Prince Lobel was honored with the Workplace Diversity Initiative Award at the 19th Annual Rosoff Awards Dinner. The firm was recognized for its commitment to providing opportunities to the youth in our community who have limited resources or options.
Prince Lobel partners with Madison Park, a high school in Roxbury, Mass., that offers its diverse population the opportunity to acquire an integrated vocational and academic education. Since 2006, the firm has provided entry-level jobs for students while they complete their studies. Virtually every firm employee works with the students, from job training to building office skills, to learning how to interact and build connections with adult professionals. Every student who has gone through the program is either attending college or has graduated and is now employed full-time at the firm or elsewhere in Boston.
Building upon the success of this initiative and in response to Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s challenge to expand youth employment opportunities, the City of Boston, Boston Private Industry Council, and Prince Lobel launched the program, Learning And Working (LAW) – An Employment Program for Youth, which offers Boston Public Schools students a paid opportunity to develop career skills, make beneficial connections, and gain real world experience. Prince Lobel also participates in the Boston Bar Association Summer Jobs Program. Participants offer law firm jobs to ethnically and racially diverse inner-city youth. In addition, the firm’s outreach has expanded to include students from Sociedad Latina, Brighton High School, and Boston Community Leadership Academy.
Prince Lobel supports a wide range of community programs and activities in the arts, education, families, children, health care, illness awareness and prevention, legal access, civil rights, and more. The Rosoff Awards were conceived to honor visionaries of the Boston business community who recognize that having a diverse workforce and operating in an inclusive environment can better serve the needs of a diverse population.
Over the past 19 years, the Rosoff Awards has become one of New England’s premier diversity celebrations, honoring companies with meaningful diversity, mentoring and inclusion programs and individuals with a personal commitment to this important cause. Other 2015 Rosoff Award recipients include John Hancock (Community Diversity Initiative Award), Liberty Mutual (Marketing to Promote Inclusion Award), Inner City Weight Lifting (Non-Profit Initiative Award), MacCalvin Romain (Mentor Award) and Maura Healey (Champion of Change).