Transdiaspora Network’s one-day youth retreat program has been recently approved by Vassar College and incorporated into their summer calendar. More than 30 middle-school students from Brownsville, one of Brooklyn’s highly impacted areas with HIV*, will be travelling upstate on June 17th as part of TDN Tour to Health. Some of these students attended our RIPPLE Program last Spring. They will be welcome on campus as a way to promote cultural diversity and community outreach, but most important our teens will be engaged in a conversation about college education, health promotion -especially HIV prevention- and youth development. The program was developed in partnership with Medgar Evers College Liberty Partnership Program and Vassar College Admission Office.

In addition to monthly HIV prevention and health promotion workshops, our initiative “Tour to Health” encompasses site visits to significant college campuses, international agencies, city-wide organizations, neighborhood clinics and cultural institutions serving local young people and the global community advocating for innovation, strong community identity and cultural values.

Founded in 1861, Vassar College is a highly selective, residential, coeducational liberal arts college. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus.

*According to NYC Health Department 2015 Community Health Profiles, 37% of Brownsville residents live below the Federal Poverty Level; it is the poorest neighborhood in Brooklyn and the  seventh-poorest neighborhood in NYC. Brownsville ranks fourth in the rate of new HIV diagnoses (66%), more than twice the Brooklyn (27.6%) and citywide rates (30.6%). HIV is the fourth most common cause of death in Brownsville, but it is only the tenth leading cause citywide.