![\"Fatima](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/12\/Fatima_Duran_1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683\")
Duran and colleague Santhiago DeVicente traveled to Boston to meet with the Jewish Vocational Services, an organization that provides services to workers from a diversity of backgrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t how we usually did things,\u201d Duran says. \u201cWe usually went through a more traditional process. But WeWork empowers us to break down walls and get things done. I thought, \u2018What\u2019s the worst that could come from this? Let\u2019s try it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After a single day of interviews, she filled all six positions. She knew she was on to something.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was definitely a turning point,\u201d says Duran. \u201cWe hired people from places like Cuba, Haiti, Afghanistan, and Cape Verde. I\u2019m not saying there weren\u2019t challenges. But there was such an energy about how they came together. I\u2019ve onboarded so many people at WeWor\u2014in the hundreds\u2014but this was the first time I\u2019ve felt this level of excitement and gratitude. It was really something special to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
After their success in Boston, Duran\u2019s team started brainstorming about other organizations they could work with. Alex Feldman, a WeWork community manager, shared that his girlfriend, Nazanin Toumadj, worked for the International Rescue Committee. Duran had an idea: They had hired refugees in Boston \u2013\u2013 why couldn\u2019t they do the same thing in New York?<\/p>\n
It turned out to be another fortuitous meeting. Working closely with two staffers there\u2014Toumadj and Pema Khorko\u2014Duran arranged for an open house for prospective employees sponsored by IRC. The turnout was beyond what she could have imagined.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time ever we had more offers to extend than openings,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were 12 or 13 spots that we could offer that day, and more that we could offer for the following month.\u201d<\/p>\n
That led to the WeWork Community Hiring Initiative, a program to hire 1,500 refugees over the next five years. It originally launched in the US, but has already expanded to the UK.<\/p>\n
Toumadj, an employment specialist at IRC, says WeWork\u2019s initiative has changed the lives of many refugees she works with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a remarkable opportunity for our clients,\u201d she says. \u201cIt provides them with a positive work environment, valuable work experience, and comprehensive benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duran has moved on to a new position at WeWork\u2014she\u2019s now director of operations for the company\u2019s WeLive business line\u2014but she\u2019s enormously proud of piloting a program that helps people like her parents, who found jobs as a seamstress and a line cook after they moved to the US.<\/p>\n
“They were and are still the hardest working people I’ve ever known,\u201d she says. \u201cMy mother has never taken a sick day in her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although hiring 1,500 refugees sounds like an enormous task, Duran isn\u2019t daunted.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt WeWork, our strategy is always to break a project into pieces and do it bit by bit,\u201d she says. \u201cI know that this is going to be a piece of cake. We\u2019ve accomplished harder feats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photos: Katelyn Perry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fatima Duran helps pilot program to help people fleeing political strife in their countries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1950,"featured_media":3000001491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43912],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-employee-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n