Community Offshore Wind this week funded scholarships for ten girls between the ages of six and 14 to attend the Brooklyn summer camp session of Tools & Tiaras Inc., a pioneering, Queens-based nonprofit founded in 2017 by history-making union plumber Judaline Cassidy.

The week-long summer camp, hosted out of Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW)’s facility in Industry City, included hands-on workshops in various skilled trades: electrical/wind energy, carpentry, tile laying, welding, restoration masonry, and more. The camp culminated with the girls visiting an active job site of a major affordable housing preservation project in Crown Heights.

“Offshore wind will create thousands of good jobs in New York, and an important part of our mission at Community Offshore Wind is making sure all New Yorkers have the skills and training to seize these opportunities," said Doug Perkins, President and Project Director of Community Offshore Wind. “Women have been underrepresented in the trades for far too long, and we’re committed to ensuring they can access the opportunities and careers created by the clean energy industry. Tools & Tiaras’s summer program aligns closely with that goal, and we’re proud to be able to fund ten girls’ participation in this year’s summer camp.”

“The pioneering work we’ve been doing since 2017 to show girls that Jobs Don’t Have Genders® is hands-on, and involves many moving parts and people. To do what we do, at the level we do it, is costly for our grassroots nonprofit,” said Judaline Cassidy, Founder & CEO, Tools & Tiaras Inc. “So to have Community Offshore Wind come to our T&T table with mission-aligned support is invaluable. Their generosity covered full camp scholarships for 10 girls participating in our 5-day Brooklyn Summer Camp. But the impact of what these girls gain at camp - self-confidence, skills, empowerment - is going to stay with them forever. And you can’t put a price on that.”

The offshore wind industry in New York is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs across the state, but there is currently a shortage of workers with the skills necessary to qualify for those positions. A recent NYSERDA report found that training individuals from disadvantaged communities will be crucial to filling these gaps in the offshore wind workforce while improving social equity.

Community Offshore Wind is a joint venture of RWE and National Grid Ventures that will develop up to three gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind on the largest parcel in the New York Bight. In preparation, the project continues to make significant investments in programs to increase access to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and training programs that provide New Yorkers from underrepresented communities with the knowledge and skills they will need for jobs in the offshore wind industry.

Tools & Tiaras is a Queens-based nonprofit that empowers girls to pursue careers in the trades through workshops and summer camps that provide hands-on skill building and self-confidence boosting experiences, all led by tradeswomen and women in the construction industry. The nonprofit’s work aims to raise girls’ awareness of these rewarding and lucrative pathways of opportunity. The organization’s founder, Judaline Cassidy, has been a union plumber for over 30 years, and is a proud member of Plumbers Local Union No. 1 NYC. Judaline was the first woman elected to her union’s Examining Board. She also ushered in Local No. 1’s first Women's Committee, becoming its first President. Earlier in her career, Judaline was the first woman accepted into Plumbers Local 371 Staten Island, NY.

Since its launch in 2022, Community Offshore Wind has been an active and engaged neighbor to New York communities. The project has funded field trips for more than 140 New York students to local museums, donated 900 coats to families in need during the winter months, and provided 30,000 fresh seafood meals to food banks throughout the state.