About Us

Mission

To prepare youth in East Harlem and beyond to lead healthy lives and shape their environment through outdoor education, play, exploration, and community engagement.

Vision

Youth Transforming The World Starting In Their Own Backyards

Why Concrete Safaris?

Young people do not play outdoors as often as they once did. Three barriers preventing children and youth in East Harlem from playing outside on a regular basis are fear of perceived or real violence and a lack of supervision and supplies with which to play.

Rules

Respect, Responsibility, Uniqueness, Listening, Learning, Exercising, Eating Healthfully, Positive Energy, Sharing, Safety, Fun, Friendship

Shared Values

Adventure, Bravery, Creativity, Curiosity, Discipline, Safety, Healthy Risk-Taking

Skill & Knowledge Building Cohorts

We offer Cohorts in gardening, landscaping, outdoor play, placemaking, photography, evaluation, health promotion, and nonprofit management. We go on field trips in East Harlem and beyond.

Daily participating children, ages 7 - 11, are active in all Cohorts. Weekly or single-day participating children are introduced to one or more Cohorts per program. 14-15-Year-Olds learn to specialize in a particular Cohort. 16-24-Year-Olds learn to specialize in a particular Cohort, and gain exposure to at least one additional Cohort, leading activities for children, youth, and community.

Youth learn, play, explore, and engage community outdoors in East Harlem where there are...

High-quality or skilled supervision

Adults in the home often work more than one job and may not be available to take the child outside. Older youth and adults may not have the skills to ride a bike, garden, or play sports, and therefore cannot teach their children. Older youth and adults may have a physical condition that limits their physical activity. Older youth may not be able to be seen outdoors in certain areas as a result of crew (or gang) activity and a threat to their safety, and therefore may not take the child outside. Physical education may not be offered at the child's school. Recess may not provide a child with play time. Child care staff in schools or out-of-school time programs may not be interested in the outdoors and as a result may not take children outdoors.

Outdoor play supplies

A family may not have money to purchase supplies, or space in the home to store supplies.

Safe(r) Spaces

There may be a fear of actual or perceived violence on the blocks near or around a child's home preventing caregivers from wanting to allow the child to play outdoors.

Access to outdoor play experiences in early childhood:

Increases the likelihood of the child growing up to become an active individual who cares about his or her health and environment

Can help kids to stop taking ADD medications with just 30 minutes of walking in nature, which has the same impact as a dose of a leading ADD drug

How We Serve

Theory of Change

We provide youth with outdoor experiences to build soft and hard leadership skills so that they can transform public spaces into safer spaces where they teach the community soft and hard skills and become greater assets to their community and beyond.

Here are four ways you can help:

DONATE

FUNDRAISE

INDIVIDUAL VOLUNTEERS

Group volunteers

Partners (Past & Present)

Schools
Amber Charter School, City-As-School, City University of New York, Columbia University, The Ella Baker School, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, The Lewis & Clark School, Lower Lab, Mosaic Charter School, New York City College of Technology, New York University, Northeastern University, Public Schools 7, 38, 50, 57, 72, 83, 96, 101, 102, 115M, 155, 182, and 198, and Trevor Day School.

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Government
AmeriCorps, Community Board 11, FDNY, Harlem Community Development Corporation, Manhattan Borough President's Office, Materials For the Arts, NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, NYC Department of Transportation, NYC Department of Youth & Community Development, NYC Housing Authority, NYC Human Resource Administration, NYC Parks, NYCService, NYPD, NYS Department of Agriculture, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, NYS Office of Children & Family Services, New York County Office of the District Attorney, Offices of Deputy Speaker and Council Member Diana Ayala, Senator Serrano, and Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs.

Foundations
Anonymous, All Stars Helping Kids Fund, America the Beautiful Fund, American Heart Association, Awesome Foundation, The Captain Planet Foundation, City Parks Foundation, Clif Family Foundation, The Coca-Cola Foundation, Concord Group, First Cornerstone Foundation, Fund for Public Health in NYC, The General Mills Foundation, Hyde & Watson Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, The Levitt Foundation, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Mattel Children's Foundation, The Merck Family Fund, The Morrison & Foerster Foundation, Norcross Wildlife Foundation, NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund, New York State Health Foundation, NYS Agricultural Society, Open Space Institute, Outdoor Nation, The Pinkerton Foundation, The Scripps Family Fund for Education & The Arts.

Community-Based Organizations

The Association to Benefit Children, Appalachian Mountain Club's Youth Opportunities Program, Boys' Club, Children's Aid Society, Citizens Committee for New York City, Community Association of Progressive Dominicans, Community Resource Exchange, El Barrio's Operation Fightback, Futures and Options, Getting Out & Staying Out, GrowNYC, Harlem Community Development Corporation, Harlem RBI, Harvest Home Farmer's Market, Lawyers Alliance for NY, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Mentoring Partnership for NY, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, Museum of the City of New York, National Gardening Association, New York Cares, New York Common Pantry, Partnerships for Parks, Police Athletic League, The Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, Transportation Alternatives, Union Settlement Association, Urban Upbound, YMCA, YouthBridge-NY, and ZogSports.

Corporations
Abacus Federal Savings Bank, Alcoa Foundation, AlpInvest Partners, AOL, Bartlett Tree Experts, BlackRock, Boston Consulting Group, CHALK, CIT Group, Computer Associates, Con Edison, CP Capital, Deloitte & Touche, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks, Goodwin Procter, Green Apple Music & Arts Festival, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Hardware NY, HSBC, HQ Capital Real Estate, Interpublic Group, J.P. Morgan, JRM Construction, Kipling, London Stock Exchange Group, McDermott Will & Emery, Merrell, Minnelli Construction, Mizuho Americas, Morgan Stanley, Morrison & Foerster, Nautica, Nickelodeon, The North Face Explore Fund, Novus, Oath, Paragon Sports, Patagonia, Petsky-Prunier, PMK-BNC, PMS Construction Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rabin Martin, Ralph Lauren, Ryobi, Seward & Kissel, SCOR Reinsurance Co., Thompson Hine, Thomson Reuters, Tiago Holdings, Timberland, Universal Television, Verizon Media, VF Corp., and West Monroe Partners.