'Tools & Tiaras' Gets Grant To Teach Girls Construction Skills

SUNSET PARK, NY — Princesses can be plumbers, too.

Community Offshore Wind, a clean energy venture owned by National Grid, has sponsored 10 young campers to attend Tools & Tiaras, a summer camp in Brooklyn that teaches girls that "Jobs Don't Have Genders."

The camp, hosted by Nontraditional Employment for Women’s facility at Industry City, provides hands on activities that boost confidence and talent in skilled construction trades like clean energy, carpentry, tile laying, welding, restoration masonry, and so much more.

The camp ended with the girls touring a construction site for a significant affordable housing initiative in Crown Heights.

“To do what we do, at the level we do it, is costly for our grassroots nonprofit,” said Judaline Cassidy, founder and CEO of Tools & Tiaras. Cassidy has been a union plumber for more than 30 years.

“So to have Community Offshore Wind come to our T&T table with mission-aligned support is invaluable. But the impact of what these girls gain at camp — self-confidence, skills, empowerment — is going to stay with them forever. And you can’t put a price on that.”