Khan describes MWBE mentor program and large outreach events

So, yes, Councilmember, we have an MWE mentors program that creates space for peer-to-peer mentorship, networking amongst the firms.

So how many of those are done within the specific, and again, and even looking at the Native Americans, they got one contract.

So, like, how are we reaching out to those groups and pairing them with mentors to ensure that they're getting these contracts?

We've done borough-based events.

We've done webinars.

We've done one-on-one technical assistance.

We did two large-scale events, both of which had 1,800 attendees on one end with half of the attendees African-American.

Have you even looked at the list of folks who are like you who've already certified at NWBV and have not gotten a contract and they haven't had a track record and they haven't gotten awarded?

Have you reached out to them specifically and said, you're already certified, let's figure out what's missing so that you can either get.

Get the support that you need to get a contract.

Have you guys done that?

The way in which we get 1,800 to show up under one roof with over 100 services is we reached out to all of the certified firms and said, hey, if you're a certified firm in New York City,

you should come to this event where we're going to bring all of these resources in one place, do workshops on Passport, do workshops.

We got 1,000 people, and your thought is that in that space and 1,000 people that they're going to get the resources that they need.

We had one-on-one sessions, consultations.

We had workshops at the same event.

We did everything you could possibly think of.

I'm just trying to, and don't feel like I'm coming at you, but like I'm trying to get to the answer of it because having a big event with a lot of numbers is nice.

And I'm saying like, how are we getting to the nitty gritty?

Because from that thousand people who showed up, how many people got a contract after that?

So, Councilman, we are not the contracting agency that makes the contracting decisions, right?

But what we did at the event is we provided over 300 direct one-on-one services.

These are not a large event.

Everybody showed up.

They were sitting and we spoke to them and lectured them.

We had 300 people, one-on-one sessions.

We put all of our staff online.

And it's just one.

How many staff do you have?

Because you had 300 people have direct sessions.

What did that look like?

How many people were there?

We had over 60 people working at that event.

You had 60 staff there, and you met with 300 people.

How long were those meetings?

Councilmember, we can get you a full briefing on the details of that event, but it's just one event of all of the programs we do year-round.

And the number that I was pointing out earlier, Councilmember, was of any firm that ends up winning a contract in the city, an MWBE firm, of the full fiscal year that we're looking at last fiscal year, FY26,

it's 76% of them win a contract, which for us demonstrates the need for us to do more, get the word out about these services, get the word out about the program, the mentorship support, the technical assistance.

We help businesses write a capability statement, and we also help them understand the platforms that they use.