The Boston City Council Committee on Labor, Workforce, and Economic Development heard details on 11 workforce and youth grants totaling $8,981,031.76 on Monday, Oct. 27, with the committee chair saying he intends to bring the dockets to a full-council vote on Wednesday.

"Today's hearing is on 11 grants totaling $8,981,031.76," Committee Chair Benjamin Weber (District 6) said as he opened the virtual hearing. The package includes federal WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act) and Wagner–Peyser funds, state YouthWorks funding and a MassHire one‑stop career‑center allocation, to be administered by the city’s Office of Workforce Development.

Staff framed the grants as operating and program dollars that will be braided into the city’s two MassHire career centers and a set of youth subrecipients. "The funding for YouthWorks comes from the state, from the Commonwealth Corporation," said Katie Galls, director of grants for the Worker Empowerment Cabinet, as she described Boston’s $4.1 million YouthWorks award and the competitive process to select nonprofit partners. Galls said the YouthWorks grant is intended for low‑income youth and young people with barriers to employment, and that the city will use the money to fund subrecipients and centralized supports (a therapist on referral and a staff person to manage eligibility documentation). She said the YouthWorks dollars will serve about 85 young people with this particular grant allocation.

City staff described how other grants will support career‑center operations and individual training vouchers. The career centers ‘‘served a total of almost 16,000 job seekers, including 14,406 unemployed’’ in FY25, Galls said, and the centers provide services ranging from resume workshops to connections to employer partners and short‑term training such as commercial‑driver’s‑license or medical‑assistant programs.

Neil Sullivan, executive director of the Private Industry Council (PIC), summarized governance and oversight, saying the PIC, its workforce development and youth committees, and the Mayor’s office vet and approve how federal and state funds are distributed. "These revenue streams come from various directions. They're like levers," Sullivan said, describing the process used to allocate money between career‑center operations and training vouchers.

Committee members focused questions on outreach and equity. Councilor Flynn asked how the system reaches public‑housing residents; staff pointed to BHA representation on the PIC, neighborhood access points (for example, an access point at Charlestown Adult Education), virtual services and partnerships with agencies such as ABCD. On services for people with disabilities, staff described routine coordination with federally funded partners, including Title IV rehabilitation providers, and said WIOA customers are subject to performance measures; staff noted a 75 percent graduation requirement and a 70 percent placement metric as program targets.

Councilors also asked about sector alignment. Staff and PIC representatives said healthcare, medical technology and construction remain important sectors in Boston, and that the city works with employers and sectoral partners, including a health‑care careers consortium and collaborators with MassBio, to match training to openings. Regarding federal workers affected by a shutdown, staff said the state has a resource page and career centers have been trained to help federal employees navigate unemployment insurance and reemployment services, but noted that unemployment benefits can replace only a portion of prior salary.

The dockets listed in the hearing record include the following (amounts and administering office as stated in the hearing record):

- Docket 1625 — YouthWorks funding, $1,045,187 (Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development; to be administered by the Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity / YEO).
- Docket 1658 — WIOA youth activities administration, $222,041 (U.S. Department of Labor; to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1659 — WIOA adult activities administration, $173,229 (U.S. Department of Labor; to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1660 — Wagner–Peyser administration (amount not specified in the transcript).
- Docket 1691 — WIOA youth program, $1,998,370 (U.S. Department of Labor; to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1692 — WIOA adult activities, $1,559,065 (U.S. Department of Labor; to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1693 — Wagner–Peyser program, $1,040,435 (U.S. Department of Labor; to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1694 — WIOA dislocated workers, $966,006 (U.S. Department of Labor; to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1695 — One‑stop career center (MassHire Department of Career Services), $884,111 (to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1697 — WIOA dislocated workers administration, $107,334 (U.S. Department of Labor; to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).
- Docket 1832 — RESEA (Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment) CY25 (amount not specified in the transcript; stated as a U.S. Department of Labor award to be administered by the Office of Workforce Development).

All dockets were introduced as sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and were previously referred to the committee on the dates read into the record. Chair Benjamin Weber closed the hearing by saying he intended to bring these dockets "up for a vote during Wednesday's meeting." The committee did not take final votes in this hearing.

The administration framed the package as a mix of operating support for career centers and programmatic funding for youth and dislocated‑worker services. A single theme from staff and PIC leadership was coordination: combining state and federal formula funds, city investments and private philanthropic contributions to sustain career‑center operations and subsidized youth and adult training. Councilors emphasized outreach to public‑housing residents, continuity of services for people with disabilities, and employer alignment for higher‑skill pathways.

The hearing record contains several items that committee members may want to follow up on before the scheduled Wednesday vote: the exact amounts and scopes for Dockets 1660 and 1832 as read into the record (the transcript rendered those lines as garbled and did not provide a clear dollar amount), the planned number of participants for each grant beyond the YouthWorks allocation cited, and additional detail on placement rates for customers with disabilities. Chair Weber and central staff identified that the full‑council vote would be the next formal action on these dockets.