OPENING DOORS & BUILDING BRIDGES: Youth Development & After School Program

Every day, thousands of young people travel through Lincoln Square on their way to the Martin Luther King Educational Campus, comprised of six small, theme-based high schools located just behind Lincoln Center; but until a few years ago; however, these young people had little relationship with the neighborhood or the means to access its great resources. Recognizing the need to foster a better connection between local students and our merchants, their employees, cultural organizations, and the surrounding community, in 1999 the Lincoln Square BID established Opening Doors and Building Bridges (ODBB), a youth development and after school program.

Now in its eighth year, our program provides students with critical academic support, including tutoring, homework assistance, college prep assistance, SAT prep, computer and writing support, quality recreational activities, and real career and job opportunities through valuable internships in the community.  Students in our program are also able to particpate in a wide range of clubs and activties, which include poetry, step, Afro-modern dance, comic book, yoga, chess and much more!  Recently, our program was awarded a 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) grant, which has enabled even more extensive programming for students attending the six schools on the MLK Campus. 

In 2005, thanks to our 21st CCLC funding, we piloted the College Preparation and Leadership Summer Academy - a five-week course in college planning and academic enrichment.  Thanks to our partners, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and College Board, it was a huge success, and we will continue to be offered.  

We also participated in the Time Warner Summer Creative Youth Program in 2005. We received a small grant, which allowed us to offer teens from our program an opportunity to produce a PSA video called “Mission Possible: Applying to College.”  Thanks to Time Warner and the New York Institute of Technology five teens gained experience and technical skills in writing, producing, directing, and editing this film. They also learned how to work well as a team, how to conduct interviews, and how to shape a narrative.

This past summer ODBB teamed up with the Salesforce Foundation to create a two week pilot program called the BizAcademy. The BizAcademy provided an opportunity for students to create a real business! In addition to participating in daily workshops and meetings to learn the fundamentals about business, students developed business and marketing plans, manufactured candles and frames, and met with investors and other business men and women who gave the students valuable firsthand information about the business field. The program culminated with the students selling their products at the Westside YMCA. The BizAcademy was a fantastic success for all students involved!

Program Stats:
• Over 2000 student participants since its inception in 1999.
• On average, the program serves over 120 students daily.
• Over 260 students benefited from internships with local cultural organizations and businesses since 1999.
• For the past three years, the class valedictorian has been an ODBB member.
• More than 50% of the students on the MLK honor roll are enrolled in our program.
• Between 2001 and 2004, every MLK student who has won a prestigious POSSE Foundation Scholarship has been a participant in our program.

• Since 1999 over 260 students have been placed in internships through partnerships within the Lincoln Square community and beyond.

If you would like more information or would like to volunteer in Opening Doors & Building Bridges, please call the program office at 212.501.1200.

Funders:
21st Century Community Learning Center
The After School Corporation (TASC)
Morgan Stanley
The College Board
Skody, Scot and Company, CPAs
William T. Grant Foundation

Partners:
American Bible Society
American Folk Art Museum
Assembly Member Scott Stringer
Barnes & Noble
Burton's Chill Program

Center for Cartoon Studies
Center for Urban Community Service

Center for Summer Learning
Central Park Conservancy
Chase Manhattan Bank
Cheering for Children of Madison Square Garden

Citizen Action of New York

Clif Bar, Inc.
Comic Book Project
Commerce Bank
Council Member Gale Brewer

Development Without Limits
Dewey Ballantine
Down Town Community TV
Fidelity Investments
Global Kids
God's Love We Deliver

Gracious Home
Groundwork
Jewish Guild for the Blind
Learning Leaders Volunteers

Mayor's Office for Volunteers
New York Insitute of Technology

New York Knicks

New Victory Theater  
Parternship for After School Education (PASE) 
Robert Bowne Foundation

Scratch DJ Academy

Stoked Mentoring
Time Warner

Urban Dove
Urban Word

West Side YMCA