A good time was had by all at this year’s annual client holiday party! We had a great emcee and DJ duo, Mr. Marc and DJ Mikey Palms from Party Like Brooklyn, Baby, who played games with the kids and got everybody on their feet. Special thanks to KPMG, Metropole Realty, and High Water Women, who donated gifts so that every child in attendance got a present, and to students from Long Island City High School who led crafts with the children.

Renowned chef and Emmy Award-winning television personality Lidia Bastianich cares deeply about immigrants and under-served youth having pathways to bright futures.

When 12-year-old Rose saw the big cardboard check for $25,000 from her local Assemblywoman, Nily Rozic, to the Parsons Beacon community center she attends for afterschool programming, her eyes widened and her body shifted forward in her chair. “That’s a lot of money!”

The weather forecast was gloomy, but that didn’t stop this young client of our Early Childhood Mental Health program from enjoying Halloween. He is all dressed up and ready to go!

On Wednesday, we officially cut the ribbon on a state-of-the-art NYPD Community Center, in East New York, where The Child Center of NY will be providing youth development and family support services. The center offers East New York’s young people a growthful environment, supported by people from all walks of life—including police officers.

New York, NY – The Child Center of NY, a nonprofit organization who will be providing family support and youth development services at the NYPD’s new Community Center at 127 Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York, offered the following statement about the Center’s opening.

“We felt like stars!” says eighth-grader Cindy Jean-Francois, a former participant of Ballroom Basix (BBX) at M.S. 283 Preparatory Academy for Writers’ afterschool program, “Play After Work” (PAW). Creating opportunities for our students to build self-confidence and shine is just one of the many facets of The Child Center’s afterschool-enrichment programs — and it’s just one of the benefits of this innovative activity, now in its second year at PAW.

Three-year-old Zion created this masterpiece while playing in the art center at our Escalera Head Start. Its title is “Mom.” “I made a smile face and a nose. It’s when my mom and my sister were walking,” the preschooler explained. “My mom is my friend.”

Three cheers for the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), whose members visited our Ficalora Family Foundation Head Start Center to read to our preschoolers and engage in fun activities together. They also brought along one of the children’s favorite furry monsters: Elmo! You can see the excitement on the children’s faces — and the adults’.

Last Tuesday, third-grader Tania couldn’t stop smiling — or dancing or building or engineering. That’s because it was the day of the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD)’s first city-wide Bring Your Dad to Afterschool celebration — and The Child Center’s COMPASS afterschool program at P.S. 89 in Elmhurst, where Tania is a daily participant, was selected by DYCD as a model site to implement the event.

Karina suffers from a disability and was having trouble with her SNAP (“food stamp”) benefits. Our staff at HALE, where her son is a client, referred her to our Single Stop program. Case Manager Yessenia Robles advocated on Karina’s behalf and was able to get her benefits reinstated immediately.

When Rosalba, mom to 11-month-old Isaias, learned about The Child Center’s Early Head Start program in Astoria, she worried her son wouldn’t be eligible because he has Down syndrome. Home Visitor Alondra Santiago assured Rosalba that we work with all kinds of families and are here as a program to support her.

Tuesday was a special day at Corona Head Start/EarlyLearn: It was Dads Take Your Child to School Day! A record-breaking 131 dads and other male role models participated in the event — much to the joy of 4-year-old Ximena, who had a blast painting a green elephant with her Papi. Our school-age children had their own Dads Take Your Child to School Day fun. Stay tuned!

Third graders Na’Mya, Camilla, Alia, and Kimberlee were excited to see this Monopoly-themed photo frame on their first day at the afterschool COMPASS program at P.S. 273 in Richmond Hill. The students had played different versions of Monopoly throughout The Child Center’s summer program and immediately wanted to take a picture.

When Hasan Davis, former Commissioner of Juvenile Justice for Kentucky and Annie E. Casey Foundation Fellow, was in third grade, he flipped through his social studies textbook and came across its sole image of an African American. It was a photo of a beaten, elderly man, and the caption read, “American Negro slave.”

September is synonymous with “back to school,” but in the 4-year-old class at our Escalera Head Start, Lead Teacher Katherine Beltran and Assistant Teacher Saptashikha Chowdhury have been actively preparing their students for September since June. That’s because all of their students will be entering kindergarten this fall. 

In 2016, The Child Center of NY launched its #DreamsTakeFlight campaign, encouraging children to let their dreams soar. This summer, JetBlue has joined us to help our kids rise to a new level in a different way with its Soar with Reading (SWR) campaign.

Imagine being a child and stepping into your classroom on the first day of school without the required supplies because your family can’t afford them. It’s a reality for a heartbreaking number of Child Center families, but with just $20, you can change that for a child right now.

There’s something really exciting in the works in Far Rockaway, Queens. On Thursday, May 30, 200 community volunteers from The New York Mets Foundation, the Workforce Housing Group, and The Child Center of NY will join forces with KaBOOM! — a national non-profit dedicated to building playgrounds for all kids, particularly those growing up in poverty in America — to transform an empty site at the Dix Avenue Apartments into a kid-designed, state-of-the-art playground in just SI

On a seemingly ordinary school day in Brooklyn, a classroom at Aspirations Diploma Plus High School was transformed into a courtroom where the case being debated was the controversial practice of “stop-and-frisk.”