About Us

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While working as teachers in the Bronx and Brooklyn, Jonah Canner and Becky Raik began to notice that despite all of their schools’ efforts there were a significant number of students who were not able to find consistent success in the classroom. They believed that if their students were ever going to get a fair shot they were going to need more than what the schools were able to offer. In January of 2006, after more than a year of coffee shops and cottage cheese pancakes, they founded The Fertile Grounds Project. Its mission: to provide young people with the space, tools and support they need to take ownership over their own educations and build an identity in a world where they can belong.

Jonah Canner - Founding Board Member, Educational Director

Jonah brings seven years of public school experience, six years of camp administration and 5 years of camp counselor experience to his work directing the educational programming of the Fertile Grounds Project. Jonah was a Founding Teacher at the Community School for Social Justice in the Bronx, where he designed and implemented curricula; developed performance based assessment measurements; served on the school’s strategic planning committee; and mentored many students through their journeys toward graduation. He has mentored and provided professional development to countless teachers and camp counselors. Jonah received his Masters in Education from the New School University in New York.

Becky Raik - Founding Board Member, Executive Director

Becky Raik was born and raised in New York City. She received a Bachelors degree in Theatre and Drama from the University of Wisconsin. After graduation, she taught Special Education in Chicago for two years and then was a Teaching Fellow in Brooklyn for another three. During her years in the New York City public school system, she earned a Master’s degree from Brooklyn College in Special and Elementary Education. She was inspired to teach by the years she spent as a camp counselor at a camp for young people with emotional, behavioral, and learning challenges. For her, camp was a space where, as a camper, she had felt safe enough to take risks and empowered to grow and change. As a camp counselor, as a teacher, and now, as the Executive Director of the Fertile Grounds Project, her greatest goal is to create this space for others.

Cary Feliciano - Director of Youth Programming

Born in Puerto Rico, raised and currently living in The Bronx, Cary Feliciano is a long time youth advocate and is known as the heart and soul of Camp Kadia. She worked for five years in The New York City Department of Education but found her niche working with youth in the non-profit world at Citizen's Advice Bureau, as a summer camp counselor, after school program group leader, Case Manager for High School students, and eventually an after school program coordinator. Currently Cary works at The Educational Alliance as a director of an after school program for Middle School and High School students. She has been part of the Fertile Grounds Project since Camp Kadia's first summer in 2006. She has an extensive background in youth development and education and continues to volunteer her time in other grass roots activist organizations. In whatever capacity she works, Cary empowers her young people to see their own potential.

The Need

In America's 50 largest cities, 48% of the public school students do NOT graduate from high school. That's almost half of our urban students who are not being reached in the public education system.

The Vision

With limited school resources, our hard-working, dedicated teachers clearly need help. But not just any kind of help. We need to rethink the educational methods we are using. We need to create new structures through which we can help our marginalized students achieve their full academic potential.

Our Mission

The mission of the Fertile Ground Project is to provide innovative programming in and outside of schools. Our programs offer young people the chance to challenge themselves physically, emotionally, artistically, and intellectually, to take control over their own education and build an identity in a world where they can belong.

Our Goals

To create innovative, replicable educational programs within struggling schools
To provide educational opportunities outside of school
To create a sustainable, interdependent, community of young people who support each other as they effect change in their own lives

Our Approach

Fertile Grounds Project develops breakthrough educational methods and creates innovative, results-driven structures to deliver them.

Fertile Grounds Project directly addresses the structural challenges facing many marginalized youth. These are often at the heart of the subpar academic performance and incomplete schooling that ultimately perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

In three years the Fertile Grounds Project has launched three successful programs for New York City public school students. The organization has relationships with more than a dozen schools and our programs have reached more than 300 young people. All of this has been accomplished with zero full time employees and minimal funds, raised through events and individual donations.

The Hallway Project

This innovative curriculum has provided participating students with the opportunity to earn back credits towards graduation and has increased their passing rates by 20%. The Hallway Project is being replicated in five schools around New York City.

It has inspired over 200 stories of individual accomplishment. One student was arrested and spent the first four months of his senior year in Jail. During that time he would mail in work and his teacher would conference during visiting hours. He graduated on time and is now in college studying law enforcement.

Camp Kadia

In the summer of 2008, our third year, several of our former campers came back to work as counselors, the first step towards our goal of having a self-sustaining, continuous community.

During the closing activity this summer one of the campers said she was already looking forward to next year when it would be her fourth summer as a camper. For her, and many others, the experiences she has had and the lessons she has learned at Camp Kadia are now a part of her life and will stay with her forever.

The Survival Project

In the first year of close to 100 public school students completed the three-day challenge course. Students learned basic survival skills, their small group communication flourished, individual leadership emerged, and students earned credits towards graduation.

Mailing Address

The Fertile Grounds Project

39 Eldridge Street, 4th Floor

New York, NY 10002

Email

getinvolved@fertilegrounds.org

Phone

347.722.1757