How New York City’s youngsters avoid the “summer slide” during the big city’s sweltering months will shape their future. It can be a time idly wasted sitting on street corners, when young people can’t find work or other opportunities to occupy their time, or it can be employed with a flurry of inspiration, education, and activity toward long-term purpose and fond memories.
This year, Mayor Eric Adams’ “We Outside Summer” safety plan increased weekend hours for select NYCHA community facilities. Even with these added hours, youngsters still found themselves waiting with excitement for the doors to open each day at East Harlem’s James Weldon Johnson Community Center, said social media manager Deleah Watts.
A quick tour from program director Rob Clarke shows exactly why. The community center remains alive even after dusk as the preteens of Pretty Problem bust a move for their hip-hop dance class while young men in the gym next door rest from lifting weights, sheepishly preparing for their photo after hearing about a media visit.
Meanwhile, “Coach D” preaches teamwork as teenage girls run basketball drills on a full-sized court as “Hanshi” Dave Thomas demonstratively hip-tosses a purple belt in a backstage makeshift dojo for a multigenerational karate class once taken by a student’s mom more than two decades ago — all under one roof in El Barrio.
In May, Mayor Adams announced $2 million toward 400 hours of programming in hopes of keeping youngsters safe and busy during the summer, including extended weekend hours from 12 to 3 p.m. for certain Cornerstone community centers like Johnson. Regular operating hours run from 6 to 11 p.m. daily.
Cornerstone operates out of the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD) in 100 public housing community centers across the city through nonprofit partners. Youth service provider SCAN-Harbor runs the programming at Johnson Community Center. Many participants and employees, like Watts, stem from the Johnson Houses.
“I feel like I’m more connected to them because I know their parents and everything,” said Watts. “So I feel like I’m really involved because I was once a kid here too, and then I got a job here and I started working here. I grew up here, so a lot of the parents [and] the grandparents know me. A lot of the kids are comfortable with me [because] one day that’s going to be them.”
22-year-old Isaiah McCants hails from the Bronx but Clarke’s mentorship program for young men drew him to Johnson. He began working at the center through DYCD’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) but later landed a standalone job handling a wide range of responsibilities like security and program application.
Through Johnson, McCants — who the kids call Mr. Zay — kickstarted his own basketball tournament for the community called “Make Harlem Great Again.”
“We got teams from all over Harlem, all under one gym,” said McCants. “Just to make a safe space for young Black people — all races as well — everybody gets together [to] have a safe space to play basketball.”
While it won’t translate to the court, he seemed to grow a foot taller recalling the tournament’s roots. McCants hopes efforts to provide a safe space from the streets will carry back over to making the streets safer. Clarke jokingly called him “Commissioner Z” and credited him for bringing together youngsters and their guests from all over the neighborhood under one gym roof as neutral ground for different housing developments, some with prior histories.
“A lot of places deny spectators saying they don’t want the unknown happening or someone [who isn’t] a participant coming into the space,” said Clarke. “But we welcome it because we command a different respect…and everyone honors and respects the space.”
Aubrielle, 11, says the center’s open doors make her “so happy.” “It inspires me to come here,” she said. “Just [an] open mind, talk to teachers, dance [and] to let out my feelings.”
Jailah, 14, just got her first paycheck working at the center thanks to SYEP. She points to her hair when asked about where her money went.
Anthony Posada, supervising attorney of Legal Aid Society’s Community Justice Unit, encountered Johnson Community Center a few years back as a teaching artist for arts nonprofit Project Attica. He recounts a “vibrant and cohesive” hub, which the public defender sees as true public safety.
“Community safety often is a combination of factors, but at the core [are] resources,” said Posada. “In this case, community members knew they could partake of these sessions [like] pilates, after school programming … a community meeting that was taking place to address either a recent or ongoing issue that tenants wanted to focus on [or] food distribution — all these are resources [and] things communities need to meet their basic needs. And that provides safety.”
During the tour, Clarke pointed to work-in-progress facilities like a new games room and computer lab in Knicks orange and blue thanks to donations from Madison Square Garden Company. McCants mentions LGBTQ programming, with ballroom culture like voguing. “We have a space for them,” he said. The center also boasts a small outdoor amphitheater and senior programming. Clarke even showed off renovated bathrooms, a luxury in Manhattan.
“I was born and raised in East Harlem,” said Clarke. “There’s opportunities out there, but a lot of people don’t know about opportunities. Then we say we don’t have these resources — the resource is information. We got to make sure that these kids have the information, the kids, the parents, the grandparents, the younger kids: getting the information out there is the resource.”
Harlem is my 2nd home and a good place.