ConnCAT Shows Results
The Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) is providing pathways to industry training and job placement.
 |
| ConnCAT students |
Externships are Key to Employment
Since opening in Science Park in 2012, the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) has provided affordable industry-specific job training to over 100 adult learners. Seventy two percent (72%) of the students in medical coding and phlebotomy programs who completed externships became employed. In addition, a new Career Pathways program includes weekly seminars, workshops, and examination prep groups to increase for placement. More than $1 million in grants from unrestricted funds and the Bessie Wessel Fund, which states an interest in the field of medical education, have supported ConnCAT since 2011.
ConnCAT provides market-relevant job training and placement services to under- and unemployed adults and multimedia arts education to under-achieving youth from low-income families from Greater New Haven. By providing industry-specific job training, ConnCAT is affording individuals the opportunity to help guide Greater New Haven into a brighter future. It's current training programs consist of medical coding and phlebotomy.
ConnCAT also provides after-school arts programming for a targeted urban youth student population identified as being at risk of dropping out of school. Youth-arts programs at ConnCAT are designed to educate and inspire any young person who has an interest in the arts and creative self-expression.
From Idea to Reality with Community Foundation Support
Conversations of creating a first-rate training facility such as ConnCAT in New Haven extend back to the early 2000s, when Foundation Board and staff and community leaders traveled to the acclaimed Manchester Bidwell facility in Pennsylvania. It was not until several years later in 2008, that The Community Foundation joined The United Illuminating Company, Empower New Haven, The William Casper Graustein Memorial Foundation and Yale-New Haven Hospital in funding a $150,000 study to determine the feasibility of creating a Center for Arts & Technology in New Haven to train and provide vocational skills to inner city students and adults. The study was completed in 2009 and The Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology (ConnCAT) officially opened its doors in 2011 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliate of the National Center for Arts & Technology.
For more information about ConnCAT, visit www.conncat.org
