Page 29 - BusinessWest February 6, 2023

Collaborating for the Community
Springfield WORKS Continues to Break Down Barriers
BY KAILEY HOULE
[email protected]
“The changes that we make need
to be scalable
and sustainable
so that all of our neighbors thrive and our businesses thrive.”
Anne Kandilis likes to say Springfield WORKS serves as “a platform for change, innovation, and collaboration.” Elaborating, she said those three ingredients, and many others, are needed to address a number of issues challenging this region, but especially the need to connect area residents with job opportunities and enable them to thrive in the workplace and out- side it, and also assist employers as they contend with an ongoing workforce crisis.
“Our vision is to have thriving communities where economic opportunity, growth, and resilience is possible for all,” said Kandilis, director of Springfield WORKS, a program of the Western Massa- chusetts Economic Development Council. “Right now, not everyone is able to access the resources they need to thrive; employers are not finding the workers they need, so there’s a disconnect.”
This disconnect becomes apparent with a look at some statistics she provided to make her point: the average hourly wage in 1998 was $17 per hour; adjusted for inflation, that would equal about $30 per hour today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means wages have effectively declined in the past 20 years, she said, while the cost of goods and services has increased, making it more difficult for working families to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, the median income of Hispanic households in Springfield is roughly half that of White households, which is also true of the metropolitan region and for Massachusetts as a whole.
To address these disparities, Springfield WORKS, a community- wide initiative, is collaborating with about 40 area organizations
to remove systemic and racial barriers and create pathways to real
Anne Kandilis (far left) and her team work to break systemic and racial barriers for local families.
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