For parents
A place you don't have to worry about.
You can't be everywhere. NEXGEN is where your kids choose to be when they are not home, at school or at the masjid. Supervised, background-checked, built on character. Come and see it before you commit to anything.
6 Arc Place · Staten Island, NY · 3 programs are free with no account needed
The argument
You are already deliberate about most of their week.
Where they learn. Where they pray. What is expected at home. The rest is usually left to chance. Who they spend Friday with. Who they look up to. What they do with a free afternoon.
That part shapes them too. This is the whole pitch. Not that the world is dangerous. The hours you do not plan still count. They are easier when adults you trust are in the room.
Find what fits
Start with your child, not our program names.
Pick an age, an interest, or both. The cost, and whether you need an account, come straight from the program rules. So this page cannot quote a price the checkout disagrees with.
9 things that fit, type an age or pick a chip to narrow it down
Before you decide
The four things you actually want to know.
Answered with what we can show, and linked to the detail.
Who is around my child
Stewards, our 18–29s, and staff. Everyone with unsupervised contact clears the same three-part check New York requires of licensed child-care staff. Volunteers are screened the same as paid staff.
What the screening actually isWhat happens if something goes wrong
Written down, not made up on the day. Staffing ratios. One-to-one time in the open. A same-day call if your child was hurt. Named pickup only. And exactly what we do at 15 and 60 minutes if you are late.
Youth safety & safeguardingWhat if they just want to hang out
That is a legitimate use of the building and one of the reasons it exists. Friday Nights is unstructured on purpose: supervised, staffed, and not a class. Not every hour has to be improving.
What a Friday actually looks likeHow faith fits in
Through character, manners and service, and Maghrib prayed together whenever it falls. Nobody is marked, chased or singled out for how they pray. It is not an Islamic class and does not pretend to be one.
Why it is built this way
The first time
What a first visit looks like, including if they know nobody.
The most common question we get, and the one most likely to keep a shy child at home.
- 01
Before you come
No account, no membership and no payment is required for those three. An RSVP helps us plan food and staffing; it is not a gate.
- 02
When you get here
Everyone signs in at the front desk. So there is a record of who is in the building. Pickup is from the same desk.
- 03
If you know nobody
This is the question we get most, and it is what mentors are for. A named person is responsible for a new face. Not a general hope that someone says hello.
- 04
Bring someone
Guests are welcome and normal. Just add them to the RSVP, so the room and the food are right.
- 05
You do not have to join in
A quiet child is not a problem to be solved on their first evening. Nobody is made to join in. No staff member will make a show of coaxing them.
- 06
Leaving
Only people you have named can collect your child, and you set that per person. If you are late, staff stay with them. Call us. No charge, no fuss.
What to bring
- Nothing to get in. Friday Nights, Family Sundays and open workshops are free to attend.
- Their friend, if they want to bring one, just count them in the RSVP.
- Tell us about allergies at the desk. Friday dinner is halal and $10 per child, admission itself is free.
The full detail: screening, ratios, pickup, phones, what happens when something goes wrong, is written out on the safety page.
What it costs
Membership is for after you have used the place.
It is a way to pay less for what your family already does here. Not the price of entry. Nobody should be deciding on $195 a month before they have been in the building.
- Free
Community
Everyone belongs. Create your household, come to NEXGEN, and pay only for what you use.
- $95/mo
Family
How families who can afford it keep the door free for families who cannot. Covers up to 5 people in your household.
- $195/mo
Family+
The same subsidy, doubled, plus the weekly programs and the Friday meal included rather than discounted.
A scholarship fund is built into the membership model. Email hello@gonexgen.org, or tell any staff member. "The price does not work for us" is a complete request. You do not need to show income to start.
How scholarships workHomebase tuition is assessed separately from membership, raise it during the application conversation.
Community is free forever, pay per session only for what you use.
Where we actually are
Early, and saying so.
A number a parent cannot check is worth nothing to them. These are the ones that can be.
- right now
412
sessions on the calendar right now
Read from the schedule when this page loaded.
9
programs running
Counted from the published program list, every one has its own page.
- right now
3
free with no account needed
Counted from the access rules when this page loaded.
1
home: 6 Arc Place, Staten Island
You can stand outside it.
A program of UMMA Foundation.
Come and look at it.
Twenty minutes. Meet the team, walk the space, ask the questions this page did not answer. Bring your child, their reaction will tell you more than ours does.