"One day nearly two decades ago, a neighborhood teenager confided to me that he could make $1,000 a week selling drugs and that he didn't require a high school diploma to do that. He challenged, "Why should I work for a minimum wage when I can make good money selling drugs?" It was then that I realized the depth of the crisis facing my community in the Northeast Bronx. Rather than capitulate, I decided to mobilize the neighborhood."

Earnestine Russell, Executive Director

The organization that would eventually became known throughout the Bronx as the Baychester Youth Council was founded in response to the challenge issued by this young man. Today, he is employed as a professional with a Fortune 500 company and is a productive member of our community. His is one of the hundreds of success stories that have been written in the years since 1986 when founder, Earnestine Russell, first began to build a neighborhood youth program from a single room in a local school and a small office in the New York City residential housing complex where she lived.   

Today, BYC has grown to become one of the most successful programs in the Bronx, focusing on the needs of young people between the ages of 5 and 19, their parents and young adults who never received their high school degree. Our mission is to work in collaboration with parents, local schools, councils, civil service providers, healthcare facilities, and neighborhood volunteers to provide the academic, behavioral, occupational, and health service resources and referrals that economically-challenged families need to become healthy and successful.