Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology (BCAT) staff hosted a delegation from Belfast, Northern Ireland today for a tour and discussion so Irish officials can learn more about BCAT as they consider the model for a planned Center for Arts & Technology in Belfast. The tour was part of a visit hosted by State Representative Timothy Kennedy and included a number of local dignitaries who attended to learn more and lend their perspective.
The group toured facilities that currently house BCAT’s high school afterschool arts & technology program and its workforce training programs in Allied Health and IT in its current location on Main Street in Buffalo. Both programs are designed to engage, strengthen skills, and open doors to opportunity and financial security for their high school and adult students. The majority of BCAT students face significant barriers to successful futures including poverty, trauma, racism, and other issues.
The Belfast delegation included Lord Mayor of Belfast and Councillor Ryan Murphy of Belfast, Northern Ireland and three other members of the Belfast City Council who focus on economic development.
Officials in Belfast are planning to develop a “CAT” program for Belfast residents and are currently working with Strickland Global Leadership Institute, whose leader, Bill Strickland, created the model and founded the initial center – The National Center for Arts & Technology in Pittsburgh. Strickland recommended that the group visit Buffalo to learn more from one of the most successful programs of the thirteen that exist in the United States and Internationally.
In its ten year history, BCAT has successfully offered programs to high school students and adults as they discover pathways to positive, economically secure futures. BCAT has a 100% high school graduation rate and an 85% job certification rate for its adult students. High School students are prepared for their postsecondary transition and adults are prepared for employment in mid-skill jobs with sustaining wages.
