Operates daily to provide hundreds of youth, teens, and adults with a safe place to hang out and to interact with adult staff, volunteers, and peers: offering recreation, counsel, and assessment of needs. Furthermore, we offer activities including field trips to cultural institutions and other venues for positive growth.
Kidstitute Education Enrichment Program (KEEP) is a unique virtual and limited on-site programming targeting At-Risk, Overlooked, Underserved and Impoverished Children of Newark, Grades 2-12: providing emergent food, daily survival skills, education enrichment, leadership development, career/future exploration/goal-setting, and trauma counseling.
Family Resource Center LifeLine/Emergency Family Health Support designed to address food & health insecurity; to offer food & vouchers, medical assistance, coats, budgeting/housing/foreclosure/utility counseling, trauma & racial injustice counseling, neighborhood safety, and referrals to collaborative agencies.
Senior Leadership, Board Members, and Contracted Service Professionals mentor & train College Students and High School Students in areas of program development, implementation, overall leadership, and succession.
Throughout its history, Greater Life has offered opportunities for youth to get out of the city through summer and school-year camping. One of its highlights has been hosting its annual “TEEN IMPACT” Church Partnership Youth Weekend retreat since 1989! Over the history of the program, we have collaborated with 72 churches/faith-based institutions on retreat programming that encourages 350-400 teens & leaders from ages 13 through 19, to challenge them to live up to their full potential, mentally, morally and spiritually.
Every student who walks through Greater Life’s doors is assigned a mentor from our staff, senior interns, volunteers, or Board of Directors. These mentors take their responsibilities seriously, going beyond educational enrichments and providing advice and leadership that Greater Life students can use each day. This fully case-managed mentoring program is complemented by a set of peer mentoring programs, such as college prep and career exploration, Boy Scouts, G.I.R.L.S (Girls in Real-Life Situations),and faith in life discussions, where Greater Life students help their peers work through everyday problems responsibly, and to navigate their lives successfully.
Greater Life works with Mr. Wilton Sherman, a long-term community organizer, and other community residents to implement the Weequahic Homeowners Coalition which offices at our Community Outreach Center, seeking to improve the quality of life and address community concerns of the residents of the Weequahic Section of Newark’s South Ward. We also afford space for community block association meetings, Newark Police Block Watch Trainings, and neighborhood safety gatherings.
