DPW Commissioner's Corner: Highlighting New Initiatives

Welcome to the DPW Commissioners Corner. This will be an avenue to highlight DPW various divisions and departmental initiatives. Additionally, to provide helpful information regarding DPW operations functions and roles.  I look forward to our ongoing engagement.

There are several exciting collaborative initiatives DPW is spearheading with Somerville Public Schools (SPS). This includes our Let’s Get Workin', Let’s Get Workin' Jr, and our Let’s Get Truckin' program. These sort of collaborations and partnerships with SPS are the type of investments that builds sustainability in our youth. Thank you to Mayor Ballantyne and School Superintendent Carmona for supporting these investments in Somerville youth!

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What is Lets Get Workin'?

This is a cooperative education partnership between the DPW and Somerville High School (SHS), known as Let’s Get Workin’ (LGW). LGW will provide SHS students with critical job skills & experience. 

According to the Massachusetts Department of Secondary Education (DESE), cooperative education – known simply as “co-op” – is a type of work-based learning offered through MA CTE programs (Chapter 74 programs). Through a cooperative agreement between the school and employers, students receive instruction through alternating between study in school with a job in a related occupational field. 

In general terms, co-op jobs/opportunities: 

• Provide students with an opportunity to gain knowledge and build skills in a real work environment.
• Ensure competency-based assessments to further student skill development.
• Provide an opportunity for students to build a professional portfolio and network at an earlier start.
• Help students gain an understanding of the challenges and complexities of the industry they’re studying, which helps them gain a much deeper understanding of the profession they are pursuing.
• Provide experience in industry culture, expectations, and various types of job roles.
• Are mutually beneficial to organizations and businesses and to the student pursuing a co-op opportunity.

The objective of this program is to hire skilled SHS students to work in multiple areas within the DPW as cooperative (co-op) student employees. Areas of study applicable to the DPW include (but are not limited to) Electrical, Plumbing, Carpentry, Fleet Mechanics, and more. DPW staff will provide students with hands-on learning and work experience in each respective area. Students will learn about the industry they are studying in a “real-world” work environment and will be working while learning. DPW has an opportunity to fill labor gaps within the department with talented student-employees.

This program is open to all eligible junior and senior students. To meet minimum eligibility requirements, students must have:

• Excellent attendance
• Continued good academic standing (passing all academic subjects in CTE)
• Maintain acceptable conduct
• Minimum of 1.5 years of related training in the CTE program
• Attained OSHA safety credential
• Earn industry specific certifications if required (i.e., HotWorks)

Outstanding juniors may also be eligible to participate in co-op midway through their junior year, provided they meet the above minimum eligibility requirements.

Last spring DPW was able to pilot this program successfully and we look forward to staring our full year program this Fall.

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What is Lets Get Workin' Jr.? 

Let’s Get Workin’ Jr. provides opportunities to introduce Somerville middle students in the vital services that Somerville Department of Public Works (DPW) provides to the city every day. Students learn directly from industry professionals about the various duties that the DPW carries out on a day-to-day basis and the pathway that each employee took to get to where they are today. Through interactive lessons and presentations from guest speakers from the DPW, Let’s get Workin’ Jr. aims to teach and inspire students to explore diverse careers that make up the DPW. Students get to understand the vital role that each DPW employee plays in maintaining and improving public infrastructure. 

The program will highlight various career paths including plumbing, electrical, landscaping, preventive maintenance, roads/infrastructure, construction, engineering, environmental services, and more, giving students a broader understanding of how these careers contribute to community development. By the end of the program, students gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of public works and empower them to consider these career opportunities in their future educational and professional choices.

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What is Let's Get Truckin'? 

An initiative with Somerville Department of Public Works and Somerville Public Schools. This initiative involves the DPW visiting schools monthly and presenting a DPW truck with fun interactive opportunities for younger students. Each student is be given a safety tee shirt, plastic hard hat, coloring book, and crayons. The program includes the Commissioner and an identified DPW front-line ambassador who will be presenting the truck presentation. Let’s Get Truckin’ is open to all SPS EC classrooms (AIM/ECIP/SMILE).