Introduction
The Partnership for New York City represents the city’s business leadership and its largest private-sector employers, working with government, labor, and the nonprofit sector to maintain the city’s position as a global center of commerce and innovation. Their 300-plus member companies employ about 1.5 million New Yorkers and contribute nearly one-fifth of the state’s gross product, providing the Partnership with the unique opportunity to convene some of the most influential business leaders in New York. For the past year, the Partnership has been working to launch a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program through which member companies can collaborate to address the most important social issues in New York City.
We strongly believe in giving back to our local community, and were very proud to help ideate, design and organize New York City’s first Career Discovery Week to show students the breadth of professional opportunities available to them in the city’s corporate, financial and cultural sectorsTammi Ling, Partner
Scope
To support the program’s launch at the end of 2018, Oliver Wyman supported the Partnership over six months to understand member companies’ current CSR impact and activities, defined areas in which cross-industry collaboration could drive impact, and designed a CSR program. The program initiatives focused on three identified high impact areas: foundational skills, workforce readiness, and entrepreneurship. In 2019, Oliver Wyman worked with the Partnership to detail the identified cross-industry collaborative initiatives, with input from key stakeholders from the private and public sectors which resulted in the successful launch of Career Discovery Week. In February 2020, over 180 member companies hosted over 6,000 10th-grade public school students across 140 New York City schools at their offices where they learned about various industries, the day-to-day life of employees, and the range of potential careers they could pursue.
The Oliver Wyman team has been responsible for defining, structuring and helping carry out the first-ever CSR collective action by New York’s diverse, global business community. We could not have done it without themKathryn Wylde, President and CEO
Impact
Through our work with the Partnership to support collaboration across corporate social responsibility programs for member companies, Oliver Wyman is helping to create greater impact for CSR activities in New York City. Career Discovery Week touched the lives of thousands of tenth graders from undersourced communities, broadening their understanding of what is possible for them, and ultimately, sparking an interest in preparing for their future.