News

October 28, 2024

Yvette M. Frisby is 1st woman to serve as president of Urban League of Springfield

Greta Jochem | gjochem@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD — In 1984, Yvette M. Frisby started working at the Urban League of Springfield as an office manager. “I realized through my first couple years how it felt good to be working in and for the community,” Frisby said. Now, she’s taking the helm of the organization. Last month, the Urban League of Springfield announced she is its new president and CEO — the first woman to hold the top position in the group’s 111-year history. “For me to be the first in Springfield, that’s significant,” Frisby said Wednesday. “It shows the way we’re going and being more inclusive.” She added: “It feels like the right time, not just for me but for the community in general.” The Urban League of Springfield, affiliated with the National Urban League, focuses on supporting the Black community and other underserved groups in the greater Springfield area. The nonprofit group works on economic development, education programs and social justice initiatives.

October 28, 2024

Yvette Frisby Charts a Course for the Urban League of Springfield

Joseph Bednar

Yvette Frisby always wanted to live a life of both impact and service, and she traces some of that desire to her parents. “I was raised in a house where my dad was a police officer for 30-something years, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, so service was in us,” she recalled. “I grew up in a house that was about public service — giving back and making sure everybody was always OK within the community, on your street, and within your family.” Sadly, no one is always OK. But in her 40 years with the Urban League of Springfield — and now as its president and CEO — she’s been, and continues to be, dedicated to helping as many individuals as possible access the resources and opportunities they need to achieve stability and success. It’s a powerful — and gratifying — role, one Frisby doesn’t take for granted. “When people say, ‘throughout those 40 years, did you know you wanted to be the president of the Urban League? What did you want to end up doing?’ … I didn’t know. I wanted to do whatever my soul led me to do, whatever felt right. And I believe that my steps are guided, so I am meant to be here in this time and place, right now. And it feels good.” After longtime (as in 49 years) President and CEO Henry Thomas announced his retirement in the spring of 2023, Frisby was named to that role on an interim basis, and on Aug. 1 of this year, the board of directors concluded an extensive, national search by simply removing her interim tag.

January 30, 2023

July 28, 2024

Massachusetts must build education pathways to help students succeed, grow skilled workforce (Viewpoint)

By Jay Ash, Ed Lambert & Cheryl Stanley | Student Pathways to Success Coalition

Children from every community across our commonwealth possess limitless potential, but that potential can fizzle quickly if it is not nourished and supported as they develop into adults.Most begin elementary school confident that their futures hold promise. Yet too often, as young people proceed through middle and high school, that spirit of positive momentum and hope is replaced by confusion and doubt that the best paths forward are available to them.We work and reside in communities that would benefit from greater focus on preparing students for career pathways that can meet current workforce needs. Expanding these pathways matters not just to individual students, but to our capacity to meet statewide equity, workforce, and economic goals.This is particularly true at a time when clean tech, robotics, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and countless other industries require strong technical skills and offer not only good-paying entry level jobs, but longer-term career ladders.These test scores are consistent with feedback from businesses that there are not enough qualified candidates to fill jobs in today’s complex industries. But with more than a billion dollars in federal COVID relief funding for education still unspent, are we acting with sufficient urgency and specificity to prepare students to pursue careers that can provide family-sustaining wages?If we are to ensure that today’s students have the knowledge and skills for tomorrow’s career opportunities, we need a comprehensive plan for student success.