Focus Areas

Career Navigation + Workforce Development

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Commonpoint Queens

Commonpoint Queens partnered with Building Skills New York – a nonprofit construction workforce development organization connecting underemployed and unemployed New Yorkers to construction training and job opportunities in NYC –...

COOP

COOP is a job placement program based in New York City that targets underserved and underemployed City University of New York (CUNY) students and recent graduates with a clear pathway...

Covenant House New York

Covenant House New York created a direct pipeline to full-time employment for homeless youth in office administration, customer service and facility maintenance. Covenant House’s Delta program (see news about it...

CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC)

To meet the growing demand for addiction counselors, BMCC’s Health Education Department worked with Phoenix House, a nonprofit drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization, to create a Credentialed Recovery Support Specialist...

CUNY Queensborough Community College

Queensborough Community College (QCC) and the New York State Wireless Association are partnering to bridge the digital divide by providing training and full-time employment in the telecommunications industry. Successful completers...

Drive Change

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, and young people released from detention face severe obstacles to sustainable employment and re-entry. According to one...

East Side House

East Side House has partnered with New York Presbyterian Hospital to prepare young adults in the South Bronx for careers in the healthcare industry, including as patient care technicians, Certified...

Grace Institute

Heckscher is funding Grace Institute’s Healthcare Pathways initiative for young women ages 18–24 — primarily those at or below the poverty line without a four-year degree, helping to place participants...

Henry Street Settlement

With our catalytic support, Henry Street Settlement created a partnership with Stacks+Joules to prepare low-income New York City residents for jobs in the booming building-automation and energy-efficiency sector. Through the...

Hot Bread Kitchen

The Heckscher Foundation helped Hot Bread Kitchen expand its proven workforce development model to serve young people facing barriers to employment. Through this initiative, Hot Bread Kitchen teaches foundational culinary...

Jewish Community Center of Staten Island

The Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Staten Island is providing young adults, including those who are attending part- or full-time college, high school, a non-degree program, or not attending any...

MDC Collegiate Academy

The Heckscher Foundation for Children is providing the inaugural support to Miami Dade College (“MDC”) for the planning and launch of the MDC Collegiate Academy (the “Academy”), a healthcare-focused charter...

Merit America

We provided the first funding to launch Merit America and have since supported its expansion in New York City, including a $1.4 million 3-year grant in 2025. Our catalytic grant...

NPower

NPower’s IT training and job placement program – Tech Fundamentals – provides young adults with skills training needed to advance tech career and wage growth with employer partners. NPower noticed...

Pursuit

Despite all the talk about job growth in the tech industry in New York City, numerous barriers exist for underserved youth in this area. These include geographic areas with lower...

Reel Works

We supported Reel Works’s workforce-pathways initiative, MediaMKRS, in creating its Career Accelerator track, which helps young adults from underserved backgrounds build technical and professional skills for careers in film, television...

Say Yes Buffalo Scholarship

The Heckscher Foundation supported Say Yes Buffalo’s youth-apprenticeship initiative delivered in partnership with CareerWise Greater Buffalo. It places graduating high-school seniors or recent graduates into structured, paid work-based learning with...

Shared Lane

With support from the Foundation, Shared Lane developed and expanded a Workforce Gateway Internship Program (WGI), a micro-training model that provides high school seniors with direct exposure to workforce training...

St. Nicks Alliance

Our funding helped St. Nicks Alliance scale its Building Maintenance training track for youth and young adults. This program provides young people with certifications in high-demand building-operations and maintenance credentials...

SUNY Cobleskill

SUNY Cobleskill partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering and Rockland Community College to establish a Rockland County-based histotechnician training program to address a nationwide shortage of certified histotechnicians. Histotechnicians prepare human...

SUNY Delhi

The SUNY Delhi Mechatronics program worked alongside its employer partner, John Bean Technologies Corporation (JBT), to upgrade and revise its curriculum for the Mechatronics Design Associates level degree program and...

SUNY Genesee Community College

Genesee Community College (GCC) has created a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) certification training program to meet the growing demand for skilled CNC operators and programmers in upstate New York. CNC...

The Door

The Heckscher Foundation supported The Door’s expansion of its culinary-workforce pathway equipping New York City residents ages 16-24 with the skills and experience needed to secure meaningful employment in the...

The Inspired Community Project

We provided the underwriting support to launch The Inspired Community Project (TICP), a Bronx-based organization addressing the severe shortage of early intervention services for neurodiverse children from birth to age...

Wildcat Service Corporation

Wildcat Service Corporation partnered with the Apex Clean Energy Institute (ACEI) in Brooklyn to recruit, train and connect under-employed and unemployed Black and Latino Brooklyn residents (ages 18-25) to careers...