Here’s how influential executives are teaming up to boost diversity in the growing neighborhood.
It's no secret that the Seaport District is one of Boston's most buzzing attractions.
The fusion of fine dining, arts and entertainment and excitement is in a part of the city that attracts millions each year, but if you ask some of the city's most influential players, the area still has leaps and bounds to go from where it should be at a diversity, equity and inclusion standpoint.
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“Boston’s a great place in that it’s a hub of innovation," Tavares Brewington said. "But the unfortunate thing is those opportunities are not evenly distributed.”
Brewington is a successful businessman and youth advocate. His organization, Street 2 Ivy, focuses on entrepreneurship to combat wealth disparities in underserved communities.
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And it just so happens that one of his closest friends — Bruce Zaniol — runs Boston Ship Repair at the Seaport. As the CFO, Zaniol has unique access to leverage partnerships with groups across the city to manage job retention at the dock along with having a hand in any expansion efforts that would drive traffic to the area.
Both men also want young people of all backgrounds to have a seat at the table.
"We have the same goals and initiatives," Zaniol said. "If you want to be a welder, if you want to be an electrician, you can make a six-figure job working in the shipyard. Many people don’t know that."
So, they teamed up to work with local trades and high schools, delivering hours of community outreach. The goal is to create a pipeline of opportunity from surrounding Boston neighborhoods to the Seaport, specifically connecting underserved and underrepresented youth to employment opportunities in fields like real estate, marketing, blue collar labor or design.
Tavares and Zanoil joke that despite being smack dab in the city's Seaport, most people only see the ship yard as an old, rusty dock. So part of attracting people to work and visit the area is development.
As such, they've tapped the CEO and founder of Boston's only woman-owned development company to join their efforts.
“One of the great parts about the Seaport is that because it’s newer, there’s still so much opportunity to transform how it looks and how It feels.” Kaitlin McCarthy said, who created Ionic Development Company.
McCarthy says the feel throughout the Seaport should resonate with everyone — black or white, young and mature — every socioeconomic background and all gender identifications. Doing that means not just having a diverse and equitable workforce, but showing the same attention to inclusion at the ground level.
"Without having a diverse set of people at the table, especially during a design, when you’re creating these places for people, it’s hard to then make it welcoming and make everybody feel comfortable," McCarthy said.
'We want to make It a place where the community can come and get the resources they need to learn skills that they need to improve their lives," Tavares added.
DEI is a massive undertaking to the trio, one they say is certainly more about a continuous journey than a destination. Local development company Cronin is also involved in diversity efforts at the Seaport, working in conjunction with Zanoil, Brewington and McCarthy.
The company already owns a mixed-use building along Seaport Boulevard and as part of their commitment to making the area inclusive for everyone, they recognized that access was half the battle. The Nubian Square shuttle offers service from Roxbury through the Seaport.
