Children of the City is pleased to announce that a new Afterschool site was launched March 2011 at one of the area schools.

“We are enormously pleased at what this means for public school children, who struggle with homework because their parents don’t speak English or cannot read and write,” shared Joyce Mattera, the founder and Executive Director of Children of the City.

New York City, one of the most important opportunistic cities, is now, ironically, the nation’s ‘Dropout City’. From 1986 to June 2004, there has been a confounding 350,000 students who have dropped out of school in NYC (Campanile, NY Post). The numbers are no less frightening as you focus on specific boroughs in the tri-state area. Sunset Park has a 48% dropout rate. This is almost double Manhattan’s 28% (NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene). The most important factor for this percentage gap is poverty; disadvantaged children are at risk for failing school at any grade.

Create Success is one program we have that works! It is our multi-service afterschool and summer program, the only one of its kind in Sunset Park and the immediate surrounding communities. Students are not only engaged in intense academic tutoring and daily homework help, but also receive counseling, advocacy in social systems (school and court), group and individual mentoring, family mediation, and recreational activities, and more. Create Success provides the much-needed academic, emotional and social support to aid these children in finishing their education.