Community and Adult Education

Adult Education Program

This initiative has three componets:

1. English as a Second Language (ESL)

Day and eveing beginning and intermediate ESL classes are provided to enable participants to improve grammar, speech and writing skills. Periodic assignments are provided to determine the level of effectiveness of the program and the growth of all participants.

2. General Education Diploma (GED)

Day and evening classes are provided to assist participants in their pursuit of an education. Reading comprehension, math, science and the other subjects that comprise the GED are taught and practiced in preparation for the test itself.

3. Basic Education Classes

Day and evening general education and Basic Life Instruction are provided. These classes teach basic life skills such as, but not limited to reading math, history, etc.

Day classes as well as evening classes are offered to accommodate individuals who work and want to expand their knowledge of the English language and/or obtain their High School Equivalency Diploma (GED). The courses are taught by experienced, certified teachers. The program serves approximately 700 people per year

The Community Leadership Initiative

This program brings together the entire family, children, adolescents, adults and seniors in one central location to acquire life skills. Through a series of workshops, participants are motivated to strengthen their roles in the family, the community and society in general.

Workshops/Seminars Offered: HIV Education TB Education Nutrition Immigration Updates Parenting Successfully Self-Esteem Welfare Reform Health Insurance Business Development Operation

Economic Development

Neighborhood Revitalization Project (NRP)

ACDP in partnership with Manhattan Valley Development Corp (MVDC) manage two apartment buildings through NRP.

All buildings selected in the Neighborhood Revitalization Project are required to relocate tenants, either permanently or temporarily. Some buildings require gut rehabilitation and require the entire building to be vacated. Other buildings require moderate rehabilitation and rehabilitation occurs with tenants in-place or relocated by “checkerboarding” tenants by apartment lines or floors.

Tenants who are permanently displaced must be provided relocation assistance at the levels described in, and in accordance with, the requirements of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (URA) and 49 CFR Part 24. A displaced person must be informed of the availability of a range of assistance, including advisory services, replacement housing, options, relocation payments, replacement housing assistance, and their right to appeal the amount of relocation assistance.

The primary goals of the project are:

• To build a NRP Tenants Association and through monthly meeting, help oversee, understand, and communicate about the NRP development process, and to work together to improve the quality of life in their buildings.
• To assist residents of the NRP building individually throughout the process of relocation, construction, and management to (a) fully understand the process, (b) coordinate the arrangement of all necessary information and subsidies, and (c) help improve quality-of-life and increase their self sufficiency.
• To achieve eventual resident-control of the buildings through a resident-controlled rental housing model, residents can work together to address issues facing the building and community.

Business relocation is covered by the Uniform Relocation Act but is not included in Section 104(d) requirements. This entitles for-profit businesses as well as non-profit organizations to qualify for business relocation assistance, the business must qualify as a “displaced person”. A “displaced business” is defined as a business that moves permanently as a direct result of the acquisition, rehabilitation, or demolition of the property for a HUD-assisted project. All displaced businesses are eligible for relocation assistance. However, the regulations specify alternative benefits based on size, type of operation, and contribution to the owner’s income.

Neighborhood Franchise Project (NFP)

In collaboration with LISC and BT, ACDP is participating in the Neighborhood Franchise Project (NFP) is a pilot program that utilizes franchising as a tool to unlock the economic potential of inner city communities. The NFP will create up to twenty-five franchised businesses in five New York City neighborhoods including five franchises in Washington Heights and Inwood. The franchises formed in Washington Heights will be a partnership between ACDP local entrepreneurs who will be responsible for their day-to-day management.

Additionally, the project examines the Washington Heights/Inwood commercial corridors and makes recommendations as to what businesses that area would benefit from. The focus of this project is to attract more of a higher quality of Assistance to small businesses, and to revise the underwriting standards.

Location: Audubon Ballroom 3940 Broadway New York, NY 10032 Hours of Operation Monday - Friday 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Phone Number: (212) 781-500 Fax Number: (212) 927-6089

Recreation

Highbridge Play Center Activities

The following recreational activities are provided to children, adolescent and youth at the Highbridge Play Center.

Basketball Academy (Midnight Basketball)

Swimming Pool

Social Service Initiative

Entitlement Clinic

Family Preservation Initiative

Food Bank

Audubon Ballroom Youth mental health program (ABYMHP)

ACDP the lead agency, in collaboration with Alianza Dominicana, The Pediatric Psychiatric services at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, The Mental Health Association of New York and Bronx Counties and the Hispanic Women’s Center, operates this program from the historic Audubon Ballroom Complex. The program provides linguistically appropriate, youth focused mental health service for seriously emotionally disturbed children, youth and their families. The target population is served through various service mediums:

Mental Health Services

Mobile Mental Health Service Unit: provides on-site mental health and information and referral services.

Mental Health Case Coordination: This team consists of representatives from all represented care givers to coordinate mental health case service delivery efforts.

Psychosocial Education

Violence Prevention Project:

The program provides and will help families to work through and diffuse the violent behaviors among the youth with the teaching of new effective skills and linking with other groups via advocacy, training and dissemination of information. ACDP’s Neighborhood Youth Alliance, a group of 20 adolescent males and females who have been exposed to violence have been trained to spread the anti-violence message among other youth. They head the efforts to guide the “Choose to De Fuse: Youth Against Violence” peer education and violence prevention project.

Psychoeducation Consultation & Training Project

ACDP and other service providers have developed a curriculum of psycho-educational activities designed to promote discussion and consideration of the issues which are relevant to the early detection of mental illness. The Pediatric Psychiatry Service at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital assists through the provision of psychiatric consultation around psycho-educational programming and assists the staff of the ABYMHP to prepare workshops for families of SED children and adolescents.

Self Help Groups

Location: Audubon Ballroom 3940 Broadway New York, NY 10032 Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. Phone Number: (212) 781-5500 Fax Number: (212) 927-6089

Youth Development

In conjunction with The Summer Food Service Program, ACDP provides free food for children (age 0-18) during the summer months. Lunch is served at the Highbridge Center by ACDP staff and participants in the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). For some children, this will be the only meal that they receive that day. This program ensures that the meals the children eat are nutritious and filling.

Many children in the summer meals program also participate in other educational and recreational activities offered at Highbridge. This program not only ensures nutritional food, but also gives children a safe place to spend their days during the summer months. Each summer, approximately 15,750 meals are served commencing the week of Independence Day and ending the weekend before Labor Day.

Gives children, ages 3-10, the opportunity to play and learn in a safe environment. The room is divided into three sections. The first section is a play area, the second is a video learning section and the third is a discovery area where children learn about life, science and the environment hands-on.

Additionally, the Lean and Play Room supports the work of the agency program participants by providing short term day care services to agency participants while they continue to further accomplish their educational and mental health goals.

This program provides youth, age 6-12, with homework assistance, arts and recreational activities. Students also participate in group activities which promote self-esteem and cultural awareness. The program runs throughout the school year from 3 P.M. to 6 P.M.

Students participate in the following activities/classes: computers Nutrition Protocol & Etiquette Reading Math Library Cultural Activitie

El Puente Dominicano and the Neighborhood Youth Alliance (NYA)

The Family Reading Room

This program supports the ideal, "...families that read together stay together". Through providing a quiet environment in which parents and children can read together, a parent-child bond is strengthened as well as scholastic skills. The library includes books on a multitude of topics for children not yet able to read, which include college resources for teens, and parenting concerns for parents or guardians.

Similar to the after school program, except it runs from after the 4th of July to the 2nd week of August, Monday through Thursday. Children who participate in this program also receive free lunch daily.

Activites provided include: Martial Arts Computers Workshops Reading Nutrition Math Trips And other recreational activities

Students are required to make a strong commitment to the program and to themselves. A wide range of activities are offered to support academic and personal skills. Among the services offered to the students at C.I.S. 147 are the following:

Academic Enrichment-ABC’s of Starting Your Own Business/Self-Development Seminars and Workshops. Training seminars assist students to develop essential life skills for self-employment or traditional employment and wealth creation. The seminars also increase math, reading, writing, and verbal skills through hands-on entrepreneurial activities. The self-development workshops are a series of seminars aimed at increasing self-esteem, building conflict mediation skills, increasing cultural awareness, and improving academic performance.

Individual Counseling. Consists of regular meeting with students in which the students needs are assessed and they learn to set goals, develop problem solving techniques, critical thinking, leadership and creativity. If necessary, referrals are made to other programs. Individual counseling takes place at the students, parents, or teacher’s request. Every student must undergo a pre-evaluation; follow-up is not only Jone with the student, but with the student’s teacher and family.

Individual Parent Conferences. The purpose of this activity is to teach parents how to become directly involved with the shaping and growth of their child’s academic and personal development. Through these conferences, counselors discuss their child’s current progress, analyze the situation and create a plan of action for the parents to follow.

Workshops. Workshops are conducted with students of the entrepreneurship program and other participants. They participate in the Entrepreneurship training and the students from the previous year have an Entrepreneurship club that organizes periodic activities. They hold special events that build awareness. The workshops are held once a month.

After School Instruction. Tutorial Instruction is provided t students that participate in the other components in homework help.

Location: C.I.S. 147 1600 Webster Ave. Bronx, NY 10457 Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Friday 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. Phone Number: (718) 901-3444 Fax Number: (718) 901-3444

The Twenty-First Century academy for Community leadership

The Twenty-First Century Academy for Community Leadership opened on January 6, 1997 as a New Vision public school with an innovative dual-language academic program, two kindergarten and one first grade classes, a 3-6 P.M. after school program, and a mandate to become the first per-Kindergarten to 12^th grade dual-language school in the United States. Located in Washington Heights-Inwood, Manhattan, the Twenty-First Century Academy is an emerging local group with deep community roots; it was formed by parents, educators and long-time community activists with strong support from the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans (ACDP).

In spring, 1995 a group of community activists affiliated with ACDP, including several parents and teachers, came together to form a Planning Committee to “create the school of our dreams.” In July 1995, they responded to an RFP from the Fund for New York City Public Education to submit an application to become a “New Vision” school. New Vision are collaborations between the New York City Public Schools and community-based organizations to create public schools which have unique governance structures and a greater degree of autonomy than other school (New York State does not have charter schools; New Vision Schools differ from charter schools in being part of the school system, rather than being independent).

In April, 1996, the Fund for New York City Public Education (now called New Visions for Public Schools) accepted the proposal. New Visions for Public Schools awarded the Academy a $15,000 planning grant, and followed it with a $50,000 implementation grant in January, 1997 following the opening of the school.

The Twenty-First Century Academy is unique in being a dual-language school, with a commitment to take children from pre-K trough high school. It is unique in having a dual-language after-school program that compliments and extends the school’s program. It is unique in its commitment to child-centered inquiry-based learning, and to the development of community leadership among students. It is also unique in its roots in the community and its ability to create a strong parent-school partnership centered on literacy.

The Twenty-First Century Academy’s structure is designed to place decision-making power in the hands of parents, teachers and community members in a balanced manner.

Through personal outreach, 50-75 supporters were mobilized to come to each of two presentations made at Community School Board working sessions. Individual meeting were with Board members to answer their questions. At the critical November, 1996 public meeting of the Community School Board, several hundred parents, teachers, and community members filled the school auditorium to support the Academy. The organizing was so successful that the Superintendent fully endorsed the school, and two school board members who opposed it chose to be absent rather than to vote against it. The Community School Board voted unanimously to authorize the Academy to open with two kindergartens and a first grade in January, 1997.

Recruitment was a success. Within the first month of being open, the goal of 60 children was reached and also an extensive waiting list for September 1997 was formed. Of the initial group of students, one-third are Spanish monolingual; about one-third are English monolingual and one-third speak both languages. Because the base has been primarily in the Dominican community, most students are Dominican. There are several African-American students, continued efforts are placed on recruiting African-American families and other nationalities; however, there is a strong commitment to diversity of staff and students.