Groundwork helps build powerful youth and powerful communities. We take a geographically-focused approach to working with youth and their families: we identify “campuses”--communities with high concentrations of young people living in poverty, typically public housing developments and the blocks that surround them. We then work with community members and institutions to provide high-quality educational programs and support services to a significant percentage of the children and families who live there. By reaching many children in a well-defined area and providing critical support to their families, Groundwork can positively impact the entire community.

This approach has several critical benefits, including giving families more access to services that are convenient and familiar. As social change agents, our ultimate goal is to strengthen the neighborhood itself, so that all children have the opportunity to lead healthy, productive, and happy lives. There is nothing wrong with helping one child from a poor neighborhood succeed despite the poverty that surrounds him; however attempts to improve the lives of poor children and their families that do not seek to change the communities where they live are doomed to limited impact.

Groundwork Campuses