Harold Shively and the Community

Community 

Positioned in Charlestown, Shively utilized BHCC’s location as a force for good within the community on several occasions. For the 350th anniversary of the founding of Charlestown, Shively and BHCC established the Community Leadership Award giving out twenty-five awards for people in leadership roles within the Charlestown community. In the realm of education, Shively and Roxbury Community College’s president Kenneth Haskins collaborated to create the Bridges program assisting Boston high school students from economically underrepresented communities by providing mentoring and college assistance. 

An important instance of Shively’s work within the community was during the 1984 closure of both the Revere Sugar Refinery and the Schrafft’s Candy Company factory. The initial closing of the Revere Sugar Refinery displaced hundreds of workers, in response Shivley and BHCC worked with local and state legislatures to create the Worker’s Assistance Center housed on BHCC’s campus to assist the workers. The Center provided two different approaches for the workers, a short-term approach that involved educational and career counseling to assist the workers with G.E.D preparation and unspecified skill training programs based on the worker’s interest.  The long-term approach involved providing free tuition for the Summer 84, Fall 84, and Spring 85 semesters for both the displaced workers and their spouses. These benefits were also extended to the displaced workers of Schrafft’s factory when it closed sometime in June 1984. The items included below show Shively’s messages to administrative heads from both factories encouraging the workers to utilize their services.