State Senator Bruce Tarr is helping create “Cape Ann Works”, a program aimed to connect students with local employers. The initiative will attract students to Cape Ann to work for the summer season. A website will be made available for students and employers.
Heather Atwood:
Well, you are working on something called Cape Ann Works, and I know you have great partners in this. Tell us what’s going on there.
Senator Bruce Tarr:
Well, I’m really proud of what’s happening with Cape Ann Works. It really came out of a discussion that happened a few months ago where a group of us were talking about the fact that Cape Ann, like the rest of the country, has employers that having a hard time finding employees. It’s particularly a problem during the summer months because in the summer months a lot of our seasonal businesses like restaurants haven’t even higher demand for help for employees than they do the rest of the year, and so Mechelle Brown, well, who works for Rockport, came up with the idea that maybe we could engage the student visa program to see if we could get some international students coming to Cape Ann for the summer when we have the highest demand and from that has grown an entire program with lots of partners, the Cape Ann Transit Authority, looking at being able to provide bus passes, Gordon Conwell Seminary and Gordon College being able to provide housing and dorms that aren’t used in the summer, and just a whole host of partners that have come forward in terms of things like the YMCA being able to offer reduced rates for participants in the program.
One of the things that we talked about early on is that we ought to do something for local students as well, this ought to not just be something for international students, and so Cape Ann Works will now host a website where local employers will be able to post job listings and students will be able to match to those job listings and they’ll be able to get the kind of summer employment that they might be looking for, and also help out a local business. Along the way, everybody that’s involved in the program, we’re hoping to host at some events that will allow exchange between international students and local students, we’re hoping to have some guest speakers that will address topics of interest, and we’re hoping to assemble an of what we call “works perks” for all the students, to be able to get discounts at local businesses and other kinds of special amenities.
This is really a program that’s gone from zero to 60 in a very short period of time, in large part thanks to Mechelle Brown, Peter Weber in the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, the folks at Beauport Hotel have been very helpful in trying to help us understand this because they’ve had some experience with it in the past, but it really is pulling a lot of folks together, and we’ve gotten great support from our two state representatives on Cape Ann, Jamie Belsito, and Ann-Margaret Ferrante.
On Tuesday, which is probably the evening of when folks will be watching this, we’re going to have a launch for the business community at the Beauport Hotel to be able to tell folks all about the program and invite their support. What’s interesting is that we originally were wondering whether or not we were too late to get international students and we’re actually working with a program, a company that works with the state department to try to facilitate international students coming here, and at this point, we are over 40 international students that are coming. I am told, and I’m not sure if this is confirmed yet, but I’m told there’s also the possibility that we could be getting some students from Ukraine, so there is a lot happening with this program, and I really encourage folks to understand it, learn about it, and my understanding is that 1623 is going to be with us next Tuesday night, and we hope folks will be able to tune in if they can’t be there in person.
Heather Atwood:
Well, I hope so. It’s certainly a worthy thing to cover, that’s for sure. What a simple idea and yet no one came up with it before. That’s so great to have a website, one central website for employees for people looking for work and people needing workers.
Senator Bruce Tarr:
Yeah. Well, we’re pretty excited about it, and we’re excited about the fact that it is simple, but it’s powerful, and it will give a place for students to go and really think about what they’re interested in and hopefully find an employment opportunity on the website and have a great summer that you maybe they wouldn’t otherwise have had in terms of employment by using the website.
Heather Atwood:
Right. Are you mainly thinking about college students and predominantly from Europe? Where are they coming from?
Senator Bruce Tarr:
Well, we’re thinking about actually both, we’re talking about high school students and college students in terms of the local workforce, but in terms of the international workforce thinking primarily of college students. As far as I know, there are quite a few that are scheduled to come from Europe. I think we have a number coming from Spain. I can’t speak to this with a lot of authority because the makeup of the composition of the group has been changing, but we do know that there’ll be a significant number are coming, and we look forward to welcoming international students from all over the world to see what’s special about Cape Ann to be able to help our local employers, and at the same time, being able to give students a great experience.
Heather Atwood:
Yeah, it’s just a wonderful idea. It really is.
Senator Bruce Tarr:
Thank you. Look forward to it.
