Friday, October 17, 2008

Proposed Kroc Center would benefit city work force

If one simple step would improve the lives of thousands of children, create a stronger work force for the high tech and health-care industries and leverage tens of millions of dollars for development, you’d take it. Right now, a gift amounting to $85.5 million is waiting for us — New England’s business, tech and foundation leadership — to claim it. In doing so, we will follow the lead of business communities in San Francisco and San Diego. And the prize will be construction of a Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center for the Uphams-Dudley neighborhood of Boston, which will offer more than 100 programs for toddlers, teens, parents and the elderly.

Mrs. Kroc bequeathed $1.5 billion to the Salvation Army to create 30 community centers of opportunity, education, recreation and inspiration all across the United States. San Diego was the first of these, and the Salvation Army in San Francisco opened its center this past summer. The Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Uphams-Dudley will be the only such facility in New England. The mission is comprehensive and transformational: to support the development of the mind, body and soul of neighborhood residents at virtually every stage of their lives. Some 58,000 people — 19,000 of them children — live within a one-mile radius of the planned site, which is on Dudley Street between Burgess and Clifton.

In the short term, in its specific neighborhood, the Kroc Center will make a huge difference in the lives of those who surround it. Residents will suddenly have an opportunity to join a theater group, learn to paint or sculpt, swim, go to Bible study, receive guidance on nutrition, fitness, child-rearing or the care of elderly parents. The center will immediately provide 300 construction jobs as well as 25 full-time and 85 part-time positions when up and running.

We all stand to gain with the Kroc Center — not least of which includes the business community of Massachusetts and the rest of New England.

Community leaders in San Francisco and San Diego — soon to be joined by Memphis and Atlanta — know that the future belongs to the regions that best prepare their residents for the world of work. As we all compete for the best industries and companies, we know that a question at the top of the list from those searching for headquarters and expansion opportunities is “where do I find the workers?” The Boston Kroc Center will be a vital resource in preparing young people to take their place as productive members of society because it will offer substantive academic and vocational training.

With thousands of Boston youths using the facility annually, the Kroc Center will become a crucial component in training the next generation of workers and leaders in everything from business to academia to the arts. Specific courses will be aimed at helping Boston teens prepare for college, technical school or the job market. Education components will include English as a second language, literacy training, computer training in a lab environment, culinary education in a teaching kitchen, entrepreneurial training, work force development and the necessary skills of test and interview preparation. The Salvation Army and Kroc Center staff will work to identify the needs of the job market and help prepare that work force.

The one simple step that separates us from having this resource under construction in Boston is the last leg of fundraising needed to leverage Joan Kroc’s unprecedented donation. Joan Kroc — the widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc — designated her multimillion-dollar gift to establish and maintain New England’s Kroc Community Center, but with the stipulation that we locally raise $30 million to complete the $115.5 million project. We are well under way to meeting that target, with about $10 million raised locally and roughly $20 million to go before we can break ground.

The target to get started on building is 2009, and the Salvation Army is hopeful the project will be done and serving the region by 2011. It’s only a step away — and it is a step well worth taking.

 

Norman Strate is president of TBS Technologies, former CEO of publicly traded Protonex Technology Corp. and is a member of the Salvation Army’s Kroc Community Center Leadership Advisory Committee. He can be reached at NStrate@aol.com.