Jobless, Ex-Cons Get Chance To Become Chefs

A Science Park-based training center has a new mission: turning unemployed and underemployed New Haveners into chefs and prep cooks, then placing them in jobs.

That is the latest addition to the growing menu of programs at the Connecticut Center for Art & Technology (ConnCAT), which opened in 2012. ConnCAT already offers vocational programs in phlebotomy and medical coding for adults and arts programming for students. Having served over 100 adults since opening, ConnCAT has seen 55 graduates with an 87 percent placement rate into jobs at places like Yale-New Haven Hospital.

The culinary training program is planned to start in September 2015. This past Thursday night, at an event to announce and celebrate the expansion, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven announced an additional commitment of $700,000 over three years to help ConnCAT recognize its expanded goals.

Reaching The Men

According to ConnCAT CEO and President Erik Clemons, the new program will enable ConnCAT to reach an important population – formerly incarcerated people trying to integrate themselves back into society.

“The medical training program has been a great success, but it didn’t allow us to completely address the issue of re-entry in New Haven. We wanted to see what we could do to expand the organization and stay relevant in terms of training and addressing that problem,” Clemons said. ​“In the [culinary] field of work, your criminal record is not as big a barrier as it can be in the medical field.”

While the medical programs have had tremendous placement at hospitals and clinics throughout the area, most students and graduates are female, according to ConnCAT board Chair Carlton Highsmith.

“We’re not attracting the number of men into our training programs we’d like to see. It seems women are more attracted to phlebotomy and medical coding,” Highsmith said. ​“New Haven is the restaurant capital. Everyone comes to eat here, and we think culinary training will be relevant to what occupations are here.”

The 11-month program will add over 30 new adults and build a new cafe at ConnCAT open to the public; the cafe will eventually be operated by ConnCAT students. According to Career Pathways Manager Odell Cooper (pictured), students will earn certification in the first month, start cooking at the ConnCAT café by month 4, rise to a managerial role in an internship at the cafe in month 10, and then do an externship at a restaurant, hotel, or other business in month 11.

“There is potential for huge impact, not just for folks who come here but for the entire community,” Clemons said. ​“This is about how we change the urban landscape by giving people hope and doing something about their dreams by giving them training and life skills.”

In addition to adult programs, ConnCAT offers arts programming for students in areas such as painting, digital media, music, and spoken word. The group also opened a center at Lincoln-Bassett School recently to help offer programming and lead the turnaround effort at the school.

ConnCAT’s programs are free, and according to Director of Development Lucy Diaz, ConnCAT has strong relationships with a number of community agencies that refer adults and support the programming.

Will Ginsberg (pictured with city government policy specialist Mendi Blue and Yale child psychologist James Comer), president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, announced the new $700,000 commitment to ConnCAT in addition to its initial commitment of $1 million over four years at the very beginning of the process.

“This has been a fantastic success in terms of the way institutions and philanthropy have gotten on board,” Ginsberg said. ​“It’s based on a core idea, which is if you treat people right and give them access to world-class programs and facilities, they will respond in a different way. ConnCAT has proven this, and we are deeply and enormously proud of what they’ve done.”

The Inspiration

ConnCAT’s model of arts programming for students and job training for adults is actually based on a center in Pittsburgh, founded by Bill Strickland 40 years ago. The center offers vocational education in culinary arts, medical technology, chemical technology, and horticulture, in addition to other services for students and adults.

After Strickland’s inaugural center, eight other centers have been built: San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Boston, Brockway (PA), and New Haven. He hopes to expand the number of centers to 200 – 100 in the US and 100 abroad.

Strickland, a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award, came to New Haven for the reception and recounted his personal story: While attending public school, he was motivated and inspired by a teacher who got him excited about being artistic with clay. When Strickland went on to attend the University of Pittsburgh, he decided to get kids on the street to work with clay, and when he saw those kids improve their attendance and involvement at school, he knew he was onto something.

“I realized, maybe nothing is wrong with the kids. Maybe it’s the system that’s wrong,” Strickland said. ​“Treat people like human beings increases the chance they’ll behave that way. … This is not a center, it’s a culture: it’s a way of thinking about human beings reflected in programs.”

He then built a center in Pittsburgh to expand on the idea that students and adults will thrive if they are provided with a nurturing, welcoming, and bright environment, and over the last 20 years, the students who go through the program have enjoyed a 90% graduation rate. The center also serves adults, with 200 in vocational training and 300 in academic lessons on subjects such as reading and math.

Ginsberg brought Strickland to New Haven to speak at a foundation event in 2000, and a group including Mayor Toni Harp later went to visit the center Strickland built in Pittsburgh.

“It was a beautiful place that really inspired people, and we asked Bill what it would take to come to New Haven,” Mayor Harp recounted. ​“He said it would take a lot of work, but now it’s become a reality.”