Brooklyn Workforce Innovations

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations’ Mission

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement.BWI was founded January 1, 2000 and is an affiliate of Fifth Avenue Committee, Inc., a South Brooklyn community development corporation. BWI’s mission is to empower low- and moderate-income people by creating living-wage employment opportunities and access to career paths. We seek to develop programs that counter prevailing market inequalities (especially those based on race or gender) and contribute to a broader movement for economic justice.

Currently BWI helps poor New Yorkers start careers in commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking. BWI also trains public housing residents for jobs at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) properties, and we also operate a job readiness and driver’s license access program for women. BWI recently launched a physical and programmatic expansion at the Brooklyn Navy Yard as well. There, in partnership with other nonprofit job training and adult education providers, BWI will leverage its considerable workforce development experience and match training resources with rapidly-emerging job opportunities at the expanding commercial and industrial complex.

Often, the best way to understand BWI’s work is hearing about it directly from the people we serve. Watch the Brooklyn Workforce Innovations PSA to learn more.

“Made in NY” PA Training Program Information Sessions

No latecomers will be admitted. Prior to attending an info session, call our automated system at 718-237-2017×145 for updates and cancellations, and review ALL the requirement listed on our program page. Please bring your driver’s license (if you have one) and résumé. No RSVP needed. Applications are accepted on a first-come first-serve basis, apply ASAP to guarantee consideration.

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations
621 Degraw Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Phone: 718-237-2017
Fax: 718-237-5366

Call Mondays 1pm-5pm at the BWI Main Office

When the Seattle grunge band Nirvana recorded their breakthrough album, “Nevermind,” at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, Calif., in 1991, they used a massive mixing console created by a British engineer named Rupert Neve.

The Neve 8028 console and others he made had by then become studio staples, hailed by many as the most superior consoles of their kind in manipulating and combining instrumental and vocal signals. They were responsible in great part for the audio quality of albums by groups like Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Grateful Dead, and Pink Floyd.

Read the full obit in the New York Times.

After nearly a year of closures, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given movie theaters in New York City permission to reopen at limited capacity starting on March 5.

During his daily press briefing, the Empire State leader said cinemas in the city will be permitted to operate at 25% capacity, with no more than 50 people. Moreover, other safety measures such as masks, social distancing, and heightened sanitizing measures will be required. Last October, New York venues outside of the city were allowed to reopen with similar restrictions.

To read the full article in Variety, click here.

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Chris Lindahl and Dana Harris-Bridson outlined Amazon’s position in IndieWire: “When Amazon made a unilateral decision in early February to stop accepting documentaries and short films via Prime Video Direct (a policy that also covers ‘slide shows, vlogs, podcasts, tutorials, filmed conferences, monologues, toy play, music videos, and voiceover gameplay’), the announcement also served as a quiet purge.

The above continues on to some surprising conclusions on DOC NYCs Monday Memo,

Various sources have reported that Disney is in the process of shuttering Blue Sky Studios, the largest animation studio on the East coast. The former 20th Century Fox animation division pulled in $5.9 billion churning out 13 feature films including the Ice Age franchise.

Publications have noted how Disney – which had three animation studios including Pixar and Disney Animation – couldn’t make the case to have these many houses when the pandemic took a toll on the company’s profits.

Some 450 employees will lose their jobs, though some hope to get into one of Disney’s other animation houses.

Here’s Deadline’s report.

Here’s Variety’s report.

Epix revealed that the second season of “Godfather of Harlem” will premiere on April 18. Set in 1964, the crime drama series explores the collision of the criminal underworld and civil rights movement. The second season will follow Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker) battling the New York crime families for control of the French Connection, a pipeline for heroin that runs from Marseilles to New York Harbor.

To read the full Variety article, click here.