REES Recognized for Entrepreneurship & Employment Programs
It wasn’t awards season yet, but REES received back-to-back kudos this past summer and fall.
In August, Nan McKay & Associates (NMA) bestowed its 2017 Resident Service Award to REES for the life-changing work of its Food Business Pathways program (read more about the program in a recent NYCHANow article). For more than 35 years, NMA has provided a range of support to public housing authorities across the nation.
REES’s Assistant Director of Resident Business Development Idowu Odedosu oversees the Food Business Pathways program: “It’s extremely rewarding to work with NYCHA public housing residents to help them fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams. Most of the residents we work with initially are underground entrepreneurs. After they graduate from the NYCHA Food Business Pathways program, they view themselves as real entrepreneurs who have the potential to grow their business to the next level and become economically self-sufficient, which benefits not only their families but the community at large.”
In October, NYCHA’s Resident Training Academy (NRTA) received the 2017 Workforce Program Award from the New York Association of Training & Employment Professionals, a nonprofit serving the workforce development community throughout the state. The NRTA is funded by the Robin Hood Foundation and operated by REES in partnership with a variety of training providers. Since 2010, more than 1,800 NYCHA residents have graduated from the janitorial or construction training programs, and nearly 90 percent of them have been hired by NYCHA or a NYCHA contractor. This award specifically recognized the NRTA construction program’s success in placing graduates in entry- to mid-level construction jobs and training apprenticeships that can lead to union membership.
