The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology (PCAT)

A Model of Innovation and Achievement

The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology^® (PCAT) offers youth and young adults ages 14-24+ the opportunity to develop the academic, work, and life skills they need to thrive in the 21^st century.

Once an old warehouse, the building that houses PCAT is now a high-tech, state-of-the-art learning space, where youth receive academic instruction and personalized attention from caring adults, explore career pathways, and ready themselves for skilled positions in the high-growth fields of the arts, science, technology, and emerging "green" trades. PCAT is also a resource for students with more complex educational, social, or family issues; staff connect such individuals with appropriate supports in the community.

By design, PCAT programs expose students to areas of study and career opportunities seldom available to inner city populations. To accomplish this, PCAT relies on many regional organizations, businesses, and universities to provide world-class programming aligned with youth's interests and linked to post-secondary opportunities.

Program Offerings

• Orchestrating Leadership: This musically based leadership course introduces students to symphonic music while teaching communication, team building and time management skills.
• Music Means Business: Students learn the business side of the music industry and the recording process from industry experts and artists, explore related career pathways, and use professional tools to mix music, produce radio shows, and create webisodes.
• Mural Corps: Participants explore a variety of media and techniques in the visual arts and mural making in Philadelphia, the mural capital of the world.
• Technology Is Power^TM Seminar (TIPS): Young people build marketable technology skills through hands-on computer training and eventual certification in Microsoft Office programs.
• A New Path to Graduation in Northwest Philadelphia: Young people who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of high school receive individual instruction as they pursue an alternate, accredited route to earning a diploma.
• Teens-Go-Green^TM in Northwest Philadelphia: Local youth handle all aspects of an entrepreneurial grounds keeping and landscape architecture business, from design and marketing to finance and implementation.
• Seeds for Learning in Northwest Philadelphia: Through this novel urban farm, marketplace, and community lunch program, students acquire essential academic, business, and citizenship skills.
• Green Jobs Training Center: This program provides out-of-school youth with GED preparation, literacy and numeracy instruction, and paid on-the-job training, led by employers in one of three fields: sustainable agriculture, sustainable landscaping, or green building.

To learn more about PCAT or to register for courses, contact:

Ms. Claudia Averette
Director, Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology
2111-31 Eastburn Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19138
267-297-6231
pcat@foundationsinc.org

PCAT is a collaborative, community-based initiative spearheaded by the Office of Pennsylvania State Representative Dwight Evans, the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation, and Foundations, Inc.