Aliyya Swaby Photo
City kids are about to get a tech boost, thanks to a center that opened Thursday on Grand Avenue.
The Urban League of Southern Connecticut partnered with Comcast to open the Comcast Training and Technology Center, which will give students access to new technological equipment. City and state officials gathered at the center, housed at Urban League’s 458 Grand Ave. facilities, for the grand opening Thursday afternoon.
Mayor Toni Harp said the center will help “bridge the glaring divide” between students who don’t have adequate access to technology and those that do. “Without digital dexterity today’s students remain at a competitive disadvantage,” she said.
Comcast donated $25,000 — $10,000 to build the lab itself and $15,000 to support the Urban League’s workforce training program, which will provide employment services for the unemployed. Comcast also feted its “Internet Essentials” program, which provides low-income American families with low-cost high-speed Internet for $9.95 plus tax per month and the option to buy a computer for less than $150, as well as free digital literacy training.
It’s no longer possible for someone to “make a middle-class living without a high level of skill,” said State Sen. Martin Looney. He said his father drove a forklift for the Winchester Arms Factory without a background in higher education.
Students of color should be learning more than the standard Microsoft Office programs, said Urban League President Valarie Shulz-Wilson. At the center, they will have the option to learn programs like Quickbooks and Excel. Starting Oct. 1, Girls Who Code, a New York-based program to teach young women programming and web development, will launch at the center, she said, “to make sure our young girls have options.”
