A comprehensive positive youth development framework.

Thompson Drive will offer teens a variety of activities and workshops each week utilizing a comprehensive positive youth development framework. This framework proposes that for youth to become healthy, productive, and engaged members of society, they need opportunities to build their assets and agency, and contribute to the world in meaningful ways-all in an enabling, supportive environment, under the guidance of caring, supportive adults. Key elements of programming include:

Education

Thompson Drive (TD) participants, in conjunction with staff, create individualized development plans with benchmarks outlining a pathway to high school graduation. These plans detail the courses, credits, and exams needed for a successful, timely high school graduation. As Thompson Drive participants progress, their school transcripts are noted, and pathways adjusted as needed. Currently, it is estimated that only twenty-five percent of New York City high school graduates are sufficiently prepared for college. Thompson Drive participants will be empowered to graduate “college ready” thus diminishing the need for costly remedial credits often needed by college students graduating from NYC high schools.

Thompson Drive supports each student by offering individual and group tutoring, with sessions specifically geared toward exams such as the Regents; trips to cultural and educational institutions; and college preparatory workshops. With a strong emphasis on improved literacy, teens are required to attend a weekly reading club and read supplied books, newspapers, and magazines. The reading selection is determined by participants’ interests, and local authors are invited to speak and converse with teens.

Employment

Using a job readiness curriculum, Thompson Drive participants develop soft skills that will be applicable in any number of work environments. Through established partnerships with Brooklyn and Manhattan businesses and corporations, paid internships and part-time employment opportunities are available for all eligible participants that successfully complete the job readiness curriculum. All participants fourteen and up are required to obtain proper working papers regardless of active employment.

In preparation for employment, Thompson Drive teaches financial literacy. Participants, who earn stipends as an incentive for attending workshops, tutoring, and other activities at Thompson Drive, learn how to manage said stipends, how to budget, and how to open and maintain a bank account.

Life Skills

In partnership with support service providers, teens participate in life skills workshops, which cover topics such as alcohol and drug prevention, healthy relationships, anger management, health and nutrition, current events, and more. While some workshops are optional, teens are expected to attend a minimum of one life skills workshop per week.

Monthly off-site trips to cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities such as museums and sporting events serve the dual purpose of expanding horizons and providing opportunities to practice and reinforce positive social behaviors.

In addition to the working papers, there are several other “rites of passage” milestones for TD teens: first paycheck celebration, opening of a bank account, obtaining Driver’s Learning Permit at age sixteen, CPR Certification, passing all required Regents examinations, and high school graduation.

Family

Thompson Drive believes strongly in parental involvement. To this end, monthly workshops are offered to parents on various topics that are reflective of what their children are learning at Thompson Drive and in response to parents’ own specific requests. Thompson Drive coordinates several family events throughout the year.

Our “Be A Neighbor” Giving Drive

Please join us in becoming an honorary neighbor to Thompson Drive youth in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn.
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Thompson Drive is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. As such, all donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Want to learn more about Thompson Drive and our vision?
Contact Us

(718) 751-5643
Program Site:
2828 Neptune Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11224
Office Mailing Address:
PO Box 245805
Brooklyn, NY 11224