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      Grand Opening: Workforce Innovation & Talent Center in Pittsburgh, PA

      August 27, 2021

      We’re in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s historic Hill District to attend the grand opening of a new Workforce Innovation and Talent Center (or WITC). It’s just one of many new facilities housed inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church, providing a myriad of services to local residents, from job training to 24-hour daycare.

      “The power of partnerships drives our ability to unlock individuals’ potential…For those who are underrepresented in our workplaces and underserved in our communities,” David Casey, SVP, Workforce Strategies & Chief Diversity Officer at CVS Health, who was onsite to cut the ribbon alongside Pastor Campbell and others, little more than a year after CVS Health committed nearly $600 million to social justice and equity.

      Mayor William Peduto, also in attendance shared, “This critical service will benefit children, it will benefit those that are looking for employment. It will benefit those in their elder years who need just a little bit of help. They're not asking for a handout, they're asking for a hand up.”

      Bringing change to Pittsburgh with WITC, Part 2

      Now that the new WITC has opened, host Melissa Eagan speaks with some of those who will actually make change real, moving forward.

      As Sean Ware, the Pittsburgh WITC manager says, “A pharmacy tech class came through. They came in their civilian clothes and, when the class started, you could see the reaction on their face, It's just another class. But it's amazing, because when their provider brought in their scrubs and they actually went and changed and came back, it was like a completely different class. It's like they had meaning now. So to see that, and then to actually have some people graduate and be hired on by CVS, uh, it's a life-changing event.”

      In this Healthy Communities News podcast episode, we speak with Sean, Julian McGee, one of the first WITC interns, who’s a junior studying communications and marketing at Bethany College, and Brett Wormsley, Program Manager at Ebenezer Outreach Ministries and Director of Technology, Ebenezer Baptist Church.