Sunset Park High School Archives - Center for Family Life

On February 6th, 2025, Center for Family Life hosted our 16th annual College, Career & Community-Building (CCC) Day at Sunset Park High School.

CCC Day provides 1300+ SPHS students of all grades with engaging and informative experiences to support their college and career readiness and to strengthen their relationships within the school community. This year’s CCC Day included college panels, college jeopardy, career conversations, and team building activities.

College Panels for 10th-12th graders featured 21 college students, most of whom were SPHS alumni. The panelists provided inspiration and personal anecdotes while answering questions from current SPHS students about their experiences in college.

College Jeopardy challenged teams of 9th graders to pool their current knowledge in a spirited game while introducing them to new information about the college application process.

Career Conversations engaged the entire SPHS student body in small group discussions with a record number of 86 volunteer career guests. Our guests introduced students to career options in law, health, entertainment and the arts, human services, and technology. We were so honored that five SPHS alumni joined us as career guests this year!

Hear what students learned from career conversations, in their own words:

“There are a lot of unique jobs you can choose from.”

“It is ok to not know what you are going to do after high school.”

“When you get to college, your career ideas might change, and that is ok.”

“Do something that makes you happy and you’re passionate about.”

Students were also refreshed by the career guests’ positive energy, noting:

“It was great seeing how career guests genuinely enjoy their jobs.”

“They highlighted the vast opportunity the world has to offer.”

“They asked questions and genuinely wanted to hear our opinions.”

“They gave REAL advice that was actually good.”

Thank you again to our wonderful career guests, who braved traveling on a snowy morning in February to participate in CCC Day.

Community-Building in the gym brought out the fun spirit of SPHS students and teachers as they joyfully participated in small group challenges. Contagious laughter and cheering echoed through the halls and capped off an action-packed day at Sunset Park High School

We are grateful to the college panelists, career guests, students, and CFL and SPHS staff who made this year’s CCC Day so successful and special!

Our school-based staff speakers! From left to right: Taide Acevedo, Stephanie Ruiz, Shanice Peters, Johnny Tapia, and Andy Li

The Extra Mile 2023

July 5, 2023

by Kathleen Lion News and Events

On June 7th, we celebrated our incredible school-based staff and leaders-in-training at our annual Extra Mile event! We are so glad that our guests were able to hear the unique experiences of these outstanding young adults and to appreciate their journey along our “ladder of leadership.”

Read below to learn about our school-based staff members’ journeys up the ladder!

Taide Acevedo: Taide was born and raised in Sunset Park, starting her journey with CFL as a 5-year-old participant in the afterschool program at

PS 503/506. As a teen, Taide started volunteering her time at PS 503/506 and joined the Counselor-in-Training Program. Later, she graduated from Sunset Park High School, the first public high school in the neighborhood, and climbed just about every rung of leadership in the school-based programs. Taide is now the Program Director at PS 971 and has a MSW from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.

Andy Li: Andy is a junior at Telecommunications High School. He is a graduate of Sunset Park Prep (M.S. 821), where he participated in the “Life Lines” program for all three years. Andy has been a Leader-in-Training (LIT) since 10th grade and still participates in the Life Lines high school program.

Shanice Peters: Shanice was part of the first graduating class from Sunset Park High School where she spent all four years involved in the Life Lines program by participating in their performing arts troupes. Throughout her time at CFL, she has been a participant, group leader, high school advisor, LIT supervisor, an assistant and director of the Life Lines Summer Arts Camp, and a Program Coordinator for Life Lines. Shanice is now the Program Director at MS 136 and holds a MSW from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.

Stephanie Ruiz: Over the years, Stephanie has climbed up the ladder of leadership in the school-based programs including office aid, assistant group leader, group leader, CIT coordinator, high school advisor, and activity specialist. Stephanie is now the PS 169 Co-Director, has her BSW, and is attending Hunter College to obtain her MSW!

Johnny Tapia: Johnny started CFL in 2015 as a Life Lines group leader. He has also been a high school advisor, LIT supervisor, parent liaison, activity specialist, CIT supervisor, and an AmeriCorps supervisor. This summer, Johnny has been promoted to Program Coordinator and will co-lead the PS 94 program.

Thank you to our Board of Directors, esteemed guests NY City Councilwoman Alexa Aviles and Congressional Field Representative Mayra Molina from the office of Congressman Dan Goldman, along with CFL staff members and all of those who attended and supported our special event. We are so proud of our young leaders and are excited to see them continue to grow!

Toy drive hosted by Minnie's Bar in Sunset Park!

December: Holiday Giving!

January 4, 2023

by Kathleen Lion News and Events

While the holidays are meant to be a time of giving, joy and celebration amongst family and friends, they can also be a source of great stress. Many of our clients at Center for Family Life in Sunset Park do not have enough income to buy holiday gifts for their families. Instead, they must decide whether to celebrate the holidays or to be able to provide basic necessities for their families like rent or groceries.

In our third holiday season with the COVID-19 pandemic, our clients continue to deal with its lasting effects including long term financial hardship from job loss and extended illness. In addition, Sunset Park has seen the recent arrival of migrant families from Central and South America who are living in shelters and overcrowded apartments and do not have the financial means to obtain basic necessities, let alone purchase holiday gifts.

To combat these challenges, we have witnessed an outpouring of kindness and support by our community to help others to celebrate the holidays. We are so grateful for everyone that has contributed to making this a holiday season of celebration and happiness!

This holiday season, many individuals have reached out to us to offer their help to supply gifts to the clients we serve!

One of Sunset Park’s local establishments, Minnie’s Bar, hosted a weeklong toy drive to support clients in our Family Counseling Program. In collaboration with teachers from Sunset Park High School, this toy drive produced numerous bags of toys and allowed Sunset Park locals and visitors to come together in celebration of community and the holiday season! Our Co-Director of Family Counseling, Jen Wittlin, attended the drive to thank those that donated and to speak further about our Family Counseling Program and the clients we serve.

We also received nearly 100 items including socks, gloves, hats, toys and gift cards from a giving tree that was organized by employees of Webster Bank! These items were delivered to our clients before the holidays, allowing them to celebrate with their families without the financial burden of purchasing gifts.

CFLSP’s Family Counseling Program created an Amazon Wish List with gifts that people could purchase for our families. We received generous monetary donations to allow us to purchase these items as well as had many of our supporters purchase gifts directly. St. Michael’s Church also donated toys to our Family Counseling Program, which was organized by a former staff member of CFLSP. In addition, one of our Board members donated a generous supply of children’s books!

One of our case planners shared a personal anecdote about her client that received gifts from CFLSP as well as our holiday package, provided by our food pantry. This client shared how emotional and thankful she was to be able to provide a gift for her son to open on Christmas. This woman, who is a survivor of intimate partner violence and spent last Christmas at a shelter, celebrated the holiday at her own home with her son and mother this year. Our case planner described this mom as being “resilient and strong,” while expressing how grateful she is “that CFL can make this happen for many more families in similar situations” this holiday season!

Jen Wittlin also shared an experience she had when 3 mothers with 4 children came to the office asking for gifts for their children. These mothers had come to CFLSP in the past to receive assistance as newly arrived migrants. These mothers knew that they could seek help here at Center for Family Life, which is why they chose to return. We were able to provide the mothers with gifts for their children, who were so thankful to give them toys to play with. Jen said how this is an example of “what a grounding force CFL is in the community” and shows how people “feel supported here” knowing “we will be there for them.”

Thank you to those who made all of this possible and who allowed those in our community to celebrate with loved ones! We are grateful for everyone who contributed to our holiday appeal whether it be through monetary donations or through direct gift giving. With your support, our Adult Employment Program and Family Counseling Program were able to provide gifts to 105 families with 210 children for the holidays! We are proud and excited to continue to serve our community in the new year.

From all of us at Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, we wish you a Happy New Year!

Staff from PS 516 being highlighted before breaking out into our discussion groups!

November: Center for Family Life in Sunset Park’s Annual All Staff Retreat

December 2, 2022

by Kathleen Lion News and Events

On November 11th, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park held our Annual All Staff Retreat at Sunset Park High School. The retreat, attended by more than 250 CFLSP staff, included participants from each of our 10 neighborhood schools as well as our family serving programs in the food pantry, immigration law and tax programs, benefits access and adult employment programs, counseling and case management programs and our cooperative business development program. We were grateful to be joined by our Board Chair, Tim Sheehan and Board Vice Chair, Bonnie Greaves.

The annual retreat is a unique opportunity to refresh our staff’s commitment to our mission and their awareness and understanding of all of the many programs that we offer in our integrated services model. Most importantly, each staff member is given support to understand and share the way in which the work they do each day, whether at an afterschool program, a food pantry worker or as a legal navigator to name only a few staff roles, contributes to our ability to achieve our mission as an organization.

A tree was used as the metaphor for this year’s retreat, and the foundations of our work, which draw from the mission of the historic settlement houses, from our founders Sister Mary Paul Janchill and Sister Geraldine Tobia at the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and social group work theory, were understood to be our “roots”.

The retreat began with a super-sized welcome circle in which the entire staff gathered and were celebrated in games and activities for the work that they do for the community. After recognizing each program site in the welcome circle, staff joined 14 different discussion groups each made up of a diverse group of staff from across our many programs and led by program leaders from across the agency.

The thematic focus of discussion groups in this year’s retreat was social group work. The discussion groups explored the ways in which this methodology is rooted in our practice at Center for Family Life in Sunset Park. Social group work is a methodology that facilitates social action and change as individuals practice both leadership and “followership,” each contributing to each other’s learning and growth. Within group work there are stages of development which consist of beginnings, middles, and ends. During these stages, different objectives are achieved within the group and the outcome can be both individual and community growth as well as advocacy and activism.

The conclusion of the all-staff retreat including a staff recognition ceremony and shared meal. During the recognition ceremony, any staff member with an educational milestone, including those currently in school and those who had recently graduated, were enthusiastically cheered and congratulated by all for their achievements. Staff were recognized for longevity milestones as well, including the truly remarkable 40th anniversary of service by our own Co-Executive Director Julie Brockway! Staff were deeply touched by the kind words said in the recognition ceremony and all were acknowledged for their dedication to service and community advocacy.