Speak for the Trees, in partnership with American Forests and PowerCorpsBOS, is excited to share the first iteration of its Boston Green Jobs Solutions Map.
This mapping project, funded by a generous 8-month planning grant from the Liberty Mutual Foundation, examines the landscape of tree care jobs in the Boston area, seeking to understand opportunities and gaps in the industry. Through the results of this project, training programs such as PowerCorpsBOS are better able to match their graduates to opportunities in the field. Similarly, employers can visualize and better understand the gaps in the urban forestry marketplace.
In creating the Boston Green Jobs Solutions Map, the partners also incorporated the US Forest Service STEW-MAP (Stewardship Mapping and Assessment) approach and survey tool. STEW-MAPS have been used locally and internationally to create geographic and social network maps of community stewardship activities in local urban environments. A modified STEW-MAP survey was sent to over 500 possible employers, asking them about current hiring practices, future hiring plans, and obstacles to hiring. The dataset includes information about the number of jobs, their accessibility, pay, and turnover, and is combined with data from Lightcast to identify key employers in real time, as well as likely future employers.
The map is available at https://www.treeequityscore.org/stories/boston-employers, and incorporates additional data, including:
- Areas in Boston and vicinity that have low Tree Equity Score (https://www.treeequityscore.org/)
- Demographic data, including poverty levels, unemployment rates, and percentage of people of color, by census blocks
- Accessibility to work sites by public transportation
By overlaying neighborhoods with higher rates of poverty and unemployment, potential employers, and low Tree Equity Score, the map pinpoints areas of need and opportunity. And, by identifying employers within ¼ mile of public train and bus transit, the map provides insight into the transportation needs of the many PowerCorpsBOS graduates who do not have cars or who want to work close to home.
Key Takeaways
- Most of the employers that we focused on were in the private tree care, green roof, nursery and landscaping fields, as well as municipal tree wardens, parks and public works departments. Additional focused employer data collection is needed.
- There exist numerous opportunities for PowerCorpsBOS to work closely with employers and form pipelines for their graduates, identify employers’ needs, better train PowerCorpsBOS graduates to meet those needs, and explore ways to base clusters of employers closer to Boston, enabling graduates to better access them.
- Many of the jobs in the tree care industry are seasonal. Ensuring that PowerCorpsBOS graduates obtain year-round employment is critical for long-term employment.
- This project can serve as a model that can be replicated in other cities and organizations. Due to the innovative use of the STEW-MAP approach, the modified survey is now included within the US Forest Service Community of Practice, a space where STEW-MAP users can share findings and approaches.
- Additional research and collaboration with local partners and universities (for example, MIT’s Urban Risk Lab) can provide additional insight regarding leverage points and growing networks of employment and training.
- The partnership between the three organizations provided complementary support: Speak for the Trees provided deep knowledge of the local landscape of tree care activities, PowerCorpsBOS provided feedback about graduate needs, and American Forests provided a national perspective as well as GIS and research expertise.
Next Steps
Over the next 3 years, Speak for the Trees, PowerCorpsBOS, and American Forests are actively seeking support to grow Boston’s Green Jobs Solution Map to incorporate additional data, better define needs and opportunities, and strengthen cross-industry partnerships to support employers and employees alike. Stay tuned!
