- Yeah, well, who is Ben?

And how would you describe yourself creatively?

- Ah, man, Ben Williams is a creative at heart.

I was a chef in my former life, so I love the culinary arts.

I was a musician before that, been a musician all my life pretty much.

So I love the musical arts and I studied business and marketing in college, and I like to think that I bring some creativity to those endeavors as well.

And especially the work that I'm doing at the Connect Center has really been a creative process the whole way.

- I can only imagine.

- [Ben] Yeah.

- Well, let's dive into the Connect Center a little bit.

So what is the connect center- - [Ben] Yes.

- And what's the history of it?

- The Connect Center was a project that was started by my folks in 2012, by my late father the Reverend Wendell Williams and my mother, Donna Williams.

It was basically an outreach to the youth of Cohoes.

My dad saw them walking home from school.

Cohoes is a really high needs area.

He would drag the grill out, and literally hand out hotdogs and hamburgers to the kids on their way home.

And you know, it just kind of progressed from there.

He went on to try to secure funding for it and figured out that people didn't wanna give money to a church.

So formed the Connect Center in 2012 and broke ground on a space in the former St. Agnes Cathedral in Cohoes.

And it's a 10,000 square foot space that we now occupy in the ground level.

It's got a music studio, a full kitchen, a maker space that we call the tech hub.

And we offer a wide variety of programming to kids after school and over the summer.

All of our programming is free, it's all STEAM based.

So STEAM's an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.

So anything from 3D printing to coding, to computer building, to music.

Yeah, it's just a really fun space.

Really meant for engaging the kids in informal learning.

So they get to explore these areas in STEAM and potentially spark a interest in a career in STEAM.

- That's amazing.

And you have an emphasis on like the art part of STEAM?

There's a part?

- [Ben] Yeah, absolutely.

Art is life, you know, art's a reflection of life.

It's the expression of life.

And it goes into everything that we design.

You know, take a video game, for example, the artwork in the game, the actual design of the console, the design of the handles and the paddles.

Like it's all art, the music, everything that goes into it.

It's art.

- It's very true.

- [Ben] Yeah.

- Hey, gamers out there, you heard it, (both laugh) from Ben.

So how is Connect Center different, in your opinion, from the average youth center?

What do you guys do differently?

- Sure.

We're starting to get into workforce development in areas surrounding those STEAM fields.

Our first workforce development program is our e-sports accelerator program called Warp Zone.

And it teaches kids the whole environment of gaming and e-sports, from brand development to brand management, to coding, to the music, to the hardware.

Besides our really cool afterschool programs, we offer community support programs like a food pantry.

We partner with the regional food bank and their backpack program.

We offer some little free libraries.

We're really trying to break down the barriers to getting to the next level for these kids.

So creating lots of access as well.

- Now, why is creating the access for today's youth?

I think I feel, personally I'm a youth worker, and I feel like today's youth are going through a lot of struggles.

- Yes.

- Struggles that I can't even relate to, because I didn't have those.

And they require new structures and support systems.

- [Ben] Yeah.

- So why do you think it's important for youth to have spaces, like Connect Youth involved, in your opinion?

- Yeah, I mean creating a safe space is number one for us.

But having a space where the kids can express themselves safely, is like ultra important because it increases engagement in whatever they're doing.

If they feel safe in the space, they'll feel more engaged in the informal learning activities that they're doing.

Also with some of the STEAM and tech-based stuff that we're doing, creating access to machines, access to internet, digital equity is really like kind of forefront to fighting poverty.

You know, we're seeing big deserts of internet access, even still in this day.

And you know, kind of bridging those gaps.

It will help the generations to come.

- And I wanna talk a little bit, 'cause as a muralist, I wanna talk about the mural that you guys have- - [Ben] Yes.

- In Connect Youth.

- Yes.

- Because you also focus a little bit on traditional arts, such as painting, and drawing, and sketching, et cetera.

So give us a little bit of detail- - [Ben] Yes.

- About how that mural came to be.

- That mural was a project that the Albany Center Gallery did with some of our local students.

They brought some pro artist by, talked to the kids about art, talked about what the Connect Center was and then created this beautiful mural that just screams hope and safety, and inclusivity to me.

And that's what we're all about and it was amazing.

- How old do you have to be to be involved in these Connect Center programs?

- The Connect Center serves grades 6 through 12.

- Okay.

- We are open to any student in the capital district that can get there.

All they need is a permission slip from their folks and they can find that online at connectcenterforyouth.org.

- What kind of events do you have coming up that the audience should know about?

- I'm glad you asked.

We have our annual fundraiser "Tacos For Life" coming up Friday, July 7th, and that's from 6:00 to 10:00 PM at the Connect Center, 49 Johnston Ave in Cohoes.

It is a blast.

It's the anti-gala taco party.

Last year I had my DJ friends spinning tunes with the kids.

I was cooking tacos with my taco camp kids.

We had a nacho fountain.

(Jade laughs) There was game tournaments going on, and this year it's gonna be even bigger and better.

- All right, well folks, you heard it.

Try to make sure you get to this fundraiser to keep supporting amazing initiatives and organization like Ben has been doing.

Thank you.

- [Jade] Thank you, Ben.

I appreciate it.

- Thanks, Jade.