Thank you for helping us provide a safe and uplifting summer for these future leaders!

A powerful approach to youth development

We are The B.R.O. Experience Foundation – we stand for Brothers Redefining Opportunity. Our programs embrace young men of color with care that nourishes their inner and outer potential.

Little BRO Summer Camp is one of our core programs, a seven-week urban day camp where male-identifying 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders explore New York City, expand literacy skills, make art, meditate, exercise, and explore their psychological and emotional selves in a loving, brotherly environment.

Why we need you

Our young nonprofit works hard to raise funds through grants, local elected officials, and contracts with schools, but individual donors like you are essential to meeting our budgets. This $10,000 goal is key to providing a quality summer camp that remains free for our campers.

How We Design the Summer Camp

Little BRO is a free seven-week day camp where 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders enjoy a range of nourishing activities including:

Workshops on belonging and cognitive resilience
Mentoring and an accountability buddy system
“Penmanship to Power” workshops for handwriting and self-affirmation
Character development reading series including Black Boy Joy and workshops on Black historical figures
Field trips to cultural and natural destinations
Mindfulness and body awareness
Group art time
Healthy meals and snacks
Relaxation and rest
Family days

Based out of PS 40 in central Brooklyn, the curriculum is based on our Social Emotional and Cognitive Behavioral curricula and borrows from Superintendent David Banks’ reading initiative. The program is staffed with six reading coaches, six Enrichment Educators, and draws additional staff from our own Rites of Passage high school program, creating a powerful mentorship loop.

Little BRO Year Round

The summer program is complemented by our Little BRO Saturdays that run each weekend during the school year, giving boys the opportunity to remain connected to the cohort year round.

Building on Success

2024 marks the third year of our summer camp and we’re building on the success of previous years. Last year went so well we’re adding 5th grade to the mix.

Here are some survey results from last year’s cohort:

80% said they can better understand their emotions and why they get angry, happy, or sad
100% said they feel safe at Little BRO Summer Camp
100% were excited about coming to camp each day
90% said they want to come back next summer

“The camp was a huge success and we look forward to working with the B.R.O. Experience again for this school year.“

–Brendon Mims (Community Superintendent District 16)

Who We Serve

Our organization was born because young Black men and youth of color face some of the harshest odds this country has to offer. America’s youth mental health crisis has hit Black youth incredibly hard. Young people who grow up in poverty are two to three times more likely to develop mental health conditions. And even before the pandemic, suicide rates among Black youth had risen faster than any other racial group in the past twenty years, with Black male teen suicides increasing by 60%.

Black boys are struggling academically, frequently not receiving the support they need to succeed. Statistically, they are less likely to graduate, less likely to attend college, and will earn less than their Black female peers. And even though it is shown that Black boys do better in school when they have at least one Black male teacher, fewer than 2% of American public school teachers are Black men.

Summer camp helps children in so many ways. It prevents summer learning loss, builds new skills, and creates new friendships. But access to camp is far from equitable. And a report from a division of the Department of Education found that only 7% of children living at or below the poverty line had access to summer camps.

We work in Bed Stuy, Brownsville, and Bushwick, neighborhoods where child poverty rates are as high as 38%. Approximately 75% of our campers live in single parent households.

For young men of color in NYC’s under-resourced neighborhoods, disconnection is a very real threat; disconnection from friends, family, school, housing, and work. Far too many young men become invisible. Programs like our help them feel seen and connected to a culture of care.

The effects of SEL and CBT

All of our programs center Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as their active ingredients. Extensive research shows how powerful these approaches can be for young people. Studies have found:

Years after students participated in SEL, their academic performance was an average of 13 percentile points higher than students who didn’t participate
Kindergartners with higher social competence scores are more likely to attain a college degree, earn a high school diploma, and to have a full-time job at age 25
Middle-schoolers in SEL learning were 42 percent less likely to say they were involved in physical aggression
A large recent meta-analysis covering over half a million K-12 students found that SEL significantly improved skills, attitudes, behaviors, school climate and safety, peer relationships, school functioning, and academic achievement

And it has impacts on the job market and economy:

79% of employers said social emotional skills are the most important qualities for job success
And a study calculated that for each $1 invested in social-emotional learning, $11 is returned to the economy

About The B.R.O. Experience and founder Barry Cooper

The B.R.O. Experience Foundation is a Brooklyn-based 501c3 nonprofit organization specializing in social emotional and cognitive behavioral programming for young men of color. Founder Barry Cooper is an educator with over ten years of experience in public schools, the Department of Corrections, and community organizing. Barry was trained in mentorship at the Center for NuLeadership and served as Dean of Culture at Eagle Academy for Young Men for nine years. He taught as adjunct faculty in the CUNY Fatherhood Academy, was a Program Coordinator for Next Steps in the Mayor’s Action Plan, ran mentorship programs in the Gang Units of Rikers Island, and was Vice-Chair of the Brooklyn NAACP Education Committee.

Thank you for being a hero!

With love,

–The B.R.O. Experience Team

Support Little BRO Summer Camp: Social Emotional Learning, Literacy, and Fun for Young Brooklynites

Free summer camp for young men of color (3rd, 4th, and 5th graders)