NEW YORK
For more information on partnering with Global Kids, please contact Executive Director Dominique Jones at dominique@globalkids.org.
Global Kids’ flagship after school program, the Power of Citizenry, was launched in 1995. Weekly workshops are grounded in our participants’ interests. Students learn about current events, foreign policy, and human rights issues, and create projects to address issues they care about. Youth shape the content, structure, and goals of the program, and our expert staff give them the confidence, skills, and tools they need to make an impact.
Each year, a team of Global Kids youth design an Annual Youth Conference around a topic of local and global importance. At conferences in both Washington, DC and New York City, youth work together to identify and secure plenary and guest speakers, organize performances, and design and facilitate peer-education workshops for hundreds of attendees. Get a glimpse of a past Youth Conference here.
For more information, contact:
Diamond Butler, diamond@globalkids.org
Launched in 2002, Global Kids’ innovative youth organizing model – the Human Rights Activist Project – addresses the absence of youth voices in the public policy and decision-making processes and trains youth to become human rights activists locally, nationally, and internationally. With support from our educators, youth take their place at the forefront of groundbreaking social action and policy campaigns. They work as a cohort to identify issues affecting them and their communities, conduct research, lead outreach initiatives, design and implement campaigns, and rally community support. GK youth have worked on a variety of issues, including: educational reform, gun violence, food security, immigration, climate justice, and recently helped pass a resolution in the New York City council to mandate climate change education in NYC schools.
Global Kids programming significantly increases a young person’s chances of graduating from high school and attending college. Participants get an early start on college applications, explore academic and career options, get inspired about their futures and succeed in today’s increasingly globalized workplace. Global Kids provides youth with ongoing support and mentoring with activities like one-on-one college counseling sessions, college exploration workshops, goal setting, career days at corporate and government offices, panels with professionals from multiple sectors, resume building workshops, interviewing skill sessions, and college tours.
Global Kids participants have traveled to conferences, events and trained peers in over 30 countries. Each year, our youth have the opportunity to travel to a wide range of countries, such as Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Eritrea, Haiti, Japan, Kenya, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Peru, South Africa, Egypt, St. Croix, and more.
Global Kids harnesses the power of performance, storytelling and interdisciplinary arts to give youth the tools they need to amplify their voices and perspectives. Conducted in collaboration with Ping Chong + Company, Undesirable Elements is a storytelling arts program that combines dance, music, spoken word and theater. Guest artists work with students to develop performance pieces that weave together students’ cultural heritage, personal stories, world history, and current events to share compelling stories that tackle a myriad of social issues.
To address summer learning loss and provide more intensive learning opportunities for our young people, Global Kids conducts and array of summer programming options:
“U.S. in the World” Summer Institute
Each summer up to 30 Global Kids youth leaders gain access to the resources of the world’s leading international affairs think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations. Through this unique three-week summer institute, youth explore a variety of pressing global issues including the rise of ISIS, globalization and trade agreements, the security versus privacy debate, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel/Palestine, international development, and much more. Workshops investigating these themes are combined with daily conversations with noted foreign policy experts like President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass, former US Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, CFR Fellows Shannon O’Neil and Carla Anne Robbins, and award-winning journalist George Stephanopoulos.
Summer Bridge Programs
At school sites across New York City, GK holds summer bridge programs for incoming 9th grade students that emphasize learning strategies for academic success, creating a positive school culture, responding to peer pressure, bullying and other issues, and building student capacity for leadership all in order to develop a cohort of committed ambassadors to drive positive peer culture. Activities include leadership training, interactive workshops on positive school culture, field trips and guest speakers.
College and Career Summer Institutes
In a number of boroughs, Global Kids holds week-long college and career summer institutes designed to provide students an early start on college applications, explore their academic and career options, and get inspired about their futures. Participants receive one-on-one support to conduct preliminary research on target schools, as well as determining their safety, match and reach schools, and identify deadlines for applications. Youth will also have an opportunity to explore scholarship options, work on their personal statements and fill out the CUNY/SUNY Common Application.
Summer Internships
Through support from the Department of Youth and Community Development, Global Kids places dozens of students in summer internships at sites across New York City. Students will gain marketable work skills as they are exposed to a variety of workplace settings in the non-profit, public and private sectors and receive career readiness training from our staff.
Middle School Summer Camps
Scores of middle schools participate in GK’s free summer camp program, where youth learn digital media skills, explore global citizenship through field trips, and participate in myriad hands-on learning activities.
The 2019 Global Kids Summer Camp occurred from July 8 – August 2, 2019.
The MBYLI Global Education Program
Funded by the Department of Employment Services, and run through a special partnership between Global Kids-DC and the Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute (MBYLI), the Global Education Program is a year-round program that trains youth in global affairs and exposes them to careers in international affairs. Aligned with Global Kids’ mission, the Global Education Program aims to develop youth leaders for the global stage. Program participants are trained through weekly workshops during the School Year Program and a Summer Intensive Training institute that engages youth in meaningful international affairs content and career paths. After successful completion of the school-year and summer programs, youth are also given the opportunity to apply and participate in a two-week international trip. In the summer of 2015, 2016 and 2017, students visited South Africa in culminating activities, designed to synthesize their leadership skills and career futures.
Washington, DC Summer Institute
Funded through 21st Century Community Learning Centers and OSSE in DC, the Global Kids Summer Institute brings together youth from our school year programs at Anacostia HS, Ballou HS, McKinley Tech, and Dunbar HS for an intensive summer learning program which focuses on leadership, social justice, global citizenship, and civic engagement. Participants develop service-learning projects, explore arts and activism, engage in international affairs content, and develop critical skills which bolster their critical thinking, literacy, and other 21st Century skills.
