Through a wide variety of programs, the Salesians make skills training in the latest technologies a priority in order for their students to keep up with the ever-changing job market. On-going partnerships between Salesian schools and local employers in the school communities help bridge the gap between classroom and workplace.

Here in the United States, the Don Bosco Community Center in Port Chester, New York is the site of a brand new computer lab made possible by CMIT Solutions of Southern Westchester and a donation from Richard Cashin and Robert Niehaus. Consisting of five Windows-based PC’s, six Macs, laser printers and a Mondopad, the new lab, staffed with instructors from The Digital Arts Experience in White Plains, will help disadvantaged youth learn necessary computer skills that can lead to future employment.

“We’re trying to expose children in Port Chester to this technology to get them ready for real life and teach them how to collaborate digitally,” said Paul Okura, president of CMIT Solutions, in a recent Port Chester Daily Voice article about the new computer lab. “By giving the children the opportunity to be exposed to technology at a younger age, they will be no different in their ability to tap into the digital world.”

Students without computer skills often have a tougher time competing in the job market and not just within technology fields. As other employment sectors such as nursing, finance and law move online, students who are unable to navigate the digital world will find themselves struggling to compete for livable wage employment, as Okura further elaborates in the press release.

“By the time these children grow up, they’re going to be much more competitive. They have no barriers, they will absorb information like a sponge, and will be much more technology savvy than their parents,” he adds.

The new computer lab is just one of many services offered at the Don Bosco Community Center, which has been an integral part of the Port Chester community for over eighty years. Other services include a soup kitchen and food pantry, educational programming for youth and adults and help for new immigrants and Port Chester’s long-time residents who have lived near or in poverty for years. The Community Center’s services are open to all, including adult men and women, parents in need, immigrant and day laborers and the elderly, unemployed, working poor and homeless.

###

Sources:

Don Bosco Community Center Port Chester, NY – Website

Port Chester Daily Voice: Port Chester’s Don Bosco Center Launches New Computer Lab

The post UNITED STATES: New Computer Lab Enables the Teaching of Computer Skills to Prepare Youth for Employment first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The Center provides a soup kitchen, food pantry and educational programming for youth and adults. It also offers services to new immigrants and Port Chester’s long-time residents who have lived near or in poverty for years. Services are open to all adult men and women including parents in need, the elderly, the unemployed, the working poor, the immigrant and day laborers as well as the homeless.

“The primary goal of all our programs is to facilitate integration, increase self-sufficiency and decrease community tension while promoting the healthy development of youth, families and immigrants in Port Chester,” said Father Richard Alejunas, the executive director of the Don Bosco Community Center.

Since 2005, Salesian Missions has made substantial contributions to Don Bosco Community Center youth outreach programs by providing funding for building improvements and most recently, scholarship and financial aid assistance for its youth summer day camp.

Specifically for youth, the Don Bosco Community Center provides a Boys and Girls Club during the school year which offers a hot meal program to its members after school and on weekends. During the summer, the Community Center runs a youth recreational camp that operates from late June into August.

While camp costs roughly $700 per camper, past funding from Salesian Missions provided enough scholarships to enable 150 youth to attend camp free of charge. There, youth are able to participate in team sports, socialize with their peers and engage in skill-building activities. In addition, campers are provided breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks. For working parents, both before care and after care are available.

“The entire Village of Port Chester benefits from this project as well as all of the Community Center’s activities,” said Fr. Alejunas. “Our local community is becoming younger and poorer at the same time. Anything we can do to alleviate poverty and increase the quality of life of the young and our neighbors is not a luxury or an extravagance, but essential to building civic society.”

Most recently, the Don Bosco Boys and Girls Club launched Café Alma, a new culinary arts training program at the Community Center. The new program is part of a $2 million expansion aimed at enhancing the quality of life and providing future career prospects to the more than 1,000 youth that utilize the center each year. In June, a culinary educational pilot program for teens ages 13 to 19 began in the existing kitchen at Don Bosco. The hope is that the program will move into its new home when the building addition is constructed in 2013.

The expansion has drawn the attention of numerous Port Chester restauranteurs including Chef Rafael Palomino (owner of Sonora), Sasa Mahr-Batuz and Andy Pforzheimer (owners of Bartaco) and Chef Andy Nusser (co-owner of Tarry Lodge). Local chefs will help develop the curriculum for the new culinary program and Chef Palomino has pledged his support to outfit the new culinary arts training center with state-of-the-art equipment.

“Our kids have big aspirations from owning restaurants to running their own businesses,” said Fr. Alejunas. “The expansion and this educational initiative will provide them the resources they need to achieve these goals.”

###

Sources:

Don Bosco Community Center Port Chester, NY – Website

The post UNITED STATES: Salesians Support Local Youth through Don Bosco Community Center in Port Chester, NY first appeared on MissionNewswire.