Thomas MacMillan Photo
As part of a speech in favor of a “jobs pipeline,” Board of Aldermen Black and Hispanic Caucus Chair Claudette Robinson-Thorpe told the story of a single mom of two who pulled her family out of welfare and went on to earn multiple degrees thanks to a job-training program.
She was able to move up from a part-time job at Yale to a full-time position and work her way through an associate’s degree, to a bachelor’s, and final to a master’s, the Beaver Hills alderwoman said.
“That single mom?” Robinson-Thorpe continued.
“It was me.”
Hers was one of three stories offered Monday night to the Board of Aldermen as part of the annual “State of the City” speech by the Black and Hispanic Caucus. Robinson-Thorpe called up two other speakers who addressed her theme of support for the so-called “jobs pipeline.”
The pipeline is a central feature of the agenda of the newly elected labor-backed Board of Aldermen majority. It would link out-of-work and underemployed people to jobs in town; both the aldermen and the mayor’s office have spent the past few months exploring details of that concept.
The details of implementation remain to be worked out. Monday night’s speech did not offer any specifics. Rather, it emphasized a general commitment to the concept.
Robinson-Thorpe was escorted into the Aldermanic Chamber Monday night by an honor guard of her colleagues.
She spoke about how a job-training program run by Yale, the Local 34 union, and Gateway Community College helped her transform her life, earning a standing ovation from the board.
“If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” she said.
The city needs a jobs program that goes beyond simply training people, but actually places them into jobs.
Robinson-Thorpe called up 15-year-old Jazmine Vega (pictured), who agreed. The Fair Havener spoke about her mom, who’s raising five children by herself.
“My mother struggles everyday,” she said. “I want to help my mother. I don’t want her to have to ask again whether to get toilet paper or milk” when money is tight.
The city faces a constellation of problems from failing schools to homeless to crime, all of which could be addressed by a jobs pipeline, Vega said.
Shelton Tucker (pictured), who’s 37 and lives in the Hill, took the mic next. He said he’s a co-founder of group called My Brother’s Keeper and a union glazer. Years ago, he got into trouble with the police and saw friends lose their lives in his neighborhood, he said.
Poverty leads to crime, he said. “A community of desperate hopeless people is an unsafe community.”
Prisons are filling up with “black and brown bodies,” people who “made a bad choice based on desperate measures,” he said. The answer? A jobs pipeline.
Robinson-Thorpe concluded by announcing a march of support for the jobs pipeline, scheduled for Wednesday April 25, starting from the Green.
Union and community members plan to participate. The march will end with a rally at the Yale medical school, according to a flyer.
The march is meant to “bring the momentum up” for the plan, said Robinson-Thorpe.
Previous “jobs pipeline” coverage:
• $5M Jumpstarts New Jobs Effort
• Jobs “Pipeline” Gives Patrick Ndagijimana A Shot
• Should Developers Pay A “Pipeline” Fee?
• Push For Jobs “Pipeline” Gets Underway
• A Pipeline In 90 Days
• “Grassroots Agenda” Starts With Jobs
A jobs pipeline sounds like a good idea, but seems like it may only serve a few people. Those people will move to the suburbs (closer to work and/or better quality housing) once they get a new job. As the Board knows, New Haven has a constant churn of population with at least a quarter of the non-student population moving residences each year. Therefore this plan may simply perpetuate crime and poverty in New Haven.
How about a transportation and housing pipeline?
If more jobs were accessible via housing and transportation, then at least the people who aren't fortunate enough to be a part of the Board's "jobs pipeline," such as the many thousands of people who move to New Haven each year from other areas, can still find a job.