New York City

Center for Community Life in Sunset Park (Youth, Family, and Community Partnership Grantee)

Center for Family Life in Sunset Park is a neighborhood-based family and social services organization in Southwest Brooklyn. Our mission is to promote positive outcomes for children and adults in Sunset Park through the provision of a comprehensive range of neighborhood-based family and social services. Sunset Park is a densely populated, low-income neighborhood with a large percentage of recent immigrants. As such, the Center offers access to resources that families need to thrive, such as family counseling, cultural, educational, and recreational programs at neighborhood public schools, adult and youth employment programs, and an emergency storefront for food and advocacy. In partnership with our community, we provide opportunities for personal development, enrich neighborhood residents’ quality of life, and nurture relationships that sustain families and support youth in becoming confident, capable adults.

Since 2022, with funding support from Prevent Child Abuse America’s Thriving Families, Safer Children Initiative, the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park has organized Community Study Circles, which are co-designed with individuals with lived experience in the child welfare system. These workshops, led by a community advocate and a family caseworker, engage immigrant parents and community members to explore the impacts of poverty and systemic disproportionality in child welfare and criminal justice. The project uses popular education to analyze community data, fostering solidarity and awareness for advocacy and social change.

The Thriving Families, Safer Children Initiative has offered us a groundbreaking opportunity to engage trained peer facilitators to partner directly with community members from neighborhoods disproportionately represented in the child welfare system: those in low wealth, immigrant, and communities of color. The program culminates with impactful advocacy presentations to a diverse array of state and city elected officials, government representatives, and community leaders, allowing participants to directly advocate for their community’s needs and priorities with community leaders.