Judy: Despite a robust job
market in the U.S. Right now,
the career path for some,
notably young people of color,
is often dampened by a lack of
skills needed for good jobs in
today's economy.
In Pittsburgh, one group is
trying to clear that path.
Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro
reports for the series agents
for change and arts and culture,
canvas.
Fred: It's a place where civic
and business leaders come to
visit, a place where leading
jazz artists regularly come to
perform.
But for most to enter its bright
spaces brimming with art, this
is a school, a training center
for many who struggled after
leaving high school and perhaps
didn't even graduate.
For various training programs,
these adult learners are able to
reset their career paths in
several in demand fields.
To be baker's, for example, or
chefs.
Chemical lab or pharmacy
technicians, clinical
assistants, or horticulturalist.
>> They signed up for
world-class training center.
Fred: Till Strickland founded an
institution now known as
Manchester Bidwell.
Its main building was recently
named in his honor.
A tough place he says when he
was growing up here.
>> On balance, I would say 30%
of my buddies ended up dead or
in a penitentiary by the time
they were 30 years old.
So it was that kind of
environment.
Fred: He fit right in, drifting
and failing in high school.
>> It was like I found what I
was looking for at the time.
What I'm trying to do is make my
pottery feel like the music,
elevated, fresh, bright,
hopeful.
Fred: That chance encounter with
an art teacher put them on a
lifelong journey, massaging clay
and his imagination with the
jazz always on.
He took the young Strickland
under his wing.
>> I said you are not like your
buddies, you are going to
college.
Fred: College put him on a solid
career path, including a stint
as a pilot.
He uses art and music to enhance
learning.
He began with an arts and
performance center in a row
house donated by the episcopal
diocese.
>> He introduced me to the
Mellon family and others.
Fred: Wealthy funders he would
later approach to support the
programs he had started in
construction work for people
being displaced by the dying
steel industry.
One was John Heinz, Pennsylvania
senator.
>> He said I want to hire some
black people for the food
industry.
I said I don't do food training.
I said senator, it looks like we
are going into the food training
business.
Fred: Today the popular culinary
programs benefit everyone.
>> This is the message.
Light, good food, the music is
oxygen.
>> Marty was hard to start the
music program years ago.
>> We built the program one
position at a time.
Fred: He used his connections to
attract big names like these
eagle sb.
>> Billy Taylor and max roach.
>> They have produced records
for major artists, earning five
grammy awards, and they have
sold millions of cds.
But it is the school outreach
that he says have enduring
impact.
>> Jazz is life.
Thousands of kids will be bussed
in for a series of concerts.
We know the musicians are
trusting each other implicitly.
Fred: That trust and respect are
evident in results, said Kevin
Jenkins, who took over the
day-to-day running from
Strickland several years ago.
As much as 15,000 students have
come through here over the
decades.
Some with checkered or criminal
past.
The only requirements for
admission are high school or a
basic reading test.
>> At all levels of the
organization, internally and
externally, it's about
relationships.
Fred: Relationships cemented by
free education, without which
most students would not be able
to attend.
>> The skies the limit.
You can do whatever you want.
We are not saying you have to do
it by yourself.
That is why we are here.
>> You walk in, there's like
that weird wire sculpture
hanging over the thing.
It makes me feel like this is a
space that promotes creativity,
and I like that.
Fred: Those attending here are
resetting career paths, but the
goal is to help set the path
earlier.
Hundreds of current public
school students come here after
school to explore the arts,
screenprinting, sewing,
photography, and of course,
ceramics.
This 16-year-old high school
student is the poster child
protege of bill Strickland.
He first came here six years ago
and recalls watching the
ceramics teacher.
>> The idea that a small thing
can turn into something that big
just got my brain interested.
Fred: An innate curiosity that
has been enriched over the years
by pottery, horticulture, and
robotics.
In his green house, he uses all
three.
>> It does everything from
weeding, seeding, growing.
>> Build a private school for
poor people, and you will be
close to the solution.
Fred: It's proximity to the
downtown made it an attraction
for redevelopment.
>> It's a short distance, but a
world away, absolutely.
Gourmet food and world-class art
can cure cancer of the spirit.
>> It is a model that is easily
replicated in it he's -- in any
city, he insists.
There are 13 centers, including
one in Israel.
Judy: What a wonderful story.
Fred's reporting is in
partnership with the undertow
stories partnership.