Through formal partnerships with community-based organizations and schools Fiver is ensuring that participants receive the support they need throughout the year in their home communities. In addition to providing support and year-round academic intervention services, community partners are also responsible for selecting new children at ages eight and nine to participate in the Fiver program.
Center for Family Life (CFL)
Located in Sunset Park and founded in 1978, CFL stresses that family is a sustaining source of development for children and youth. Available services include family, group, and individual counseling; day, evening, and summer youth development programs; a neighborhood foster care program; literacy and ESL classes; and emergency food, clothing, and household supplies. Working together since 2000, CFL is Fiver’s longest standing CBO partner. Fiver children connected to CFL are participants in the Community School Project at P.S. 1.
Church Avenue Merchants Block Association, Inc.
CAMBA is a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization originally formed as a merchants’ association in 1977. In direct response to the emerging needs of the community, CAMBA has steadily expanded its services to Brooklyn’s residents over the last 27 years. Today, CAMBA is one of Brooklyn’s largest community-based social service organizations and provides a continuum of services, from health and housing to education and employment. Fiver kids are participants in the after-school programs at P.S. 269, located in East Flatbush and P.S. 298, located in Brownsville.
Community Action Program for Madison County (CAP)
Incorporated in 1986, CAP serves upstate NY Fiver families with home visits, emergency financial assistance, job training and placement services, and other financial, health, and social related programs. Fiver's CAP participants come from a number of different schools within Madison County and many participate in the CAP mentoring program.
Friends of the Children-New York (Friends)
Founded in Harlem in 2001, Friends is a unique early intervention program dedicated to helping New York City’s most at-risk children become productive, contributing members of their community. This goal is accomplished by employing full-time mentors to work one-on-one with each child, beginning in kindergarten or first grade and maintaining that relationship through high school. Fiver welcomed the first group of kids from Friends in 2004.
Goodwill Industries of New York
Goodwill provides services to individuals and their families at 58 sites throughout New York and New Jersey annually. Services include career counseling, job training and placement, family services, and youth programs. Fiver children participate in the Beacon program at P.S. 149, located in Jackson Heights where they receive both academic and personal enrichment support.
Maura Clarke-Ita Ford Center
Located in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, the Maura Clarke-Ita Ford Center serves immigrant Latina women, helping them to realize their potential as active members and leaders in their community. The center offers educational and job training programs, and aids parents in advocating for their children in public schools.
Mercy Center
Located in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx, Mercy Center has been a safe refuge for women and families for the last 13 years. Core programs in parenting, anger management, business training, and ESL are complemented by an array of on-going programs targeted to at-risk children and youth. In 2003, Fiver began serving Mercy Center kids, many of whom are students at Immaculate Conception and St. Pius X, both located in the South Bronx.
George Jackson Academy (GJA)
Fiver’s newest partner, GJA, is dedicated to helping bright boys from low-income families identify and celebrate their gifts in a community that will teach them to be successful men. The challenging academic curriculum is complemented by a commitment to community service and social science research. Located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, teachers recognize that the classroom extends beyond the walls of the historic building that houses the Academy on St. Mark’s Place. Fiver welcomed the first group of fourth grade boys from GJA in 2006.
College Partners
Fiver has established relationships with colleges and universities interested in recruiting Fiver seniors to attend their schools.
Fiver works with these partners to schedule visits and interviews and to explore scholarship opportunities for high school seniors.
Fiver collaborates with the following organizations in order to provide more comprehensive services to children and families.
City Year
City Year is a national service organization that unites young adults as they come together in service throughout their surrounding communities. Each year Fiver children, parents, and friends join City Year corps members at local schools to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with a day of community service.
Green Mountain College
In 2008 Fiver began partnering with Green Mountain College to implement the LEAD summer wilderness trips. Certified staff from the college’s outdoor adventure department led Fiver teens on the 4-night camping trip in the Adirondack Mountains.
Let’s Get Ready!
Fiver partners with Let’s Get Ready, one of the nation’s largest student-led college preparatory programs to offer a nine-week SAT prep class each fall.
Mentoring Partnership
MENTOR is widely acknowledged as the nation's premier advocate and resource for the expansion of mentoring initiatives nationwide. MENTOR works with a strong network of State and Local Mentoring Partnerships to provide resources and support for mentoring programs like Fiver’s to effectively serve young people in their communities.
Posse Foundation
The Posse Foundation’s scholarship and leadership program identifies recruits and trains outstanding youth leaders from urban public schools and sends these groups as “Posses” to top colleges and universities with full scholarships. Each year Fiver nominates ten high school seniors for the Posse scholarship and the Posse Foundation refers scholars interested in youth service careers for employment at Camp Fiver.
Princeton Review
Fiver partners with Princeton Review to offer an SAT preparation class to high school juniors at an extremely reduced cost.
United States Tennis Association (USTA)
United States Tennis Association (USTA): Following the construction of two tennis courts at Camp Fiver in 2005, Fiver developed a partnership with the USTA.
Current and Future Staff
Executive Director
Christie Ko
Senior Director of Operations
Keisha Ames
Senior Director of Development, Evaluation & Support Services
Erin Kaplan
Senior Program Director, Camp Director
Mary Lee Dinski
Director of Marketing and Development, Benefit Coordinator