Many of the city’s homeless children are involved in mandatory programs such as summer school and sleep-away camp and so could not participate in the program. St. John’s selected children housed in the larger shelters in Brooklyn and Queens, and offered the program to all those between the ages of nine and 12 years old who were available to attend.
In addition to math and science classes, the new program’s curriculum includes saying no to drugs and alcohol, protecting the environment and becoming good citizens.
There is biology and chemistry lab work, computer training, tennis lessons and a recreation course taught by the St. John’s Army ROTC staff and students. The athletic component was designed to provide physical activity as well as enhance the development of both independent and team-building skills.
The new program, developed by St. John’s Education faculty under the leadership of Dr. Richard Sinatra, grew out of St. John’s 12-year-old summer literacy program. Co-sponsored by New York After-School All-Stars, that program was, in turn, an outgrowth of the Inner-City Games Foundation cofounded by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1992 for at-risk children in Los Angeles.
“We have the brightest and smartest within our shelter system, these are the real survivors,” Hess said. “These are the people able to navigate the sometimes treacherous world of the homeless.”
It is in the economic interest of New York City, the state and the nation to enable homeless families to develop the skills needed to get back into employment and become contributing members of society, according to Hess.
Speakers at the launch included two students, and parent Nicole Isaacs, who particularly enjoyed the writing classes because it gave her the opportunity to vent and understand her feeling about being homeless. The parents’ element of the program emphasizes self-esteem and Isaacs believed she was benefiting as much as her son by participating.
Isaacs, a mother of four, with a fifth child on the way, was evicted because she didn’t get along with her landlord. She is living at the Junius Family Residence in Brooklyn, but was separated from her baby’s father by the DHS because he had a place to go but could not accommodate her and the children.
Another speaker, Sky Rodriguez, expressed her gratitude for the program. Her mother, Ebony Jones, said that her family became homeless after she was hit by an 18-wheeler truck and left with serious injuries. She, her husband, and their four children, moved to New York from North Carolina after her husband lost his government job because he took too much time off to care for them during her recovery.
Her three girls are in the program, while her son remains with his father during the day at the city sponsored Tilden Houses in Brooklyn.
“We wanted to include leadership training in the program because it’s something these children just don’t get,” Sinatra said.
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