The ribbon is cut during the 2014 opening of ValleyWorks at Northern Essex Community College by George Moriarty, the college’s director of workforce development and corporate relations; Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini; Arthur Chilingirian, executive director of ValleyWorks Career Center; and Dawn Beati, career center manager, ValleyWorks.
ValleyWorks One-Stop Career Center, now under the management of Northern Essex Community College, will return to downtown Haverhill.
ValleyWorks left its previous downtown office at 192 Merrimack St. during the summer of 2013 for the college’s Elliott Street campus. It will share space at the college’s forthcoming culinary arts center, said Ernie Greenslade, college spokeswoman.
The state Department of Capital Asset and Management and Maintenance sent out a request for proposals July 10 to house the college’s planned culinary arts center. Proposals are due Aug. 18. Meanwhile, ValleyWorks maintains its satellite location at Northern Essex’s Haverhill Campus until the downtown Haverhill location opens.
Northern Essex Community College was recently selected by the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board to assume management and operational responsibilities for ValleyWorks, one of 16 regional employment centers across Massachusetts. The college’s Center for Corporate and Community Education, led by George Moriarty, is managing the program.
ValleyWorks serves more than 10,000 job seekers and 700 employers each year, providing recruitment, employment and training services for youth, unemployed and under-employed adults and laid-off workers. Money for the center, currently $2 million per year, is provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which provides resources to states and local workforce investment boards.
The approximately 26 staff currently employed by ValleyWorks continue in their positions. Besides Haverhill, another ValleyWorks center is located at 255 Essex St., Lawrence.
ValleyWorks serves 15 cities and towns across the region: Lawrence, Methuen, Andover, North Andover, Haverhill, Georgetown, Merrimack, Amesbury, Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury, West Newbury, Rowley, Boxford and Groveland.