Andre Green

Workforce Development

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Since starting as Executive Director of Skillworks, a workforce development organization operated by the Boston Foundation, Andre Green has been guided by one goal: breaking the cycle of poverty that afflicts thousands of Massachusetts residents.

 

Green, who lives in Somerville and also serves as the Board President of the Community Action Agency of Somerville (an ABCD partner), started at Skillworks in August 2020 at a time when Boston was reeling from the pandemic. In the midst of the crisis, Skillworks played an integral part in urging then-Governor Charlie Baker and his administration to make an unprecedented investment in a rapid reskilling program that brought individuals who had been incapacitated by COVID back to work.

 

Green cites being raised by a single mother as having had a major influence on his outlook. A nurse who frequently worked the graveyard shift because it paid slightly more, she eventually saved up enough to buy a house and send Green to college. Unfortunately, she passed away not long after. “People deserve the same opportunities that my mom’s hard work provided for me, but it shouldn’t cost them their mothers,” says Green.

 

Now, Green is responsible for shaping Skillworks’ mission and bringing together unions, employers, and policymakers to ensure that “workforce development in Boston is more than the sum of its parts.” A particularly pressing issue for Skillworks in recent years: creating pathways to bring women and people of color into industries where they have been historically underrepresented. “I want this country to live up to its promise instead of being a place where the circumstances of your birth determine your destiny,” he says.