The Boston Public Health Commission and SEIU Local 888 have a new Professional Development Pilot Program designed for the Homeless Services Bureau. This program is intended to encourage and enable members to pursue professional development opportunities.

[caption id="attachment_6415" align="alignright" width="300"]Local 888 steward Jason George with BPH members Sophia Oliver and Ovanica Champagana at the Homeless Services Bureau.[/caption]

The plan allows full time employees to receive up to seven hours of paid release time to attend approved professional development events. BPHC also plans to allocate funds to pay for employees’ registration fees and travel costs for professional development events in the Boston area. The program will give each member $300 to use to attend classes they wish to take throughout the Boston area.

Jason George, steward for the Assistant Coordinators said, “I am really happy to see this program and I will make sure our members take full advantage of these professional development opportunities.”

After a meeting with the Labor Relations and Local 888 members to review the program, Peter Cavicchi, chapter chair for Coordinators said, “This is a great opportunity for our members to pursue professional development opportunities that they were not able to use in the past.

Charlie Mays, chapter chair for Counselors said, “This is something that we have tried to get in negotiations and I believe this is a good opportunity to evaluate supporting professional development for future negotiations.”

[caption id="attachment_6416" align="alignleft" width="300"]Local 888 members Kristin Joyce, Pedro Rodriguez and Paul Brophy all work at BPHC Shelters.[/caption]

BPHC labor relations manager Dave Susich said, “We hope that employees will take advantage of these opportunities and that our experience with the pilot will help BPHC identify effective strategies for continuing to support employee professional development in the future.”

All employees in the Counselors and Coordinators/ Assistant Coordinators bargaining units will be eligible to participate in the program starting October 2015 through June 2016.