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Success Story

Coding Robots in The Bronx:

Creating Pathways to Financial Freedom.

How CHCF partnered with Work ED to bring life-changing career discovery programs to Bronx Kids in NYC

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The Challenge

Delivering impactful career-discovery programs to a part of NYC that suffers from high levels of poverty and a lack of resources and opportunity for young people.

  • Staffing shortages resulting in scarce resources for running enrichment programs

  • A lack of career-discovery programming opportunities in the most poverty-stricken NYC borough

  • Two hands clasped together in a spirit of brotherhood or sisterhood.

    A need for a safe environment supported by positive role models

Opening up future pathways for Bronx youth

P.S./M.S. 279 sits in Community District 5, the Community District with the highest poverty rate in The Bronx, which has the highest poverty rate of any borough in the State of New York.

Kids growing up in The Bronx face many challenges to graduating high school and beyond.

That's why The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families engaged Work ED to create exciting career discovery summer camps that would leave a lasting impact on students of P.S/M.S. 279.

Programs that help youth see their potential

By using their own highly-trained staff and unique programs, Work ED created memorable experiences for P.S./M.S. 279 students while helping them work on core learning standards, such as Math and Literacy.

Read more about student projects below:

Robotics

Students got to code and command their own robots! This helped them develop the math and digital skills. They also got creative designing their robots!

Video Game Design

Most kids love video games, but by learning about how they get made, including story structure, character and map design, and marketing, students were able to develop their communication, presentation, and collaboration skills. And have a lot of fun, too!

Business Startup

What's more trail-blazing than starting your own business? Students were able to bring their ideas to life by planning, developing, and pitching their business ideas, learning about finances and project management along the way.

"This was like school, but funner!"

The programs were a big hit with students and CHCF staff alike.

“Our Students have received the Work ED Curriculum extremely well, are fully engaged, excited about the program and are eager for things to come.”

Glendaliz Valdez, Director of Programs for CHCF

Watch P.S./M.S. 279 student reflections from the program below!

100+

students across 3 sites

100

hours across 5 weeks

92%

student attendance

Work ED's (not so) Secret Sauce

  • A fully-staffed solution to help ease staffing shortages

    CHCF was able to use Work ED as a turnkey solution: fully staffed, well-trained, and ready to hit the ground running.

  • Career-discovery programs on fun, tech-themed topics for grades 1 - 5

    CHCF was able to use Work ED's proven curriculum to hit their aims of providing tech-themed career-discovery skills to local youngsters—and kids (and their parents!) loved it.

  • An environment of social-emotional learning that helped young people express themselves, develop confidence, and practice teamwork

    CHCF helped students work on their emotional regulation and foster a sense of agency and community through Work ED's social-emotional learning approach and community event that left a lasting impact.

From Summer Launch to Afterschool Success

Following on from the success of the summer camps at P.S./M.S. 279, CHCF once again partnered with Work ED to bring afterschool programs to more Bronx kids at PS 59!

Bring the same impact to your students!

Fill out the form below and our NYC Program Manager Darren Sanchez will set up a meeting with you to get your students involved.

Darren Sanchez - NYC Program Manager

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