What does it take to build a career when every step forward comes with a tradeoff—when choosing training means losing wages, when choosing stability means rearranging childcare, and when choosing your future means risking the little security you have today?

For many New Yorkers, the road to stability isn’t a straight line—it’s a climb, one careful choice at a time.

In this companion to our conversation with Brooklyn Workforce Innovations’ Executive Director Aaron Shiffman, we hear from Tiphany, a lifelong NYCHA resident who turned a moment of uncertainty into a path toward purpose. After coming across a flyer in her building lobby for the NYCHA Resident Training Academy—a program facilitated by BWI—Tiphany made a choice that would transform her life.

As a single mother searching for stability, Tiphany faced the hard tradeoffs that define the cost of choice: balancing work and childcare, risking short-term income for long-term opportunity, and fighting through doubt to build something better for her family. Nearly a decade later, she’s risen from Caretaker to Property Maintenance Superintendent, overseeing the very kind of buildings she once called home.

Through Tiphany’s story, we see what happens when access meets determination—and how investing in career mobility can help New Yorkers move from surviving to leading.

Tune in for insightful discussions on shaping policies to uplift communities and #FightPoverty. Subscribe for more episodes wherever you listen to your podcasts.

You can find transcripts and more episodes of "This Robin Hood Moment" at robinhood.org/podcasts.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at info@robinhood.org.

Support Robin Hood’s work to elevate New Yorkers out of poverty at https://give.robinhood.org/give/61654/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=YT.

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What does it take to rebuild your life when you’ve fallen through the cracks—after the job is gone, the rent’s past due, and there’s no safety net to catch you?

In New York City, the margin for error is razor thin—especially for low-income workers. One missed paycheck can mean eviction. One illness can mean job loss. One childcare emergency can unravel a household. For many New Yorkers, there is no cushion. There is no safety net. There is only the cost of choice: working while sick, delaying care, or turning down opportunity because stability is always on the line.

In this episode, we explore how workforce development can serve as a bridge—not just to employment, but to restored stability—after someone has already fallen through the cracks. Our guest is Aaron Shiffman, Executive Director of Brooklyn Workforce Innovations (BWI), a nonprofit that has spent over 25 years helping New Yorkers build in-demand skills and launch careers in industries like transportation, media production, woodworking, and construction. For BWI, training isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting point of long-term support and upward mobility.

Together, we examine what it takes to help someone rebuild after crisis, how BWI navigates the gaps in public systems, and why meaningful employment remains one of the most powerful tools to fight poverty in New York City.

Tune in for insightful discussions on shaping policies to uplift communities and #FightPoverty. Subscribe for more episodes wherever you listen to your podcasts.

You can find transcripts and more episodes of "This Robin Hood Moment" at robinhood.org/podcasts.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at info@robinhood.org.

Support Robin Hood’s work to elevate New Yorkers out of poverty at https://give.robinhood.org/give/61654/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=YT.

LEARN MORE

https://www.robinhood.org/

https://www.facebook.com/robinhood/

https://www.instagram.com/robinhoodnyc/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/robin-hood/

https://twitter.com/robinhoodnyc/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it mean to chase opportunity when every step forward comes with a sacrifice?

In New York City, the high cost of child care forces many parents—especially mothers—to make impossible choices between earning a living and being there for their children. For Marlyn, a mother of two in Inwood, balancing work, childcare, and her dreams for her family means constantly negotiating what she can afford to give up.

In this episode, Marlyn shares her story of resilience and resourcefulness as she works to build a better life for her kids with support from Children’s Aid, a Robin Hood grantee providing early childhood education and family services across the city. Her story reveals what it really takes to raise a family in a city where love is abundant—but affordable child care is not.

Tune in for insightful discussions on shaping policies to uplift communities and #FightPoverty. Subscribe for more episodes wherever you listen to your podcasts.

You can find transcripts and more episodes of "This Robin Hood Moment" at robinhood.org/podcasts.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at info@robinhood.org.

Support Robin Hood’s work to elevate New Yorkers out of poverty at https://give.robinhood.org/give/61654/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=YT.

LEARN MORE

https://www.robinhood.org/

https://www.facebook.com/robinhood/

https://www.instagram.com/robinhoodnyc/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/robin-hood/

https://twitter.com/robinhoodnyc/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.