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$5.7 million in grants on Wednesday's agenda, led by federal job training money

Six grants would pay for adult and youth job programs, apprenticeships, Boston Fire's hazardous materials team, the East Boston senior center and a Bloomberg Harvard fellow in the Law Department.

By Boston Politics staffUpdated

The City Council chamber during the Sept. 23 meeting, when councilors accepted two smaller federal workforce grants.
The City Council chamber during the Sept. 23 meeting, when councilors accepted two smaller federal workforce grants.City of Boston

Much of what Boston spends on job training does not come from property taxes. It comes from grants, and the City Council has to vote to let the city accept and spend each one.

Six grants totaling $5,669,441.62 are on the agenda for the council's Wednesday, Oct. 28 meeting. They were filed by the mayor on Oct. 23. Most of the money, about $4.4 million, is federal Labor Department funding for the city's Office of Workforce Development.

What's on the agenda

  • $2,409,496.20, WIOA Youth Program (docket 2025): a federal grant passed through the state's MassHire Department of Career Services for a youth employment program serving people ages 14 to 24 who face barriers to education, training and work.
  • $1,822,840.20, WIOA Adult Activities (docket 2026): help for job seekers with employment, education, skills training, apprenticeships and support services.
  • $190,105.22, Apprenticeship Building America (docket 2029): pathways from pre-apprenticeships to registered apprenticeships in hospitality, construction, health care and life sciences for underrepresented groups.
  • $760,000, Hazardous Materials Response Team (docket 2027): a state earmark in the fiscal 2027 state budget for the Boston Fire Department's hazmat team.
  • $300,000, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Fellow (docket 2028): Harvard University money for a fellow, based in the Law Department, who would work with city departments on programs and policies.
  • $187,000, East Boston Foundation Fund II (docket 2030): Massachusetts Port Authority money for the Age Strong Commission's operation and management of the East Boston Senior Center.

WIOA is the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. The amounts and purposes above come from the council's agenda.

What our records show

The council usually accepts grants like these without debate, but not always unanimously.

  • Sept. 23: The council accepted two smaller WIOA administrative grants, $202,537.80 for adult activities (docket 1778) and $92,101.40 for dislocated workers (docket 1783). Both passed 12-0, with City Councilor Benjamin Jacob Weber voting present each time.
  • City Councilor Brian Worrell, who chairs the Labor and Economic Development Committee, told colleagues then that WIOA grants come from a federal formula to help job seekers get education, training and support, and that adult clients are mainly low-income people who are unemployed or underemployed (watch at 44:40).
  • May 20: The council accepted a $2.52 million state YouthWorks grant for summer and school-year jobs, 12-0 (docket 1032).
  • Oct. 21: Not every grant is routine. A $3.25 million Bluebikes e-bike grant went to committee first and passed 10-2 (our story).

The youth jobs grant lands as councilors press the administration on school-year jobs. City Councilor Julia Mejia's request for a job-by-job list of youth jobs (docket 2051) is on the same agenda; see our story.

What's next

On Wednesday, a sponsor can ask the council to suspend its rules and accept a grant the same day, or the council president can send it to a committee for review. Any one councilor's objection is enough to block a same-day vote. Votes will be posted on each docket's page after the meeting, and the meeting page will carry the video.