Queens Community House

10/12/2026

We organized. We secured commitments. Now, we’re holding our leaders accountable!

On a rainy Sunday, Queens Community House (QCH) joined fellow members of Queens Power and Metro IAF at Queens College for the Mayoral Accountability Assembly, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani described his progress on keeping the commitments he made one year ago, reaffirmed those committments, and outlined next steps to address some of NYC’s most pressing challenges.

As part of Queens Power, QCH brought 180 participants, staff, and community members from Pomonok, Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, Forest Hills, and beyond to make their voices heard.

Anna Dioguardi Moyano, QCH’s Director of Community Engagement, spoke about the fear and uncertainty facing immigrant families, emphasizing the urgent need to protect immigrant New Yorkers as part of the broader goal of keeping all New Yorkers safe.

Throughout the assembly, Mayor Mamdani made several commitments in response to community priorities, including:

🏘️ Affordable Housing: Working with Metro IAF to advance thousands of affordable homes across more than 30 city-owned sites, including pursuing large-scale housing development at Aqueduct.

🏢 NYCHA Repairs: Expanding the Critical Repairs Initiative citywide by June 30, 2027, and holding RAD/PACT developers accountable for housing conditions.

❤️ Mental Health: Committing to launch up to 10 crisis stabilization centers across NYC, beginning in Fiscal Year 2028.

🤝 Community Safety: Renewing commitments to work with community leaders and NYPD leadership on neighborhood safety concerns, including a meeting with the First Deputy Mayor within 30 days.

As QCH CEO and Queens Power Co-Chair Ben Thomases emphasized during the assembly, the work ahead is about turning commitments into meaningful results for New Yorkers.

Our work doesn’t end with securing commitments. It continues with ensuring those commitments translate into real change for the communities we serve.

10/09/2026

We’re excited to share that Queens Community House has been selected as a recipient of an AEG Community Foundation grant in support of our Freedom Schools literacy initiative! 📚✨

Through Freedom Schools, we’re helping young people strengthen their reading skills, build confidence, discover their voices, and see themselves as leaders and changemakers in their communities.

This generous support will help us continue creating meaningful learning opportunities that inspire a love of reading, celebrate the identities and experiences of our young people, and empower them to reach their full potential.

Thank you to the AEG Community Foundation for investing in our youth and helping us build a brighter future for children and families across Queens! 💙

10/08/2026

✨ Join us on October 22 for Queens Community House’s 2026 Annual Gala: Strengthening Neighborhoods, Inspiring Change!

For 51 years, QCH has worked alongside our neighbors to create opportunities, strengthen communities, and help Queens residents thrive. This year, we’re coming together to celebrate that impact and the people and partners who make it possible.

We’re proud to honor Jennifer Aument, CEO of the New Terminal One at JFK Airport, and New York City Council Member Linda Lee, for their leadership and commitment to strengthening our communities.

📅 Thursday, October 22, 2026
⏰ 6–9 PM | Program begins at 7 PM
📍 Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria

Join us for a special evening featuring a cocktail reception, exclusive video premieres, gelato, and meaningful opportunities to connect with fellow supporters as we celebrate Queens’ rich past, dynamic present, and promising future.

🎟️ Individual/Nonprofit Tickets: $300
🎟️ Corporate Tickets: $500

Be part of an evening celebrating community, connection, and the power of creating change together!

🔗 Get your tickets at www.qchnyc.org/fallgala

10/06/2026

We were thrilled to welcome NYC Youth & Comm. Commissioner Sandra Escamilla-Davies to our newly funded COMPASS afterschool program at P.S. 160Q in South Jamaica! 🎉

Serving more than 120 students each day, the program provides young people with nutritious meals, homework support, enrichment activities, and opportunities to build leadership and social skills—all year long and into the summer.

We’re proud to partner with the staff and families at P.S. 160Q to create a safe, supportive space where young people can learn, grow, and thrive.

Thank you, Commissioner Escamilla-Davies, for visiting and supporting one of QCH’s newest DYCD afterschool programs! 💙

10/05/2026

09/30/2026

We’re proud to see Queens Community House featured in The Boston Globe, highlighting our partnership with LaGuardia Community College and the opportunities we’re creating for young people through QCH’s Career & College Pathways. 🎓

Through this partnership, students from QCH-supported transfer schools spend three weeks on LaGuardia’s campus each summer, taking part in a challenging college-level seminar designed to help them see themselves as college students and prepare for what comes next. Those who go on to college receive a year of continued support and opportunities for civic engagement.

And the impact speaks for itself: 90% of students who have participated in the summer seminars have gone on to enroll in college.

The Globe highlighted this work as an example of how community-based organizations and community colleges can create meaningful pathways to higher education for students who have too often been underserved by traditional educational systems.

We’re grateful to LaGuardia Community College for their partnership—and proud of every young person taking the next step toward their future. ✨

🔗 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/13/opinion/elite-higher-ed-misrepresentative/

09/25/2026

“My mother, Senta, is 105 years old.

She came to America from Germany at 13 after her family escaped N**i Germany in 1934. She began working as a teenager, became a beautician, raised a family, and spent much of her life giving back. Even into her 90s, she volunteered at a nursing facility, visiting with residents and making friends with people who looked forward to seeing her.

She has always been social, determined and fiercely independent. Today, she still lives in her own home in Forest Hills. She does the dishes when she can, enjoys sitting outside or visiting with people in her building, and wants to do as much for herself as possible. At 105, that independence means a great deal to her.

Queens Community House’s Home Delivered Meals has helped make that possible. I visit once a week and shop for her breakfast and lunch, but knowing that she has a meal reliably delivered takes a real burden off of us. It’s one less thing she has to worry about and one more way she can continue living at home. As I often say, the service really makes a lot possible.

QCH has also become more than meals. Hyun Soo, our case manager, has been someone I can turn to when my mother needs additional support, including connecting us with resources to help with her declining vision. When I have a question, I know I can call.

It really does take a community to support someone as they age. Our family is very involved in my mother’s life, and she has wonderful neighbors and people looking out for her. QCH has become an important part of that community, too.

My mother spent her life doing anything she could for me. At this stage of her life, I tell her: now I’m giving back to you. And with a little support, she can keep doing what she has always been determined to do—live life on her own terms.”

—Stan Baum

09/22/2026

From the workshop to the schoolyard! 🌱🛠️

During the summer, young people in QCH’s YouthBuild and Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) rolled up their sleeves to build garden beds from scratch for P.S. 69 The Jackson Heights School. Now, those garden beds have officially been installed as part of the school’s new playground!

Through QCH’s longtime partnership with Trust for Public Land, participants gained hands-on construction experience while building something that will have a lasting place in their community.

Seeing the finished garden beds is a reminder that the skills our young people develop can make a real, visible impact. We’re proud to see their hard work now taking root at P.S. 69! 🌿👏

📸 photos by Alexa Hoyer

09/22/2026

09/18/2026

✂️🍽️ We cut the ribbon on a newly renovated commercial kitchen at Queens Community House’s Forest Hills Community Center!

After nearly two years of construction, this state-of-the-art space will once again provide freshly prepared meals for members of our Forest Hills Older Adult Center, strengthen our food pantry operations, and serve as a teaching kitchen where young adults in our CRED program can gain hands-on culinary skills and prepare for employment.

As QCH CEO Ben Thomases shared, the new kitchen will “nourish our neighbors, create opportunities for young people and bring generations together under one roof.”

We were proud to celebrate alongside the elected officials and public partners whose investment helped make this renovation possible, as well as our community members, program participants and staff.

And the impact is already underway: while guests toured the new kitchen, young adults in our CRED culinary program were participating in class just steps away. ❤️

A new kitchen. More opportunities. And a space that will serve our Queens neighbors for years to come.