New York

Since the late 1960’s, ATD Fourth World has developed programs and a presence in under-resourced New York City neighborhoods in partnership with their residents. Also, members of our New York team serve as ATD Fourth World's representatives at the United Nations where we have had consultative status since 1981. 

In between the grassroots work and the international advocacy are amazing opportunities to build capacity and community and to have people from very different backgrounds learn from each other and work together. 

ATD Fourth World members with lived experience of poverty get involved by supporting their children in our neighborhood activities. Others get involved through our partnerships with community organizations. They then have opportunities to take on more responsibilities in our other programs. Through training, practice and teamwork, they become ATD Fourth World Activists learning skills to advocate for themselves and represent their peers. 

ATD Fourth World Activists speaking at the United Nations and other decision-making spaces gives the people in those agencies the opportunity to learn from first-hand experience and changes the narrative about poverty and about the people who experience poverty. Representation at the United Nations builds activism, partnerships, and community. ATD Fourth World Activists have both the capacity and the responsibility to grow our reach by encouraging and supporting others to share their experience at the the United Nations and elsewhere. 

Our team welcomes volunteers, interns, and students for their field placement. Please contact us to get involved or learn more.

GRASSROOTS PRESENCE

ATD Fourth World New York has always maintained a grassroots presence and partnership in under-resourced neighborhoods primarily through weekly Story Gardens and annual Festivals of Learning with Volunteer Corps members sometimes also living in the community. 

We always begin programs based on the aspirations of the community and partnering with local residents. With this grassroot presence, we reinforce the abilities and hopes of children and of the adults who care for them as well as provide pathways for activism and advocacy. 

More recently, our efforts have been focusing on the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville.

LEARNING TOGETHER: COMMUNITY AND CAPACITY BUILDING

Many of our projects purposefully bring people from different backgrounds together. We bring different points of view to learn and work as activists and advocates to change both the narrative about poverty and the policies that affect people who experience poverty. These programs, which include People’s University, Tapori, and Participatory Education for Social Professions, are based on the philosophy behind Merging of Knowledge, using its methodology. These programs are not services given but are planned and evaluated with the participants themselves. We go through each other’s ups and downs as full human beings with complicated lives. Our commitment is possible because we are there for one another and we succeed or fail together then learn together. 

COLLECTIVE EVALUATION AND EMERGENT LEARNING

We are continuously evolving what we do. Each program leads to another program. People change and neighborhoods change. Needs, skills and lives change. So we constantly evaluate what we do, using experienced techniques, involving all participants in the process. When a neighborhood's community is able to offer opportunities itself, it’s time for us to go to a new place. Taking direction from people already involved in our programs, we look for a neighborhood that has a vision of offering opportunities but not yet the means and offer to support their vision. When one of our programs is no longer offering learning opportunities to all its diverse participants, it’s time to develop new, more challenging and relevant projects. 

In Fall 2022, ATD Fourth World members in New York gathered together for a participatory Evaluation and Planning process. From the process emerged four priority themes to invest in 2023-2024, which can be seen here.