About Us
Our Mission
Grace Institute of New York trains and empowers women to achieve employment and economic self-sufficiency. Through free workplace training, wraparound support services, job placement, and an extensive alumnae network, Grace Institute provides all of the tools necessary for women to realize their career aspirations and enter the workforce with confidence.
Grace Institute is dedicated to serving unemployed and underemployed women between the ages of 18 and 64 in New York City, with a special focus on women of color and single parents. We are proud to support a group of diverse, skillful, and experienced professionals on their path to success.
What We Do
Grace Institute offers a 12-week, tuition-free hybrid training program designed to prepare women for dynamic, upwardly-mobile administrative careers. Our program incorporates standardized administrative Core Training as well as customizable Specialized Training in industry-specific skills. This blended training model ensures that participants master foundational administrative skills, while integrating their individual career aspirations, interests, and goals.
Our training curriculum incorporates job readiness simulations with core professional skills like business communication, scheduling, data entry, entry-level finances, health record management, and more. Participants build resumes and cover letters, and prepare for interviews through real-life mock interview events with corporate volunteers.
Once a participant graduates from Grace Institute, they receive one year of job placement counseling to assist them in finding a career-track position with one of our 100+ employer partners. Once placed, a Grace Institute graduate has lifetime access to alumnae resources and career workshops, and becomes a member of our broad, diverse, and supportive network of Grace Alumnae.
Our History
In 1897, William R. Grace, an immigrant, shipping magnate, and two-time Mayor of New York City, founded Grace Institute, with the partnership of his brother, Michael, and philanthropist, Grace Dodge. Their goal was to create a tuition-free program to educate immigrant women in New York City.
The first participants at Grace Institute studied cookery, millinery, child care, Red Cross, children’s sewing, and dressmaking – correlating with common roles available to women in the late 1800s. By the turn of the century, as the work available to women began to change, so did class offerings. Grace Institute began offering classes in typing, bookkeeping, and stenography to help women secure jobs in New York City’s professional sector.
Throughout the 1900s, Grace Institute continued to evolve into a secretarial training program that prepared women for careers in the business world. This included instruction in shorthand, telephone technique, secretarial procedures, and business law.
Entering the 21st century, Grace Institute has adapted to meet the needs of the ever-evolving job market by launching new administrative and customer support programs to serve the legal, healthcare, nonprofit and hospitality industries. Grace Institute continues to evolve with the job market to ensure we’re providing our participants with relevant, essential, and contemporary learning to launch successful careers.
