MassHire Award Winner: Madeline

November 2022

In September, our Career Advisor Madeline Colon-Rivera won the MassHire Award for respect and commitment to providing intensive services to a diverse group of career center customers through the JobsPLUS program.

Madeline represents the MassHire Lowell Career Center in the innovative JobsPLUS program at the Lowell Housing Authority. This program, which is funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, aims to deliver employment and training services to residents living at the North Common Village low-income housing site. These residents have an unemployment rate of over 50%, speak limited English, and many are dealing with the impacts of generational poverty.

The goal of the JobsPLUS program is to build self-sufficiency through living wage employment while covering the cost of the residents’ rent as wages increase. In the year since joining the JobsPLUS program, Madeline has enrolled 134 residents and connected 37 residents to new jobs for an average salary of $16.43 per hour. Part of what makes Madeline so successful is that she respects her customers while always being truthful. She lets them know exactly where they stand, and what they need to do to achieve success and she is their biggest advocate every step of the way.

The MassHire award ceremony was held on day two of the MassForward event. Governor Baker spoke to the crowd at the DCU center followed by Secretary Roslin Acosta, who along with State Workforce Board Chair Joanne Pokaski from Beth Israel Lahey Health, presented the award to Madeline. Check out our YouTube channel for videos from the event.

MassHire Programs & Services are funded in full by US Department of Labor (USDOL) Employment and Training Administration grants. Additional details furnished upon request.