Local initiative to fuel Springfield job market

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Springfield has one of the lowest rates of employment in New England with only 63 percent of employed adults, according to a 2010 study by the Federal Reserve of Boston.  But one local non-profit is looking to change that statistic. 

“The wellspring initiative is a program designed to establish worker-owned business, cooperative businesses,” said Partners for a Healthier Community Director Frank Robinson about a program that aims to fuel the Springfield job market. 

The UMass Center for Public Policy and Administration found that the biggest employers in the region purchase more than $1.5 billion worth of goods and services a year, but only 10 percent of that money is spent in Springfield. Developers say filling this gap in the market would provide opportunities for those who are on the hunt for a job. 

“A lot of them are going overseas and from a business standpoint you can understand their competitiveness because they are getting cheaper prices. If they are getting the cheaper prices it's kind of worth it to them. But where does that leave us? It leaves us out on the street,” said Dayle Kough who has been unemployed since May. 

What developers are looking to do is build a company from the ground up, it could be a Laundromat or a food processing plant; but it would cater to the need of a large company in the area.  And with the overwhelming number of unemployment claims some say this couldn't come at a better time.

“Maybe quarter of six something like that, he said that there were already 15 to 20 people waiting in line outside the door,” said David Gadaire, executive director of Career Point, of the number of people waiting to file their unemployment claim on Tuesday morning.  He added “we have a list, people go on a list, and that list was closed, it was full by 7:30 this morning.”

This program resembles a national model which has proven to be effective in Cleveland, Ohio.  Developers there, built a state-of-the-art laundry facility which employs inner-city residents who are unemployed or homeless. 

The Wellspring Initiative in Springfield raised over $300,000 with the help of anchor institutions like UMass and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  These funds will kick-start the development phase of the project, which is expected to open its first business by October of 2013.