New York Life Foundation Awards $750,000 in Grants to Harlem Children's Zone and New Visions for Public Schools

By NYMetroParents Staff September 1, 2011

These grants from the New York Life Foundation will help support college readiness initiatives in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

The New York Life Foundation yesterday announced grants totaling $750,000 to two organizations offering educational enhancement opportunities for high school students in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The Foundation made a two-year, $250,000 grant to Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) and a two-year, $500,000 grant to New Visions for Public Schools.

The grant to HCZ supports a free college preparation program that serves 1,000 high school students at six youth development program sites throughout Harlem:

Booker T. Washington Beacon Center

Countee Cullen Beacon Center

Employment and Technology Center

HCZ Community Center

Learn to Earn

TRUCE Media and Arts

HCZ's college preparation program includes academic case management; one-on-one and small group academic tutoring; test prep for the PSAT, SAT, and the New York State Regents exams; trips to local and regional colleges; targeted workshops; and assistance with financial aid and college applications. For more information about the Harlem Children's Zone, visit www.hcz.org.

The grant to New Visions for Public Schools, an organization that creates and provides support to public high schools, supports the College Ready Initiative, which helps thousands of high school students graduate with the skills they need for college. Over the next two years, New Visions will work closely with principals, teachers, and guidance counselors in 30 high schools to increase the number of students who are on a pathway to college. Fourteen of the schools are located in the Bronx, 12 are in Brooklyn, and four are in Manhattan. New Visions will help the high schools build their capacity in the core areas of early college awareness, financial aid and college applications, parent and community engagement, and college readiness tracking. For more information about New Visions for Public Schools, visit www.newvisions.org.