Educational Day Care Centers and Afterschool Programs. Our two day care centers, Duffield Children's Center and Waverly Child Care Center, offer free or sliding-scale child care to low-income parents, providing educationally rich day care and afterschool programs to more than 466 children, ages 2 to 11. Teachers and volunteers foster environments where children gain reading and math skills. Through our privately-funded afterschool literacy and arts initiatives, children have the opportunity to make their own art and use stories, music, dance and drama to explore history, science, society and culture.

Afterschool Literacy Initiative. Our Afterschool Literacy Initiative sparks fundamental change in children's attitudes toward reading and writing. From 3:00 to 6:00 each weekday, over 180 children who attend our Duffield and Waverly child care centers study diverse themes such as Voyage to Space; The Spirit of 1776: A Journey Towards Freedom; and Amazing Mysteries. Children engage in multi-sensory learning activities, including dance, poetry, drama and song as they build their intellectual skills and discover the world in which they live.

Visual Arts and Education Program. Through an ongoing collaboration with the Brooklyn Museum of Art, children who participate in our Afterschool Literacy Initiative have the opportunity to see priceless works of art. Children also learn how to better express themselves through creating their own artwork as part of study themes. The Visual Arts and Education Program helps children develop cognitive and motor skills while bolstering their self-esteem and confidence.

Head Start The Brooklyn Bureau provides Head Start program services to 81 children. Head Start is a nationwide, federally funded program intended to increase the social competence of children from low income families, thus preparing children for healthy and productive lives.

Family Day Care The Brooklyn Bureau offers quality child care to 388 babies and toddlers through our network of home based providers. Located in 38 homes, Family Day Care provides safe and nurturing environments to babies and pre-schoolers, ages 0-4.


School-based Services | Adult Services | Child Care Services | Family Services

Gary Klinsky Children's Centers (GKCC) provide after-school learning opportunities to children from low-income families, who attend some of New York City's lowest performing schools.

GKCC provides hands-on lessons in history, sociology, ecology, science, geography, and technology, plus focused explorations into special-interest subjects including journalism, photography, poetry, entrepreneurship, and government. Lessons are presented to children through multi-sensory activities and are provided in the context of academically stimulating themes. GKCC enhances children's reading, writing, and math skills, and helps them to develop their creativity, confidence, and enthusiasm for learning. GKCC's students have demonstrated a marked improvement in behavior, school attendance, academic performance, and performance on standardized examinations.

The GKCC program is offered every weekday from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at four public elementary schools and one middle school located in East New York and Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The five GKCC centers serve nearly 1,000 children, from kindergarten through middle school.

Our Family Preventive Services program prevents unnecessary or inappropriate placement of children into foster care and helps families function productively. For more than 20 years, we have served families who have serious problems-including child abuse, neglect, substance abuse, depression, inadequate parenting skills, physical or emotional conflicts, unemployment and intergenerational conflicts-in Brooklyn's high-need Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York neighborhoods. During the past year, we served 513 families with 1,189 children, only 7 of whom were placed in foster care. The New York City Administration for Children's Services rates our Preventive Services program as "excellent."

Homemaker Services. Each year, more than 90 Brooklyn families and 184 children at risk of foster care placement receive support from our certified homemakers, who teach parents how to manage their households and their budgets, while helping them learn crucial parenting skills. For seriously ill parents, homemakers take on household tasks so that parents can spend quality time with their children. Our Homemaker program provides the support and skills that beleaguered parents need to keep their families together.

Training for Employment. The Brooklyn Bureau offers a range of vocational training and job placement programs to meet the diverse needs of clients with mental retardation, developmental disabilities and mental illness. Those ready for work are helped to find jobs, others receive basic vocational training, coaching, and support as they transition to employment, and those with very challenging disabilities receive training in our sheltered employment program where they build skills. Last year, through those programs, the Brooklyn Bureau placed 727 people with disabilities in paid employment.

Computer Lab for Adults with Disabilities. The Brooklyn Bureau's computer lab, made possible through generous support provided by KeySpan Corporation, provides valuable education and training to clients with mental, physical or emotional disabilities. Clients visit the lab each day to receive literacy instruction and to learn basic vocational tasks. Clients also work to build their clerical, data entry, interviewing and conflict resolution skills. A number of clients also train in customer service, electrical maintenance, carpentry, and plumbing.

WeCARE assists thousands of adults with mild disabilities make the transition from welfare to work, with GED and ESL classes, computer training, resume assistance and preparation for interviews. Last year, the Brooklyn Bureau placed more than 525 people with mild disabilities into paying jobs.

Adolescent Education and Employment Program (AEEP). AEEP helps adolescents ages 16 to 21, all of whom have serious emotional problems, and none of whom have graduated from high school, to develop and work toward their own vocational and educational goals. Through General Education Development (GED) classes, creative arts projects, support groups and vocational counseling, participating youth can address the factors that affect their chances for success, learn how to express their feelings in constructive ways and find ways to rise above the many obstacles they face. Each year, from its program site in East New York, one of Brooklyn's most distressed neighborhoods, AEEP serves more than 100 at-risk, low-income youth. Last year, through the AEEP program, 8 students successfully earned their GED certificates, 4 AEEP students were accepted for college or university study, and 38 students gained employment experience.

Clubhouse Programs. Last year, the Brooklyn Bureau's East New York Clubhouse and MetroClub-both accredited by the International Center for Clubhouse Development-served more than 500 individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. The Clubhouses provide safe, nurturing, non-institutional settings for psychiatric rehabilitation that foster independent living and greater participation in the community.

Clubhouse members play an active role in their own rehabilitation as they participate in the day-to-day operation of the Clubhouses-processing intake of new members, providing Clubhouse tours for visitors, reaching out to new members and setting Clubhouse policies. Members also enroll in training programs and develop job skills through transitional employment in local area businesses.

Pre-Vocational Support. Many individuals who participate in the Brooklyn Bureau's programs cannot pursue vocational training or placement due to the degree of their mental illness or mental retardation. They receive pre-vocational services, including:

	Project Moving On, which offers counseling, therapeutic activities, and peer support each day to individuals contending with severe mental illness. PMO's goal is to help its clients become as self-sufficient as possible and to reduce the incidence of psychiatric hospitalization. Last year, PMO continued its participation in the state-wide Ways to Work pilot initiative, which helps individuals with mental illness transition to independent employment. Through that initiative, nine (9) PMO clients were able to secure stable jobs during the past year. Overall, PMO serves more than 170 people each year.
	Day Habilitation helps individuals with developmental disabilities to cultivate the skills required for independent living, including navigating public transportation, personal financial management, socialization and volunteering in the community. Day Habilitation offers clients vocational counseling and training to help them participate more fully in community life. During the past year, the Brooklyn Bureau's two Day Habilitation programs, Atlantic Achievers and Bright Lights, served 67 clients.
	Residential Habilitation teaches independent living skills to developmentally disabled adults living with their families or in their own homes.

Transitional Living Community (TLC). The Brooklyn Bureau's Transitional Living Community (TLC), a 40-bed section of the Brooklyn Women's Shelter in East New York, Brooklyn, was established in 1989. TLC provides homeless, low-income, mentally ill women with temporary shelter and assistance to secure permanent housing. TLC recruits its clients from the general shelter population. Staff conduct comprehensive assessments to identify women with severe and persistent mental illness, who are usually diagnosed with psychosis, major depression or manic-depressive illness. Women are helped to practice the skills they will need to live successfully outside the shelter system.

Through private funding, TLC staff and residents transformed a formerly derelict vacant lot into a flower and vegetable garden. The community garden has become residents' preferred setting for many of TLC's group activities. For TLC residents, tending the garden, or simply spending time there, is healthy and highly therapeutic.

Last year TLC served 129 women; 53 were able to transition to permanent housing.