Our History

Reconnect was founded in 2011 in Bedford Stuyvesant in order to address a neighborhood need:  too many good young men were having too many bad life outcomes. Too much violence…too few resources…too few connections to social capital…too little opportunity to imagine a different future.

Reconnect was founded by Fr. Jim O’Shea and Efrain Hernandez. Fr. Jim was serving a church in the Bedford Stuyvesant community and Efrain was a young man that grew up in the neighborhood. Fr. Jim asked Efrain to help him to create solutions and choices for the young men in the neighborhood. They decided one of the best ways to help is to provide work opportunities for young men. It was based on this idea that Reconnect was born.

Inherent in its name, Reconnect seeks to serve young people who are disconnected from both school and work – with most struggling from the consequences of intergenerational poverty and historic community neglect.  In our founding community of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and now in Jamaica/South Jamaica, Queens, where we moved during the pandemic, street corners have become the center of life for these “disconnected” young people.

Reconnect was born with one simple idea – if young men aren’t prepared to leave ‘the corner’, then we transform ‘the corner’ – and what better way to transform it than through local, formative employment and a healthy, supportive community of mentors and peers? We believe in the power of change that is possible through the value of work. At Reconnect, the value of work is central to all that we do to achieve our mission. We also believe in the power of community. Our youth partners build trusting relationships and become part of the Reconnect community and remain so; many of our young people stay connected to us years after they have left us.