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Real Impact.
Real Community.
Every number tells a story. Explore the programs, milestones, and community voices that showcase the impact CHLDC is making across Brooklyn every day.
Building Stronger
Communities Together
For more than 40 years, CHLDC has worked alongside residents to create opportunities, strengthen neighborhoods, and invest in the future of Cypress Hills, East New York, and surrounding communities. From helping families access stable housing and quality education to supporting youth leadership, workforce development, and small businesses, our impact is rooted in people. This page highlights the milestones, achievements, and personal stories that reflect the power of community-driven change and the lives transformed through our work.
SUCCESS STORIES
Voices From Our Community
Behind every program is a real person with a real story. These testimonials highlight the connections, opportunities, and change happening across our community every day.
Meet Taleesha
Just a few years ago, Taleesha did not know what her future would hold.
She was a young mother of a two-year-old, relying on her parents and child’s father for income. To give her son a life of comfort and opportunity, she knew she needed to make a change.
So, Taleesha joined our CHAMPION Network, which provides job training and placement to Cypress Hills residents. Here, Taleesha received academic training, career training in transportation, and job placement as an Access-a-Ride driver. Today, she transports disabled residents around the city in her very own CareRide car.
Equipped with a new job and the skills to succeed, Taleesha has a bright future ahead of her. “I thank the CHAMPION Network for opening up doors for me,” she said. “I feel financially free, and I feel that wherever my path takes me, I have the experience and support to persevere.”
Meet Raymi
Raymi came to the US from the Dominican Republic when she was 8. In high school, she doubted her ability to go to college because she “didn’t have the money” and “there was a lack of information...I didn’t know anybody in my situation who had gone to college.” But once she came to CHLDC’s Student Success Center, she learned that her chances of attending college were very good.
Thanks to her hard work and assistance from CHLDC, Raymi graduated from Hunter College with a degree in Sociology and Public Policy. She currently works as a Public Service Fellow in the Office of the President at Hunter College. While she attended school, she also worked part-time as a College Coach with our organization, helping her peers navigate the challenges of college life.
Raymi loved working with CHLDC because, “it’s really rewarding...knowing that you’re an advocate for somebody.” She dreams of using her education to help underserved, marginalized people and communities.
Workforce Development
Meet Marcia
Marcia immigrated to the United States from Ecuador in 1999 and bought a house in Cypress Hills/East New York 10 years ago. Over time, the physical condition of her house deteriorated and she was unable to afford to fix her home. “There was a leak on the second floor and through the windows, there was a lot of cold air coming in... I would have had to take out a $20,000 loan from the bank to pay for these repairs.” In addition, she was wasting a lot of money on her gas and electric bills because of these defects.
Marcia first came aware of CHLDC when she enrolled her daughter in the Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation’s Head Start Program. She was referred to our Healthy Homes program and we were able to do the repairs. Our Healthy Homes Initiative provides home repair grants to low and moderate income families that improve small homes in the neighborhood.
“They fixed the ceiling and changed the windows on the first and second floors.” She has also been able save money on her monthly utilities.
Meet Ceucynth
One of our after school parents, Ceucynth has three elementary school children—a kindergartener, a second-grader and a fifth-grader who are all enrolled in CHLDC’s after school program at Cypress Hills Community School/P.S. 89. Last year her kids did not attend the program, and she was struggling to find constructive activities for her children to do after school.
“They do so many different things—one of my kids plays the saxophone in the band, they have performances at the end of every school year…I also participate in a parent engagement program and I have even accompanied them to a show in Manhattan.”
Her kids love attending the afterschool program partly because they have such a great relationship with CHLDC’s program staff, especially the P.S. 89 Director Marleny Polanco. “They love her because she is so friendly and so in touch with my kids and she shows an interest in them…I can see other
kids have a great relationship with her.”
Ceucynth is very grateful for the academic support our program provides. “I can see that they reinforce the things the children learn during the school day…I notice that they have been doing a much better job on their homework.”
Meet Rakim
Rakim is a young man who credits CHLDC with helping him get accepted to college. After applying, he was accepted to over ten highly competitive institutions with full rides to almost every one. He was a Cesiah Toro Mullane scholarship recipient as well.
Rakim now studies at Bard College in New York, where he is currently taking pre-med classes. Rakim says: “I don’t think I would have gotten accepted to any of the schools I applied to without CHLDC. They gave me the tools and the knowledge that I needed to
succeed.
"They helped me navigate the college process. I had the potential but not the people to steer me right. I don't know where I would be without them to be honest."
Meet Pretty
Pretty was thrilled to discover CHLDC’s Student Success Center on the Lane Campus, saying “It was great…I always wanted more support!” Our
College Counselors advised her on the different options she had in terms of majors, academic programs, tuition, financial aid, and scholarships, which helped her to make an informed decision. She is now attending New York City College of Technology where she is majoring in Human Services and is expected to graduate in 2020.
Pretty also works part-time in our Persistence Program as a College Coach helping her peers navigate their college experience. She advises
her peers on financial aid matters and tells them about various campus events and student services. “Learning about FASFA, TAP, the
financial aid office and registrar’s office helped me become a College Coach…I feel like it’s a great opportunity because it can help me with
my future career.”
Pretty plans on getting her Master’s degree in
Human Services and wants to be a counselor or a therapist to young adults.
Jefferson Campus SSC Signing Day Celebration
Rakim is a young man who credits CHLDC with helping him get accepted to college. After applying, he was accepted to over ten highly competitive institutions with full rides to almost every one. He was a Cesiah Toro Mullane scholarship recipient as well.
Rakim now studies at Bard College in New York, where he is currently taking pre-med classes. Rakim says: “I don’t think I would have gotten accepted to any of the schools I applied to without CHLDC. They gave me the tools and the knowledge that I needed to
succeed.
"They helped me navigate the college process. I had the potential but not the people to steer me right. I don't know where I would be without them to be honest."
Celebrating the Power of Community
Since 1983, we have been working to make Cypress Hills a strong, vibrant community. We provide comprehensive services for the Cypress Hills community. Together, our programs strengthen the area’s physical and economic infrastructure, provide quality educational and social services, and foster local leaders. We are proud of our many successes.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
We provide vital career and education services to Cypress Hills’ residents, helping them develop and reach their educational and employment goals.
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We are making Cypress Hills a greener, healthier, more sustainable place to live
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We are leading Cypress Hills Verde, a long-term plan for a green and healthy neighborhood. Through two initiatives - Communities for Healthy Food and Two Shades of Green - we sponsor two farmers markets, help residents enroll in SNAP, retrofit residential housing to make them more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and pilot programs to educate the neighborhood about healthy eating and exercise. These initiatives were developed in partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
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We run nutrition education workshops and healthy eating demonstrations at our two neighborhood farmers markets, in our youth employment programs and at other neighborhood events, educating over 1,400 community residents about the benefits of healthy living.
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We developed and built Cypress Hills Community School, Brooklyn’s first green school building.
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
We work with children, teenagers and families to help young people to succeed in high school, college and the workforce.
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Our after-school programs, which serve 1,700 students a year, have been recognized for excellence through an Afterschool Innovator Award and have been selected to participate in the highly competitive city-funded NYC Summer Quest program and TASC’s ExpandED program. These model programs are designed to give students from low income communities an academic edge through extra school instruction.
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We are pioneering a peer counseling model for college access and persistence programs which help over 1,600 young people a year. This innovative model for Student Success Centers was developed in the Franklin K. Lane High School campus through work with College Access: Research and Action (CARA), Youth Development Institute and the Urban Youth Collaborative. We recently established another similar Student Success Center on the Thomas Jefferson High School campus. Now, we are replicating those models with our first Middle School Student Success Center at IS 171, to help younger students navigate the complex high school choice process in New York City.
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We started the Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation (CHCCC), which provides high-quality early childhood education to 500 children a year and has received accreditation from the prestigious National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association for Family Child Care. These accreditations are given selectively to child care programs of demonstrably high quality.
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AFFORDABLE HOUSING
We help residents of Cypress Hills to have access to high-quality affordable housing.
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We have developed 550 units of affordable housing in the community, creating homes for both renters and owners. Some affordable housing highlights include: Senior Housing, completed in early 2018, provides 54 units of affordable housing for an estimated 81 local seniors; Pitkin-Berriman Housing provides 60 units of affordable housing for up to 158 residents and contains a ground floor supermarket; and, rehabilitating and retrofitting 9 small homes (19 units) with grant funds from the NYS Affordable Housing Corporation.
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With our partners MHANY Management Inc. and Urban Builders LLC, we will be bringing 274 new affordable rental apartments, a community center, and a performing arts center through the construction of Chestnut Commons, scheduled for completion in 2022.
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We are members of the New York Mortgage Coalition and have helped over 750 families attain the dream of homeownership.
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We won a Building Brooklyn Award in 2015 for our affordable housing complex, Cypress Hills Village.
We helped over 600 homeowners save their homes from foreclosure through our Foreclosure Prevention Counseling.
LEADERSHIP & ADVOCACY
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We won the creation of three new school buildings in our community through advocacy, organizing, and planning.
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We have established tenant organizing and advocacy services to help neighborhood residents make positive changes through collective action.
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We won commitments to implement restorative justice practices in two local high schools, Academy of Innovative Technology (AoIT) and Cypress Hills Collegiate Prep (CHCP) through Future of Tomorrow (FOT), our youth organizing initiative.
