The Lower Eastside Girls Club

08/19/2026

What a SUMMER! Over four weeks, our members made waves across the Girls Club - in disciplines ranging from art to STEM, fashion to dance, music to theater, leadership to poetry & so much more! 🌊

Our Block Party brought it all together with performances, food, activities & a joyful celebration of everything our young people created.

This summer was powered by an incredible community of staff, instructors, families, partners, supporters & volunteers. Thank you to everyone who showed up, pitched in, and poured love into SUMMER 2026!

❤️ Program Partners: Black Girls Sew™ Cafeteria Culture International Girls Ensemble Third Street Music School
💜 Block Party Support: Titi’s | NYC Inspired Empanadas | House of SpeakEasy Double Dutch Garden NYC The Orchid Foundation Ben & Jerry's Know Your Rights Camp

Special thank you to our Alliance Junior Board for the heart they poured into our Block Party!

Thank you to Council Member Council Member Harvey Epstein and Assembly Member Keith Powers for your generous support of our programs.

Thank you to NewYork-Presbyterian for helping make our summer programs possible!

Thank you to all of our incredible staff & instructors for bringing the summer to life! We can’t wait for all the Fall will bring!

🎥: Kelly Adams

08/13/2026

We’re growing our STEM Team! We are looking for passionate educators to inspire our members’ curiosity about science, space & the world around them.✨

Swipe to learn more & visit the link in our bio to read the full job descriptions. To apply, email your resume and cover letter to [email protected] with the position title in the subject line.

🌿 STEM Horticulture Technician & Instructor: Lead hands-on learning experience that connect our members with plants, food systems, sustainability and the natural world.

🔭 STEM Planetarium Instructor: Bring astronomy and space science to life through immersive, engaging programming in our planetarium!

08/12/2026

The cosmos is busy today! 🌌🪐 With six planets aligning, a solar eclipse, and the Perseid meteor shower peaking tonight, there are plenty of reasons to look up!

Throwing it back to our 2024 eclipse watch party on our roof. 🔭 From our Planetarium to our Rooftop Garden, we’ll always find a reason to gaze in wonder at this wild, beautiful universe of ours. 🔮💫

08/11/2026

This summer, our High School Sound Waves class welcomed DJ, artist, speaker & writer Tiff McFierce to our podcast studio! She is the first Black woman to serve as Music Director & DJ for the New York Knicks 🏀 🏀 ✨

Inspired by the summer’s Water theme, our students spoke to Tiff about building a groundbreaking career, staying creative & inspired, and making waves while remaining unapologetically yourself 🌊

Our members did an incredible job guiding this fascinating conversation! Listen now at the link in our bio 🎧

🎶 Sound Waves was conceived and taught by our incredible instructors Sweet Spot NYC and Shyvonne

08/06/2026

We are still glowing from last week’s Block Party & Community Sharing! 🌊 This celebration marked the culmination of our summer programs, and all of the hard work, dedication and love poured into our members this summer by our incredible Program staff. Through performances, poetry, music, dance, theater, and so much more, our young people shared what they created & learned together.

We were honored to welcome Council Member Council Member Harvey Epstein and Assembly Member Keith Powers who have both helped us secure significant financial support for our work. This continued investment helps make our programs, and the opportunities they create for young people, possible and we are incredibly grateful. ❤️

Thank you to EV ❤️ NYC for keeping everyone well fed, House of SpeakEasy for providing free books to the community, Titi’s | NYC Inspired Empanadas | and Ben & Jerry's for treats to cool us down, Double Dutch Garden NYC & To Be Born Fortunate for getting us moving & grooving, Know Your Rights Camp and The Orchid Foundation for the generous support! Special thank you to our Alliance Junior Board for helping to secure the resources & volunteering their time and effort to make this day possible.

Thank you to everyone who made the day such a success: our staff, members, families, volunteers, partners, sponsors, and neighbors. It takes a whole community to make a summer, and celebration, like this possible. Thank you for being a part of ours! 🌟

07/30/2026

Tomorrow’s the day! 🎉 Join us for our Summer Block Party & Community Sharing as we celebrate everything our young people have been creating, learning, and dreaming up this summer.

🌊 Performances by our members
🎨 Art exhibits
🎶 Music & games
🍽️ Delicious food
💦 A dunk tank (yes, you read that right 👀)
…and fun for the whole community!

📅 Friday, July 31
🕓 4:00–6:30 PM
📍 402 E. 8th St., New York, NY

Bring your family, friends, and neighbors. We’d love to celebrate with you. See you tomorrow! 💙

07/29/2026

Three generations. One Girls Club.

Laura was one of our earliest members. Her mom was also part of the Girls Club family, volunteering in the early days, when we were still operating out of a shopping cart. Today, Laura’s daughter is making memories here through our summer programs.

This is what 30 years of community looks like: young people growing up, coming back, and passing the Girls Club on to the next generation. The connections here don’t end when childhood does, they grow with each new generation.

07/23/2026

We’re proud to celebrate our partnership with EV ❤️ NYC ! Through this partnership, we have transformed our Culinary Center into a vital community resource- bringing together food access, career development & community care. The kitchen is active 7 days/week, preparing and distributing 4,300 meals weekly to our members and food-insecure New Yorkers across the city.

Our kitchen is also home to cafewal.nyc - EVLovesNYC’s six-week culinary training program. This summer’s all-women cohort is gaining hands-on professional experience and support finding work in the food industry, while preparing and serving fresh meals to our members and free food distributions across NYC.

Swipe to meet two of the trainees, Nayanika & Natalie, and learn more about the impact of this partnership 💚

07/17/2026

Join us as we continue to celebrate 30 years of the Girls Club! If you’ve spent time here over the years, there’s a good chance that Lou Dembrow has been part of your story.

Lou has been with the Girls Club since nearly the beginning, founding our darkroom photography program and inspiring generations of members to see the world photographically - with curiosity & a creative eye. Through neighborhood photo walks, time spent developing in the darkroom, exhibitions, and unforgettable projects, she showed our members how to slow down, really look, and discover stories and beauty in the world around them.

To this day, so many of our members light up when they see Lou! She has left a lasting mark on countless lives. Thank you, Lou, for all you’ve given to the Girls Club family!

07/14/2026