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Educational Leadership. Powerful Stories. Intergenerational Learning. Community Service. Rich Heritage
Our Core Initiatives
Empowering change for a brighter tomorrow
Library Program
Thousands of Harlem‘s young people are counting on you to demand that state and city officials provide access to school librarians. How much longer will our children have to wait? How much longer will they receive less than children in other communities?
Adopt-A- Class
For over 20 years, the Harlem Council of Elders’ Adopt-a-Class program has brought the life experiences and professional expertise of senior citizens and young adults to Harlem students through classroom presentations, enriching dialogue, and extracurricular activities. Infusing their powerful stories with topics of particular concern to people of African descent and Latinos, special-guest visitors recruited by the Harlem Council of Elders encourage students to explore various careers while mapping out a system for continued education and personal success.
Men Who Read
In order to help young Harlemites understand that reading and learning are for everyone, they must be exposed to a diverse range of strong academic role models, including men. Yet the demographics of teachers in Harlem’s elementary schools unfortunately mirror national statistics: in the U.S., Black and Latino males constitute less than 2% of primary-school teachers. To address that need, the Harlem Council of Elders has recruited dozens of upstanding men from the community each May to spend the day reading to elementary school students at P.S. 175 in Central Harlem. Over the years, hundreds of students in kindergarten through fifth grade have participated in storytelling using exciting books selected from the school library. The Council looks forward to bringing Men Who Read to more Harlem schools.
Historic Harlem Tour
The Harlem Council of Elders has in the past organized special designed tours, with certified tour guides and chartered buses, to help Harlem elementary- and middle-school students deepen their appreciation of our community’s rich heritage.
About Us
The Harlem Council of Elders collaborates with the Harlem community to identify educational needs and to respond with effective programs and mission-driven advocacy.
Our Mission: The mission of the Harlem Council of Elders, Inc., is to foster scholastic achievement among Harlem's youth, and mutual understanding among Harlem’s youth, senior citizens, and community leaders.The Council fulfills its mission by administering programs that serve Harlem students and by advocating for policies that promote the educational, social, and physical well-being of Harlem’s children and youth.
Our History: The Harlem Council of Elders was founded in 1993 to create sustained, positive relationships between the Harlem community’s youth and its elders. This intergenerational linkage acts as a channel to revitalize an appreciation for the rich heritage of Harlem residents and to generate greater understanding and pride among its youth. The Council began its work at what was then known as Junior High School 43, at 129th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, with a weekly Adopt-a-Class program enlisting guest speakers to share their experiences in building fulfilling careers and planning strategically for lifelong success. Over the years, the Council has expanded its programming to address critical needs in the areas of literacy as well as community-centered historical knowledge.
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