New East NY Job Center Promises to Train and Employ Local Residents

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — To combat widespread unemployment in East New York, a new workforce center just opened in the neighborhood to help pair local residents with good local jobs, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday. The Workforce1 Career Center on Atlantic Avenue was included as part of the rezoning deal in East New York that passed six months ago.

The population of East New York has more young people out of school and out of work than other surrounding neighborhoods, as well as people who were formerly court-involved, according to Council Member Rafael Espinal, who represents the district. The city said it is working closely with East New York community groups to tailor the workforce center to these specific needs of the people of East New York.

"We are investing in the people of East New York. We are committed to providing the training, the education and the job-placements families need to work their way into the middle class," the mayor said in a statement.

"While the unemployment rate nationally has been steadily decreasing, Brooklyn's rate of unemployment has consistently remained above the national level and in East New York unemployment is in the double digits – as high as 14 percent in 2015," Council Member Espinal said. "That is why I pushed so hard to secure this Workforce1 Center as part of the East New York Neighborhood Rezoning Plan. After all, a house is not affordable without a job."

Council Member Espinal worked with de Blasio on a $267 million capital investment plan for East New York to not only bring good paying jobs to the community, but also to bring a new 1,000-seat school, child-care center, better sidewalks and playgrounds, and free public Wi-Fi.

"Job placement and training are vital tools to closing the inequality gap, particularly for a neighborhood that has suffered from the impact of extended double-digit unemployment," Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said.

The Workforce 1 Career Center will work with local organizations to connect people looking for jobs with the perfect job for them by using recruitment expertise, industry knowledge, and skill-building workshops to strengthen their employment prospects. There will be specific workshops offered to young people who dropped out of school and are out of a job, as well as to people who were formerly in the criminal justice system. The center will also offer resume and interview prep and the development of other skills that will come in handy when seeking a job.

In 2014, over 4,000 East New York residents went one of the city's 19 Workforce1 Centers somewhere else in the city to get a job, and over 600 of them got a job through the center. The hope is that more East New Yorkers than before will utilize Workforce 1 now that it's closer to their homes.

The Workforce1 Career Center is located at 2619 Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn and is open 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Monday – Friday.

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