Scout's Honor Drives Nonprofit Leader | Paul Matthews Executive Director, 495/MetroWest Partnership
Photo/Ron Bouley
With skills learned as a Boy Scout, Paul Matthews seeks to make MetroWest a public policy leader.
Paul Matthews, executive director of the MetroWest/495 Partnership, has a little reminder of his childhood and his lifelong passion for the democratic process sitting on his desk.
That reminder is a figurine of the bill cartoon that famously starred in Schoolhouse Rock's sing-a-long explanation of how a bill becomes a law.
Matthews says his passion for government was ignited as he worked toward becoming an Eagle Scout as a teenager. Earning various badges in citizenship provided Matthews with "an appreciation of how government works," which serves him in his role today as an advocate for the MetroWest region.
"In this field, credibility is vitally important," he says. "It's really important not to mislead and it's really important to deliver what you promise."
Matthews describes the role of the nonprofit partnership as providing a bridge between regional, state and federal policymakers. Sometimes its goal is to make state or federal leaders aware of local issues, other times it's about helping connect leaders to grassroots groups within the various local communities.
Matthews joined the partnership in 2004 as the public affairs manager and took over as executive director in 2005. He got his start in advocacy working on the staff of state Sen. Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, and later served as manager of public policy and public affairs at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
One of the key skills Matthews has learned during his career in the policy sphere is patience.
"Things do move slowly, so it's really important to remember that," he says. "But by the same token, you have to recognize and appreciate the successes."
Matthews says the biggest success during his tenure at the partnership was an effort to change state statute to allow several communities to join regional transit districts. The small changed enabled the impacted towns to provide bus service to residents. The partnership has also worked hard to keep improvements to the intersection of interstates 290 and 495 on the priority list for transportation officials. The intersection, which features a sharp hairpin turn, has received federal funding for environmental review (a first step in the construction process), but was knocked off the state's regional transportation plan last summer. The partnership recently gathered a group of state and federal leaders to keep the project on peoples' minds in hopes that it will make it back on the priority list for redevelopment.
The MetroWest/495 Partnership has also joined with other groups in the region to begin investigating the potential impact of gaming if it were approved in the state. While Matthews says his organization won't take a stance on whether gaming should or should not be legalized, the group will be ready to help local leaders grapple with the fallout.
Last year, Matthews was selected to participate in the Ford Foundation Fellowship for Regional Sustainable Development. As part of the program, Matthews joined a group of 29 other regional development executives and met on three different occasions to learn about workforce, land use, transportation and competitiveness issues.
One of the most gratifying parts of being part of the fellowship has been rediscovering why the MetroWest region is so unique. When members of the group shared their profiles, MetroWest stood out because of its high education attainment levels. Nearly 50 percent of residents have a college degree, while nearly 20 percent have graduate degrees or the professional equivalent.
"I was with people from the South, the Midwest, areas of the country where college graduation rates might be 15 percent," he says. "It was really interesting how that reflects well on this region."
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