When deciding how to mark Juneteenth at our DYCD-funded Oceanside Cornerstone Community Center, Program Director Nelson Sarweh knew he wanted to do something that would be both meaningful and celebratory for the youth in the afterschool program and youth council. Nelson and his team decided on a Juneteenth end-of-year barbecue with celebration, performances, and reflection.

In 2022, a group of women from The Child Center of NY’s perinatal intensive outpatient program joined our groundbreaking pilot initiative, Cash+Community Works: a first-of-its-kind program that combines direct financial support with peer mentorship and community-based goal planning. The premise was simple but radical: trust communities to know what they need and equip them with the resources to pursue it.

The Child Center COMPASS afterschool program at P.S. 89 celebrated Mother’s Day with a paint and sip event that reflected the creativity, engagement, and togetherness that are a part of every day at COMPASS at P.S. 89! Children and their moms or other personal role models created a work of art together while sipping ginger ale from champagne flutes.

Students (and team members!) at Latimer Cornerstone Community Center in Flushing, Queens, explored their artistic side this month. First, they made scratch ornaments for Eid al-Fitr (see below) after learning about the holiday. Then they studied the late great artist Georgia O’Keeffe and created paintings inspired by her life and legacy.

April 2 is celebrated as International Children’s Book Day, in honor of beloved author Hans Christian Andersen. Ahead of the yearly observance, our Corona Head Start classrooms organized a book fair that promoted the Children’s Book Day mission of instilling in children an enduring love of reading.

Elm Tree Elementary students in Corona, Queens, engaged in Civics Week, March 10-14. The week consisted of daily classroom conversations on the importance of civics and the sharing of resources by fourth grade teacher Ms. Haynes. It also included voting! Three proposed projects were chosen by Elm Tree’s Chippy All Stars (student council) and shared with all.

The youth of The Child Center of NY marked Black History Month in ways that showcase their creativity, insight, character, and potential. The Child Center Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) in Brooklyn organized several activities to celebrate and delve into Black History Month, with discussion topics such as who were pioneers in Black history, and how did they shape their time and ours; movies that included Soul, Self Made, Harriet, and Hidden Figures; and art projects.

Noelia began baking sweets and selling them to her family members to earn extra cash during tough economic times. Word got around that Noelia’s creations were better than any bakery’s. She started getting requests from other moms for custom-order cakes for birthday parties. With limited resources, though, her business could grow only so much.

Rockaway residents celebrated Kwanzaa this holiday season the way they strive to live every day: with neighbors helping neighbors and celebrating their rich culture and each other. It all came together at the second Annual Community Unity Cultural Celebration of Kwanzaa on December 28 at B.R.I.D.G.E Family Enrichment Center. The celebration was sponsored and supported by several community organizations and attended by 180 Far Rockaway community members and friends.

Rockaway residents celebrated Kwanzaa the way they strive to live every day: with neighbors helping neighbors, celebration, and gratitude.

Twas truly the season for joy, giving, and gratitude at The Child Center of NY! Friends and supporters showed up for our families in a big way, leaving no doubt that there is a whole community that cares about them and considers them part of our larger New York family.

Every year, The Child Center of NY presents an annual report to share the stories and accomplishments of the past 12 months with our community members, friends, and supporters. We also enlist a professional photographer to document what really goes on in our programs! This year, among the sites we photographed was Ocean Bay Cornerstone Community Center in Arverne in the Rockaways.  

“Who would like to help me make this salad?” the class instructor asked. In the front row, Kimberly Quintero, age 7, waved her arm eagerly. The instructor, Mohammad Haq, was part of Farm to Preschool, a national nutrition program that The Child Center of NY has brought to our Head Start in Woodside, Queens. He was teaching a group of mothers and children to make coleslaw, and he helped as Kimberly mixed fresh dill with grated cabbage and carrots.

Taking advantage of the beautiful fall weather, the students of Escalera Head Start visited Central Park this month. The field trip coincided with their tree unit of study. Here they are measuring the circumference of trees.  

The Brooklyn Nets visited Parsons Community School for a slam dunk event! In a high-energy basketball clinic, 40 young players from four Child Center of NY sites that offer afterschool programs and summer learning camps for middle schoolers—Parsons Beacon, SONYC-QSI, SONYC-Queens United, and SONYC-CASA—got a taste of NBA-level training.

Students can lose up to two months in reading achievement and 2.6 months of math skills over a single summer. Over time, this translates to two years of learning loss by middle school. This decline in academic skills, which is especially pronounced for children from low-income families, is known as the summer slide.

In observance of Mental Health Awareness Month, the New York Mets invited nine employees from the Child Center of NY to Citi Field to recognize their impactful work in the mental health space.

This is a story about a family who traveled on foot from South America to the United States. Johana and her partner, José, had their first child in Venezuela. When their first child was one, Johana and José made the decision to leave the country, as economic and political turmoil made it increasingly more difficult to get by. The family then settled in Peru for six years where they welcomed their second child.

On Saturday, June 8, our friends and partners at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center participated in the 28th Annual Brooklyn Pride Multicultural Festival. Their presence showed the Brooklyn LGBTQ+ community that the Pride Center is here for them with compassion, support, and, yes, pride!

Did you know that 60 percent of all the words in print come down to the same 220 words? Those magical 220 words are known as sight words. They are common words that can be difficult to “sound out” (think “could” and “does”); but if children recognize them by the end of first grade, they are well on their way to fluency and being on grade level for literacy.