The history of Boys & Girls Harbor flows directly from the best hopes for democracy. During the mid 1930’s, Anthony Drexel Duke and a few friends took jobs at a camp for disadvantaged and delinquent immigrant boys. Mr. Duke recollects, "At the camp we soon found out that we, not the children, were delinquent. Delinquent in knowledge of what it is like to be truly poor in America". This revelation inspired Mr. Duke to start a camp of his own. In 1937 the camp officially opened and it started small, running during college summer breaks. In 1941 the threat of impending war temporarily stopped the camp but after the war, and after some of Mr. Duke’s fellow founders lost their lives, he began again to build the Harbor. The founders, to name just a few, included John Lindsey, who served as Mayor of New York City; Claiborne Pell, who served 36 years in the U.S. Senate; and Paul Moore, who became the Bishop for the Diocese of New York for the Episcopal Church. All of these men, as founders, dreamed of creating a place of safe harbor for New York City’s underprivileged children.

Today Boys & Girls Harbor serves nearly 3,500 underprivileged children and their families from East Harlem, Harlem and the South Bronx each year. Our comprehensive services offer children access to quality education so desperately needed in these at-risk communities. The Harbor’s diverse services include: a pre-school program that serves children between the ages of six-months to five-years; a structured academic and visual/performing arts after-school program; behavioral health services encompassing substance abuse prevention and a teen pregnancy prevention program; one of New York’s first charter schools which uses thematic teaching practices to implement its science and arts curriculum; rigorous academic training and guidance for college-bound students; a world renowned performing arts conservatory, and in 2005 added the Emily N. Carey Harbor School to its educational programs.

At the Harbor each child is taught to believe in his or her self, to have faith that success lays ahead, and to be responsible and caring for others. Boys & Girls Harbor gives its graduates academic skills and the emotional and spiritual strength they will need to overcome barriers and achieve their dreams.