West End Community Center - CT - Hartford

The West End Community Center provides Hartford residents with educational, cultural, and workforce development services.

Description:
We serve residents in need of employment, information and technology-based services; cultural and recreational enrichment activities; and inter-agency referrals to other community supports like food, shelter, and housing. Priorities are serving low-income adults, Hartford teenagers and youth, and local seniors. The Center is also a social resource and public meeting place for organizations like the West End Civic Association. In 2007, the Center developed a new Community Technology and Learning Center (CTLC), where basic literacy instruction and adult education, English as a Second Language (ESOL), and access to other online services and activities are held. The Center’s new capacity provides residents with over (30) thirty computer stations equipped with MS Office 2007 and other educational supports. The CTLC now provides support for our 2010 Neighborhood Workforce and Technology Program, which serves as an employment depot for on-line job search and applications, recruitment and training workshops, resume preparation, and other workforce development activities.

History:
WECC was created in 2002, and is the legacy of neighborhood resident advocacy and organizing efforts, which began in 1999, for a central place within the neighborhood for community-based services to take place. The West End is sometimes thought of as a middle-income neighborhood, but in fact it has a low home ownership rate and a high poverty rate. Prior to the creation of WECC, there was no community center that served the West End, and especially its low-income youth and families. WECC has been critical in filling that gap and its preservation and sustainability is important to the entire community.

Contact person: Deborah L.S. Garner, Executive Director, (phone), (email)

Main office number: (860) 232-8081
Office fax number: (860) 882-0499

Address:

461 Farmington Ave. Hartford, CT 06105 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.thewestendcommunity.org

Last updated on January 13, 2010