The end of the Second World War saw an influx of people into the Lower East Side of New York City. In the 1950s, jobs in the thriving garment industry were readily available to anyone who could operate a sewing machine. Nativity Mission Center, a five-story tenement where the Mission Helpers of Sacred Heart Sisters had been working with the children of Italian immigrants, was now seeing more and more Spanish speaking children. The Center’s afternoon and evening activities attracted hundreds of neighborhood children.

Throughout the sixties, the Lower East Side was scarred by abandoned tenements, emaciated by drug sales and usage, overrun by prostitutes and homeless people, and generally exuded an atmosphere of hopelessness. Yet Nativity Mission Center continued to offer after-school and evening programs for the predominantly Puerto Rican youth of the neighborhood. The doors would open at 3 p.m. and the lights would be shut off after midnight.

In 1963, boys from Nativity Mission Center began traveling to Camp Monserrate, a summer camp facility in Lake Placid, NY, that would have a profound, long-term impact on the boys’ development. The Nativity summer program accomplished so much that it was frustrating to see the boys return to the city public schools where little progress was made for the rest of the year. It was asked, were the programs at Nativity Mission Center merely band-aid reactions to prevailing problems or systemic approaches to transformation and change? The answer to this question was to influence the decision to establish a middle school at Nativity Mission Center.

In 1971, the focus of the Center’s activities shifted to a middle school for boys. Mike Mincieli, the first principal, would say, “You don’t know how to swim? We’ll teach you, but you have to put in the time practicing your strokes. You don’t know how to multiply or divide? We’ll teach you, but you have to put in the time practicing your times tables.”

In 1984 a Jesuit priest, Father Jack Podsiadlo, a teacher at Nativity Mission Center from 1973 to 79, returned as principal and executive director. His task was insuring the school’s future sustainability. With the help of the Board of Directors, doors were opened to many New York foundations that were fascinated by this Jesuit venture in middle school education for boys from low income families. One foundation provided funding to study the school. A summary of the findings was published in the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk:

The single factor that probably distinguishes Nativity Mission is the strong interpersonal relationships its students have with each other ...Total immersion into Nativity Mission develops strong bonds between students and staff. Students begin the school year excited and ready to learn with friends and teachers they already know. ... This focus on the individual is probably an important part of the reason Nativity Mission Center graduates do so well...

Nativity Mission Center sparked an international movement with over 60 schools with similar models opening from 1992 until as recent as 2016.

Unfortunately, the school closed its doors in June 2012. But after serving over three generations of young men in the Lower East Side and eventually throughout all five boroughs of NYC, its alumni association stayed active and incorporated itself into what is now the Foresight Project.