Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 7-9-21

Feature
The Skills Center Is Set To Break Ground For New Facility In The Fall
By Monique Stamps Sentinel Staff Writer
The conceptual designs for The Skills Center Collab- orative, a 55,000 square foot state of the art facility in East Tampa, have been revealed.
The new facility, located at 5107 N 22nd Street, Tampa, FL 33610, will hold the Skills Center’s new innovative joint venture aimed at leveling the playing field in education, health, and workforce readi- ness for underserved Tampa youths.
The tentative date to break ground will be in Octo- ber or November 2021.
The organization acquired
Celeste Roberts ...Executive Director and Co-
Founder of The Skills Center
the property in April with the assistanceofCapExAdvisory Group, GEMM Develop- ment,andTheReinvestment
Fund. The facility will in- clude a job training and edu- cation room, a health and
The rendering of the New Skills Center
nutrition demonstration kitchen, 3 gymnasiums, multi-purpose areas, co- working offices, and event space.
The last building where the Center was housed wasn’t spacious enough for all of the programs and plans. They moved out of the old building in April and will be in a temporary space pro- vided by the City of Tampa, near Riverfront Park.
“We are so excited to be moving back to East Tampa where we got our start,” stated Celeste Roberts, Executive Director of The Skills Center.
The $13 million project is expected to create 180 jobs, serve 3,500 youths, and pro- duce economic impact of more than $25 million in East Tampa over the next five years.
It is being financed through a combination of private capital, public and philanthropic funding, with early support from the Spurlino Foundation, MLSE Foundation, the Vinik Fam- ily Foundation, Bloomin’ Brands, and the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.
“The biggest impact for our young people will be the ability to attain the skill set they will need to be success- ful and self-sufficient. Grad- uation from high school, college prep, and vocational guidance are all things that we strive for at the Center. For the last 14 years, we've been fortunate to build the relationships necessary to make the vision a reality: A
place where every young per- son will have the opportunity to attain the skills needed to excel in life and work,” said Roberts.
Along with fellow co- founders John Arroyo and Chris Ward, Roberts is excited about the future.
The Skills Center Collab- orative is a joint partnership with four Black led nonprofit organizations: Computer Mentors Group, Girls Em- powered Mentally for Suc- cess, Men of Vision and CDC of Tampa.
“We have reimagined youth success delivered in an innovation service model, made up of multiple youth serving organizations work- ing collectively to create pos- itive outcomes for youth.” Roberts said.
Sponsorship and naming rights are available as The Skills Center raises the re- maining $4 million to com- plete the project. The facility will open in Fall 2022.
The Skills Center, created in 2007, is a sport-based youth development non- profit (501c3) that intention- ally utilizes athletics as the mechanism to create change through academic support, life skills, mentoring, and health & fitness for youth ages 3-18 in Tampa Bay.
Using sports as a power- ful learning tool, youth learn how to transfer and apply the skills learned naturally through sports to other envi- ronments in their lives, such as at school, work, home, and in their community.
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