Giving Bronx Youth a Real Chance at Economic Equity Through The Thinkubator
When The Thinkubator became an independent organization in the summer of 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was out of necessity to focus on preparing, elevating, and empowering young people. Our previous incarnation, The Bronx Private Industry Council (PIC) was set up as a business facing, support organization. However, the economic impact of the pandemic meant that model was no longer viable. It was our belief that young people’s voices and talents needed to be elevated so they could succeed in the workplace and in life.
One of the frequent areas of work we said we were doing as The Bronx PIC was creating talent pipelines from Bronx schools and institutions to the Bronx and New York City employers. We were not alone in this line of thinking and to this day you often hear the phrase “talent pipelines’’ especially from employers and businesses. This line of thinking was mistaken. The talent pipelines have been in existence, and have not been broken. Bronx youth are being educated and trained by the numerous great educational and community-based institutions in the Bronx every year yet they are not seeing the same outcomes that their talents and skills merit. The issue is not that talent pipelines are broken, the issue is that the pipeline has been built but has been all but closed on the employer end, that is, only a few people ever get through. While there is always improvement to be made in the education and training of young people, the best training has always been on-the-job training yet the youth of The Bronx rarely get the same opportunities their wealthier and whiter counterparts do.
It is time that employers truly step up and open their end of the pipeline, to truly open the door and invest in Bronx youth. Most importantly, not just with words, but in ways they can be accountable for: with paid internships for Bronx youth and other youth of color, with time and monetary investments in the institutions that produce the incredible Bronx youth that any company would be lucky to have as an employee. Employers need to act in ways that can be measured and they can be held accountable for. Press releases offer so much promise and hope yet never seem to go anywhere. Bronx youth need and deserve more than empty words to generate good publicity, they deserve real action and commitment by the business community. It is time to open the tap and allow for the countless young people (and not so young people) who have been shut out of opportunities to finally begin taking part in economic prosperity. For rhetoric to move to reality, transparency in any action that is taken is key. Any commitments that organizations make need concrete, tangible outcomes and actions and investments that can be verified. A good start would be:
- Transparency around salaries, both starting salaries and ones for existing employees. Multiple studies have shown that women and people of color are paid less than their white and male counterparts. An open salary book is the first step to rectifying that problem.
- Opening the recruitment process. This means recruiting at institutions, both educational and workforce, that work primarily with people of color.
- Actually hiring individuals from those institutions. Again, it’s easy to stop by an organization or give an info session, actually hiring from them is another story.
- Recognize that all these steps will be new and different for your staff, especially in Human Resources and hiring. It may mean there are a few unsuccessful hires, which there would be when you hire from your existing recruiting pools as well. Not punishing these staff for these instances will ensure that hiring practices actually change.
- Invest time and money in young people. Start or connect to mentoring programs and make time for your staff to work with young people. Hire interns and ensure these internships are paid. These interns will one day become your staff and make fantastic brand ambassadors, making it well worth your time and money.
- Invest in reducing the digital and connectivity divide. COVID-19 has laid bare this divide, and as the way in which organizations work continues to change, ensure that staff have the tools so they can work effectively and so staff without those resources don’t get left behind.
Finally, ensuring that some entity is verifying these commitments, not just to hold your organization accountable but also as a resource when making these changes. There are a host of organizations and groups who have been working right here in the Bronx for years on this very problem. They have been educating and training Bronx youth, supporting Bronx families, advocating for change and working to create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable future for the Bronx and its people. This work is far easier and will be far more effective by working together, and it is then we can finally give Bronx youth a real chance at economic equity.
