NYC Kids Project seeks to create an inclusive society where all people are valued for who they are by developing empathy among New York City youth. We partner with schools across New York City, focusing on Title 1 schools, and use social puppetry and storytelling to create immersive experiences for young children through which they can practice empathy, inclusion and kindness.

Young people’s worlds are as big as their adults make them. If we expose children early to people from different backgrounds, identities, and abilities, then they understand that the world is vast and that not all people have similar experiences to their own. If we pair that exposure with meaningful interactions, in age-appropriate forms, then children learn that while we may not all look alike or experience the world in the same way, we share hopes, fears, dreams, and anxieties, and kindness can connect us.

NYC Kids Project’s mission is to teach children to embrace and nurture inclusion, belonging, and respect for all through puppetry. We believe that early interactive exposure to characters of diverse backgrounds, identities, and abilities helps children see the richness of the world, become curious about the differences and commonality that are an essential part of the human experience, and empathize with those who are different from them.

Our interactive experiences and classroom programs use puppets, storytelling, and facilitated dialogue to help children develop critical social emotional skills, most notably empathy and social awareness. Our programs are intentionally designed to make children feel comfortable asking questions and processing ideas that they might otherwise not know when or how to articulate, and to provide open-ended answers to those questions that they can continue to discuss in their classrooms and with their families.

The organization was originally established in 1981 by the NY State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. Over our 30-year history of collaborating with schools and communities, we have developed a robust interactive program made up of characters who have a diverse representation of ethnicities and abilities and who are around the same age as the students. To date, more than one million children in all five boroughs have participated in the puppetry experiences.

In the wake of government budget cuts in 2011, NYC Kids Project turned to private fundraising. Through the dedication of lead teaching artists Mindy Pfeffer and Cecilia Arana, NYC Kids Project was reborn as a 501c3 in 2014. Over the past 10 years, NYC Kids Project has visited over 100 classrooms per year, along with libraries, museums, and community centers.

NYC Kids Project Annual Fund