Loving Kids For Change:
Using the arts, learning and leading
to transform the lives of urban children.

New City Kids was established in 2000 in an effort to provide teen leadership development and performing arts opportunities to at-risk children and teenagers in Jersey City. We have a comprehensive plan to help high-need children in Jersey City to prepare for a life of success and we have the results to prove its effectiveness. To this end we offer several key programs, including: the After School Center for the Performing Arts, Summer Camp, the Teen Life Internship Program, and our Job Fair. These programs all compliment and support one another.

Our Teen Employment Program is really a "Life Internship" program. Our mission is to prepare teens to lead successful lives through academic success, artistic development, responsible work and college preparation. Government programs often steer low-income kids towards low-level jobs that lead them to adopt a victim mentality.  We believe in a different approach.  Along with academic assistance and artistic development, we place kids into skilled, mentor-supported jobs that give them a sense of dignity and accomplishment.  They experience multiple layers of confirmation that their efforts, while beneficial to others, can also produce real change in their lives and futures.

Below is a picture of how kids' lives and futures are changed by their involvement in New City Kids:

Our programs take place after school and on weekends and utilize the following principles: 

• Fun - The first step to a successful program is getting the kids to come.  Over the course of fifteen years we’ve developed the reputation of being a safe, fun and positive place for children.  To the kids, this means we have games, prizes, music and a warm atmosphere of love and structure.  To the parents, it means being well-staffed and working miracles with kids. 

• The Magic of New City - In all of our programs we teach kids that they are capable of anything.  Whether teaching the multiplication tables, piano, visual art or sailing, we use a teaching technique that involves:
• Acquisition – distilling complex concepts into small, achievable tasks
• Repetition – providing opportunities for numerous reiterations
• Cumulative Learning – building small skills upon one another
• Opportunity – giving children the chance to use their new skill in a larger context
• Recognition – granting points, awards, or other visible markers of success

• Symbiosis – Our two main groups of children are first through eighth graders and high school students.  These two groups help to meet each others’ needs.   For example, the elementary school children need academic support and musical education.  At the same time, high school students need a place to learn, hone and practice leadership skills.  We are constantly looking for symbiotic relationships in child leadership development.

• Reward and Incentives – Children and teens are rewarded for jobs well done.  Children earn public recognition and prizes like musical instruments.  Teen employees become eligible for increased job responsibility, hours and compensation.

• College Bound Culture – From first grade through high school, we promote a college bound culture.  We introduce the idea of higher education by naming our after school center classrooms and student groups after colleges and universities.  The concept continues with extensive college awareness and preparation for our teenagers.  Because parents often do not have the time or experience to guide their kids through the process, we work with every teen to research, apply to and secure financial aid for college.  In addition, every teen that completes our six-week course SAT preparation course is eligible to go on a week-long college tour.

• Leadership Development – Of all the children’s groups in Jersey City, we know of no other program that more rigorously and consistently trusts kids with leadership.  Whenever we complete a task or teach a lesson, we ask ourselves, “Could a teenager do this?”  The propensity to sacrifice ease and perfectionism for the messy and beautiful process of trusting kids with leadership is built into our DNA.

• Hope – One of the greatest gifts we give kids is hope.  When children see adults who keep their word, they begin to develop a mental posture of hope.  Whenever New City delivers on a promise it made to the kids at the beginning of a semester, for example, (“In three months, you will be able to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”), kids begin to believe that change is possible in their own lives.

• Relational Programming – We believe that relationships undergird the transformation process.  Life-changing moments usually happen within the context of a stable relationship.  We therefore rigorously protect the high adult to child ratio in our programs.  When hiring new staff, we choose individuals who care deeply for children and we train staff extensively. 

• Life Skills – Children and teens receive training in communication skills, money management, relationship management, job success, time management and a variety of other important life skills.  During their years with us, they have opportunity to travel and gain exposure to a variety of people, cultures and places.  Our teens also visit at least three different professional settings each year to gain a broader understanding of jobs that are available to them.

• Long-term Goals – Our vision is to work with kids from age six to age nineteen.  As the children enter the after school program, they see their older peers learning to sail, performing musical pieces and excelling in school.  They find themselves longing for a job at New City years before their fourteenth birthday.  Once in high school, the teens embrace a strong work ethic, develop leadership skills and pursue the dream of college.  They leave New City with renewed minds and transformed lives.

At New City, children have a strong sense of ownership in their own lives, choices and futures.   This ownership is the energy that drives the success of our unique “life mentoring” approach.