New York City Mission Society is a lifeline to 6,400 individuals each year in communities of long-standing need in Harlem, the South Bronx and Brooklyn. We fulfill our mission - to help children and families to learn, achieve and succeed - at our Minisink Townhouse in Central Harlem and in eleven New York City public schools through needs-responsive programming that focuses on:

Education

Considering the importance of education in affecting career success and personal growth, we have made academic achievement a priority area of our programming. By offering tutoring, literacy instruction, computer training, and financial literacy instruction, we strive to ensure that no individual will be left behind in the increasingly fast-paced, technology-driven global economy. In addition, we often provide scholarship support to many of our college-bound program participants to help them to further their educational careers.

Indicative of the value we place on education, Mission Society has integrated literacy instruction into all of its youth programming. This approach has tangible results that are manifested in many different ways. In our after school programs, we help students who are having difficulty in school to read at grade level. At our Minisink Townhouse, literacy instruction features writing and reading assignments that help young people to learn about current events while developing core academic competencies. And in our summer day camp, our programs stem children's (ages 6 to 12) learning loss during summer recess by integrating basic reading and communications concepts into the camp experience.

At the heart of our work in education is the desire to prepare youth for responsible adulthood. While we emphasize the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic in our work, we also strive to equip young people with other practical life skills essential to their educational development. Through financial literacy instruction, we teach adolescent program participants to open and maintain bank accounts, to prepare personal budgets, and to research companies in order to learn how the business world works. Such practical skills will help them to achieve success in adulthood.

Personal Growth and Development

Activities in the personal growth and development area help program participants to evolve into self-confident people who think critically and have the social and emotional skills needed to cope effectively with life's challenges. Through journal writing, work-readiness instruction, conflict resolution, and community service projects, program participants gain a greater sense of self-awareness and develop the skills needed to become fulfilled, productive citizens.

Our Career Readiness and Education Workshop (CREW) program offers strong evidence of the significance we place in the personal growth and development area. In this program, we prepare young people (ages 14-18) for the work world by covering topics such as interviewing techniques, appropriate dress in the workplace, resume writing, and job search techniques. Additionally, through counseling, we provide CREW participants with consistent, meaningful guidance during their adolescent years that helps them a) to meet educational and vocational objectives, and b) to develop interpersonal and life management skills. These are just some of the activities of CREW, one of many comprehensive Mission Society programs forming the skills and character of program participants.

We have integrated leadership training throughout our youth programming as part of our efforts in the personal growth and development area. Topics covered in leadership training include: conflict resolution; critical thinking; health awareness; sexual education; anger management; communication arts (oral and written); public speaking; and team-building.

Prevention

As members of communities of long standing need, the children and families that we serve are often faced with the harmful effects of poverty. Inadequate access to health care, high rates of teenage pregnancy, and the dissolution of the family are among the many symptoms of poverty that lead to a tragic loss of human potential in inner-city neighborhoods. Through services in prevention, we strive to free children and families from the influence of such negative factors, empowering them to lead healthy lives and to fulfill their potential.

Teenage pregnancy prevention and foster care prevention are two notable examples of our sustained, year-round services in the prevention area. Our teenage pregnancy prevention program, Club Real Deal, combines family and sexuality education classes with tutoring, job training, martial arts, writing projects, and access to medical and dental care. Through this holistic approach, the program has demonstrated great success in reducing teenage pregnancy rates and promoting academic success. It boasts a 98% success rate in preventing teenage pregnancy, and over 90% of its participants attend college.

New York City Mission Society's foster care prevention services include parent advocacy, individual counseling, family counseling, and crisis intervention. In keeping with the concept of a community of care, we are able to make referrals (for medical and mental health care, substance abuse counseling, and day care) to other neighborhood providers with whom we have established partnerships.

In an effort to address the health needs and concerns of Harlem residents, New York City Mission Society collaborates with the American Kidney Fund to host the annual Harlem Health Fair. We provide free hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol, glaucoma, blood glucose and energy tests - as well as free asthma screenings - to those attending this event. Medical professionals also conduct learning sessions on health and nutrition topics, while information is disbursed on various health care issues. Each year, hundreds of Harlem residents benefit from this daylong event that promotes kidney disease awareness and prevention.

Arts and Recreation

Arts and recreation are enhancement activities integral to the educational process. Often physically and emotionally enriching, participation in both types of activities helps to shape program participants into well-rounded, healthy individuals.

Through arts activities, program participants of all ages develop their creative talents, enhance their emotional awareness, and feel a sense of pride in their creative achievements. Music, dance, and arts and crafts are offered to young people in our summer camp and in our after-school programs. Once a year, we display the beautiful paintings and drawings of our school children in a Holiday Art Exhibit that is a great source of pride and accomplishment to these young artists.

Recreational activities help program participants to develop strong bodies, to relieve stress, and through organized sports, to learn the value of teamwork and sportsmanship. While recreational activities have been a mainstay of our summer camp program for years, we also integrate athletics into our after-school programs, balancing the rigors of academics with the release of physical activity.

Through our four service strategies - education, personal growth and development, prevention, and arts and recreation - New York City Mission Society remains a leader in the human services field. Our approach to service delivery embraces values such as dignity, kindness, and respect; sustained by these values, our work cultivates the skills and talents of thousands of New Yorkers each year. Ultimately, we aspire for every person who comes through our doors to be enriched by the experience and better able to lead lives that are fulfilling to themselves, to their families, and to their communities.

All photographs on this page by Carmen Clay Photo