A health care workforce development nonprofit is expanding into a larger space with the purchase of an elementary school on Cleveland’s East Side.
New Bridge Cleveland will open a new workforce training center in the former Case Elementary School, located at 4050 Superior Avenue, near Cleveland's AsiaTown amid rising demand more healthcare workers, said Bethany Friedlander, the organization's President and CEO.
“We are excited about being in St. Claire Superior with a really robust Asian community that we have not previously really served," Friedlander said. "I think this is a really unique training opportunity for them, partly because of our very deep relationships with our hospitals.”
New Bridge Cleveland is a nonprofit that trains about 300 students from Cuyahoga County each year as phlebotomists, medical assistants and licensed practical nurses at no cost to students.
The new center will have space for classrooms, offices for outside nonprofits or local businesses and a daycare center, which will provide students with childcare while they are in class, Friedlander said.
She added the bigger building will allow them to expand to provide behavioral health training.
“We want to train peer support specialists for the first time," said Friedlander. "We think it's important, particularly post-COVID with the anxiety, the depression and the addiction that's happening in our younger people.”
The 66,000-square-foot location will need an elevator and some updating, Friedlander said.
The organization is accepting bids for the building’s architectural and engineering work.
