MEET ED
# 1 Social Capital Speaker and Coach
Founder of Social Capital Builders
Author and Advocate,
Husband and Father
and Ironman
ABOUT EDWARD DEJESUS
As the nation’s leading social capital success coach and expert my aim is to create a world where no person is disconnected from opportunities for success and advancement. That’s why I’m super- passionate about social capital and its power to transform lives and bank accounts.
My thirty-five years of experience helping build future economic opportunities has prepared me to help you connect to the opportunities that you never knew exist. Through research, education and direct experience I have uncovered the truth about career success that is not taught in school and is missed by most "motivational" speakers. I present the case that you have the seeds to set up the structures that will make a difference in your future and through social capital building, I show you how to make these seeds grow.
My mission is to increase the social capital literacy of one million youth and adults by 2025.
I’m a W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Fellow and hold a MS in Management and Urban Policy Analysis from the New School for Social Research. I’m a graduate of Rutgers University’s Center for Creative Community Leadership. I’ve been trained by the Midwest Center for Social Change, The Gallup Institute, The Center for Creative Leadership, The National Coalition Building Institute and many others. I’ve served on the board of the National Youth Employment Coalition, chaired the New York City Youth Employment Consortium and led the local NYC MADDADS (Men Against Destruction Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder).
My commitment to your social captial development is my passion. I have built a business valued at over one million dollars in three short years by using the social captial principals and practices I teach. f
I’ve authored reports for the US Depart of Labor, The Annie E Casey Foundation The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Johns Hopkins University and many others. featured on NPR, in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun and the Miami Herald. Let's build the future today.
My Story
People often ask, “why are you so passionate about social capital?” You see, as a twenty-year-old young father born and raised in the Bronx, NY, the path to success was confusing. I wanted to be the father that my children deserved but no one told me the truth about how to get a job. I'm not talking about any job; I'm talking about a good paying job with some real benefits.
Don’t get me wrong. I wasn't trying to be a cocky 20-year-old. I deserved a good-paying job. You know what I'm talking about - those NYC good paying jobs in the hospitals, on the police force, in the fancy hotels, on Wall Street. No one who looked like me had those jobs and when I asked how to get one, I was told to have a resume, be able to answer the 21 commonly asked interview questions, dress in a suit and smile. Let's not forget the handshake.
I wish someone would have told me that 80% of jobs are never advertised and that the greatest chance of me getting a job was not based on what I knew or who I knew - it was based on who knew me and liked me. The more affluent kids who were getting these good jobs didn't have a resume, they had a connection.
Listen, all this talk that young people not trying to be responsible was untrue then, and it's untrue now. Young people want good jobs, but no one is being honest on how to get them. They want to be shown the way but too many people are not opening doors to opportunity.
Young people want advance education and training but it's hard to motivate themselves to invest in school or certification programs when they don't know someone on the other side of the labor market who is willing to help them put their hard earned achievement to work.
I was told to pour through classified ads and button up for more interviews than I can count. And although I often got the offer, they were for jobs that were trying to drag me out of school towards those $3.35 an hour, no benefits types of jobs that seemed to be reserved for young men and women of color just like me. It was a STUCK UP! I was being stuck in punch-clock promise land.
There were alternatives... but my brother made that mistake, and he made me promise that I wouldn't make the same.
I kept pushing, interview after interview, the love for my two baby girls kept me reaching beyond, toward what I knew I was capable of but the weight of bills and the need for an apartment hit me hard...so one day I just decided to drop out of school and take on a full-time assistant manager position at a local fast food joint.
There was one catch... The manager informed me that I would have to work rotating shifts, school would no longer be an option.
So many young men want to do the right thing but can’t survive on $3.35 (now you can't survive on even $15.35). Sometimes you just got to do what you think you need to do.
The day I decided to leave school, I ran into my best friend and boxing partner- Brian.
Brian was doing his road work and I was looking for work. I told him I decided to take the fast food job and leave school, but Brian had something else in mind. He said, “Don’t do it. I know someone who can help. You have another move.” The next day, Brian’s father, Mr. Ed Dowd, called me. He had a connection at the NYC Human Resources Administration - a woman named Shirley Gray, who was offering me a full-time job as an Institutional Aid with the NYC homeless shelter system. Starting pay? $17,000 and mad benefits. No resume, no 21 questions, no suit, just a lot of compassion for a young man trying to do the right thing.
The truth is; NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT SOCIAL CAPITAL OR ASSITED IN HELPING ME DEVELOP IT. I already knew the person who got me the job! Here's the crazy part. Mr. Dowd's wife was my mother's best customer in the beauty salon she ran in the Bronx. Someone should have told me to get my resume, throw on a shirt and tie and sit my butt in the beauty shop and watch how quickly all those Black woman who knew me for years would have helped me get a job.
From there, my human service career took sail. And 38 years later, here I am, still at it, encouraging millions of people with Brian’s same words: “Don’t do it. I know someone who can help. You got another move. This story inspired the creation of what now is my famous “Checkmate” story and painting. I’ve been telling this story for more than 30 years to help people see that they have another move. And given the economic struggles of so many people, I will tell this story for 30 years more. I just hope that I will get to share this story with you.
I did it. Now I have six children. My baby girls are all grown, and I fight every day to help create a world better than the one to which you were born. We all have work to do and I am here to help you do it.
To learn about my policy work and research visit www.socialcapitalbuilders.com
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