Greetings, friends.
The last time we connected, construction of NECAT’s Boston Center was just getting into full swing, and our leadership team was taking shape. We’re pleased to
share with you several major developments, including the facts that construction and finish work are near completion, our chef’s kitchen is ready to fire up, our classrooms are ready to receive NECAT’s inaugural class, and we are preparing for imminent launch!
We’ll open our doors in mid-September to the adults who’ll call our Center home for more than five months, as they learn job, career, and social skills that will last them a lifetime. Our formal ribbon cutting will be on October 10 –
please hold the date! As we move this journey into high gear, we’re grateful for your support, and we encourage you to keep an eye on NECAT, because the biggest things are yet to come.
– Maarten Hemsley, NECAT Founder and Chairman
– Richard Ward, NECAT Executive Director.
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PROGRAMMING & LAUNCH NEWS
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NECAT will begin its first Culinary Arts job-training class in mid-September.
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This program will accommodate 54 students each year, in three classes of 18.
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The 28 week culinary program includes 22 weeks of in-house training, Monday through Thursday, from 9am-3pm, and a six-week, full-time internship. Graduates will leave our program
with a diploma, ServSafe credentials and emergency first aid qualifications.
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Upon completion of NECAT's accreditation process within two years, students will receive a diploma accredited by the American Culinary Federation, an industry standard-bearer.
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Tuition will be covered for students thanks to the support of public and private funders, in order to provide greater access to those who need it most - high quality training
for low-income and under-employed adults. Our goals are to provide the best possible training to position these adults for jobs in growth sectors.
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We have developed partnerships and strong working relationships with academic powerhouses and employers, including Johnson & Wales University, Sodexo’s healthcare division,
City Fresh Foods, and Snap Chef, providing a full array of staff for universities, hospitals, restaurants, corporate clients and other employers in the hospitality industry.
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LEADERSHIP TEAM NEWS
You already know that NECAT’s day-to-day operations will be managed by our very capable Executive Director,
Richard Ward, a veteran leader and visionary in Greater Boston’s work-driven social development community.
We’re also pleased to announce
Joel Nitzberg’s appointment as Director of Programs and Terry Willet’s appointment as Culinary Director.
For the better part of three decades, Joel has dedicated his professional and personal lives to helping Boston and the surrounding communities' most disadvantaged residents reach their potential.
He began his career at a sheltered workshop in New York City, working as a carpenter and later serving as a group and individual counselor using candle-making as a means to teach and enhance social and work skills of developmentally disabled adults. Nitzberg,
who holds master’s degrees in social work and education, has been a high school career counselor and community educator.
He has also served as a senior faculty member at Cambridge College and was founder and director of the school’s Institute for Lifelong Learning and Community Building, with a mission to collaborate with businesses and organizations to create customized educational
services, combining workforce development with academics. Prior to joining NECAT, Joel served at the national level as board member and President of the National Community Education Association, and most recently was La Alianza Hispana’s Director of Education
and Workforce Development.
Chef Willet’s curriculum vitae is equally impressive. He brings a wealth of experience and personal traits that make him well suited for his new role. For more than 15 years, Chef Willet has worked in and managed restaurants, foodservice in retirement homes,
catering operations and university dining services – the latter a position in which he managed more than 150 full-time student workers. He’s also been a manager in the IT field.
With knowledge of recipe and menu development, food and labor costing, and food industry-related software system design, Chef Willet brings the kind of eclectic background necessary to teach and inspire the adults that NECAT will serve.
Announcing Willet's appointment, NECAT Executive Director Richard Ward said: “Our selection of Chef Willet was based on a number of factors. First and foremost was his professional experience working in the food industry, and his years as a culinary instructor.
His passion for this was very clear, as was his love of teaching and commitment to the rewards of seeing students reach beyond their everyday challenges to find success. With empathy for people, humor and optimism, commitment to the industry, management experience,
and instructional expertise working with adult learners in a classroom setting Chef Willet is a perfect fit for NECAT.”
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MORE FUNDING SECURED FOR NECAT
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Among our newest developments is a $1.5 million capital grant to NECAT, that was announced at a press conference
in Roxbury on July 19 by Governor Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, and Greg Bialecki, State Secretary of Housing & Economic Development.
The grant, offered through the MassDevelopment Community Service Loan Fund, will speed both completion of construction of NECAT’s Boston Center and NECAT’s ability to help the Commonwealth achieve its goals of strong, stable communities. “NECAT’s job training
program fits MassDevelopment’s mission of supporting strong communities and skilled jobs,” said Marty Jones, MassDevelopment president and CEO.
“By targeting investments where they maximize new opportunities, leverage private funds and can benefit a wide range of interests, we are working to support business and community development well into the future,” said Bialecki.
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At the press conference, NECAT Founder and Chairman Maarten Hemsley expressed gratitude to
Patrick, Menino, Bialecki, Jones, and David Bancroft, MassDevelopment’s Senior VP for Community Development, among others, for their moral, financial, and strategic support.
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Hemsley also talked about the inspiration for NECAT and the organization’s bright, immediate future. “Our mission
is to establish in Boston the successful educational programs developed in Pittsburgh by Bill Strickland, that have already been replicated in six other cities across the US,” Hemsley said. “We will launch with a 28-week culinary arts job-training program
targeted at unemployed and underemployed adults – with a critical difference: NECAT is partnering with industry employers to ensure that, when they graduate, our students will have a living-wage job and a step on a career ladder.
“All of our job-training programs will be at no cost to students. We are also working with the local medical and healthcare industries to launch Medical Technician job-training programs early next year.”
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In preparation for our mid-September launch, construction will be completed at NECAT’s headquarters in August. Our
11,000 square foot, second floor space includes this large teaching kitchen equipped to suit the best of chefs and on par with the food preparation spaces of some of Boston’s finest restaurants.
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Our 100-seat multi-purpose auditorium has a purpose-built demonstration kitchen, a wealth of natural lighting, and
video instruction capabilities.
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The gallery space is near completion; it’s where we’ll display our student artists’ work in the future, and we will
also host and service special events in these spaces.
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Our board room, offices, and classrooms have rounded third base, as well.
Our Phase 2 construction on the 6,000 square foot third floor of the Center will include more job training space, as well as “lab” space for youth arts programming.
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LEGISLATIVE NEWS
NECAT is thrilled to report that, as Brockway, PA opened a new center in May, and ConnCAT in New Haven, CT celebrated its first anniversary, the National Program for Arts and Technology Act was reintroduced in both houses of Congress by U.S. Senators Bob Casey
(D-PA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and U.S. Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA14).
What S.1055 and H.R.2152 – identical bills – mean to NECAT and its supporters is this: Federal support to assist organizations like ours as we help unemployed and underemployed adults acquire workplace skills that are currently in demand. The bill is modeled
after the work being done by Bill Strickland's Manchester Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh.
“Manchester Bidwell has successfully provided adults and at-risk youth with valuable skills to make them competitive in the workforce,” said Senator Casey. “The National Program for Arts and Technology Act would use these successes to help people across the
country to attain the same results. I can think of no better program to replicate nationwide.”
Representative Doyle added: “For years the Manchester Bidwell Training Center has been providing people with the skills they need to get decent jobs – jobs that make it possible to support a family. In recent years, the Center has shown that its successful
model for education and job training can be replicated in other communities. I think it only makes sense to build on what’s worked and establish a federal program to create similar centers in economically distressed communities across the country.”
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