MAYOR WALSH ANNOUNCES $200,000 GRANT TO HARNESS DATA AND TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUTH SUMMER JOBS
"In order to prepare our young people for success, we must create pathways to meaningful summer jobs and opportunities," said Mayor Walsh. "This funding creates yet another opportunity to use data to better serve our residents and I thank our partners for their support."
Under Mayor Walsh's leadership, Boston currently places more than 10,000 young people annually in meaningful summer jobs. This grant will fund the development of a more modern application and placement process for this program. Data the City captures from this process will help better understand the program’s clients and how to enhance the program over time.
“Summer employment helps young people develop the skills and experiences that support long-term career success,” said Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Chief Information Officer for the City of Boston. “Thanks to this project, our staff will be able to focus on recruiting young people and businesses rather than processing applications.”
Boston was one of only a handful of regions nationwide to receive this grant, which is a tribute to the region’s innovative civic institutions and strong civic coding constituency. Boston has taken a leadership role in the emerging field of civic technology field, which brings technology, design, and civic players together to solve problems for the public good.
“Data and innovation are ‘sweet spots’ for MAPC,” said Holly St. Clair, Director of Data Services at MAPC. “It’s an extremely important part of our work to use these core capabilities to solve problems with such profound implications neighborhoods, for equity, and indeed for the Greater Boston region as a whole.”
The project is part of a national Living Cities, Code for America, and National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership initiative to use data, design, and technology to improve the lives of low-income residents, which is a prime example of a key goal for the burgeoning field of civic tech.
“This is the type of project that our volunteer community gets really excited about,” said Harlan Weber, Brigade Organizer at Code for Boston, “It will provide our members with an opportunity to use their design and technology skills to make a real difference in the lives of young people across Boston, and will deepen our organization’s relationship with MAPC, the City of Boston, and the Indicators project.”
“The Boston Indicators Project has always looked to innovations in data and technology that allow us to better understand the trends, challenges and untapped assets at play among Boston’s residents and neighborhoods," said Jessica Martin, Director of the Boston Indicators Project at the Boston Foundation. "This project is an exciting opportunity to harness the capacity of civic technology to move the needle on a key indicator and build on fifteen years of partnership with MAPC and the City of Boston.”
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