As we ring in the new year, our team at AAFE has been reflecting on the evolution of our community development work. We’ve continually adapted our approach to best serve our city’s immigrant communities through the turbulent challenges they face, from affordability, housing, and food insecurity to escalating threats on immigrant rights. It is clear to us that our mission at AAFE has never been more critical. 

In that spirit, we want to share the reach of our programs and services in 2025. These numbers represent both a celebration of our work – as we’ve been able to serve more people than ever before – but also a sobering reality that the growing demand underscores just how essential our multilingual, culturally responsive services have become. Below, you can learn more about AAFE’s impact through Community Services, our Youth programs, community events, and our small business affiliate Renaissance.

Community Services

Every year, AAFE serves over 35,000 tenants across all of our citywide Community Service programs. This includes:

• Affordable Housing. 1,400 households are currently residing in AAFE’s affordable housing units across the city.
• Youth Programs. Around 450 high school students are involved in AAFE Youth Programs and college advising programs.
• Food Pantries. AAFE’s food pantries in East Harlem, the Lower East Side, and Chinatown have served a total of 6,840 households, including 1,200 households served across our 4 emergency food pantries for SNAP recipients and federal workers impacted by the recent government shutdown.
• Health & Entitlement Benefits Services. AAFE has helped 7,082 clients on accessing health and entitlements benefits – a 70% increase in the number of clients we served.
• Housing Services. AAFE served 7,299 clients on housing-related matters.
• Immigration Services. AAFE counseled 2,516 clients on navigating immigration-related issues.

AAFE Youth Program

AAFE Youth empowers the next generation of changemakers by providing college access and youth leadership opportunities for high school students in Queens. Our programming includes college readiness and application assistance, leadership and internship opportunities, and career development. The AAFE Youth Center, based out of our Flushing Community Center, provides a safe and comfortable environment for high school students to visit after school and participate in programming that allows them to build essential skills, make new friends, and receive social and emotional support from AAFE counselors.

Our COMPASS program for 11th and 12th graders has a 100% matriculation rate, with most students getting a full-ride scholarship to college. With application assistance from our youth counselors, 2 students attended Hamilton College and Boston University with QuestBridge matches, which included a full scholarship with free housing. Last year, two students from our program also enrolled in Cornell University and Yale University.

Photo: AAFE Youth students learning how to cook in a workshop with The Student Kitchen.

Community Events

Throughout the year, we continued our regular offerings of Know Your Rights housing workshops, pro-bono legal clinics, food pantries, and cultural celebrations. This included:

• 13 Pro-bono Legal Clinics hosted with Queens Legal Services and AABANY at our offices in the Lower East Side, Flushing, and Jackson Heights, totaling 143 attendees.
• 16 Know Your Rights workshops dedicated to educating community members on housing and tenant rights.
• Cultural Community Celebrations including a Three Kings Day celebration, a Lunar New Year Luncheon for seniors living in East Harlem, Thanksgiving turkey giveaways, and holiday toy giveaways.
• 21 Digital Literacy Courses for 56 adult learner students, taught by our 4 bilingual AAFE Youth intern instructors. During the program, we provide meals to the students.
• 6 Self-defense Classes with 77 participants learning important personal safety and self-defense skills.
• 25 Civics Classes with 327 student participants preparing for naturalization tests and interviews.
• 80 ESOL classes with 60+ students learning English.
• Community Financial Access Resource Fair in Flushing, where we brought together financial resource partners to provide support to community members, small business owners, and first-time homeowners to directly address ongoing affordability concerns.

Photo: Community Financial Access Resource Fair on November 1 in Flushing.

Small Business Counseling & Financing

AAFE’s affiliate Renaissance Economic Development Corp. (REDC) equips immigrant entrepreneurs and small business owners with the tools they need to become successful business owners, including technical assistance, individualized small business counseling, and low-interest loans.

In the year 2025, REDC’s impact included:

• 1,697 clients counseled
• $5.84 million in loan capital deployed
• 109 loans closed
• 563 jobs retained/created

Affordable Housing Development

Our Real Estate team has been extremely busy this past year working on affordable housing projects including:

• Affordable co-ops in Chelsea, Manhattan that are near completion.
• Transitional housing for families with children in Flushing, Queens.
• Stabilizing housing for at-risk tenants in the East Village, Manhattan, and in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

For over half a century, AAFE has worked to empower New York City’s most vulnerable immigrant community members, youth, seniors, small business owners, and homeowners, helping them build the brighter futures they deserve. Today, as rising costs, food insecurity, and housing instability strain households across our community, we remain committed to providing critical support where it’s needed most. We’re grateful for the opportunity to address these interconnected issues and create meaningful, lasting change in people’s lives. If our mission resonates with you, we invite you to consider making a donation to AAFE today. Your contribution, big or small, helps us continue this comprehensive work. 

You can make a donation on AAFE’s donation page here.