New Settlement Apartments is a nonprofit organization that has for 25 years demonstrated a commitment to affordable housing and community development, offering a wide range of services for youth, adults and families.  New Settlement collaborates with community residents and develops strategic partnerships to lead collective action efforts in the southwest Bronx.  The extensive year-round community services and educational programs are created to address the needs of several thousand youth and adults who live in this chronically underserved area of the Bronx.

With its Change Capital Fund grant, New Settlement Apartments is focusing on reducing poverty in the South Bronx and ensuring that families have the power to make quality choices about education, employment, housing, wellness and creative expression.

New Settlement Apartments’ (NSA) is expanding continuity and increasing intensity of services offered to youth and families living in low-income housing in the Mount Eden section of The Bronx.  The organization’s goal is to improve educational outcomes and job prospects for 17- to 24-year-olds and housing stability for families. During the first year, NSA focused on making internal programmatic connections between programs to harnesses their collective efforts to have a greater community impact.

With funding and technical support from Change Capital Fund, New Settlement Apartments developed a public benefit rationale illustrating the cost benefit of just one of their programs:

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Marsha’s story

Marsha had been sending her daughter, Ariana, to New Settlement’s afterschool program since she was in the second grade. Ariana, now in the 6th grade, loved the activities and friends she made, and for Marsha, it was a relief knowing that until she got home from work, her daughter was in a safe, fun and educational environment. But Ariana soon would enter middle school, and Marsha was worried about how she and her daughter would get by without the program.

Then Marsha learned that the program was going to be extended to Ariana’s new school this fall, and she enrolled her daughter immediately. It’s the first time New Settlement has been able to service this age group, made possible by funding from CCF’s initiative. Marsha considers the assistance she receives from New Settlement vital to her family’s quality of life.

“I don’t know what I would do without it,” Marsha said. “It’s more than just a help to working parents. It’s not just babysitting – they really encourage kids to use their minds and develop their talents. She’s gotten so independent with her schoolwork and her vision has enlarged. She talks about business and she talks about being an entrepreneur. She’s on the right path. She believes that she can be anything she wants to be.”