide a better life for my family and myself,” said Medero.
Suarez, a resident of Mission Hill, has worked her way up to a senior attending pharmacy technician at MGH as a result of another City-sponsored career program called ProTech.
“Without ProTech, I don’t know where I’d be,” said Suarez, who now is able to mentor other students who participate in the ProTech program.
The Mayor’s Boston workforce development initiative is intended to bring together the best practices from Boston’s reputable workforce system into a life-long learning process.