Winter 2017
spotlight on...
the bridger roundtable: a night of networking
By Justin Spears
Interview tips, professionalism, advice to help me be successful in the work force, and more: these are all the things I gained from the Bridger round-table...
spotlight on...
the bridger roundtable: a night of networking
By Justin Spears
Justin is a Senior at Francis Lewis High School in Queens
Interview tips, professionalism, advice to help me be successful in the work force, and more: these are all the things I gained from the Bridger round-table on January 12th. At this meeting we were given the opportunity to network one-on-one with professionals from different fields, where they gave us tips on how we can succeed in the workforce and find a job we really love. It was such a great learning experience for me as well as my fellow Bridgers. Through our one-on-one sessions with the professionals, we were able to build on our skills and grow from that point forward, no matter our skill level before coming to the meeting. Given that we are seniors in high school, preparing for college and the work force can be a stressful and daunting task. However with the help and resources that Youthbridge has given us, we are actively obtaining the skills we need to succeed.
One of my favorite moments from this meeting was being able to meet professional people who had been in the same situation as I am now. Even though they were unsure of what they wanted to do with their future, they still went on to become successful in their fields. We got the opportunity to get up close and personal with these individuals and it was awesome. We asked questions like "how did you know what you wanted to do?" "Was this your first planned job or is it the back up?" Questions like these were asked by all the Bridgers, and everyone mentor in the room had their own unique response. Overall this meeting showed us that it is possible to be successful in whichever field that you desire, and it has given us skills to make us better equipped to enter the world.
Check out some photos of our amazing roundtable below: Full album can be found here.
On Friday March 17 over 120 students from 15 high schools across New York City came together for a day of community organizing, learning, and strategizing about issues in their communities at the annual YouthBridge-NY Leaders to Leaders Youth Summit! The day was an overwhelming success and we look forward to seeing the impact these students will have on their communities.
Below, current YouthBridge-NY fellow Brittany Mendoza reflects on the day in an article for her school newspaper The Argus:
coming together: Leaders to Leaders Youth Summit 2017
By Brittany Mendoza
Brittany is a Junior at Midwood High School
Student leaders learned some new skills on March 17 at the annual YouthBridge-NY Leaders to Leaders Youth Summit. The conference brought up some serious topics including cyberbullying, women's rights, and gun violence which left them with new perspectives.
The conference which is held in Manhattan gathers high schoolers and community-based organizations from all five boroughs. Through workshops the staff trains them to find problems in their communities and make changes through the lenses of diversity.
According to the YouthBridge-NY website, “The goal of this year’s conference is to inspire young leaders to take charge by empowering them with knowledge of the possibilities, skills, and the training they need to turn ideas into action.”
Taskin Khan ’20 said, “They taught me that there are many platforms I can peacefully protest for a cause to attract attention to it.”
During the day the leaders had case study sessions with company owners who made changes of their owns. They then had to ask their own questions about their communities and how they could make changes. After these there were skill building sessions where teamwork, advocacy, marketing, and campaigning were taught by the case study professionals.
One workshop was led by Art and Resistance Through Education. This company described the importance of fighting problems such as sexual trafficking, child slavery, and immigrant discrimination. The case study was to create an art project such as a mural, advocacy project, or public event for common neighborhood problems. One group created a idea for an annual walk to raise awareness for domestic abuse.
Alexis Buckner ’18 said, “It was cool to see theses companies because they stand for some of the things I stand for as well.”
Another workshop was about identifying cyber bullying. This facilitator taught everyone how to identify problems, goals, deliverables, allies, opponents, and tactics. The students walked away with plans for assemblies, mandatory lessons, consequences and other calls for action to take to their schools.
After the training sessions, there was keynote speaker Katherine Chambers, a transgender activist and educator. She taught the students to not give up and not to discriminate.
The conference was then opened up to a question and answer, a raffle won by a Midwood student, and a planning session. It was announced that there was a community project competition for those at the conference.
Khan plans to use the lessons from her workshops to create a documentary style video about Midwood for her community project.
Shared Resources for a shared future: grant making from a new perspective
By Victor Podvalny
Victor is a Junior at Xavier High School in Manhattan
While being fully informed that we, the YouthBridge community, as well as the rest of the world, are well into 2017, leaving behind that rather atrocious year of 2016, it has also occurred to me that we look at the past in an overwhelmingly negative fashion. When asked to recall major events in the 20th century, one’s mind instantly springs to the World Wars and other major conflicts, while early American history is stained by the prominence of slavery. However, 2016 was the year when our current YouthBridge fellows assembled, with varying methods to achieve the ultimate goal of poised, informed, and directional leadership.
For the Shared Resources for a Shared Future committee, our past three meetings took us from December of 2016 to February of a more optimistic 2017, yielding great personal and communal growth across all areas. The December meeting was, personally, one of my favorite, for we were able to see the direct impact of the grant for which we are currently responsible. Wendy Kaplan, a social worker at the Trinity Place Shelter, the recipient of the grant last year, held an open forum where she discussed the mission of the shelter, her role in the operation, and the various successes that the shelter enjoyed. It was heartwarming, to say the least, to hear about people who came into the shelter hopeless and rejected, and left confident, independent, and with a stable-income job. To understand that our grant directly translated to the consolidation of such a beautiful community gave heightened gravity and importance to our mission in the SRSF committee, bolstering the already-known fact that our actions and decisions have the real ability to change lives.
Crossing into the unknown territory of 2017 on an inspiring note, our meeting in January focused on amending and updating the application for our grant, as to make it more user-friendly, accessible, and telling. Personally, this experience was wholly foreign, in a very satisfying way. Often, we YouthBridge fellows find ourselves on the exact opposite side of the application process, putting ourselves out there and overzealously expressing interest through a plethora of essays, so taking a seat on the proverbial high chair was, at first, different. However, I soon became used to the authority and welcomed it; applicants would be answering our questions and giving us the proper information necessary to make an executive decision. Nothing tyrannical occurred, despite the wealth of power we all had at our hands, and the experience offered us all crucial insight into the other side of applications.
To our most recent meeting in February of 2017, I grant the superlative “most satisfying”, for one mundane reason: interviews. These are those feared events that begin in a misleadingly confident handshake and culminate in, more often than not, tears and reconciliation (not in YouthBridge’s case of course, my interview was rather lovely). As the second stage for applicants of our grant is a mandatory phone interview, this exercise was simultaneously necessary and revealing, for questions, answers, and reactions, to me, all seemed rather authentic. Three characters presented themselves in a mock interview: the interviewer, interviewee, and the disruptor. I, of course, took on the role of disruptor without much hesitation. I then proceeded to, as my formal title suggests, annoy the interviewee without much remorse, as to replicate a real-life situation in which Murphy’s Law was continuously applied. All jokes aside, this committee session was crucial to the progression of our grant, as we learned how to effectively conduct a phone interview and respond to any hindrances that may present themselves therein.
The current state of global affairs notwithstanding, 2017 looks to be a prosperous and productive year for the SRSF committee, where we’re able to positively and profoundly impact the lives of many, while also developing our understanding of the beauty of diversity in NYC and the world. 2017 sure is looking good.
communications, advocacy, and organizing oh my!
By Abisola Akinfenwa
Abisola is a Junior at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics
Fellows Abisola, Maggie, Brittany, and Caden discuss advocacy during a breakout session at CCC-NY
YouthBridge-NY brings a diverse group of teenagers together to engage in multiple workshops with influential people. Throughout the past three skill-building meetings in December, January, and February, I have grown and learned new ways of communicating with the public on different levels.
In December, we were able to meet with Ivy Cohen, a YouthBridge-NY board member, who owns her own marketing and communications firm. She taught us all about communications and marketing to different audiences. I especially liked learning about how businesses catch their audience's attention in places like stores or movies. She taught me that even simple things like placement are important in marketing. The knowledge that a store cares about everything you feel from the moment you walk in, made me as an everyday shopper wonder what catches my eye so easily and the strategy behind it.
In January our topic of discussion was community organizing -- how we can bring together our community around an issue we care about. This topic gave us a lot to discuss as it had to do with politics as well and the groups that we place them in. We discussed strategy in community organizing, for example, thinking about our audience who we would reach out to based on a specific idea or project we have. However, this discussion made me feel kind of like I was categorizing people as good or bad based on whether or not they agreed with me.
In February we learned about advocacy and the tools that we can use around us to make a problem known and then to solve it. In our brainstorm on methods of advocacy I noticed that we all came up with the ideas of using social media, conversations, and posters to advocate for people who cannot let their voice be heard. After our brainstorm we split up into groups and used improvisation exercises to touch on different situations where advocacy could be used. This was really helpful. I also learned that every day we are advocating for people in our community.
Fellows get a crash course in the world of marketing and communications with YouthBridge-NY Board Member Ivy Cohen.
On Sunday, January 29th our Fellows and Bridgers enjoyed an afternoon of games, prizes, pizza and fun together at Dave and Busters. Below, current fellow Nickala Stephens talks about the day...
A day of fun at Dave and Buster's
By Nickala Stephens
The Dave and Buster's event was a wonderful experience! It was great seeing everyone again, especially the Bridger's who we don't see as often. Everyone who came to the event was given a playing card with unlimited games and credits to play each game in Dave and Buster's. It was so fun playing against each other and earning tickets together. Seeing everyone having fun and enjoying themselves was an awesome sight. I spent most of my time playing games with everyone and hanging out with people. I was also with a group of Bridgers, and we were trying to earn a lot of tickets so we could get a really good prize from the prize store. This experience was so fun because of all the laughs we shared and the memories we made together. It was so nice to see all of YouthBridge come together as one!
Photos from the Dave and Buster's event can be found below.
Fall 2016
Cultural Eye: A Creative Lens for New York's Diversity
To me, culture is defined as what makes humans uniquely different from one another. I say this because the YouthBridge Cultural Eye Committee, which I am a part of, has helped all of the participants explore what diversity means to us through the culture and art of photography...
Spotlight on...
Matthew Roberts is a Junior at Williamsburg Preparatory High School.
Cultural Eye: A Creative Lens for New York's Diversity
By Matthew Roberts
To me, culture is defined as what makes humans uniquely different from one another. I say this because the YouthBridge Cultural Eye Committee, which I am a part of, has helped all of the participants explore what diversity means to us through the culture and art of photography. In the first Cultural Eye meeting we got to know one another and saw a video on the components of photography and how to use Flickr. Flickr is a photo sharing site online, and it is a key component of the cultural eye program, as in every session we are given an assignment with different types of pictures we have to take, which we then upload and put on Flickr so that everyone in the committee can see! For the first Cultural Eye homework we had to take 5 pictures that we felt best described us. It was really interesting to see the types of pictures that people took.
The second committee meeting was about identity and the idea of what makes us different from everybody else. We were first presented with the question “what is identity?” One of the committee members said that “identity is knowing one’s self and characteristics.” During the meeting, we all had index cards and had to put down what we think describes us, and what we like vs what we don’t like. Then we had to say how would this be shown if put into a picture. Everybody's answers were different, and we learned that although we are all teenagers, we are all different from one another. Identity is the key to knowing yourself and what makes you stand out from everybody else, and although you might share some connections with other people you also have so much inside you that makes you different.
After that meeting we were given a homework assignment for the third committee meeting to photograph what we feel represents the word ‘family.’ That third committee meeting was about diversity and community. We began that meeting like the previous one where we were given a focus question that we had to answer with our own opinion. After that, we presented our pictures on family to the group. All the pictures were amazing because of how different they were; we really got to see the different viewpoints on the assignment. We then watched a TEDtalk video about different perspectives, and how we see things vs how other see it. We were then given our monthly homework, this time the assignment of the month was to take 3 pictures on what we think community is. The beauty of Cultural Eye is that even though we have to take pictures on the same topics, no photographs ever repeat. We all view the assignments and lessons so differently from one another, and that is what culture is all about.
Check out some of the Cultural Eye Committee members photographs on identity and family thanks to:
Abisola Akinfenwa Ishika Kasliwal Aisha Khan
Jared Lopez Charlize Marinez Matthew Roberts
Dell Wednesdae Tangente Jaclyn Wildes Davida Krauss
Alyssa Garraway Ayelet Kalfus
Ashley Bisram is a Junior at Queens High School for the Sciences at York College.
Fellows Find Their Way
By Ashley Bisram
The YouthBridge-NY Fellowship has had three Skill-Building meetings thus far focusing on communication and tolerance.
The September meeting began with an interactive game in which each of us was given a slip of colored paper that made us abide by certain interactions with people of different colors. The activity strengthened the sentiment that effective communication with new people is a necessity, as their beliefs and way of life may differ radically from ours based on their culture. Without effective communication, either party may end up unintentionally doing something offensive.
The importance of communication was reinforced in the October meeting, where we were given an enlightening talk by YouthBridge-NY Board Member Marsha Haygood of StepWise Associates. She taught us about how first impressions are shaped through the way we present ourselves, including body language and public speaking, which can be applied to professional settings. Something I found particularly interesting from the materials Marsha provided was that touching your neck while speaking, something I had previously done subconsciously in casual settings, is a sign of deceit. When asking Marsha after her talk about how much our first impressions matter in casual settings, she discussed how we shouldn’t always be dependent on what others think of us, but we should want to be in control of how we come off to them.
Fellows get acquainted with each other at their first meeting of the year
Although we learned in our October meeting that we can control the first impressions we give to people, at our November meeting we talked a bit more about how we shouldn’t judge others based on those impressions with Don Kao at Project Reach, our first meeting outside of the YouthBridge office. Don had us participate in a game called the Boat Activity, which caused a mixture of frustration and excitement. Don told us a short story on how 14 people were on a roof during a storm with a rising flood and there was a boat that could only hold 10 people, whose descriptions were given. Using our listening skills in small groups, we had to use consensus building techniques to figure out who to save and how to save them. After sharing our solutions, Don told us that there was no right answer, and we had a discussion on labels versus descriptions of people. We, as participants in the activity, saw the descriptions and made them into labels in our own minds. Together, we discussed the topics of discrimination and prejudices against different groups, as well as how we should avoiding judgment of someone entirely based on what little we may know about them.
We learned a lot about each other and about the topics aforementioned through these past three meetings, and I’m sure we all are looking forward to learning more throughout the rest of the year!
Emily Ma is a Senior at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.
Bridgers Discuss identity
By Emily Ma
In our meeting in October, we met at Project Reach to discuss homosexuality and homophobia with Don Kao. Don began by asking us the question, "When did you first realize homosexuality existed?" Most people said they didn't know homosexuality existed until age 10 or 11, when they were exposed to it through television or through conversations. I also found out about homosexuality at around that age, when my classmates would often use the word "gay" in a derogatory way. This negative connotation to the word made itself apparent when Don asked us the next question: "How would you react if someone thought you were gay?" In our discussion, we thankfully all agreed that we are not inherently against being gay, but it was revealed that a lot of us would feel defensive if someone were to think that, because the associations of being labeled as gay are almost always negative. We discussed how people typically make the assumption that you are gay if you act in a way that the opposite sex stereotypically would - like a feminine male or a masculine female - which we realized implicitly reinforces gender roles and behaviors. This helped me understand how sexism toward both genders contributes to homophobia, and that in order to help combat it, we must be able to transcend prevalent and constricting gender norms. We ended this meeting with an activity where we each said we were gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender around in a circle in order to stand in solidarity with those of us who were out of, and potentially in, the closet, and to show that Youthbridge is a safe space for all.
Bridgers enjoying a skill-building session at Project Reach, where they discussed the topics of Homophobia and Hetero-Sexism.
In our most recent meeting in November, we again met with Don Kao at Project Reach the day after the election results came out. Emotions were high and politics had been in the forefront of the nation's psyche that week, so we felt that it was important to start by talking about the election. Firstly, we acknowledged that though we are diverse, we do not represent all of the different American demographics and political beliefs, but we would be as understanding and respectful of those differences as possible. Then we dove in and shared how we felt about the outcome and the election season as a whole, as well as our fears and hopes for the upcoming presidency. It was relieving to be in a space where I felt comfortable in expressing my feelings about the election, and it was also eye opening to discuss the larger social factors that influenced the outcome, such as sexism, nationalism, and elitism.
Afterwards, we shifted gears to talk about the correlation between identification and social control, and it made me realize how institutions can use identification systems to target a certain demographic and establish a tense environment. It reminded us of how some schools require ID scans in and out of the building and even metal detectors, while others do not. Don asserted that although physical ID's represent you to the government, your identity ultimately represents who you are. To show the importance of self-identity, we did an activity where we displayed what made us who we are on a chart, based on categories including race, gender, wealth, health, and age. This made me realize not only which categories largely make me who I am, but also which categories make me feel most unsafe and in which I have the most privilege. It was also so interesting to see all of the factors that shape my fellow Bridgers, and it helped me know them even better. It made me feel that by understanding other people's identity better, we can become more tolerant and respectful of others' differences.
Wendy Lau is a Junior at Bronx High School of Science.
YouthBridge Gives Back: Teensgiving with 92Y
By Wendy Lau
On Sunday, November 13, YouthBridge Fellows and Bridgers participated in the 92nd Street Y's Teensgiving event along with other schools and youth groups, helping to contribute to the city by cleaning up NYC parks: raking leaves and adding mulch to soil for the trees. The weather was beautiful and sunny as we traveled to Crotona Park, located in the Bronx. In total, about 108 large bags of leaves were collected, which was a massive amount considering the leaves we raked were part of a very small section of the park. This contribution depicts how it is essential to give back to the community, and how a small difference like raking leaves and adding mulch can help to clean and enrich local parks for people to enjoy. It was an awesome day with YouthBridge, and it felt great to give back to the community!
Alumni Updates
YouthBridge-NY loves our alumni! This year we are working with our alumni on new strategies to ensure that YouthBridge-NY is a continuing community. Recently our alumni participated in a college information panel for our Bridgers, where they discussed how the lessons they learned in YouthBridge-NY impacted their college experience. A big thank you to alumni Lara Barak (Class of 2007), Seth Wittman (Class of 2005), Carolyn Collado (Class of 2012), Michelle Lee (Class of 2011), Ravi Seujattan (Class of 2009), and Taylor Rochester (Class of 2013) for taking the time time to speak to our Bridgers! Our alumni committee has also been busy planning different programs and activities to connect alumni with each other and with current fellowship participants.
Check out some photos of our alumni college information panel below.
If you are a YouthBridge-NY alum interested in being more involved in alumni activities and engagement contact Rebecca Abrams at abramsr@jcrcny.org
Spring 2016
NIGHT OF CELEBRATION FUNDRAISER
Our Annual Night of Celebration Fundraiser and Graduation took place on June 2, 2016. Check out pictures from the event...
Night of Celebration Fundraiser
Our Annual Night of Celebration Fundraiser and Graduation took place on June 2, 2016. Check out pictures from the event below!
Youth Summit Community Project Award Winners
We are proud to announce the winners of this year's Youth Summit Community Project Awards:
Above: Members of Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School Student Government at the Leaders to Leaders Youth Summit
- Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School
- Our main goal is to ensure that every student within Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School is exposed to cultural norms and religious beliefs outside of their own.
- South Bronx United Youth Council
- Our long term goal is to help people gain citizenship status at a quicker or more effective rate. We want to build a supportive community for the members of the SBU who are struggling with issues related to immigration.
- Harlem Renaissance High School
- Our school's first goal is to make a more comfortable and safe environment where everyone feels their voices can be heard without being judge or looked at differently because of their choice of words and or experiences.
Thank you to Tiger Baron Foundation for sponsoring these awards!
Have you seen our new video? Make sure to share it so everyone can learn about the great stuff going on here at YouthBridge-NY!
Cultural Eye Committee Photobook
Did you get a chance to see the Cultural Eye Committee's work this year? You can still purchase our photobook filled with the committee's favorite photos and support our teens!
Bridging the gap grant 2016
The Shared Resources for a Shared Future Committee was proud to award this year's Bridging the Gap Grant to the following organizations:
We chose Trinity Place Shelter because of their commitment to giving homeless LGBT youth a home and helping them create careers for themselves. They provide housing for many years and encourage them to pursue education.
We also chose Alex House Project’s Healthy Mommy, Healthy Baby program for providing support and education for young mothers. They give lessons about motherhood and provide supplies that these women need.
Molly and Sam, members of the Shared Resources for a Shared Future Committee, presenting this year's grant to our worthy grant winners.
Winter 2016
To kick off the new year, for the month of January the Bridgers had the opportunity to attend a Roundtable event. At this event, the Bridgers walked in dressed in their best business professional attire, with resumes in hand, for the speed mentoring program...
Bridgers Network with the Pros
by Sarah Rebarber
To kick off the new year, for the month of January the Bridgers had the opportunity to attend a Roundtable event. At this event, the Bridgers walked in dressed in their best business professional attire, with resumes in hand, for the speed mentoring program. Throughout the night, pairs of Bridgers would meet with a total of four different professionals, from four different backgrounds, to discuss networking etiquette and the professional world as a whole.
The main areas of focus were resume building, interview prep, personal branding, and networking. Having been in the business world, the mentors were able to help us with identifying our strengths and using them to “make a sale” to future employers or recruiters. Additionally, they stressed the importance of volunteering and giving back because the greatest opportunities could be somewhere where we would least expect it.
While the ice breaker questions consisted of questions concerning these four topics, we were encouraged to discuss any other aspects of the professional world we were curious about. For example, in one of my sessions my fellow Bridger, my mentor, and I discussed what and what not to wear when presenting yourself as a professional. Personally, I often struggle with trying to find an outfit that looks professional and fashionable at the same time. Her guidance and personal examples with this common struggle reminded me of the importance of striking a balance between the two and offered some advice on how she found that balance.
After the sessions, we had the opportunity to mingle with professionals we might not have met during the speed mentoring. By the end of the night we chatted, learned, and connected with many intellectual and admirable people.
Calling all Alumni!
A message from the YBNY Alumni Committee
Did you know that YouthBridge-NY has been operating for 19 years!? There have been 12 graduating classes since then. The YBNY Alumni Committee is in search of you! Alumni have come together to create initiatives and events to connect, network, grow, and give back! Be on the lookout for upcoming news and in the meantime let us know what you are up to at ybny-alumni-committee@googlegroups.com.
Fellows Go Overboard
by Zarif Mahmud
For the January Skill-Building Session, the Fellows met at Project Reach. Our speaker was Don Kao, a leader at Project Reach. The flavor of the day was tolerance. The first thing we did was introduce ourselves like usual, but with a twist. Everyone gathered in a circle, and while we said our name, school, and preferred pronoun, we tied part of a ball of yarn to our finger, and tossed it to someone else. This created a chain of string that overlapped itself, so when we finished, there was a crazy zigzagged web connecting all of us, that we could spin around and raise up and down. Afterwards we talked about some charged words like "diversity", which Don told us doesn't need to be defined and, "Just is."
After discussion, we moved on to the main activity, a thought experiment. We were split into groups of 4-5 and then told the story of a group of people trapped during a flood on the top floor of a building, with only a tiny boat to save them. Out of the fourteen people, only ten could fit inside at a time, and it was our job to figure out who to save. Before we started, we were assured that the riddle had a simple solution, but only the best listener would be able to find it. We were then given a huge piece of paper with a boat drawn on, along with fourteen index cards, which were supposed to represent the people. Each had descriptions written on them, like "Pregnant black woman", "Person with AIDS who's still having sex" or "Feminist". Everyone had trouble figuring out who to kick off the boat, because none of the reasons seemed good enough to definitively single a person out.
After ten minutes, each group taped their paper to a wall, and we compared our choices. Although our boats were mostly different, whether by chance or by unconscious discrimination, the "HIV+ Person who's still having sex" was left behind by all the boats. While some people justified this by saying that knowingly spreading diseases was wrong, Don reminded us that people with HIV could still use protection to prevent transmission. We discussed the rest of our choices and inherent biases, after which, the solution was revealed. We were told not to reveal it, in case of other people visiting, but rest assured, the solution was both outside the box and deceptively simple. Lastly, we discussed other examples of bias and discrimination, both in our everyday lives and in the world, touching on contentious issues like government welfare.
This meeting really opened my eyes to how my upbringing and biases color my perceptions of things, and it taught me to look at issues with different perspectives. Because so much of our lives are made up of snap-judgments and reactions, it's especially important to see how our personal views could cloud reality.
YouthBridge-NY On Ice
The Fellows and Bridgers got together this winter to go skating at Bryant Park. It was a fun day and everyone had a great time!
Bridgers Get Empathetic
By Grace Gribbon
Our December session focused on empathy vs. sympathy and how we often underestimate our own abilities. We were visited by Gloria and Felix, two trainers from United Cerebral Palsy, and their professional staffer Peter. Gloria and Felix are both affected by cerebral palsy and so simple things like traveling around the city can become extremely difficult. Imagine when you are on your way to work or school, you may often become frustrated by a delayed train or bus. For people like Gloria and Felix, who spend their lives in wheelchairs, they are lucky to board Access-A-Ride buses that don't have delays lasting for an hour or two.
Despite these challenges, Gloria and Felix told us that they don't want our sympathy. This is because sympathy can come off in a patronizing way, making them feel below you when you say things like "I am so sorry". Instead, they believe you should feel empathy while never underestimating their abilities. This is because when you come from a place of understanding and acceptance, you allow for people like Gloria and Felix to be more comfortable and encouraged to live fulfilling lives, regardless of their disability. Today, they both are employed and get to experience exciting things through the foundation, including scuba-diving! Gloria, Felix and Peter successfully informed YouthBridge about the importance of empathy and communication when attempting to make a connection with someone and to never underestimate one's abilities, including your own!
Recruiting Next Year's Fellows
Do you know a high school sophomore who would be a good fit for YouthBridge-NY? Applications are open for our next class of Fellows! Make sure to help spread the word!
Bridging the Gap Grant 2016
The Shared Resources for a Shared Future Committee is getting ready to award grants up to $2000! Check out our Request for Proposals!