Chairman Update

The Change for Kids team and I have spent the past few weeks meeting with the principals at our partner elementary schools – all are being forced to cut vital educational programs in order to balance their budgets. With up to 96% of their families falling below the poverty line, the reduction to literacy, arts and music programs threatens to perpetuate the immense challenge facing our students. It’s a challenge Change for Kids is ready to meet. As the new Chairman of the CFK Board of Directors, I couldn’t be happier with the progress our organization made in meeting those essential needs last year, and I wanted to update you on that success. More importantly, I wanted to let you know how we plan on bridging an even wider gap in the coming year. 

• Program Expansion: First, please watch the fantastic new documentary on our Bronx Museum Program, developed by two of our newest Board members, HBO Executive Producer Chris Denniston and Today Show Producer Amanda Marshall. We initiated our Museum Collaboration Program this year by partnering P.S. 73 with the school’s local art institution, the Bronx Museum – exposing students to various mediums of art and challenging them to identify art in their own community. In addition to the museum program, we launched the Piano Instruction Program at P.S. 154 in Harlem, rolled out the Story Pirates Literacy Program to 2,500 students at all four of our schools and sent over 100 students to field trips at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

• New Volunteering Partnerships: Our in-school Literacy Volunteer Program completed its first year at P.S. 243 in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn – where, under the leadership of Principal Karen Hambright, the school increased literacy achievement scores from 51% in 2008 to 73% in 2009 for their 4th Grade and from 36% to 77% for their 3rd Grade. This has been achieved while the poverty rate of the school's students has increased from 87% to 96%. We’re elated to be a part of the great things happening at P.S. 243. In the fall, we will be launching our first College Volunteering Partnership, working with Fordham University students to teach literacy and technology enrichment at their local elementary school, P.S. 73.

As an organization, we’re upgrading our web infrastructure to bring together our students, principals and the CFK community. We have gone live with the initial phase of our new website, made possible by the generous donation of another new Board member Rich Ziade and his team at Arc 90. Future enhancements will enable visitors to search a calendar to quickly find events and volunteering opportunities; connect directly with the CFK community through our blog; and keep up to date with the latest photos, videos and stories from the classroom.

We even grabbed our own paint brushes and repainted the office (da Vincis we’re not, but our humble abode looks a little less humble).

We’re excited by the changes made to date – but this is just the beginning. What unites us as a Board, staff and community is the strong belief that our community has an obligation to provide each and every child with learning experiences that challenge their minds and give them the building blocks to drive their own success. With your help, Change for Kids will substantially reduce the opportunity gap in education that is so prevalent in New York City’s most underfunded schools.

Thank-you for your on-going support.

Warm regards,


Christopher Forbes
Chairman