The Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania broke ground Friday on a $2.5 million facility for its
Youth Enterprise Zone program. The program, founded in 1999, currently runs its social venture business activities out of several Lawrenceville facilities. The new building will house all Boys & Girls Club workforce development training services under one roof.
“At Boys & Girls Club we utilize a lot of national models that have already been field tested. This is something we’re starting in Pittsburgh that we anticipate being adopted around the country,” says Mike Hepler with the Boys & Girls Club.
The Youth Enterprise Zone Mini-Mall and Training Center, on the 52nd block of Butler Street in Lawrenceville, will be near both the Boys & Girls Club administrative offices and
Career Connections Charter High School, which feeds a large number of paid teen employees into the program.
The 22,000 square-foot facility, which will serve at least 200 teens per year, has been in the planning stages for two years, and will seek LEED Silver certification. The two-floor center, with design contributions by New Products Concept and Design Group out of New Jersey, will feature classrooms and offices, as well as a street-level, teen-managed food service and retail area open to the public.
“Not all young adults who go through this program are going to become business owners,” says Hepler. “But whatever they do, they’re going to take these workforce skills with them.”
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Caralyn GreenSource: Mike Hepler, president and CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania
Image courtesy URA