Borough of Brooklyn Center for Arts and Technology (BoBCAT) offering living-wage career opportunities to under- and unemployed New Yorkers

BoBCAT addresses the persistent unemployment and underemployment of Black and LatinX people in New York City with a focus on Brooklyn.

We offer Soft Skills Training Workshop (SST) as well as mentorship support for graduates of the SST programs. In SST, we teach candidates the basics of career search and retention: timeliness, professionalism, respectful communication skills among colleagues and bosses, resume writing, interview skills, basic financial literacy, and we assist them in completing their applications to BuildingWorks carpentry pre-apprenticeship program.

We hope to raise funds for salaries for programs, pay trainers and coordinators, and launch ten soft skills training sessions. 
 

• We communicate regularly with the public to increase awareness of our activities, this includes daily, weekly, and monthly information blasts about our Soft Skills Training programs and about the BuildingWorks Carpentry pre-apprenticeship program.
• We work with the Tremco Rising Stars construction education program, providing financial literacy seminars to the students in their program. We are currently working to expand our activities with this program.
• As needed, we advertise living wage career opportunities on our website. 

BoBCAT was established by a group of concerned professionals, many of whom originally hail from BoBCAT's target neighborhoods in Brooklyn, to address the problem of chronically high unemployment among underrepresented populations. 

In February 2024, the unemployment rate in New York City was 5.1%, while the national average was 3.9% (BLS). Even after recovering from mass unemployment rates due to COVID-19, New York City still struggles to return in full force. Our goal is to energize people of underrepresented populations in neighborhoods such as East Flatbush, Bedford Stuyvesant, East New York, and Brownsville, where unemployment rates can often be higher. Additionally, we serve those who struggle to find living-wage careers due to a lack of a college degree in an increasingly expensive city. 

BoBCAT believes that everyone, regardless of their background, socio-economic status, and life experiences, deserves a chance to build a successful career and live a self-sufficient life. That is why we offer training tracks to suit many different talents and skill sets, in addition to career mentorship opportunities for those motivated to create a better life for themselves and their communities. BoBCAT is excited to be at the forefront of neighborhood transformation, to create new jobs alongside employer partners, and to support individuals as they traverse their newly chosen career paths.