Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | December 7, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 21 #ShopLocal and #GiveLocal this holiday season V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L T his year has taught us many lessons, but perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from 2020 is the need to support our local businesses and nonprofits, particularly as the Central Massachusetts economy strives to recover its footing from the coronavirus pandemic. e holiday season already got off to a rough start for in-person retailers, as Reuters reported marked drops in Black Friday crowds shopping in retail stores amid a spike in online sales. Online megaretailer Amazon is already planning on taking advantage of the increasing shi to online shopping brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. e company plans to expand fulfillment and logistics space by an astounding 50% this year, including new locations in Milford, Bellingham and Northborough. e plan for Worcester's Greendale Mall to be demolished and be replaced by an Amazon fulfillment warehouse, instead of a mixed-use development including some retail, shows even a high profile urban location can be converted to a use traditionally more suited to large suburban or rural tracts of land. Online shopping continues to take a huge bite out of retail sales, and this project is a prime example of that trend. Of course, missing out on the latest in-person Black Friday deal for a big-screen TV at Walmart isn't going to break the local economy, and – from a consumer perspective – is probably the smart choice given the importance of social distancing and crowd avoidance during a peak period for the spread of COVID-19. But as you choose where to spend your money and your company's money this holiday season, we strongly encourage you to look for locally owned retailers and businesses, who are finding new ways to survive in the pandemic. Most have adopted online or contactless pickup at this point, and local businesses are likely to offer unique goods and services than the commodity products you will mostly find offered through Amazon. Beyond your holiday shopping list, there are a number of worthy, local nonprofits who are collecting donations – both money and goods – this holiday season. Few of these organizations have been immune from the financial squeeze created by the pandemic, and smaller nonprofits have fewer resources to help them weather the storm. Giving locally has always been a business priority, but doing so this year likely means even more to the organization that it has in the past. Giving Tuesday and Small Business Saturday may have passed, but we can act in the spirit of those efforts to focus as many of our holiday purchases and year-end donations to businesses and organizations within our Central Massachusetts community. By doing so, you'll help ensure our region can shed the lingering effects of the pandemic and recover quickly as possible. The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Brad Kane, editor, at bkane@wbjournal.com. A T H O U SA N D WO R D S B Y D O N L A N D G R E N What tomorrow's business leaders need most W hen we think about what future business leaders will need to thrive in a world of constant change, we must consider empowering them with the personal skills to help them navigate an uncertain future. Who exactly are tomorrow's business leaders? ey are the students who are enrolled in elementa- ry, middle, and high school. ese are the young people who are thinking about future career choices in the midst of a pandemic and political unrest, who are considering a future to be disrupted by technology. ese future startup founders and business leaders need an entirely new set of skills, ones promoting resiliency, self-confidence, purpose, and aware- ness. ey require the social and emotional tools to help them become adaptable as they navigate the constant change and growth of an interconnected world of global commerce. As we enter the second wave of COVID-19, these students are adjusting to hybrid learning programs as educators con- tinue attempts to improve the educational environment. One way to help young people develop an entrepreneurial spirit is to directly address their social emotional learning skills. Social emotional learning is how people understand and manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. While we do not know the exact impacts, we do know children's academic performance is deteriorating during the pandemic, along with their progress on other social and emotional developmental skills. Tomorrow's leaders must be strong, determined, and self-assured. Given the various ways in which the crisis has widened existing socioeconomic disparities and how these dispari- ties impacted educational outcomes, educational inequities are growing. According to studies by the Economic Policy Institute, the pandemic has exacerbated well-documented opportunity gaps putting low-income students at a disadvan- tage. Despite COVID-19's negative impact on our children, there is a solution to mitigate some of the impact to a degree: social-emotional learning programming. e program I've created, Empowering Confident Youth, was born from a piece missing in many educational systems. ECY hopes to fill that gap during the pandemic and beyond. e curriculum empowers young people, helping them to hone in on their individual strengths while promoting an entrepreneurial spirit and meaningful relationships with oth- ers. I am offering it free to all teachers, parents, and students in Worcester Public Schools. Additionally, the YMCA of Central Massachusetts has signed a partnership, with plans to pilot the middle school program start in January. e core principles of ECY, combined with practical knowledge, know-how, and application, will help young people develop skills, self-confidence, ambition, and passion for a life of hard work, purpose, and service. Jean Paul Paulynice is the founder of the Worcester education startup Empowering Confident Youth. BY JEAN PAUL PAULYNICE Special to the Worcester Business Journal Jean Paul Paulynice W W

• Cover