Brooklyn Recovery Corps internship program proving to be key to the revitalization of communities throughout New York City
In the three years since the Brooklyn Recovery Corps (BRC) launched at Medgar Evers College, this paid internship program has grown exponentially while forming bonds within the local community. Funded as part of the NYC Juneteenth Economic Justice Plan, the BRC provides experiential learning opportunities for Medgar Evers College students at the sophomore, junior and senior levels. BRC interns are matched with non-profit organizations in Central Brooklyn to engage in real world, hands-on learning experiences, projects and assignments designed to spur economic recovery and growth in Brooklyn.
Run by Peter Holoman, senior director of advancement and placement leadership and Nicollette Bucher, confidential executive coordinator in the office of the president, BRC on-boards students in both the spring and fall semesters. Part of this process is a matching fair where interns are paired up with program partners. This semester’s 74 students, up from 50 in the spring semester, were being vetted by 40 small businesses, up from 25 in the prior semester. For Holoman, the steady increase in participation has been aided by plenty of positive word-of-mouth.
“BRC has evolved in the sense that we have more students that are hearing about the program and are wanting to be a part of it,” he explained. “Those students that have been a part of it are then helping spread the word to other students.”
Kelley Pierre’s All Access Golf is a returning BRC partner. Pierre, the CEO and founder is another Medgar Evers College album who graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s in social and behavioral sciences. Having started All Access Golf in 2018, the Brownsville native is hoping any BRC interns embrace golf as not only as a sport, but a tool in which to network and further themselves as they embark on their career path.
“I didn’t play golf growing up and it wasn’t until I went to business school that I realized the game was synonymous with business,” he said. “I was looking for a job and the thing is I figured since nothing was happening, I set out to learn the game for the purpose to leverage it as a means of beefing up my overall networking efforts. Along the way, I actually fell in love with it. I wondered why I was just learning the game now and I looked at how my life was. It came down to me having exposure to golf, so I created the business based off of that. It was all about making it more accessible.”
BRC’s success has attracted a number of new partners for the new semester. Among the first-time participants is The Alex House Project. A nonprofit social services organization, the Red Hook-based outfit was founded in 2013. Its goal is to help young parents transition into the difficult leap from being an unexperienced non-parent into becoming a confident caregiver and someone who knows they have a community around them that can support them. In terms of the BRC’s goals to have its interns wind up with hands-on experience, The Alex House Project is an ideal fit given the fact that many of the staff are former participants in the program according to development manager Mark Damian.
“We’re peer-led, so the people who teach the programs are people that were in the programs,” Damian said. “They become parent-educators, so they have the cultural fluency and literacy to meet people where they are. We teach work-course development and we train people in social work case management. We also just started a doula certification program and are starting podcast training as a way of teaching an income stream that can earned from home without relying on external childcare.”
He added, “We’re very deeply rooted in the community we serve. It goes back to our trying to teach the strongest parenting skills possible so people can forge a strong bond with their child at that really pivotal time—every stage of peri-natal care from when they first learn they’re pregnant. Every step of the way through the post-partum phase. We try to leave them with all the skills and tools they need to thrive to go into the world with confidence in their own ability to tackle that joys and challenges of parenthood.”
Yet another new BRC partner is Fit4Dance, a dance fitness studio located in Flatbush founded 11 years ago by CEO Laci Chisholm a former school administrator and teacher. At the matching fair, a beaming Chisholm was manning a table with student/supporter Nadia Wright. For Chisholm, Fit4Dance is somewhere a BRC intern can get the all-encompassing experience entrepreneurs go through in a position that often requires the wearing of many hats.
“I love helping kids get that work experience and definitely wanted to something that was in the neighborhood,” Chisholm said. “As a small business owner who is a Black woman, I’m hoping to find someone who is interested in learning how to run a business. I also want to be a mentor to someone and help them get their experience in learning how businesses run. Hopefully they are interested in dance, but they don’t necessarily have to be because it’s a front desk position. It’s more about the responsibility and thinking fast on their feet, handling challenges that come up and being professional. It’s also being about learning how to engage with all types of people because we get all types of people that come in—people that are interested in dance, people that are there with their families, working with kids and parents. And then, also rolling up their sleeves and doing what needs to be done like cleaning, handling any challenges and then finding community as well.”
Among the returning BRC partners is Malcolm Jack, a Medgar Evers College alum who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting as part of the Class of 1994 alum. A businessman who owns and runs his own finance firm, he and some fellow classmates founded the Charles D. Davison Scholarship Fund. The idea of working with BRC is hoping an intern can help get the word out to fellow students about the availability of money attached to this scholarship with the hopes that they’ll apply for it. Along the way, Jack sees his organization’s additional role as providing needed mentorship before interns head out into the world of work.
“What makes BRC so effective is the fact that you are able to come and interact with the students to give you an idea of what you want,” Jack said. “Along the way, I usually give some mentorship to them. I’ve been in the hiring process and many times, you have good people and you sometimes have to find something to eliminate someone. The last thing you want to do is show up with a limp handshake or have your eyes wandering all over the place. That could be the factor that could make the difference.”
He added, “This whole process is a combination of getting someone to be able to help and support us. But at the same time, we have the opportunity to give a little mentorship. It makes a big difference because I came from the Caribbean. A lot of things I learned were here in New York and at Medgar Evers College. It’s just about trying to give back as far as the soft skills are concerned.”