AFJ Partners with the Women’s Initiative & Allies Network (WIN) of BlackRock for a Job Readiness Career Panel

Avenues for Justice (AFJ), in partnership with the Women’s Initiative & Allies Network (WIN) of BlackRock, hosted a job readiness and career panel event at our Harlem community center on July 25th. The career panel featured three employees from BlackRock at different corporate levels from Executive Assistant to Software Engineer. AFJ’s Program and Activities Coordinator, Samantha, who spearheaded the event, felt that our Participants benefitted greatly from hearing about the diversity of the panelists’ backgrounds. It was important to showcase attainable success for our Participants outside of the hospitality, retail and construction industries which they often feel more comfortable looking for employment in.

The event was well attended with 12 volunteer partners from BlackRock. 21 Participants from AFJ engaged in a robust conversation with the panelists and asked about their career journeys, employment highs and lows, and job readiness techniques which they have benefitted from the most since starting their careers.

The second part of the event consisted of three workshop stations: How to Write A Resume, How to Write A Cover letter, and a station for Mock Interview practice. Participants were asked to bring hard copies of resumes, which the majority had completed either with their Court Advocate or through our seasonal Job Readiness workshop. Each station consisted of at least 3 BlackRock volunteers and included 10-15 minutes of instruction. Participants were instructed to round robin and make it to each station to gain the maximum experience. Receiving individualized attention by a working professional is an incredible opportunity and our Participants took to it exceptionally well. One AFJ Participant remarked how “this was a big help. They helped me get my things together on this!”

“I was so impressed with some of your clients questions, especially Treacy. She was thoughtful and engaged and I can’t wait to connect with her after the workshop!” – BlackRock Panelist

“An AFJ Participant told me he completed a workshop! That’s something to be proud of, let’s put it to paper!” –BlackRock Volunteer

This is the second event that AFJ has held in partnership with BlackRock. We are grateful for BlackRock’s continued support of our Participants and AFJ’s Hire Up job readiness program.

If you or your company would like to partner with AFJ in providing internship or employment opportunities to our Participants, please contact AFJ’s Director of Court Advocacy, Gamal Willis, at gwillis@avenuesforjustice.org.