Adams Street Foundation

The Adams Street Foundation(ASF) serves the students of the Urban Assembly School for Law & Justice (SLJ) with high-quality, broad-based enrichment programs and support services so that every student not only graduates high school but attends and succeeds in college and in life.

SLJ is a NYC public high school in Brooklyn serving predominantly low-income, at-risk students of color. Unlike students at other high-performing high schools, most SLJ students arrive below grade level and come from economically struggling communities and underperforming elementary and middle schools. Students don’t test in. They aren’t required to present a portfolio. They don’t need to have a certain grade point average. Many come from single-parent households or families who have never sent a child to college.

Yet, SLJ produces unprecedented outcomes. It received an A on its citywide School Progress Report in every category - Student Progress, Student Performance, School Environment, and in the newest category - College and Career Readiness.It's also ranked in the top 20% of all New York City public high schools, right alongside Stuyvesant and Bronx Science and is credited for its success in closing the achievement gap for special education students, all students in the lowest third academically City-wide, and Black/Hispanic males in the academically lowest third City-wide.

SLJ’s partner organization, ASF, founded in 2008 and co-located at SLJ, is a non-profit organization that was launched to improve and expand SLJ’s demonstrably effective enrichment programs. Currently, ASF provides academic support programs, internships, mentorships, on- and off-site extracurricular activities, pre-college summer programs, trips and guest speakers, community service opportunities, an early college awareness curriculum, and differentiated college and career advising. The ASF staff works alongside that of SLJ to fully integrate programming and tailor it to the specific needs of the students they jointly serve.