The Fierce Urgency of Now Festival brings Boston’s diverse young professionals together with business leaders, organizations, and their peers to build connection, advance careers and ignite positive change.
09/14/2024 -
09/17/2024
Suffolk University - Sargent Hall
Join us to hear from experts on the evolving ecosystem of data and targeting, revealing answers to pressing questions in the industry.
09/24/2024
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Wayfair
Join us for an inspirational conversation with women leaders who have pioneered new initiatives and made significant impacts in their industries.
10/08/2024
9:30am - 11:00am
ML Strategies
Go deeper than basic DEI training to achieve higher productivity, satisfaction, and revenue growth with our new corporate workshop.
Join our Transformational DEI Certificate! Our comprehensive learning & development offerings are designed to connect and grow strong leaders who lead both inside and out of the office.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
We support small business through public policy initiatives, events designed to connect small businesses in Greater Boston to their peers and established business leaders, professional development offerings, and free small business advising.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
At the MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, we understand that tackling this layered issue requires a holistic and multilayered approach. One that includes improving the well-being of young people across the Commonwealth. This is critical to violence prevention – when young people have what they need to be safe and well in the world, our communities are safer. What does this mean in practice? This means ensuring that young people’s basic needs are met: access to supportive adults, stable housing, educational and recreational opportunities, and sufficient financial resources. Youth employment readiness is key to both financial stability and to giving young people an experience involving supportive adults, skill-building activities, and positive engagement with their communities. These are all protective factors that can help prevent youth from being impacted by violence.
Recent research further demonstrates and quantifies how employment access mitigates the human, societal, and economic costs of gun violence. A 2018 study called “Stopping a Bullet with a Summer Job”, found a direct link between summer employment and reduced rates of violence. Participation in a Chicago summer jobs program nearly halved the number of violent crime arrests among program participants. Similarly, enrollment in a New York City program reduced the likelihood that participating youth would be incarcerated in New York State prison or would die prematurely. The impact of these job programs extended beyond the summer, suggesting that participation did not just keep young people busy and away from risky situations during the summer months, but also led to longer-term positive outcomes. The Chicago program led to a 35% reduction in violent crime arrests one year after program completion. These results are clearly positive for the young people served and are also significant for our communities’ safety and economic wellbeing. According to the Vera Institute, the cost of incarceration in Massachusetts is $55,170 per inmate yearly. The cost of the summer programs noted here were $1,400 to $3,000 per participant. This small investment in youth brings great returns, on multiple levels.
Closer to home, we see similar benefits. A 2017 Brookings study of summer jobs programs in Boston, such as YouthWorks, noted the following: “Summer jobs programs are a vehicle to give young people a boost in the labor market and help them develop positive relationships with adults and peers; imagine new possibilities for themselves; and engage in positive, constructive activities during time that otherwise would likely be unstructured.”
Our guest blogs are written and produced by organizations within our membership. They are not intended to reflect the views nor opinions of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
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