Sensei and Sensibility: SUNSET PARK, A NEIGHBORHOOD THAT NURTURES ITS OWN

A group of us who are completing a leadership course with the Citizens Committee for Children (CCC) visited Sunset Park in Brooklyn Wednesday. Having focused on single themes (housing, child health and mental health, early care and education, child welfare, juvenile justice and youth development and more) in earlier weeks, we went to Sunset Park to see an integration of the many aspects of addressing problems of children living in poverty. Our theme was
Community Development and Family Life.

Sunset Park is one of New York’s most diverse neighborhoods with Puerto Rican, Mexican, Chinese, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Polish, Colombian, Arab, Scandinavian, Vietnamese and Guyanese residents—among others.

When I travel, sight seeing by itself is not enough. I prefer a mix of “looking around” combined with an invitation to view/experience the area from some locals’ “windows on the world.” Wednesday we experienced the desired combination—and it made our trip extraordinary.

At the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, a neighborhood-based social service center established in 1978, we met Sister Mary Paul, founder, and her committed and able co-directors. Together, they are like "the little engine that could."

Sister Mary Paul is bent over and walks with the aid of a walker—and her spirit is indomitable. She came to Sunset Park with a desire to be a community builder. Much of that work has focused on building strength at the core of families. "Strengthening families and youth development go hand in
hand," she said.

Sister Mary Paul is keen, too, in the choosing of her associates. She has 2 co-directors who are really impressive as well. All evidenced their attachment to the community and to their clients. They conduct outreach to families, connect them with needed resources and do extensive follow-up. They are committed to growth through relationships.

"Every family has an important aesthetic story to be told," one of the co-directors said as she spoke with us about the cookbook project they are doing. The cookbook project (There is a reason these keep showing up!) takes them into kitchens of the families to experience foods prepared on a regular basis as well as those prepared for special occasions.

“While you are here, give your senses free rein,” we were encouraged. “Feel the aesthetic. Look around. Taste the food. Hear the sounds. Get the feel of the place. These taken together make a ‘nurturing place’ of the neighborhood,” we were told.

My site visit was to Neighbors Helping Neighbors. The mission of this community-based organization is to empower low- and moderate-income residents to secure quality housing. This includes work with both prospective homebuyers and tenants.

After our visit, we walked a short distance through the 5th Avenue corridor (Latino) of the community and up to Sunset Park, the highest point in Brooklyn. From this vantage point, we could see the
Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the waterfront. (A second corridor, 8th Avenue, is primarily Chinese.) We remarked on the human scale of the place, the low buildings, wide avenues and large expanses of open sky.

One feels the new immigration moment here in Sunset Park. For many immigrant families, who come from every corner of the world, Sunset Park is their optimistic place (as well as a place of nostalgia, longing and loss). This is where they can have their chance to begin again. Will it last? This was the question many of us were asking ourselves.

We cannot know the future. We can predict change and ferment and life, however. These have characterized Sunset Park’s past and they have every indication of continuing. For now? Coffee is 60 cents and you can’t get decaf.

Comments

Thanks so much for the beautifully written article. It was so inspiring to read!! You really got the whole gestalt, how wonderful of you to write it up as you did!
Julia Jean-Francois
Co-Director
Center for Family Life

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