One of the largest social services organizations in the borough is being recognized on both sides of the pond. Queens Community House has been selected as one of a dozen nonprofits in the United States and the United Kingdom to take part in this year’s Morgan Stanley Strategy Challenge.
Teams of Morgan Stanley employees in New York and London will work virtually with leadership teams at 12 nonprofit organizations to provide strategic recommendations to address their mission-critical challenges. Queens Community House (QCH) offers more than 50 programs for children, youth, adults and seniors in 32 sites across the borough. For the 2021 Strategy Challenge, Morgan Stanley is focusing on QCH’s Young Adult Food Sector Employment Initiative which trains out-of-school, out-of-work youth for careers in a variety of food-related businesses.
Alexandria Sumpter-Delves, division director of Youth Workforce of QCH, said that this is a unique opportunity for the nonprofit to improve its impact on the youth of Queens.
“The technical assistance from Morgan Stanley will afford us the opportunity to plan for the future of young adults and provide them with transferable skills for success,” she said.
Morgan Stanley will meet with QCH staff and young adults in the program, and they’ll observe how the program currently runs to develop strategies that will strengthen the nonprofit’s youth workforce programming.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on nonprofits and their communities over the past year and while QCH has successfully transitioned to operating remotely, the food and hospitality sectors have been particularly hard-hit, and employment opportunities for young adults have become more limited.
“We want to ensure our youth participants have a clear path to long-term employment, regardless of any challenges that come with the pandemic,” QCH Executive Director Ben Thomases said. “We look forward to working with Morgan Stanley and receiving strategic advice on addressing the barriers to employment that our program participants face.”
Queens Community House currently serves more than 25,000 residents of the borough every year, providing the tools to enrich their lives and build healthy, inclusive communities. Through a broad network of programs operating out of 32 locations in 14 neighborhoods, the nonprofit provides a support system at every stage of life, helping individuals and families to develop the knowledge, confidence, and skills to improve their lives and become active participants in their larger community.
“Nonprofits are experiencing greater challenges than ever before with the pandemic exacerbating many of the issues organizations take on, leading to overwhelming demand for their services,” said Morgan Stanley Global Head of Philanthropy Joan Steinberg. “I am very proud of Morgan Stanley employees who will use their diverse perspectives and talent to deliver recommendations leading to real impact for the participating nonprofits and the communities they serve, an important mission needed now more than ever.”
