History

StreetWise Partners was founded as an innovative public/private  partnership in 1997 at the height of welfare reform by three young  banking and consulting professionals.  The mission of StreetWise  Partners is to build mentoring relationships between low-income  individuals and volunteer business professionals to develop workplace  skills and employment networks as the bridge to a successful career.   Since 1997, StreetWise Partners has worked with over 2,000 business  professionals from top New York City financial firms who have provided  thousands of hours of mentoring and training to over 700 low-income adults  and young adults.  Uniquely, our mentoring and training programs take place  at the offices of top-tier companies, affording access to corporate  environments otherwise inaccessible to our participants.

StreetWise Partners was a volunteer-run organization for its first  five years; the core group of founders managed the program and  developed the community partnerships that still exist today.   They built a model in which SWP collaborates with referring  community based organizations (CBOs) that work with unemployed  and underemployed New Yorkers.  The founders are still actively  involved in the organization as key members of the Board of Directors.

SWP has worked with economically disadvantaged adults facing employment barriers since 1997.  In 2003, several CBOs approached  us to adapt our model to a young adult population.  With interest  and support from Credit Suisse, we modified our adult curriculum,  and have provided programming to 120 youth thus far.   Both our Adult and Young Adult Programs leverage SWP's niche  abilities to marshal corporate volunteers, forge relationships  with corporations, and provide training for these volunteers and  corporations to interact on a meaningful basis with our participants.   In addition, we have added smaller, customized programs to work with  specific adult participants in partnership with The Doe Fund and Per Scholas.