nurturing the collective leadership of young people
Kite’s Nest is a center for liberatory education in Hudson, NY. It is our mission to build the collective capacity of young people to bring about personal transformation, social connection, healing, and systemic change.
We create youth-centered spaces of radical imagination and creativity, and support youth-led movements for equity and justice that transform the conditions impacting young people's lives. Our programs engage experiential education, the arts, meaningful job training, and civic action as tools for building community power.
We support youth to thrive.
We create learning environments that center joy and well-being, nurture healing, and foster creativity and agency.
Afterschool, school break, and summer: We provide 3 days a week of creative after school classes, week-long immersive school break camps, and an transformative summer leadership academy for children and teenagers. These programs create transformative learning environments for youth to engage in creative expression and critical inquiry within a safe, supportive, and loving context.
Daytime program: We provide 2 days a week of interdisciplinary daytime classes for children ages 8-14. These full-day, innovative, and project-based classes support children to grow with the social-emotional tools and critical thinking skills to build meaningful lives and positively impact their communities.
Teen Fellowships and Employment: We provide several fellowship and paid employment opportunities for young people ranging in age from 13 - 24. Fellowship and job opportunities focus on developing leadership, community organizing, and hands-on resume building skills. Kite’s Nest teen employees also have access to therapy services through our Starr Seed project, along with other healing-centered and identity development opportunities.
Kite’s Nest is open to all. We are committed to making our programs accessible to all families, regardless of income. Read more about the principles of our learning environment here.
We cultivate youth leadership.
We support youth to develop the skills, imagination, and collective power to transform the challenges facing our communities.
Social justice leadership: Our immersive summer Social Justice Leadership Academy (SJLA) combines transformative political education and hands-on arts programming to support teens in developing their visions and voices for change. SJLA supports the creative power, collective leadership and joy of young people in our community, including youth of color, immigrant youth, queer youth, low-income and court-involved youth.
Environmental justice leadership: Our ReGen Teens program employs local teenagers as environmental justice fellows. ReGen Teens work afterschool and throughout the summer as urban gardeners, sustainability educators, and as green business entrepreneurs, launching a community-wide compost program and greenhouse enterprise.
Youth organizing: Kite’s Nest teens are participating in state-wide campaigns for housing justice, collaborating with local systems to design new public transport solutions, designing policies to protect trans and gender non-conforming students in their school districts, and organizing public actions to build awareness about climate change, immigrant rights, and other issues.
Youth Employment: Teenagers at Kite’s Nest are employed across our programs: as Assistant Educators in our afterschool classrooms, as youth leaders in our summer Social Justice Leadership Academy, and as Environmental Justice Fellows at our River City Garden.
We build community power.
We bring people of all ages together to dream, practice, and co-create liberatory solutions in our community.
Growing community: Our River City Garden is a public community garden at 59 N. Front Street, and a vital community resource for low-income and immigrant families to grow their own food. The garden is also an outdoor classroom for kids and teens, bringing an intergenerational community of neighbors together as partners in the movement for community food security. Youth staff work at the garden as sustainability educators, teaching youth to grow food and manage waste; and as green business entrepreneurs, launching a community-wide compost program and new greenhouse enterprise.
Systems change & advocacy: In order to truly support the children and teenagers growing up in our city, we have to help shape the conditions necessary for youth to thrive. We work to address racial inequality and injustice in local systems; support youth-serving agencies to develop more healing-centered and restorative practices; advocate for just community economic development; and organize trainings in restorative justice and race equity.