The Brentwood Center (Long Island): A Community-Based Workforce Development Hub

JLP+D was engaged by Suffolk County to lead a team with the Regional Plan Association to create a Business Plan for a first-of-its-kind community-based workforce development center, which houses the National Offshore Wind Training Center, in Brentwood, NY. The participating agencies include Suffolk County Department of Labor, Licensing and Consumer Affairs; Department of Social Services; Department of Economic Development and Planning; and Industrial Development Agency.

The Brentwood Center is a hub for community-based economic development that builds on a multi-year community and stakeholder engagement process and strives to address both the social vulnerability challenge in the Brentwood community and the regional industrial development goals for high-growth sectors. With a dual objective of making workforce development, community and recreational opportunities, and human and social services more accessible to vulnerable youth, their family members, and other children and adult population, while enhancing the talent pipelines for Long Island’s key industry sectors such as Offshore Wind, the Brentwood Center proposes innovative programming, service models, and a state-of-the-art community facility to deliver both local and regional benefits. This will be a place for the community members to connect and for diverse public and private stakeholders to collaborate, fostering a positive environment of individual enrichment, community wellbeing, and regional growth.

For this endeavor, JLP+D engaged a wide variety of industry associations; employers; educational institutions and workforce training providers; workforce development boards; government stakeholders; organized labor; wraparound, human, and social services providers; and community-based organizations and other non-profit partners. The business plan includes a detailed description of the Center’s target population, priority sectors and occupations, program services tailored to the needs of the industries and the participants, community and social service programming, and operating planning, which includes budget, staffing, and action plan.