Without question, the pandemic introduced its fair share of challenges, but one region, led by the efforts of the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce, turned these challenges into an opportunity to address the needs of the local economy.
Serving the communities of Bristol, Burlington, Farmington, Plainville, Plymouth, Thomaston, and Wolcott, the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce is a regional planning organization dedicated to fostering prosperity and community vitality. BristolWORKS! is a shining example of this commitment. When billions of dollars in federal funding became available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in March 2021, the organization seized the moment, working closely with the City of Bristol, the Bristol Adult Education Center, Bristol Public Schools, and others to establish a collaborative workforce training and development center to meet the needs of local employers.
Recognizing the critical importance of this project, the City of Bristol allocated $2.4 million of the $28 million it received in ARPA funding to bring BristolWORKS! to life—a significant investment that underscores the city’s commitment to strengthening the local workforce and bolstering economic growth.
As Katie D’Agostino, President and CEO of Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce, explains, “The city of Bristol, with the money that it received, put a nice chunk of that out to bid to all the businesses in the city. They were looking for anything new, groundbreaking, transformational, preferably downtown, and they opened up a portal and said, ‘Let us know what you have.’ Being the Chamber of Commerce, we’re always looking for something that is workforce- and economic development-forward.”
Essentially an extension of the unifying activities of the Chambers of Commerce, BristolWORKS! helps to align the workforce needs of the economy with the available resources, providing training and career opportunities and bridging the gaps where they exist.
In this case, Kim Ward Holley, Director of BristolWORKS! notes, “We’re focusing on the unemployed, the underemployed, and those people who are looking for new career paths. We’re trying to provide access to training by the populations who may be socially and/or economically disadvantaged,” by connecting them with the opportunities that are available to them.
Working hard to get people working
From skills training and certifications to job placement services, BristolWORKS! takes every chance to get the word out to connect the available opportunities to the resources present in the area. The program was founded with four target areas of focus that the Chamber identified as local priorities: manufacturing, information technology (IT), early childhood education (ECE), and healthcare, but has expanded to ensure that it remains sustainable long into the future.
In addition to the four core areas of the program that are available for free to job seekers, BristolWORKS! has additional online training programs for a fee, like Six Sigma preparation, data analytics, leadership, HR management, personal enrichment, and many others that are designed to strengthen and empower the local workforce.
“One of the things that makes us unique is that we’re not only offering the training programs, but we are providing our participants with workforce readiness and employability skills. We are working with people from day one and assisting them in their next steps either to another more advanced training center or to employers,” says Holley.
At BristolWORKS! it’s about more than just getting people a job; it’s about teaching them how to keep the job and be a quality employee that will contribute to the growth and success of their employer and the local community for the long term.
“We really keep connected with them and we do that through an employability skills program. Every one of our participants has access to employability skills training and we’ve made it a requirement for all of our training programs,” Holley explains.
BristolWORKS! at work
By building bridges between employers, organizations, and the available resources, BristolWORKS! continues to provide a steady pipeline of talent that meets the needs of the local and regional economies by helping the community operate at full productivity, something that would not be possible without partnership.
One of those partners is Bristol Adult Resource Center (BARC), an organization that supports individuals with developmental disabilities with 12 homes, two large day programs, and over 200 employees. BARC has taken full advantage of the available resources. “I found out about BristolWORKS! as it was happening. I was at the ARPA task force meetings for an ARPA grant for the agency that I work for and heard about this fabulous program that was going to solve all of our employment issues. It is certainly helping us to get employees,” shares Mary Etter, Executive Director of BARC.
“I was very pleased to be invited to speak to all of the healthcare classes at BristolWORKS! so that I could let them know that we were considered healthcare but not healthcare like some other pathways, like blood drawing and things like that. We’re kind of like the fun healthcare—we get to help people live better lives, and it really is a blast.”
BristolWORKS!’ relationships with organizations like BARC demonstrate that the model that has been created can meet the needs of local employers while getting people to be the best versions of themselves and into careers they can be proud of and love.
As Holley notes, “This is truly a partnership; we really are working together. We’re not trying to step on toes. We want to be able to support everybody, to pathway people to [what they do well]. So I think this was one of the most successful projects with partners, because it’s really working the way it was meant to work.”
Future-focused growth
Given the success of BristolWORKS! and its partners, the goal looking ahead is to ensure that the good work being achieved is sustained long into the future, and to do that the leadership team is aiming to grow the organization both in terms of size and impact by continuing to focus on training, employee readiness, and bringing opportunities to people’s attention.
For Holley, “We’re really trying to get people interested in the high-demand fields. We’re a good starting point for a lot of people. A lot of our folks aren’t necessarily going to walk into the Community College; they’re not comfortable, they’re not confident. Once they come here, they realize they can be successful and then they’re able to pathway nicely into either employment or advanced training.”
While the organization itself is small, it is mighty, and its work is purposeful. Other areas of focus in the future might be transportation needs of the community, but it will continue to work with its partners to ensure that the needs of the local economy and community, whatever they might be, are met.
From D’Agostino’s perspective, “ARPA helped us get this program off the ground and created these four cohorts that Kim is training in, but now she’s been able to add all these additional programs where we’re able to say, ‘Okay, you need x number of employees in y industry. You help us with the curriculum, and we’ll get the program running for you and have your employees ready.”
This flexibility is a testament to the model the organization has established and the relationships it has built and shows great promise for the future that it will continue to bring together people and opportunities that bring unmatched value and prosperity to the community.
