NYCREW and YEM sponsor career education and mentoring program

DIG This (Develop. Inspire. Grow.) held a career education and mentoring partnership between the Youth Empowerment Mission, Inc. (YEM) and New York Commercial Real Estate Women's Network, Inc. (NYCREW) was held on Wednesday, April 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. DIG This, was a full-day, interactive program designed to benefit YEM's Blossom Program for Girls. With the support of real estate professionals and community partners, the program demonstrated some of the opportunities, skills and relationships involved in a commercial real estate career. After a neighborhood tour and industry expert presentations, Blossom participants broke into designated teams to create mock development proposals for a given site. Awards were presented to the winning team proposal(s) at a special ceremony concluding the day's events. Among the DIG This speakers and judges are: Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes; Meredith Marshall, co-founder of BRP Development; Pamela Green, executive director of the Weeksville Heritage Center; Dr. Cynthia Diaz, director of vocational discernment at New York Theological Seminary; and Linda Feldman, director of eEducational services and director of the Academic Success Program at Brooklyn Law School. "Brooklyn is changing in so many ways, and it's important for our girls to understand and be equipped to take part in this progress," said Isis Sapp-Grant, YEM's founder and executive director. "This is just one of the career/mentoring partnerships we are building that will empower our girls and ultimately benefit the community. After all, community involvement is good business." DIG This will ultimately match 40 NYCREW mentors to 40 girls within the Blossom Program on an ongoing basis, and continue to nurture the development of independent, educated young women. YEM is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing young people and their families real alternatives to violence, delinquency, gangs and other self-destructive behaviors prevailing in high-risk environments. YEM has been broadly recognized for helping to transform the lives of youth in crisis or court involved, and empowering them to be the change they want to see in their lives, families and communities. The Blossom Program for Girls, one of YEM's signature programs, provides guidance, life-skills and leadership training and educational services to girls ages 11-21, who live in environments marked by high crime rates, poverty, low-performing schools and escalating health issues. NYCREW is one of 66 chapters of CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) Network Inc., an organization comprised of over 8,000 senior commercial real estate professionals throughout the United States and Canada, serving the New York area. CREW Foundation is the philanthropic arm of CREW that is committed to the achievement of parity for women in commercial real estate. It supports a number of programs which assist women and girls to achieve economic self-sufficiency and promote the entry of more women into the field of commercial real estate. DIG This Career Day is co-developed and guided by a “CREW Careers: Building Opportunities”® Program of the CREW Foundation. www.nycrew.org