Our Programs
NO COlORZ
Is a youth focused, community minded project, designed to bring awareness to and demystify neighborhood gang culture and gang related behaviors including all types of bullying (cyber, physical, verbal, social/covert). Our objective was to expose the nature and character of bullying, gangs and their related attributes. We also were able to identify some reasons why certain children, teens and adults are targeted and seem to be more prone to attacks from bullies by their classmates, schoolmates, co-workers etc. An unexpected bonus for us were the many children & parents’ willingness to open up and admit to being bullied and/or to being the aggressor - the bully. We held 4 workshop type sessions: 10/9, 10/16, 11/13 and 12/20. Closing party 12/22/2018
Mental Health Resources
Children, youth, teens, parents and neighborhood residents gained valuable information concerning bullying, gang behaviors, available public service networks, mental health resources and so on. Everyone including myself was impacted by the personal testimonies and information disseminated throughout the duration of the workshops.
Community support was very good and the services provided by external community-based organizations was well received. We have many resources at our disposal that up until now have remained untapped. Originally, we planned the group to address the needs of 15-25 children, youth and their parents. Our final group total was 55 with 18 attendees in the age range of 14-24, 12 aged 7-13 and 25 parents over 25 years of age. Since we started the project we have noticed a decrease of youth hanging out on the street in the area of the church building and school playground. Not sure if it is related to the attention that our group has drawn to this particular behavior or not but we'll take it anyway.
The Safe In The City Grant
The Safe In The City Grant gave us the monetary resource to finance this project. We needed supplies, refreshments, paper goods, etc., that would have been an out of pocket expense for me. I do not get paid for my service to that community or the church. I am not salaried. I am a concerned senior citizen with a love and passion for Bushwick and the people of GOD. I have built this community multi-service center on the strength of college interns who work under the Federal Work-Study Program for which we are an approved worksite for Metropolitan College of New York and the SYEP/WLG program supported by DYCD. We could not have done all that we did without the support of the NYC Office to Prevent Gun Violence.