Tag: under-employment

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Immigrant Bridge Program

A message from Elena Mayer regarding the Immigrant Bridge Program:

Good morning,

My name is Elena Mayer; I work on the LINK pilot initiatives at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. This suite of programs, being launched this fall, aims to better connect low-income residents and neighborhoods to emerging opportunities in the New York City economy.

I’m writing specifically to let you know about two RFPs we released this week for a new pilot program called the Immigrant Bridge Program. The goal of the Program is to help high-skill, unemployed or underemployed immigrants in NYC to obtain gateway jobs in their field of expertise. Our classic example is the engineer from Belarus who is today stocking shelves at a grocery store, who for a variety of reasons is unable to attach to the labor market in a job that utilizes his engineering training. Our program model combines two pieces: first, a case management, career plan development, and soft-skills training component that will arm participants with the appropriate next steps and necessary job search capabilities–the “Workforce Program.” Second, we will connect participants to microloan opportunities from a partnered “Loan Fund,” to help them cover the cost of any necessary classes, accreditation fees, or general costs incurred as they pursue their career plan (e.g., childcare, transit, etc.). Our analysis suggests that these low-income immigrants stand to increase their annual incomes by $15-30K through successful completion of the program.

We welcome proposals  for both of these two RFP opportunities. The links to download the RFP documents can be found here:

Immigrant Bridge Workforce Program RFP

Immigrant Bridge Loan Fund RFP

Below are some relevant dates to note:

Workforce Program

·         Optional information session: Thursday, September 6that 2:30pm, NYCEDC, 110 William Street, Conference Room 4A/B

·         RFP Submission Deadline: Friday, September 28thby 4:00pm

Loan Fund

·         Optional information session: Tuesday, September 11that 9:30am, NYCEDC, 110 William Street, Conference Room 4A/B

·         RFP Submission Deadline: Friday, September 28thby 4:00pm

If you have any questions broadly about the Immigrant Bridge program concept, please feel free to reach out to me ([email protected];212-312-3561). If you have any questions specific to the RFPs, please direct your inquiries to[email protected]or[email protected](respectively).

I look forward to your proposals, and to being in touch with you about this opportunity.

Best,

Elena

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Recent College Graduates Wait for Their Real Careers to Begin – NYTimes.com

Recent College Graduates Wait for Their Real Careers to Begin – NYTimes.com

Interesting article about unemployed and under-employed grads from classes of ‘06-’10 dubbed Generation Limbo. We may be seeing our own Generation Limbo in law today, with the contraction of the economy over the last few years. Of note is the following quote:

“What was the point of working so hard for 22 years if there was nothing out there?” said Ms. Morales, who is now a paralegal and plans on attending law school.

Someone tell Ms. Morales that the grass is not any greener on the law side of the fence.

A 27-year-old Yale graduate quoted at the end of the article, I think, has the right idea:

“You have to make opportunities happen for yourself, and I think a lot of my classmates weren’t thinking in that way,” he said. “It’s the equivalent of setting up your own lemonade stand.”

More and more of our young lawyers are hanging out their shingles at a very early point in their careers, which might be the way to go. We hope that they’re availing themselves to the mentors and other resources that may be out there to help them along in pursuing that road.

What do you think?

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