Co-Founder, President, and Executive Director of Groundwork, Brooklyn, NY public housing projects, and more than half of the city's youth live at or below the poverty line.

1. LAWCROSSING
THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF LEGAL JOBS ON EARTH
LAW STAR www.lawcrossing.com 1. 800.973.1177
Richard Buery : Co-Founder, President, and Executive
Director of Groundwork, Brooklyn, NY
[By Charisse Dengler]
In Brooklyn, the statistics surrounding young people are not pretty. Studies show that over 50,000 kids between the ages of
7 and 14 live in public housing projects, and more than half of the city’s youth live at or below the poverty line. However,
studies also show that education programs combined with work experience can drastically increase a student’s motivation to
pursue success; that’s why Richard Buery is making sure that the youth of Brooklyn get both good educational programs and
plenty of opportunities.
As Co-Founder, President, and Executive internships when you’re in school, to make With a full-time staff of 35 and a part-time
Director of Groundwork, Buery is no stranger cold calls to people at organizations that you staff of 100, Groundwork serves an average
to the dismal conditions plaguing young admire,” he said. of 600 children on a regular basis and
people in New York.He has made it his impacts many more through extra workshops
mission to support the youth of Brooklyn He also advises taking some classes in the and teacher assistance.
and, more specifically, the youth of East New management field in addition to law classes.
York, his home turf. East New York, one of the Buery’s inspiration for Groundwork began at
roughest areas of Brooklyn, has an average “One thing I wish I’d done more of in a young age. His mother, who was a teacher,
high school graduation rate of 40 percent, and law school is taking more classes in taught in an East New York school for 30
71 percent of its youth are born into poverty. organizational management and financial years before she retired. So she was very
management of nonprofits,” he said. “So, concerned with making sure he got a good
Buery, who graduated from Yale Law School for anybody at a law school that’s part of a education and was involved in programs that
in 1997, pursued his undergraduate degree university where you might have access to influenced him in a positive way. However,
at Harvard College. While there, he co- classes in the business school or a school of it was while being a part of these programs
founded the Mission Hill Summer Program. public affairs, I really encourage you, if you and going to one of the best public high
know you want to do this, to take advantage schools in the country that Buery began to
“Basically we started a summer program of the opportunities and cross-enroll and experience first-hand the gap between what
where we worked with initially 30 and then develop as many skills as you can.” he refers to as the “haves and the have-
about 60 or 70 young people who lived in the nots.”
Mission Hill housing project, and we moved Buery went to law school with the knowledge
into the housing project for the summer that he want to work in the field of social “There was a real disconnect,” he said. “I
and created an enrichment-based full-day justice. didn’t feel like I had a real group of friends
summer program that included travel, in East New York who were on the same path
reading, sports, [and] camping,” Buery “I grew up in a low income neighborhood in as I was or who were focused on the same
said. “I started that the summer after my Brooklyn called East New York where I work things that I was beginning to focus on; and I
sophomore year in college, and that program now; and growing up, I think I developed a just think that in a lot of communities, that’s
is still running today.” strong sense pretty early that I wanted to one of the biggest challenges that young
spend my life doing work that would improve people face. It’s not only the fact that there’s
Buery credits Greg Johnson, who was the the life of people of color and particularly such a lack of resources locally—like great
Executive Director of Harvard’s Phillips young people of color,” he said. schools and great programs for those kids
Brooks House organization during Buery’s that live in poor neighborhoods—but it’s also
undergraduate time at Harvard, for helping In 2002, Buery and Andrea Schorr co-founded that there’s not necessarily a peer group to
the Mission Hill Summer Program get off the Groundwork, a nonprofit organization encourage you and support you as you’re
ground and encourages law students who are dedicated to helping “young people making what I think are good choices about
interested in doing nonprofit work to start living in high poverty urban communities your future.”
networking early. develop their strengths, skills, talents, and
competencies through effective experiential With the launch of Groundwork, Buery said
“It’s true for whatever you want to do... learning and work programs.” that he hoped to create an organization that
to start networking early, to seek out would provide youth with the resources they
PAGE continued on back

2. LAWCROSSING
THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF LEGAL JOBS ON EARTH
LAW STAR www.lawcrossing.com 1. 800.973.1177
need to succeed in life and the communities moments that come with seeing the students and showing off what they’ve learned and
of supportive family and friends that succeed that are the most memorable. celebrating their success, and that happens
are crucial to a young person’s positive in a million ways,” he said.
development. Whether he’s celebrating with a student who
just got accepted to an Ivy League college ON THE NET
“Right now, we work primarily in and around (which happened for the first time this
three public housing projects in East New year), watching a student-run performance Groundwork
York. In each of those communities, we try of African dance (which the students video www.groundworkinc.org
to develop a series of programs that can taped and sent to South Africa along with
support a critical mass of children and a video essay on life in East New York), Harvard College
families in those developments so that not standing by as the students turn a parking lot www.college.harvard.edu
only can we impact those young people into a community playground (a playground
directly, but hopefully, we can have an impact that they designed themselves), or awarding Yale Law School
on the neighborhood by helping families and a prize for the Community Service Fair (of www.law.yale.edu
helping children create a network of young which last year’s winners planted saplings
people who provide another way, another around their school as a way of helping
example for how you can be successful in an students who are suffering from asthma),
under-resourced community,” he said. Buery said he is proud of the progress
Groundwork has made in giving Brooklyn’s
When asked what the most memorable youth a chance at success.
moment of the creation and success of
Groundwork has been, Buery said that he “We have the blessing that just about
couldn’t pick just one, but it’s all of the little everyday we get to see children learning
PAGE