Workforce Development ASPiRE! Workforce Readiness

By Deborah Drew

Last year, in its third year of support from the Foundation, the Seven Hills ASPiRE! Workforce Readiness and Employment program provided internships in café management, community gardening, facilities maintenance, landscaping, and hospitality for 47 individuals through its Seven Hill’s communitybased employment site at Stearns Tavern, Worcester, MA. An additional 17 program participants also engaged in internships, exceeding the originally projected enrollment. ASPiRE! provides participants who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism a pathway to employment by helping them hone social and job skills, and remain engaged in their efforts to gain employment in their community. Many program participants have, in fact, transitioned to new, competitive employment in the community, including a new groupsupported partner-employer organization at Hutchinson Aerospace and Industry, launched in July 2022.

Basil A. Paterson Memorial Scholarship

Basil A. Paterson was a remarkable man whose talents benefited many people during his life and even continue today. After graduating from St. John’s University and St. John’s School of Law, he became a groundbreaking labor and employment lawyer, New York State Senator and Secretary of State of New York. He was a board member and chairman of the National Grid Foundation for 16 years.

After his death in 2014, the Foundation created the Basil A. Paterson Memorial Scholarship so today’s law students may have opportunities for future success. The $100,000 scholarship provides partial scholarships to St. John’s Law students.

Students must be in good academic standing with grade point average (GPA) higher than 2.5 and have an interest in labor and employment law demonstrated by coursework or participation in symposium or authoring a paper on a current labor law topic. ❧