Programs
Taking responsibility for
things that matter
Fresh Youth Initiatives offer no-cost programming located at multiple schools and in our community center throughout the Washington Heights and Inwood communities of Northern Manhattan. These are designed to align under our 4 pillars.
LEARN
Integrated academic enrichment & language access, cradle to career
Services & Offerings
After School Programs
After-school Programs are provided for students Pre-K through High School at local schools including PS 128 Audubon Elementary School, Amistad Dual Language School and at our community center located at 505 West 171 Street in Washington Heights. Our work goes beyond homework help and is designed according to our Whole Child, Whole Family and Whole Community approach.
The Welcome Program
The Welcome Program is an intergenerational transition bridge that operates out of our elementary-school-based program, but is embedded in all of our sites. It includes: trauma-informed orientation, linguistic support, family navigation, homework translation and school-system navigation for caregivers.
The Reading Zone
The Reading Zone offers bilingual literacy intervention and enrichment for Multilingual Learner (MLL) students, using research-based, evidence-based phonemic awareness curricula.
STEM Enrichment
STEM enrichment is delivered in partnership with Expanding Schools (ExpandED), integrating STEM into every grade level and providing high-impact tutoring and Summer Rising programming.
College Access and Career Readiness
College access and career readiness: a continuum running from Pre-K curiosity through middle-school career exposure and high-school post-secondary planning. This program supports older siblings, caregiver citizenship context, and alumni systems navigation - including formal career planning for both alumni and caregivers.
The 21st Century Learning Lab
The 21st Century Learning Lab: Active fundraising and multi-year planning are underway to launch a high-tech lab in our community center. This space will feature smartboards and tablets to host high-impact tutoring, technology access, and intergenerational workshops for youth, parents, and the broader community.
Mental and Behavioral Health Counseling
FYI is embedded into the school at Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics, providing mental and behavior health counseling, as well as academic and social supports.
LEAD
Holistic youth development, civic agency & sports
Services & Offerings
The 505 High School Leadership Program
The 505 High School Leadership Program is a center-based program focused on civic engagement and leadership development for youth who graduated from FYI's elementary and middle school programs and are now adjusting to high school.
Alumni Engagement Network
Alumni Engagement Network formalizes a leadership network, building an intentional pipeline for youth to transition from program participants into an Alumni Ambassador cohort, a Junior Board, and eventually full organizational Board members.
Service Learning & Civic Projects
Service learning and civic projects are designed in the spirit of our founding, with participants leading the change in our community that they desire including projects such as youth-led food drives, mental health awareness campaigns, and peer mentorship.
Cultural Pride Programs
Cultural pride programs focus on arts, music, creative expression, and cultural celebration with a focus on Hispanic Heritage Month, Multicultural Night, and Family Literacy evenings.
Enhanced Sports & Recreation
Enhanced Sports & Recreation are designed to help integrate newly arrived families into our community. We offer our Saturday Sports soccer program coached by a volunteer Nike Ambassador at the middle school level and a DYCD funded-Volleyball program. This is combined with our non-competitive sports program that includes strength and conditioning, dance, and shadow boxing — designed to meet the demand for SEL and physical-development programming. Our partnership with NYC Parks Department provides access to fields, gym, and a pool at the Highbridge and Chelsea facilities.
HEAL
Mental health: prevention, school-based care & El Centro
Services & Offerings
The Multi-Site Mental Health Model
The Multi-Site Mental Health Model unifies school-based behavioral health and community-based clinical care. While El Centro functions as a deeper level of clinical service concentrated at the 505 building, clinical staff and graduate interns are explicitly assigned to disperse outward into co-located school sites to provide seamless, wrap-around care.
Universal Prevention & Wellness Culture
Universal Prevention & Wellness Culture provides trauma-informed staff training, Conscious Discipline routines, classroom culture shifts, anti-stigma campaigns.
School-Based Mental Health
School-Based Mental Health targets prevention with clinician-led small-group counseling that addresses migration grief, identity, academic pressure, and emotional regulation. Our neurodiverse-affirming group formats are embedded with master's-level clinical interns providing mindfulness, art, and movement-based support at school sites, with clinical staff and interns increasingly assigned outward from 505 to the schools as El Centro's capacity grows.
El Centro
El Centro integrates evidence-based clinical care with culturally responsive, relationship-centered practice. Our individualized clinical care treatment planning emphasizes young people’s and their families’ strengths, goals, and definitions of wellness while meeting all New York State Article 31 clinical, documentation, and billing requirements. Rather than viewing diagnosis as a young person’s defining characteristic, clinicians use it as one component of a comprehensive assessment that also considers family, culture, community, lived experience, and individual strengths.
THRIVE
Community engagement & family wellness
Services & Offerings
El Mercadito (Food Pantry)
El Mercadito, FYI’s twice-monthly food pantry operates on a sign-up basis and provides 90,000+ pounds of food each year to participants and their families.
Family Advocacy
Family Advocacy is provided as part of our social services efforts, practicing triage and brokering rather than full case management. We meet families where they are, helping with SNAP applications, and serving as a trusted source of accurate information that connects families to the right resources.
Comprehensive Caregiver & Family Stabilization Suite
Comprehensive Caregiver & Family Stabilization Suite delivers an integrated, multi-site engagement strategy including school-based parent education, clinic-based psychoeducation through El Centro, beginner/advanced Adult ESOL classes, family sessions, and the our Parent/Family Academy that aligns with our Whole Family approach.
Family & Community Workshops
Family and community workshops and wellness resource fairs are community-facing events that align with wellness days and intergenerational wellness programming at the food pantry that normalize help-seeking at the neighborhood level.