Bridgehampton Child Care Center Offers Program on Wind Farm Work Opportunities

Currently, three offshore wind projects are slated to be constructed off the eastern end of Long Island. With that in mind, program managers and mentors from the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center will offer a free lecture series to high school students, ages 15 to 18, as an introduction to offshore wind and careers in the up-and-coming field.

The program series titled, “Introduction and Pathways to Wind,” will focus on new jobs in the field of offshore wind, and will be held on October 4, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the center, located at 551 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton.

During the program, students from all over the East End will be introduced to wind turbine operations and mechanics, wind turbine installation case studies, hands-on work with fundamental green energy principles and pathways to technical and nontechnical careers in wind energy.

“We’re trying to get students excited about some of the careers coming up in offshore winds,” Cathy Monacella, program director and mentor at the center, said on Wednesday during a phone conversation.

To make this all possible, the center is partnering with Suffolk Community College, Farmingdale State University, New York State Energy Research Development Authority and the New York Offshore Wind Training Institute to provide training and certifications necessary for employment, Monacella explained.

Marjaneh Issapour, associate dean of innovation and economic development in sustainable energy for the School of Engineering Technology at Farmingdale State College, said these lectures are designed to help students understand how wind energy is generated. The lectures are complemented with hands-on activities to make them tangible and relevant to students’ lives.

Issapour added that students will have the chance to visit the engineering technology school laboratories at Farmingdale State College as one of the two offsite field visits for students to see real world clean energy programs.

Guest speakers from the Long Island Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, Climate Jobs New York, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Community Offshore Wind, Ørsted & Eversource will share their experiences working with offshore wind.

The lecture series is part of a wider initiative titled, “Teach Me How To Fish,” a high skills workforce development program designed to help marginalized community members achieve a path of financial security through specialized skills. The goal is to aid marginalized community members by opening doors to opportunities that lead to career paths and upward economic mobility through targeted fields such as STEAM/IT, real estate, clean energy, trades and entrepreneurship.

Monacella has been mentoring and coaching students in the Hamptons, helping create LinkedIn accounts, resumes, and working on interviewing skills.

For the past two and a half years, Monacella and the team at the center have gotten students and other community members involved in technology and software engineering programs by helping with grants, scholarships, internships, and careers through “Teach Me How To Fish.”

“We think of the East End as being very wealthy, but not everyone is rich in the Hamptons,” Monacella explained.

For each career path, the center provides support to help ensure success — coaching, mentoring, counseling, life skills, resume building and self-marketing techniques. Each participant is assigned a life-coach to help guide them through the process, discuss life challenges and opportunities, job placement, and link them to other services.

“We hope that everyone will get a job,” Monacella said of the local students she is currently mentoring. One of her mentees scored a job with LinkedIn. Others are working with technology companies. “We have had great success. A lot of it depends on the effort the kids put in as well.”

“We want the students to prosper in careers that will give them financial freedom,” said Bonnie Cannon, executive director of the center, noting that many of the students are from marginalized communities.

“This program is unique,” Cannon added. “We are taking individuals that are nontraditional, that don’t have the chance to go to college. We’re giving them options through our industry track.”

The Child Care Center is a historically African American organization that serves East End marginalized children, families, and young adults. It supplements the training programs by providing human services, education, counseling, life coaching, financial aid, financial literacy training, health and wellness/nutrition counseling, food pantry, transportation, and most other services that are needed for those in the East End communities. Interested students can register at 631 537-0616. There is limited space.