Colorful bird drawing

Center for Family Life in Sunset Park Wishes You A Healthy and Happy Holiday Season!

by News and Events

For over 40 years, Center for Family Life has been committed to enriching the lives of individuals in Sunset Park through community partnerships and a dedication to service. Today, our comprehensive range of services engage more than 13,500 people at 10 community locations!

Children at PS 503/506 participating in Lights on Afterschool, which highlights the benefits of afterschool programs. Your holiday donations support these programs!
Children at PS 503/506 participating in Lights on Afterschool, which highlights the benefits of afterschool programs. Your holiday donations support these programs!

Thanks to your support, Center for Family Life achieved the following 2022 Highlights:

Our Benefits Access Program helped 851 clients obtain nearly $831,000 in benefits like SNAP and health insurance for their families!

Over 3,000 neighborhood residents were provided with meals from our food pantry. Between January and June of 2022, CFLSP was able to distribute over 14,000 pounds of food to our community members!

Our Child and Family Services provided child maltreatment preventive services and public benefits eligibility screenings to 265 families with 519 children!

Our ActionNYC team provided free immigration and legal services to 603 members, screening clients for immigration risks and all possible forms of relief.

We were able to assist in filing 3,127 returns for tax year 2021, generating a total refund of $4.4 million!

Our new 5-year NYS Education 21st Century Community Learning Center contract will allow us to serve 2,500+ youth at 10 school sites in the coming year!

"Life Lines" Community Arts Project Exploring "Art as Nourishment." They chose to share the message "We can rest our mind" with community members!
"Life Lines" Community Arts Project Exploring "Art as Nourishment." They chose to share the message "We can rest our mind" with community members!

Center for Family Life in Sunset Park is dedicated to promoting positive outcomes for youth and their families. Our services enrich the quality of life of individuals in our community and beyond, supporting families and increasing opportunities. We are honored to assist our community members in any way possible and are so thankful for all of your support. Our 2022 highlights are a testament to the generosity of each and every one of you. We hope to do even more in 2023!

children with shirts spelling "Justice"

August: “Life Lines” Community Arts Project Explores

by News and EventsYouth and Community Development & School Partnerships

“Life Lines” is a free, nationally-recognized program that brings together social group work, the arts, and education to involve middle and high school youth in group experiences that promote leadership, develop creativity, and build community.

This summer, the theme was “Art as Nourishment,” and our program participants explored many different ways that art and art-making can provide nourishment to themselves and to their surrounding community.

Our Visual Arts Troupe led workshops for younger children in the Center for Family Life elementary school summer camps at PS 94 and PS 169, working together in small groups to explore patterns and sculpture-making. Our troupe members learned that by offering their attention, mentorship, and art-making skills to these groups, they could provide meaningful activities for the elementary schoolers and bring them joy.

Children making art

Life Lines Visual Arts Troupe also experimented with nourishing their community through public art, creating colorful tunics with messages they felt were important to share.

Children with shirts spelling respect and justice

The troupe traveled to Governors Island and took pictures with their wearable art in different locations. They also visited the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center to see the immersive art installation “Sun Seekers” by sisters Amy and Jennifer Khoshbin, a sculpture and performance work that inspired our group with its attention to healing and reconnection with the natural world.

 

Children with shirts that say "we can rest our mind"

The third summer project was group murals. This was an opportunity for our troupe members to remember that making art can be a way to nourish themselves, and that sharing art is a way to nourish those around them – a great reminder to take into the Fall as we reach the end of another wonderful summer!

 

Examples of art projects
Children working on art
Children working on art
Photo by: Pankaj Khadka/Leroy Street Studio

June: Our neighborhood library in Sunset Park has been honored by the 2021 National American Institute of Architects (AIA) and American Library Association (ALA) as one of the winners of the Library Building Design Award

by News and EventsYouth and Community Development & School Partnerships

We are thrilled to announce that our interim neighborhood library in Sunset Park has been honored by the 2021 National American Institute of Architects (AIA) and American Library Association (ALA) as one of the winners of the Library Building Design Award – only one of five libraries selected in the United States! The temporary Sunset Park Library, nestled in the former Sunset Park courthouse on Fourth Avenue, was designed by Leroy Street Studio and decorated with exquisite work by Center for Family Life high school students!

High school students in CFL’s Life Lines Visual Arts Troupe partnered with the Leroy Street Studio in a collaborative process of art, design, and installation to devise a method of providing shade for library-goers on brighter days. The team constructed a unique cascade of paper mobiles that hang across the large, vaulted windows. The shapes, made bold when backlit by the sun, speak to themes of togetherness, vitality, and natural beauty.

The National American Institute of Architects (AIA), an organization to support quality architecture founded in 1857, focuses on cultivating and encouraging the creation of spaces that center community wellness and vibrancy. According to a statement from their organization, the award acknowledges those libraries that embody “design achievement, including a sense of place, purpose, ecology, environmental sustainability and of history.” 
 
 Despite its status as an interim library, the space is a glowing achievement in Sunset Park. Shawn Watts, a partner at Leroy Street Studio, expressed that the studio is “honored to have played a part in creating this vibrant community hub and thrilled to see how the work of the students from the Center for Family Life elevated the space.”
 
 
The interim Sunset Park Library fulfills a variety of needs with versatile arrangements of space and equipment that serve our diverse community. Leroy Street Studio ensured that the voices of the Sunset Park community, BPL staff, and elected officials were heard in imagining the space. A spokesperson for Brooklyn Public Library noted that the library design, with the window installation “comprised of screens and sculptural mobiles, made in collaboration with students from the Center for Family Life…truly reflects the community it serves, making this award even more special.”