Adult and Family Services Queens Community House

Table Of Content

• What the Program Offers:
• Youth Employment Services Office 70-34 Austin Street, Suite BB, Forest Hills, NY 11375
• Older Adult Services
• ► APPLY FOR THE COMMUNITY-BASED SYEP PROGRAM HERE
• QCH SYEP HOMEPAGE
• To schedule a support appointment call ( 571-0000 or, email youthjobs@qchnyc.org
• Follow our Youth Employment page at @qchyouthemployment today.

QCH opened its doors in 1976 (as Forest Hills Community House) to help heal the wounds of a neighborhood conflict. Over four decades, our reach and breadth have grown; today we offer a broad network of comprehensive services at 40 sites in 15 neighborhoods allowing us to impact individuals, families, and entire communities. Queens Community House is a rapidly growing multi-site, multi-service settlement house with many fulfilling career and volunteer opportunities. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we believe in the values of Community, Diversity and Respect. If you're looking to apply for the Summer Youth Employment Program through Queens Community House (QCH), then you're in the right spot!

What the Program Offers:

Queens Community House offers a broad range of family and community services reflective of our ongoing commitment to fostering strong, stable, and self-sufficient families and communities throughout Queens. Overall, these programs link neighbor to neighbor, offer opportunities for continued learning and skills development, enhances family supports, provides services for new immigrants, improves housing conditions and prevents evictions, and assists in community building and development. The Summer Youth Employment Program is the nation’s largest youth employment program, connecting NYC youth between the ages of 14 and 24 with career exploration opportunities and paid work experience each summer. Participants have the opportunity to explore their interests and career pathways, develop workplace skills and engage in learning experiences that help in developing their social, civic and leadership skills. By participating in structured project and work-based opportunities, NYC youth are better prepared for careers of the future.

Youth Employment Services Office 70-34 Austin Street, Suite BB, Forest Hills, NY 11375

We serve residents of all ages, races, faiths, and ethnicities while supporting the viability of the borough as a whole. Queens has the largest, fastest-growing, and most culturally and ethnically diverse older adult population in New York City. If you are age 60 or over and live in Queens, or are a caregiver for a senior living in Queens, QCH likely has something of interest to you.

Older Adult Services

Our youth participants can explore interests and passions, develop positive social connections, contribute to their community, become life-long learners, gain meaningful experiences, and achieve formal credentials. We are committed to a holistic approach that deals with immediate needs as well as the barriers that may impede personal, family, and community stability. We recognize the interconnected relationship between housing, health, employment, education, self-esteem, and financial wellbeing, and ensure all participants in every program have access to a full range of resources to help them achieve wellness and life-long security. Each year, our programs help thousands of our neighbors to thrive in school, make healthy life choices, succeed in educating themselves, become engaged citizens, stabilize their housing situations, and make the most of their senior years. In spring 1976, Forest Hills Community House opened its doors with three staff members and a board of directors comprised of community residents who had been on both sides of the conflict. From the beginning, our mission included bringing together the economically-, ethnically- and racially-diverse residents of our community.

Mayor Lindsay appointed a then little-known Queens attorney named Mario Cuomo to mediate the tensions that remained in the community, with the goal of moving the project forward peacefully. A compromise agreement was developed which reduced the size of the buildings, gave existing community residents priority to the units, set aside 40% of apartments for older adults citizens, and made the development the first low-income public housing cooperative in the nation. After an unsuccessful attempt to locate the project in Corona, a site was selected in nearby Forest Hills on the spot of a former golf range. A group of neighborhood residents mobilized against the proposal, using race and class stereotypes to play on fears of their neighbors. People picketed, engaged the support of some elected officials, and brought a lawsuit against the city.

The center was to be a place where all could come together to enhance the capacity of their neighbors to help each other. By 1980, the core components of what would become our three departments (Youth Services, Community Services, and Older Adult Services) were in place. Queens Community House (QCH) is a multi-site, multi-service settlement house that serves the diverse neighborhoods of Queens.

Queens Community House raises nearly half a million dollars at annual gala in Astoria – QNS - QNS

Queens Community House raises nearly half a million dollars at annual gala in Astoria – QNS.

Posted: Thu, 07 Nov 2019 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Our comprehensive, multi-faceted older adult programs and services are designed to encourage senior independence and continued engagement. Over the years, Forest Hills Community House began operating programs in neighborhoods beyond its Forest Hills/Rego Park base, replicating its successful program model to meet the needs of other communities. In 2007, Forest Hills Community House changed its name to Queens Community House, reflecting its growth and its presence in multiple neighborhoods throughout the borough. As we’ve grown, we have maintained our focus on neighborhood strength through individual empowerment and community connection, adopting the lessons learned in Forest Hills to address the ever-changing needs of our city’s most diverse borough.

QCH is proud to place nearly 2,000 young people in career-building jobs and projects through SYEP this summer. We promote neighborhood stability by addressing the security needs of individual households while also advocating for more affordable housing and stronger tenant protections for our borough. Our staff also provide technical assistance support to existing or in-formation tenant associations. There are plenty of other opulent details throughout, including a gold-plated bathroom sink, multiple chandeliers and various fireplaces. It’s a great example of the neighborhood’s historic architecture,” the Corcoran Group’s Alexana Martins, who holds the listing, told The Post of the six-bedroom abode’s peaked, gabled roof, chimneys and half-timbered facade. In addition to the 1930s-era stand-alone main house, which has been extensively renovated by the owners, the property also features a swimming pool.

Follow our Youth Employment page at @qchyouthemployment today.

Neighborhood supporters of the project and other elected officials, including the Mayor, held their ground, and the courts eventually approved development of the site. In 1967, New York City Mayor John Lindsay announced a program of “scatter site housing,” the aim of which was to develop low-income housing projects in middle class neighborhoods. The concept was similar to that of the 19th century settlement house movement which held that some of the problems of poor ghettos could be alleviated by greater integration of the classes.