Keila Torres Ocasio
Friday, November 21, 2014
ANSONIA – The WorkPlace opened its fourth American Job Center in the region this week at the Harry F. Ford Community Center on Fourth Street. The center will share the city-owned building with TEAM, the area’s anti-poverty agency, which has a community center that takes up the ground floor of the two-story building.
“This is fantastic for the residents of Ansonia and the (Naugatuck) Valley,” Mayor David Cassetti said Thursday at an event unveiling the new center. “Our unemployment rate is about 11 percent here in Ansonia. I believe this is going to help lower our unemployment rate.”
The statewide jobless rate is 6.4 percent.
The center will provide free services to the unemployed and underemployed, including computer classes, job skills workshops, personal counseling and skill testing. The agency also has services for specific populations, including youths and veterans.
Employers can post job openings in the center, get referrals of qualified applicants and gain access to worker training grants. “There was a need for it and I think it presents a great opportunity for those seeking services,” said state Sen. Joseph Crisco. “It’s all part of a bigger picture. That is: How do you make it better for people? And this is one of the better ways.”
The agency has its comprehensive center in Bridgeport and satellite offices in Stamford, Derby and now Ansonia.
“This is going to be as close to a full-service center as you can get,” said Joseph Carbone, president and CEO of The WorkPlace. “There’s very little we can’t do in a center like this. This is a small center, but it’s going to have all the resources it needs to make a difference for the people in this region.”
More than 35,000 people come through the agency’s doors each year. “Service centers like this are really the doorway for the American workforce system,” Carbone said.
Bill Purcell, president of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, said it was fitting that the new job center was “in the shadow” of the closed Ansonia Copper & Brass factory next door. The city is seeking to redevelop the site.
“It really speaks to the restructuring of the Valley and the city,” he said, “and the need to reinvent ourselves.”
Cassetti also announced on Thursday that The WorkPlace will grant space in the building for a range of services for veterans, which will be staffed with a member of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “This office will house the first-ever veterans affairs office in Ansonia,” he said.
At the event, The WorkPlace received a $15,000 check from the Valley Community Foundation. “The people in the Valley are just amazing,” said Sharon Closius, the foundation’s president. “If they are given the opportunity, they’re going to seize it.”
The grant will be used for The WorkPlace’s scholarship program.
“This will be used exclusively for folks in the Valley,” Carbone said. “This will amount to a few people getting a chance that they would not get otherwise.”
Article source: http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/The-WorkPlace-opens-Ansonia-job-center-5909054.php