Empower 200 Girls in NYC with Education and Sport

Thank you for your generosity! During the 2021-22 academic year and season, donors funded our I Can Excel (ICE) and summer programming, including:

• Expanding Figure Skating and Fitness Opportunities – In FY22, FIgure Skating in Harlem provided clothing, equipment, and ice time for more than 200 girls through ICE and Winter Dreams, as well as spring and summer skating sessions.
• Expanding and Deepening our Academic Programming – FSH offered one-on-one virtual tutoring for 36 students who needed it and the delivery of our communications curriculum to 143 students.
• Strengthening College Access and Persistence – FSH helped students as they navigated the high school and college application processes. Furthermore, about 70 students explored colleges and careers through college and company visits, Career Week activities, and Hats & Ladders.
• Providing Ongoing, Critical Social and Emotional Support – Social workers created a space to share feelings, challenges, coping mechanisms, and resources.

Figure Skating in Harlem is proud of all the successes we and our girls were able to achieve from July 2021 to June 2022. Below is a summary of what donors like you helped us accomplish:

• Welcomed 143 students into our I Can Excel program; 32% were new to FSH.
• Engaged 21 girls in our 12-week pilot skating program, Winter Dreams.
• 98% of parents of FSH participants would recommend FSH to friends or family.
• FSH was featured in several outlets including Access Hollywood, The Today Show, the Netflix docuseries “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness”, The Associated Press, Team USA.org, SKATING Magazine, The Amsterdam News, 1010 WINS, among others.
• During the Winter Olympics in Beijing, FSH was announced as one of five winners in the world to receive the 2021 International Olympic Committee’s Women and Sport Award for the Americas for advancing gender equality and inclusion in sport.

Figure Skating

• Our girls participated in 4 skating exhibitions.
• Our students, ages 6-18, performed in person at our 25th Anniversary Ice Show “City of Dreams: A Skating Love Letter to New York City” for an audience of roughly 1,200 over 2 days at Riverbank.
• Our synchronized skating teams won 2 bronze medals at Empire State Games.
• 70 students participated in our 2022 Spring and Summer Skate opportunities.
• 88% of students moved up by one testing level and about 20% of students moved up by 2 or more skating levels.
• 75% of students reported an improvement in their physical fitness.

Academics

• 83% of students mandated for tutoring increased their grade point average to a B based on their Winter report cards.
• 85% was the average GPA for all I Can Excel students based on Winter report cards. 
• 74% of students reported that the program positively affected their schoolwork. 

College Access and Career Exploration

• 100% of FSH seniors were accepted into 35+ colleges and universities and were offered $300,000+ in scholarships.
• 31 girls in 6th – 12th grades participated in our annual Career Week activities.
• 15 alumnae joined the FSH Alumnae Power Board to help engage more alumnae.
• The alumnae board planned our first-ever reunion, bringing together 65 alums and former coaches/counselors to reflect, celebrate, and engage with broader FSH activities and initiatives.

Social-Emotional and Leadership

• 88% of students grew in at least one SEL capacity, including confidence and leadership, as measured by Hello Insight.
• 97% of parents reported a positive change in their child’s confidence and pride.

We believe our 2022 graduating senior Pamela expressed the power and strength of FSH's work when she shared the following at our graduation celebration this spring:
“At FSH, I’ve been able to have countless unique experiences, build friendships, and join a community I wouldn’t have found anywhere else. I learned lessons of leadership, perseverance, teamwork,
confidence, and identity. […] One of the biggest realizations I came to this year when writing my college essay was about what it means to be a leader. […] I can be a leader in the way I present myself through my actions, and how I uplift others. Seeing older girls strive and do something that seemed impossible at the time helped shape my image of a powerful and successful black woman.”

Thank you for your belief in the importance of this work!

Links:

• https://www.figureskatinginharlem.org/
• https://www.fshgems.com/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66vmIo5SJTo

• FY22 Annual Report (PDF)