Program to Place Unemployed In New, Expanding Businesses

A new program to place unemployed Cambridge workers in jobs created by several large development projects planned for the next decade opened its doors Thursday, with a financial commitment from the Cambridge City Council to increase access to the service.

The Cambridge Citizen's Employment Program, which will be administered by the Eastern Middlesex Human Resource Development Authority will act as a "clearinghouse" for Cambridge residents seeking jobs. Marlene Seltzer executive director of the authority said Thursday The program will also provide training for workers whose skills are not yet adequate to meet the demands of newly created jobs. Seltzer added

According to City Councillor David E. Sullivan, chairman of the council's economic development, manpower, and employment committee over 15,000 jobs will be created over the next fifteen years as a result of the "boom of development" now underway in Cambridge

Large-scale development projects are planned or underway in Porter and Kendall Squares on Mass Ave and University Place, Lechmere Canal, and Alewife the end of the current MBIA Red line extension

More than 5000 Cambridge citizens are now out of work. Sullivan said, and the purpose of the employment program is "to make sure our residents do not lose any benefit from that development," he added

Although the authority, which receives funds from the Federal Job Training Partnership Act the successor of the CETA program--already acts as a "big employment agency" for Cambridge residents, it only provides aid for income-eligible clients. "We wanted to make this service available to other people too." Sullivan said, so the council approved an additional $69,000 allocation in December for the creation of the independent citizen's employment program (CEP).

More than sixty local businesses have already expressed interest in the new program, and thirteen have agreed to hire Cambridge citizens through the program. Beverly Taylor, the program's economic development coordinator said Thursday.

Sullivan said his main concern about the program is that many of the available jobs will be so complicated that the average unemployed Cambridge resident will not be sufficiently trained to fill them. "Many of the jobs opening up will require fairly advanced professional or technical skills," he said.

"It's important that CEP provide job training, and help to educate people about the job opportunities that exist and will grow," agreed Councillor Frances H. Duehay '55. The new program may try to speed job training for residents through ties with local educational institutions, including the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and the Harvard Extension School, Seltzer said yesterday