An Important Update About Our Programs

Dear Extreme Kids community:

My first two months at Extreme Kids & Crew have been full of excitement and learning. I feel privileged to partner with our vibrant community to create brave spaces where differences are welcomed and celebrated. I’ve worked diligently with the staff, community partners, and the board to craft a vision for our future, and I am thrilled about what we’ve come up with. 

Our clubs, monthly family programs, and Powerful Parents group continue to transform the lives of neurodivergent youth and their families. However, we currently reach only a fraction of the children and families who could benefit from our programs and community. Growing our disability-centered programs means making them more economically sustainable. With plans to expand our demographics (Spanish-language program), geography (family programs to all five NYC boroughs), and age range (elementary school students), an immediate change is needed.

This summer, we will begin charging for our youth programs, a change that will help us fulfill our vision to become the NYC community hub for young people with disabilities and their Crews. The fees will cover approximately half the cost of each program, enabling us to offer exciting new play opportunities for young people, reach more families, and create a sustainable foundation for our work. Our upcoming Spring 2023 clubs will remain cost-free.  

We understand that this change may be difficult for some families, and we want to ensure that every child continues to have access to our programs. No family will be turned away due to their inability to pay. If you have concerns about the fee, please do not hesitate to contact me (lovisa@extremekidsandcrew.org). We are committed to working with you to find a solution that meets your needs.

We have not taken this decision lightly and have carefully considered ensuring that we can continue to provide the highest quality programming for years to come. We will continue to foster welcoming, accessible spaces where young neurodivergent people, their friends, and their families can socialize, create, and play without fear of judgment or exclusion. 

Thank you for your understanding and continued support of our mission at Extreme Kids & Crew, and stay tuned for further announcements. We look forward to continuing to serve our community and provide everyone with a space to be. 

Sincerely,

Lovisa & The Crew

A Letter From Our New Executive Director

Dear Extreme Kids & Crew community,

I am thrilled to join Extreme Kids & Crew as the organization’s new Executive Director. As a longtime educator and arts program strategist, I am passionate about connecting communities and youth. I am honored to become part of an organization making a difference in the lives of neurodivergent youth and their families. I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself and tell you why I’m so excited.

For the last two decades, I have worked in museums in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, developing programs that link art, community, and the lived experiences of marginalized youth, most recently as the Senior Director of Education at the Museum of the African Diaspora and then as an art consultant in NYC. As a result, I have seen firsthand how thoughtful, well-designed programs aimed at marginalized youth can give them self-confidence and a sense of belonging.

In my first two weeks at Extreme Kids, I’ve seen the power of our programs in the laughter of our young people, often misunderstood and marginalized in other places, who feel free to be themselves without fear of judgment or stares. I’ve seen our Extreme Kids staff affirming them, meeting them where they are and gently redirecting them when needed. Through the power of play, our youth develop social-emotional skills, learn about the world around them and create a community free of judgment. Parents have shared how they appreciate our programs as unique spaces for the whole family to play together.

This is a pivotal time for Extreme Kids & Crew. For the past ten years, Extreme Kids has established itself as a cornerstone of the disability community in New York. I am deeply impressed by the resilience and commitment of the staff, board, and community in facing challenges during the pandemic. I look forward to all of us building on that foundation and supporting Extreme Kids and Crew to grow, making us even more of a space to be.

Above all, I hold dear the values of equity and inclusion that guide Extreme Kids & Crew, and I am eager to get to know everyone and work together to bring new programs and initiatives to life.

Thank you for this incredible opportunity. I can’t wait to see what we will become together.

Warmly,
Lovisa Brown
Executive Director, Extreme Kids & Crew

What's coming up:

• Extreme Kids Clubs resume in April! See what clubs we're offering.

• The next Powerful Parents cohort begins on March 9th — sign up now!

An Open Letter to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams

Dear Brooklyn Borough President Adams,

We were appalled to hear you call the closing of Willowbrook State School, the Staten Island site of numerous abuses of people with developmental disabilities, a “mistake” on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last Tuesday, while downplaying the nature of the atrocities committed there. These comments suggest an incomplete understanding of the depth of institutional failure at Willowbrook, as well as the harm that disabled people often face in facilities meant to care for them. 

It is imperative that we as a community — both citizens and elected officials — do not forget this history, lest we repeat these mistakes. Remarking that just “a few employees harmed those who were patients at Willowbrook” is a gross understatement that erases the lasting trauma of the thousands of Willowbrook patients and ignores the abuse that many of these same patients still receive today in smaller institutions. It is additionally upsetting that you would conflate the experiences of developmentally disabled people and people with mental illnesses, which ultimately marginalizes both communities and does a disservice to their unique lived experiences.

What happened at Willowbrook was a wake-up call for all of us about how disabled people are treated by the medical industrial complex, and New York City requires a leader who understands this. We encourage you to revisit some of the original coverage surrounding the Willowbrook exposé and listen to those who experienced life there in order to better understand the reality of Willowbrook. 

We hope that you can use this as an opportunity to educate yourself and reflect on the harmful nature of your comments. The point that you appeared to be trying to make — that disabled people are woefully under-served by the state despite an abundance of resources — remains a salient one. We look forward to working with the next mayor in advancing opportunities for, while listening directly to, disabled people across New York City. 

Sincerely,
The staff of Extreme Kids & Crew

Founder's Letter

Eliza Factor, Founder of Extreme Kids & Crew.

Alt text: Photo portrait of a brunette, white woman in a striped shirt, grinning at the camera.

My children are the inspiration behind Extreme Kids & Crew. My son Felix has a grab bag of disabilities, including autism and cerebral palsy. His younger sisters don't. I wanted to create a place outside of our home where we were not the only exceptional family with the whooping kid in the wheelchair, but just another rambunctious, ramshackle family. Through my daughters, I made friends with parents raising neurotypical children, and their company was sustaining and valuable. I yearned for these same sorts of connections with people raising children with disabilities. I knew they existed. I would see them at hospitals, doctors offices, and schools, frazzled like me, caught up in what seemed to be a never-ending treadmill of appointments and bureaucracy. We were all so focused on our particular children's diagnoses, medical treatments, and insurance or lack-of-insurance snafus that there was not the time and space to explore our commonalities, to relax and be with one another.

And so: Extreme Kids & Crew, a not-for-profit arts-movement-play program dedicated to creating space for children with all sorts of disabilities to be who they are, and for families to connect with each other and their children. We are not a therapy center. We are a place where the entire family can play on inventive sensory equipment, make and listen to music and express themselves through the arts.

Extreme Kids & Crew has now been operating for over nine years. We have had nearly thousands of families from every borough of New York City take part. Children with autism, sensory processing disorders, ADHD, down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, epilepsy, and many others, diagnosed and not, have participated in our programming. Families come from every walk of life. What ties us together is the experience of living with and loving a child who is different.

When I started Extreme Kids & Crew. I had not realized how inspired I would be by the other parents and children I would meet, nor was I prepared for the generosity and enthusiasm of musicians and artists and other volunteers who have made our program such a creative powerhouse. I was warned that starting such a program would tax my energies, instead it gave me energy. The friendships that I have made through Extreme Kids & Crew have widened and sweetened my world. I invite you to drop by and experience it for yourself!

Visit Eliza online: https://www.elizafactor.net/strange-beauty/
Read the blog: http://brokenandwoken.blogspot.com/