The Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation recognizes how multiple factors affect the health of a community and as a facet of the Astoria and Long Island City communities, it is committed to providing children and their families critical support in a variety of program areas. Rather than simply offering temporary relief, the Foundation grounds its giving practices in the philosophy of teaching others to fish with the hope of spurring intergenerational change and dismantling structural barriers to success. The Foundation accomplishes these goals through their funding of programs and organizations that support lifelong learning including Zone 126, Queens Library’s Jeanne Elmezzi Adult Learning Center and the Ravenswood II I Have a Dream Program.

Since Tom and Jeanne’s passing, the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation Board made a commitment to the Astoria and Long Island City neighborhoods. The Foundation’s first step was to elicit feedback from the community through a comprehensive survey — the findings of which are in Project 126 Report. One of the outcomes of this report was the creation of Zone 126. Founded and supported by the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation, Zone 126 is focused on narrowing the educational achievement gap in three low-income zip codes (11101, 11102 and 11106) of Long Island City and Astoria. Each of these zip codes is anchored by a NYC public housing development and has historically been home to immigrant and underserved populations. Using a Collective Impact approach within the community schools framework and acting as a backbone organization, Zone 126 works with three schools (PS 171, IS 126 and Long Island City HS) to build out K through 12 supports and transforming schools to be better integrated with student families and within the community. In 2012, the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation received a Federal Promise Neighborhood planning grant to develop the Zone 126 promise neighborhood which catalyzed the initial iteration of the organization.

Another outcome of the Project 126 report was the creation of the Family Youth Guide. The Foundation recognized that there was a need to share information about and connect families to existing program resources in the neighborhood, cradle to career. The Family Youth Guide does this and to date 5,000 hard copies of the Guide have been distributed to students and families through local schools, community organizations and events. At present copies of the Guide are available to download through our website and almost a decade after the original publication we are working on an update soon.

In the years following the publication of the Project 126 Report and the Family Youth Guide, the Foundation continued to keep a pulse on the needs of the community in order to serve as a proactive rather than reactive force.