Nativity Mission Center (Boys)

The Nativity Mission School on the Lower East Side has closed its doors, driven in part by the diminished need to serve in that neighborhood. They were an amazing partner for The Reiss Foundation for many decades in improving the lives of hundreds of young gentlemen through the summer camp in Lake Placid.   It will always be remembered as the original model for our summer camp-school partnership with successful outcomes.

Nativity Mission Center first opened in 1948 to provide tutoring, emotional support and social services to the youth of the Lower East Side. When the Center grew into a full middle school in 1971, it signaled the creation of a model that has been replicated in more than 60 low-income communities across the United States. The Summer Leadership Program at Camp Monserrate had been an integral component of that model since the beginning, and one considered by many to be critical to it’s success.