Christmas Time Family Portraits Photographers help less fortunate families get holiday pictures via the national charitable project HELP-PORTRAIT. Featuring CEO/President & Founder of El Puente Luis Garden Acosta.

This holiday season, El Puente looks back at nearly 30 years of celebrating a unique American success story. Because of the conscientious, spirited support of so many like you, our young people continue to defeat their destined "drop-out" status to assume one of Ivy League graduates, Broadway "Tony" award winners, doctors, lawyers, actors, police officers, educators, artists, job creators, and more.

Each year, El Puente helps over 2,000 members engage in a holistic development, while ever mindful of our obligation to bridge the gap between the American ideal and the day-to-day reality of so many. Through four Community Leadership Centers, an award winning "A+" rated New York City public high school (the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice), our "Espiritu Tierra" Community Garden and the Community Health and Environment Institute; El Puente is proving that change is possible. The Southside of Williamsburg, a once forgotten community, has risen to become a model of smart, comprehensive community development and a source of hope for neighborhoods across America.

In 2011, we have seen El Puente members win a citywide Department of Youth and Community Development-NIKE competition by using dance to educate their peers about the concerns and issues that they face in day-to-day life. The El Puente Scholars, a group of high school, college and out-of-school youth, conducted a community-wide assessment of the Southside of Williamsburg and designed their own hands-on improvement projects. The newly launched Green Light District Initiative is creating an economically sustainable, culturally vibrant, and healthier community for our residents. El Puente Arts is building on its past success as Brooklyn's pre-eminent Latino arts center, training new generations of artists and creating a "Peoples Conservatory".

We know that this success is only a bridge to better serve the future – and can only be completed with your assistance. We ask that you take the next step with us and make a major contribution to help us continue to build further on our accomplishments.

You can make your contribution by clicking here or sending a check to:

El Puente
Attn: Alexi Vandenberg, Director of Development,
211 South 4th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Your donation will leverage the public and private resources required to usher in a new community spirit and spur our "neighborhood by neighborhood" movement across the whole of our nation. A new world is possible but only with your help. We the community and staff of El Puente, thank you for your generous spirit this holiday season.

Founded in 1982, El Puente is a community initiative dedicated to harnessing the energy and efforts of the diverse peoples of Brooklyn. We believe that the coming together of many brings forward our power of self-determination. We mold our individual and collective condition, whether at home, in the community or in the world.

El Puente builds connections through the involvement of individuals in any or all of its institutional cornerstones: the four Leadership Centers, for after-school/-work daily and weekend programs; the A+ rated El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, the United States' first public high school for human rights; the Community Health and Environment Institute (CHE Institute), which facilitates federally funded community-driven scientific research, and which recently launched the "Green Light District" to complete the transformation of the Southside into a model American neighborhood for community health, and educational, cultural and environmental wellness; and El Puente Arts (EPA), a People's Conservatory—Brooklyn's most comprehensive Latino center for arts and culture.

While each branch has its unique focus and goals, member are nurtured within an integrated, holistic program that draws from all four divisions, developing a well-rounded social awareness that prompts action and expression.

True peace is the natural result of justice, and true justice can only be made possible by comprehension and compassion. We believe that individuals who are just can constitute nothing but a just community, and just communities will thus amount to a just and peaceful world.

The NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City is a health advocacy group that works with the five boroughs to increase awareness of tobacco control issues among community members and policy makers. Partnering with the community, legislators, and health advocates, they support neighborhood-based efforts for effective and long term change throughout NYC.