Meringoff Family Foundation

Trusting and employing young people to be leaders in schools can have stunning results. At CARA, every year we train and place over 200 high school and college students in paid positions to support their peers on the path to college. This has increased post-secondary enrollment at participating schools by an average of 13 percent, and it gives young people agency to impact the issues that are important to them. As a peer leader from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx reflected, “in communities of color we are used to having a lack of resources,” but by doing this work we realize “we are the resource.”