Read about our work

Work is College prep

The time is now to invest in work-based learning and career pathways for high school students, not as an alternative, not as an addendum to college preparation, but as an intentional way to improve postsecondary decision-making and longer-term outcomes.

The CDOS Pathway

Work-based learning activities greatly improve high school retention and graduation rates, and postsecondary preparedness. The Career Development Occupational Studies commencement credential, or CDOS, represents a powerful avenue for educators, policy makers, and organizations interested in expanding work-based learning opportunities for students in New York City High Schools.

building opportunity for bronx employers and youth

Through partnership between the Office of The Bronx Borough President, BOEDC, and HERE to HERE, the Bronx Private Industry Council, introduced in this paper, will strengthen connections between employers and students to support a thriving economy, continued innovation, and opportunities that drive students toward rewarding, family-sustaining careers.

Enhancing Pathways through Powerful Partnerships.

HERE to HERE links employers, educators and diverse community stakeholders in concerted action to enhance career pathways for young people in low-income neighborhoods.

Beginning with 10,000 young people in the Bronx, we are demonstrating a powerful new approach for equipping an entire generation with the knowledge, skills, experience and social capital that lead to lifelong success.

Through partnerships, we are amplifying proven best practices to drive systems change that will help all young people access family-sustaining careers and choice-filled lives.

The HERE to HERE Opportunity

Nearly half of U.S. businesses are having trouble filling high-quality jobs: the kind that support families, build communities and improve everyone's quality of life.

At the same time, millions of young adults in low-income neighborhoods are left out of the economy because they lack the networks to find opportunities and the skills and experience companies are desperate to find.

Many pioneering efforts have begun to solve these two problems:

Employers

Employers are expanding partnerships in communities such as the South Bronx to develop future talent and build direct onramps to their businesses.

Educators

Educators are embedding real-life learning into their curricula and leveraging wide-ranging community assets to help young people identify their vocations, rapidly gain skills and realize their dreams.

Young People

Young people are designing their own education, navigating new experiences, and developing professional networks as well as contributing to creating more effective pathways for their peers and people in the community.

Other Stakeholders

Many other stakeholders -- including nonprofits, public officials and policymakers -- are working to fill the gaps with essential services, trying out new ideas and incentivizing progress towards a new system.

Together, these innovations harbor the potential for transformational, community-wide impacts.

But most are still too fragmented today to achieve this goal. Ideas that could make a much bigger difference are never realized or never scale. Even when there are successes, they don't become widely known and others don't emulate them. We know it's possible to build a vibrant ecosystem that helps all young people achieve their full potential.

But only if the pieces come together.

About

We look at the bigger picture to identify resources, assets and opportunities among employers, educators and other institutions to create problem solving, win-win partnerships, develop shared language and goals, and drive systems change. If done well and at scale, then:

• Employers benefit from a previously under-tapped, diverse workforce that they and society need.
• Young talent discovers new avenues to build family-sustaining careers and choice-filled lives.  

And entire communities flourish.

The Work

Our work is far-reaching, and we aren't afraid to stretch in order to try to achieve our goals. A lot of our efforts involve deep relationships with our partners. While we try new approaches, we have four foundational areas we are always working on. Specifically, we:

Identify and map untapped talent

We are laser-focused on helping businesses identify, cultivate and recruit their future leaders by investing early and often in young people’s potential.

make best practice common practice

Too often, the term “best practice” denotes an approach that is effective, but rare. We are not just identifying ideas that work -- we are helping others make them routine.

BREAK DOWN SILOS

Everyone wants young people to succeed. But truly coordinated action does not organize itself. It is not enough for educators to talk just with other educators, or employers with other employers. We will provide substantive and beneficial new ways for everyone to pull together, because no one entity can do this work alone.

Build a robust network of partners

We are investing time, talent and money in building opportunity-focused interconnections and culture that our work will make possible -- starting with our goal to change the lives of 10,000 young people in the Bronx. This work will include opening new community hubs -- spaces where all our partners can collaborate and develop shared solutions.

History

HERE to HERE began in 2015 as a collaborative project between The James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation, Big Picture Learning and DreamYard. The James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation also generously supported HERE to HERE's start-up costs and makes direct, incentivizing investments in our first cohort of partners throughout the Bronx.

HERE to HERE is now a freestanding organization. It is led by Abby Jo Sigal, as founding CEO, working with a team of 10 professionals and a network of dozens of employer, high school, post-secondary and CBO partners.