A glimpse at our strategic accomplishments in 2022

As we work to achieve the mission of the Western Mass EDC and stimulate and strengthen the economy in the Pioneer Valley, we are involved in countless partnerships, affiliations, programs, and public policy initiatives.

Springfield Works Enhanced The Focus To Improve Workforce Systems In 2022

A key learning in 2022 for Springfield WORKS, an EDC community initiative, was that a significant number of residents do not know where or how to access resources. This knowledge came to the organization after it secured a $400,000 Community Empowerment and Reinvestment Grant in May and surveyed people who had been justice-involved or had a justice-involved family member. The discovery was that only half are employed a year after release. Springfield WORKS partners on the project committed to work collaboratively to break down silos and disconnects. For example, 413Cares, an online resource for housing, education, healthcare, and other services, is being customized to increase partner collaboration and resident access to services.

ongoing, collaborative work to remove systemic barriers and create pathways to economic opportunity and wellbeing.

Now in its sixth year, Springfield WORKS has grown in depth and scope, creating an ever-widening circle of networks into a holistic, collaborative model of community transformation. The EDC serves as the backbone for Springfield WORKS and contributes to the work by lending influence to advance public discourse about social and economic problems and build support for solutions.

In 2022, Springfield WORKS achieved the following:

• Led the effort to remove Cliff Effects, in partnership with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the EDC, and Economic Pathways of Massachusetts Coalition members. (See story on Cliff Effects, page 25.)

• Accepted a $100,000 award in partnership with Home City Development for the Whole Family Approach to Careers program, which focuses on both children and adults in families to bring about economic success.

Anne Kandilis, Director, Springfield WORKS

“Forty percent didn’t know where or how to access resources,” said Director Anne Kandilis in August, when reporting on survey results. Anne says a focus on 413Cares and a deeper emphasis on building collaborative models to work one-on-one with justiceinvolved individuals will ensure that, “No matter what door you are coming from, you are going to be able to access a resource.”

Because the economic landscape changes continually, Springfield WORKS has a mission to ensure that people have access to economic opportunity. Springfield WORKS envisions a community in which anyone in Springfield will be able to find a job and increase earnings through career growth; systems are aligned to support workers and families; and workers will have an authentic voice and access to living wages. Achieving this vision requires

• Became the second organization in Massachusetts to become a member of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions in 2021, and, in 2022, launched two healthcare-related workforce development projects with MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board, Baystate Health, Holyoke Community College, Springfield Public Schools, and the Western Mass Nursing Collaborative.

• Completed The Family Prosperity project with Baystate Health, which helped shape the launch of new employer principles to support workers, increase work for justice-involved individuals, and create new pay-totrain and other innovative workforce learning models for careers in healthcare.

• Launched the Springfield Community Council with the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts. The council will serve as a voice for Springfield to ensure that initiatives are driven by people with lived experience.

• Took part in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston 2022 New England Working Cities Summit in Boston to build opportunity and examine systems and policy changes that affect Western Mass businesses and residents.

Joining Forces With Valley Venture Mentors Helps Us Expand Our Reach To Entrepreneurs

With a shared vision in stimulating and facilitating a vigorous regional economy, we welcomed Valley Venture Mentors into our EDC ranks in 2022 as a new focus area serving as a regional leader in the Western Mass entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are committed to supporting local entrepreneurship, which ultimately leads to the acceleration of economic development and community vitalization. Hope Ross Gibaldi was appointed as VVM’s executive director.

“It’s been a great year, aligning and strengthening the relationship between VVM and the EDC,” Hope says. “It was a great decision for both of us. Working closely with the EDC has provided us with a strong backbone and helps us to expand our reach in the region. You can’t have economic development without factoring in entrepreneurship.”

One key VVM achievement in 2022 was meeting with Governor Charlie Baker and introducing him to a number of entrepreneurs that VVM has worked with over the year, offering advice, a place to meet, and connections to customers, funders, and government agencies.

Governor Baker heard from a diverse group of entrepreneurial leaders representing a variety of industries found right here in Western Mass, including a soul food-Laotian fusion restaurant, SouLao’d Kitchen; Super Frau, a production company that makes beverages from “upcycled” whey from the yogurt process; and SolaBlock, a manufacturing company that created solar power bricks for construction. The governor was very impressed with each of the entrepreneurs in attendance and pledged his support for entrepreneurial growth in the region.

Hope Ross Gibaldi, Executive Director, Valley Venture Mentors

In 2022, VVM achieved the following:

• Became the core partner in the recently relaunched RiseUp! Springfield, a business development program aimed at small business owners, and announced it is taking applications for the next round of training. RiseUp! Springfield is hosted by the city of Springfield’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, VVM, and powered by Interise. This six-month executive level education program teaches business owners how to advance their business operations, financial management, marketing and sales, human resources tactics, business strategy development, access to capital, and contract development.

• Hosted the first demo day for the inaugural Western Mass Founders Network (WMFN), where leaders came together to connect, network, and celebrate the culmination of WMFN’s eight-month program. Funded by a $200,000 Pathways to Scale grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), the event was coordinated in partnership with EDC, FORGE, and the Berkshire Innovation Center. The first-of-its-kind program, WMFN supports high-growth-potential, Western Mass startups with a curated peer-to-peer and experienced mentor network. The program created a virtuous cycle for scaling executives, in which they have access to resources in Western Massachusetts, embedding them in the local economy and building a sense of community and a network of experienced peers.

• Grew and supported its Women Innovators & Trailblazers, a VVM-affiliated program that matches professional women in mentor-mentee relationships, and the Collegiate Summer Venture Program, which helps student entrepreneurs make connections and network; the venture program is an equal partnership between VVM and the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

• Developed essential partnerships with key organizations in the region, such as The Association of Black Business & Professionals, Black and Brown Wall Street, BECMA, and the MA LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce.

STATE REDO GRANT FUNDS SUPPORT BROAD SCOPE OF EDC PARTNERS, PROJECTS, AND INITIATIVES

For many years, the EDC has received state Regional Economic Development Organization (REDO) grant program funds used to support all of our partners and initiatives. Over $1 million in REDO funds were received in 2022, representing an increase that allowed us to earmark assistance to small and diverse businesses, property owners, and downtowns so they could plan for recovery from the pandemic.

“REDO grant money helps fund many of our initiatives,” explained Anne DeWolf, our director of operations. “It allows us to help our municipalities, community partners and provide necessary services to help improve the local economy.

In 2022, REDO funds also helped the EDC: • Provide business support to a wide range of industry leaders, from manufacturing to academia; assist entrepreneurial systems in the region with expanded investments and mentors; connect businesses to technical assistance, workforce training, commercial real estate access, academic research, and other resources.

• Secure fiscal support for our municipalities for several local projects. The following cities and towns received funding in 2022: Amherst, Belchertown, Blanford, Chester, East Longmeadow, Easthampton, Greenfield, Holyoke, Montague, Monson, Northampton, Shelburne, South Hadley, Springfield, Ware and Westfield. The following community organizations also received funding in 2022: Springfield Redevelopment Authority and Valley Venture Mentors.

• Increase supply chain opportunities for small, regional and diverse businesses through the Western Mass Anchor Collaborative Initiative. (See story on page 23.)

• Implement our Springfield WORKS initiative in collaboration with over 30 partners to ensure meaningful employment to Springfield residents. (See story on Springfield WORKS, page 20.)

• Influence hiring practices of employees and support leadership development through Leadership Pioneer Valley and other regional and industry-led initiatives.

Western Mass Anchor Collaborative

LOCAL ECONOMY BY SUPPORTING WOMEN- AND MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESSES

In its first year, the Western Mass Anchor Collaborative, founded by the EDC in partnership with Baystate Health, has established multi-year targets to increase local procurement opportunities for women- and minority-owned businesses and propel hiring and career pathways for BIPOC and marginalized populations.

The Anchor Collaborative’s mission is to foster equitable communities, and create jobs and healthier employees and residents by intentionally leveraging each anchor institution’s purchasing and hiring power to enhance impact and drive the regional economy.

The collaborative includes some of the region’s largest businesses and employers: Bay Path University, Baystate Health, Big Y Foods, Inc., Holyoke Community College, Springfield College, the cities of Holyoke and Springfield, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Collectively, the Anchor Collaborative institutions currently spend over $2 billion annually in goods and services and have committed to increasing their spending toward local and diverse businesses.

These institutions serve as key place-based economic engines that leverage their own institutional sourcing, hiring, and locally focused investing here in the region and create formal community impact commitments around five strategic focus areas: local and diverse sourcing, local hiring, low-wage incumbent workers, place-based investment, and policies for healthy equitable communities.

“By being more intentional about how we do business in the region, Anchor Collaborative institutions seek to address inequities that have resulted from historic patterns of disinvestment and bias related to neighborhood, race, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status in Western Massachusetts,” says Rick Sullivan, president and CEO. He adds, “We recognize none of this will happen overnight, but it starts overnight. It is a real commitment our anchors are making. This is a hand up, not a handout. It’s also a really good business model for finding employees they need and strengthening the local economy through solid economic strategy.”

To help inform this important work, we held a series of Anchor Collaborative Listening Sessions in the tri-county region to hear directly from our local businesses and vendors. After connecting with over 60 businesses across the region, we identified the top four items that are affecting small businesses in the area:

• Limited access to capital for scaling.

• High insurance premiums for large contracts.

• Cumbersome state certification application processes.

• Limited access to comprehensive information on important resources, such as contact information for decision makers, grant deadlines, diverse funding sources, etc.

“Hearing directly from our local vendors and community members is one of the key ingredients to the success of the Anchor Collaborative,” says Xiomara Albán DeLobato, chief of staff.

CYBERSECURITY CENTER COMING TO SPRINGFIELD’S UNION STATION

We have partnered with Springfield Technical Community College to bring Springfield into the forefront of the cyber realm and, together, we are developing a state-of-the-art Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Springfield Union Station. The center will offer education and hands-on job training to individuals looking to seek careers in the tech field. “This initiative provides an opportunity to grow and develop a workforce that will ensure long-term job stability, and meet the ever-growing cyber needs of community businesses,” says Rick Sullivan, EDC’s president and CEO.

This project has already received $1.5 million in state grant funding. The design stage is underway, and the center is slated to be open and accepting participants during the fall of 2023.

Four components will drive this project and allow the community to benefit and contribute to its success in meaningful ways:

• Educational offerings. Colleges and universities in the region—such as STCC, Bay Path University, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Western New England University, Elms College, and Springfield College—will provide training opportunities to students, leading to future jobs.

• Municipality involvement. Technology experts are always in demand and rarely available within governmental sectors. This program will provide access to trained and skilled individuals, ready for hire.

• Military support. Westover and Barnes Air Forces Bases have already expressed interest in being able to train their workforces in the ever-growing field of tech. Both employers plan to support and hire from within the program.

• Small Business benefits. The manufacturing industries, such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation, are constantly seeking individuals with cyber-certification. This new center will provide the much-needed resources to bring cuttingedge technologies to local businesses.

“This center is an essential economic development strategy to modernize and innovate the business infrastructure,” Rick says. “We expect to see substantial growth in the cyber industry arena, benefitting financial and economic vitality for the region.”

Grant Opens The Door To Launch The Valley As A Green Jobs Corridor

The EDC is now a partner in a grant project to develop clean tech and green jobs in the Pioneer Valley. Funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the project is led by Emerald Cities Collaborative and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

“It’s going to be a growth industry. We need to capitalize on that opportunity,” says Rick Sullivan, EDC’s president and CEO. “Clean tech jobs is a sector that’s not already calling another region home. We have an opportunity to grow significantly into this space.”

The presence of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, makes the Valley a perfect launching pad for clean tech and green job development as UMass is on the cuttingedge of ongoing development in green jobs—including solar, offshore wind, and smart building technologies. Through the grant project, and with additional capital investments, there is an opportunity to pilot a broad range of clean technologies in this region.

Companies in the green jobs sector will be looking to relocate where research and development in the field are ongoing. “It’s a natural on all fronts,” Rick says.