New York Spring Newsletter!
Dear friends,
2024 is a special year, marking 60 years of ATD Fourth World in the United States and 50 years of the Fourth World House in Manhattan.
Back in 1974, after years working in tenement buildings in the Lower East Side, the team of ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps members opened a center in the area. New York City tenements had been notorious since the turn of the century from the reporting of Jacob Riis — notably in How the Other Half Lives in 1890 — and still endured poverty, fires, and sorrow. The team of Volunteer Corps members saw families forced to leave the neighborhood and scatter to different parts of the city. They kept contact with the families who urged them to start street libraries in their new neighborhoods and introduced them to other families, often worse off than themselves. The team had also forged relationships with people at the United Nations. A new center would provide an opportunity to expand everyone's horizons and bring families from different disadvantaged neighborhoods together with one another and with people from other backgrounds. In the summer of 1974, Vincent and Fanchette Fanelli and the other ATD Fourth World team members found a three-story building for sale on First Avenue with a finished basement and a backyard, a promising place for a new beginning. A few months later, this building became the Fourth World House.
New York Fourth World House
The last 60 years have been a time of building community and fighting for dignity, social justice, and human rights. At the international level, ATD Fourth World’s presence at the United Nations contributes to the understanding of poverty. At the local level, we support families in their trajectories in different neighborhoods through Story Garden, research, People's Universities, and above all, by staying with them and developing relationships of trust. ATD Fourth World involves people from different backgrounds in a process of personal and social transformation.
On February 10, 2024, ATD Fourth World members reviewed our 2023 - 2025 evaluation plan. In evaluating our 2023 projects, we explored various challenges, highlights, and opportunities. We are excited to share what emerged. This anniversary year is the opportunity for an ambitious program, inspired by the activities we have developed in recent years. We want to consolidate our presence in Brownsville, Brooklyn, as well as other parts of New York City, strengthen the relationships between our members, and meet new people. We hope you will be a part of this celebration.
In this newsletter read news about our team and about upcoming events! Join us!
News of events of the first part of 2024 can be found here:
COMING UP
Fundraising Concert
Mark your calendar for our 2024 Fundraiser Concert “Music for the Children” the evening of May 9th. The event will feature Laura Iniesta Mingot, Collidescope, and ALBA Music (a professional duo of musicians who mix their passion for Flamenco, Latinoamerican rhythms, and more).
Come with your family and friends!
May 9th, 6:30-9:30
Fourth World House
172 1st Ave., New York
RSVP here: nycteam@atdfourthworld-usa.org
Social Justice Movie Club
Maryann Broxton, ATD Fourth World’s United Nations (UN) Representative and the New York team launched a time of togetherness to think about advocacy in new ways: The Social Justice Movie Club. Watching movies and documentaries inspires us to think deeper about topics related to social justice and advocacy and to connect the UN to the grassroots. To commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, ATD Fourth World Activists with experience in poverty and members of NGOs at the UN came together to view the movie Rustin about Civil Rights Activist Bayard Rustin. In April, the Coded Bias documentary brought awareness of the bias in algorithms and the threat artificial intelligence poses to civil liberties. Next sessions will be soon. Stay tuned.
Fourth World People’s University (FWPU)
FWPU is a place to learn together – people with lived experiences of poverty and people standing in solidarity with them – to better understand the challenges posed by social injustice, connect with others, and become empowered to act. Some preparation sessions have taken place in Brownsville and Manhattan as part of the preparation stage for this year on the theme of Housing Justice, under the title "Our Journey Home."
Our plenary session is going to take place on May 18th at the ATD Fourth World House.
To participate in the preparation session or the plenary:
RSVP here: nycteam@atdfourthworld-usa.org
NEW YORK TEAM NEWS
Monica, Jackie, and Virginie in Brownsville, Brooklyn
In January, the team of ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps members and other staff in New York transitioned to new leadership: Alvaro, Jackie, and Marina are now co-leading. Read more about them and their ATD Fourth World journeys here.
Virginie and Guillaume Charvon left the ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps after twenty years of commitment alongside families in poverty in Europe, Africa, and the United States. We thank them for their work, for the profound human connections they left us, and for introducing us to our ATD Fourth World Activists (active members with firsthand experience of poverty) who inspire us. Guillaume continues as CEO of WALTER and Virginie is beginning a new career as an activist artist. We wish them the best of luck on their new journeys.
Monica Jahangir, formerly our representative for five years at the United Nations headquarters and co-lead in New York City for two years, took over from Guillaume as National Executive Director. You can learn more about our new national leadership team here.
We are very happy to have a new member in our ATD Fourth World family. On February 22, Teo Cheon was born, Teo is the son of Katelyn Cheon, team lead for ATD Fourth World Communications. They are doing very well.