Kingsbridge Heights Community Center Inc

Youth services: we provide a safe, welcoming environment during after-school hours where over 500 young people can socialize, learn, and grow across our main site (center based), and 2 school campus locations. Our programs include middle school after-school, summer programs including day camp, summer rising, and summer bridge internship, teen center afternoon/evening programming for high school-aged youth to develop sock-emotional and leadership skills, college directions focused on post-secondary education success, and a respite program for individuals with developmental disabilities up to age 40. Family services: we provide a range of services and support to adults and families that help break generational cycles of abuse, neglect, and poverty. At the heart of this division is changing futures, a trauma treatment program engaging 300 survivors of sexual and physical abuse annually. Changing futures also operates a rape crisis crisis team and hotline, responding to survivors in need of hospital accompaniment and support with shelter and legal resources. We offer various educational groups, including parenting journey, a 12 week series that nurtures parents and provides a safe space to explore ones own childhood (open to families with active child protective service involvement). Adult services/khcconnect: our unique case management unit, khcconnect screens all participants enrolled in our programs for unaddressed needs and provides assistance addressing those needs in the form of referrals, intensive case management, or educational opportunities (such as our entrepreneurship program for immigrant women) and workshops on community priorities (housing navigation). Since its establishment, khcconnect has become a critical part of the work we do and has had a deep impact on the lives of the families we serve. Other offerings include english for speakers of other languages (esol) classes and immigrant support groups using restorative justice circle keeping as our primary mode of engaging newly arrived adults. Nutrition and food access services: participants in all programs receive nutrition education and opportunities to grow their own food in our thriving community garden. We offer a diverse array of programming such as cooking classes in our teen center, training in garden maintenance for young people in our summer bridge internship program, and nutrition education with our early childhood and special needs youth. To further support food access, we operate a food pantry year-round and offer 30 garden plots for community members to grow their own vegetables. Food insecurity has become a major problem: while 34% of our participants lacked adequate food before the pandemic, now over 75% are struggling to feed their families. The reach of our food pantry has grown exponentially, from 20 families served per week pre-pandemic to now over 300 families per week.