About Us

The Children’s Storefront works with families to promote healthy brain development in children’s first thousand days of life (birth to three years), building a strong foundation for lifelong success.

Brief History

The Children’s Storefront has a storied history of changing lives in Harlem through education innovations. In 1966 a young poet, Ned O’Gorman, opened a one-room center for young children in a Harlem storefront on Madison Avenue – The Children’s Storefront. This grew into a preschool program that led to a tuition free private Pre-K to 8 elementary school, eventually known as Storefront Academy Harlem, that educated Harlem children for decades.

To further our commitment to educational success for children in struggling communities, The Children’s Storefront assisted in creating a new organization that now stands on its own, Storefront Academy Charter Schools. Today, the educational philosophy developed by The Children’s Storefront over 50 years provides the foundation for their charter schools in Harlem and the South Bronx.

Returning to our early childhood roots, The Children’s Storefront is once again charting new waters, this time engaging parents around child brain development in the first thousand days of life; and, more importantly, providing the know-how and confidence with which to spur the growth of their children’s brains. 

The Children’s Storefront Today

In 2019, The Children’s Storefront piloted a state-of-the-art Learn & Play Center, welcoming local families with very young children for guided interactive sessions emphasizing child discovery activities and healthy interactions between adults and their children. In 2020, we launched our online Virtual Learn & Play program to engage families safely during the Covid pandemic.

Over time we will further offer a host of services to bolster parent/caregiver learning, including child development workshops, a multi-faceted resource center, and one-on-one learning opportunities drawing on the expertise of New York’s health care centers, colleges and child serving institutions. 

We hope you will join us on this journey!