For more than 40 years, CHLDC has worked alongside residents to create opportunities, strengthen neighborhoods, and invest in the future of Cypress Hills, East New York, and surrounding communities. Today, Ben Carey acts as Division Director of their College Success Programs. He oversees four programs across the Thomas Jefferson and Franklin K. Lane campuses, including two Student Success Centers, the College STEPS persistence program, and the Community School at Franklin K. Lane. Ben has worked in college access for nearly two decades, and his connection to CARA stretches back many years. Cypress Hills created one of the city’s earliest Student Success Centers and CARA has helped strengthen that longstanding work. For Ben, one of CARA’s most valuable contributions is its ability to pair best-practice training with research and data.
For example, Cypress Hills participates in Summer CCI, a program CARA helped to create. Summer CCI brings together paid summer employment, youth development, and college coursework, allowing young people to gain work experience, earn college credit, and develop skills while supporting younger students. For Ben, these kinds of initiatives are about “connecting the dots” and weaving together the support young people need to succeed.
Each year, Cypress Hills trains approximately 16–17 students to become Youth Leaders, equipping young people to support their peers as “connectors” and “credible messengers” within their schools. Ben has repeatedly seen young people who begin as Youth Leaders go on to become leaders in their college communities and return to community-based organizations to lead this work themselves. He recently encountered a former Youth Leader named Saul who is now working as a counselor at another CBO. Seeing him at an event, Ben recalled thinking, “Saul, this is amazing! This is what success looks like.” For CARA and Cypress Hills, that is the power of the peer-to-peer model: young people supporting their peers today while building the experience and leadership to shape tomorrow’s work.