A SMALL IDEA WITH A BIG PAYBACK
If you live outside New York City, chances are you have never heard of Henry Buhl. The photographer, art collector, philanthropist and community activist appears regularly on the social scene, and the charity events held in his loft are some of the hottest tickets in town. He is a classic example of thinking globally and acting locally.
Henry’s career began in New York on Wall Street, where like so many young men, he worked as an analyst and investment broker. He later moved onto the international financial scene managing mutual funds in Geneva.
His is a classic story of working one’s way up. But in 1973, after a successful 30 years in the financial industry, he left that world completely and embarked on a second career – as a photographer.
The opportunity that sparked the change came to him largely by accident, when he brought a new camera to a cousin’s wedding to try it out. None of the pictures taken by the hired “professional” photographer turned out, so Henry’s pictures were the only record…and the bride and groom loved them.
Photography became his love, and after his first accidental gig, word spread within the circles he knew from his Wall Street days. He began to get commissions shooting art and fashion events for society magazines such as Quest, and countless weddings in locations from South Hampton to the South Pacific. He opened a studio in SoHo, and used it to showcase his growing and highly regarded collection of modern art and photography.
Along the way he also became one of the first big art collectors in SoHo - and an early champion of emerging downtown artists.
Between his successful first career on Wall Street, his burgeoning photography business, and his passion for collecting art, Henry was by all external measure a very successful man.
No
w at The Mark of a Leader we believe that the universe is talking to us all the time but we are usually too busy to pay attention.
One day the universe spoke to Henry, and he was listening.
On an otherwise ordinary day in the summer of 1992, as 62 year old Henry was walking home from lunch on the street near his studio, a familiar local street sweeper asked to borrow $20. As it turned out, the sweeper had been fired for sleeping on the job. So Henry gave him the $20 and his job back.
On further investigation, it turned out that a local businessman had been paying for the streets to be cleaned, but did not have the time to follow up with the problem. Henry volunteered.
The opportunity was obvious to Henry. He could see the potential of this simple little idea. On the one hand, there were many others like the jobless man who simply needed a chance for a comeback, and on the other, the taxpayer-funded streets department could not keep the streets of SoHo clean. This was a classic win-win.
Henry paid a visit to a group called the Bowery Residents Committee (BRC) which provided homeless people with shelter, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and help in finding work. He asked whether they had any men who would come to sweep the streets if the local merchants would pay them a salary.
The BRC had been successfully helping homeless people for many years, but had always faced a huge challenge in placing them in jobs. Employers were generally reluctant to hire the homeless because they appeared untrustworthy, and they frequently had a jail record of some sort to prove it.
Hen
ry's proposal offered them a simple and perfect solution: real work for real pay. The enthusiastic executive director immediately recommended two people for the job.
Buhl immediately went out and found another block in his neighborhood where the merchants and residents were willing to take part.
Within three months, Henry was overseeing a team of eight people cleaning the streets in his community.
Project Comeback, as the “Work and Learn” project was known, became the basis of the SoHo Partnership, recognized as one of the nation's most successful job training and placement programs. Now in its eleventh year of operation, the organization is dedicated to providing “employment readiness training and job placement to recovering homeless individuals through community improvement projects in SoHo”.
Through the Partnership, homeless men and women living in city shelters are paid a minimum wage to work 20-24 hours per week, performing such useful community services as cleaning streets, caring for trees, removing graffiti, and clearing snow and ice. In addition, they receive weekly literacy, computer, and money management classes. They also learn how to write a cover letter and resume and go through between five and fifteen mock interviews in preparation for the job hunt.
"The program pays $6 per hour, of which 85 cents is placed into a Chase Manhattan Bank fee-free savings account," says Buhl. The purpose of this is for the enrollees to have money for a down payment on an apartment after they leave the shelters. Most people leave about six months after graduation.
In 
1999, the SoHo Partnership created Project Stay, an after-care program to assist graduates with different aspects of work, family and social life, and to support their ability to stay employed. According to Buhl, this extensive after-care program is the reason why so many graduates are able to keep their jobs.
"Not everyone graduates," says Buhl. Nevertheless, roughly 70% find entry-level jobs at the end of the 6-9 month period. "Every other training program will tell you that same statistic," says Buhl, adding that the difference with Project Comeback is that "over 80% of all the people we get jobs for have them one year or longer."
Here’s the most wonderful part: none of it calls on the public purse for a dime! The whole thing is privately funded…supported by over a thousand SoHo businesses and residents who contribute annual dues as members of the Partnership.
The SoHo Partnership has already provided the model for several sister organizations, notably in the TriBeCa and Hudson Square neighborhoods of New York and in the SoMa (South of Market) area in San Francisco. Eight other cities are now considering similar initiatives.
Henry Buhl provided or raised the seed capital and annual subsidies for every single one of the Partnership’s homeless initiatives since it began. He continues to serve as the organization’s leading patron and guiding light, personally hosting many important fundraising events in his own home.
A lot of people who were facing some very tough challenges have been given a second chance at life thanks to Henry Buhl and his simple idea.
It doesn’t take a lightning bolt and a big kabang to change the world. Sometimes it simply takes a little idea that makes a lot of sense.
(To find out more about the work this fine organization does, or to offer them support, I invite you to contact them at: www.artseensoho.com/Mammon/organizations/sohopartnership.html)
