Letter from Executive Director
This summer marks five challenging and eye-opening years since I co-founded Active Plus, a New York City-based non-profit dedicated to improving physical and mental health and wellness among at-risk youth. As I reflect on the last half-decade, what I have learned above all else is the importance of being involved with your community. If you are a proponent of change, the first step is to get involved, and the second step is to stick with it, even when things get tough.
Had I not decided to turn local volunteering efforts into an official non-profit in 2015, I would never have discovered just how much opportunity there is to positively impact local vulnerable communities. Over the course of five years, Active Plus has worked with churches, schools, corporations, volunteers from around the world, entrepreneurs, police, and many others dedicated to giving back. Thanks to these partnerships, we have been able to continue growing and provide for New York City’s most at-risk youth.
Even though we are a small non-profit, I believe we have made a great impact on our direct community with the limited resources we have. We have managed to consistently provide daily nutrition and fitness instruction to young women in East Harlem, offer a safe space for youth to participate in fitness activities on weekend evenings, run sports camps in neighborhoods with limited resources, assist other community-based organizations, fund four scholarships worth $4,500 to college-bound students, serve as a mentor to students, secure funding for neighborhoods in need, and much more.
Despite our past successes, Active Plus’s work has never been more urgent than it is today. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous suffering for families across the globe, and there are few communities that have been hurt worse than low-income areas of New York City. Children and teens from these backgrounds have been hit hard -- directly by COVID-19 itself but also indirectly through the adverse effects of stay-at-home orders on physical fitness, nutrition, and mental health. If we don’t act now, life-threatening health issues will continue to plague New York City’s children and teens well after the COVID-19 outbreak slows. By catering our programs to New York’s most vulnerable communities (virtually for now and in-person once it’s safe to do so), we believe Active Plus can truly save lives.
I invite your questions, suggestions, and comments on Active Plus and the ways we are virtually tackling inactivity to keep our communities healthy and hopeful. Our team is currently undergoing safety and hygiene training and securing the proper personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies to ensure the safety of our staff and participants. If you are able and would like to support Active Plus’s efforts, please consider donating to our 5 Year Anniversary Campaign here. Both during this unusual period and once life hopefully returns closer to normal, myself and the whole team at Active Plus are dedicated to doing even more good in the next five years than in the last.
