Matthew Klein

1993

Matthew Klein

Leadership, Education, & Athletics in Partnership

http://www.leapforkids.org

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

In 1992, the city of New Haven was facing many challenges, one of which was a significant lack of summer programs for children in some of the city's high poverty communities. There were few programs that provided children with academic and social development and still fewer that were affordable or accessible to urban children. Without a doubt, there was need, and the answer came in the form of LEAP.

The organization operates a year-round academic and social enrichment program in Connecticut's high poverty communities. College student "Senior Counselors" and high school student "Junior Counselors" are paired together to work as a team with a group of 8-10 children of the same age and sex. Children read and are read to every day and receive intensive homework help after school. LEAP broadens children's views of the world through creative arts, science exploration, athletics, outdoor camping and weeklong trips to distant cities such as Toronto and Atlanta.

During the summer, LEAP's Senior Counselors move into donated apartments in their children's neighborhoods in order to build strong bonds with children and their families. Through the years LEAP has also become a leader in the field of integrating education and technology through the development of community technology centers. LCLCs (LEAP Computer Learning Center) serve as a resource for LEAP children that they access for one hour a week during the academic year and two hours during the summer. They also serve as community technology centers where parents and other community members can gain access. By 2001, there were 8 LCLCs across the state with at least one center in each city. With 90% of its full-time staff members under the age of 30, LEAP is completely youth driven and youth run.

Biography:

Matthew Klein is the Executive Director and first staff person of Blue Ridge Foundation New York. Matt's experience prior to Blue Ridge includes work in non-profit management and civil rights law. Matt is a co-founder of Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP), a Connecticut-based youth development agency that grew during his tenure from a start-up to a multi-city agency serving over 700 children.

In his legal work, Matt focused on issues of equal opportunity with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and served as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for the Honorable Robert L. Carter, one of the principal litigating attorneys in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit.

Matt sits on the Committee on Civil Rights of the Association of the Bar of New York City and on the Steering Committee of the New York City Youth Funders Network. He also serves as a board member of several nonprofit agencies, including as a founding Board member iMentor and the founding Board Chair of Groundwork, Inc. Matt has been a fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation and the Next Generation Leadership program of the Rockefeller Foundation, and he is a member of the bar in New York and Massachusetts. Matt attended the Boston Public Schools, Yale College and Yale Law School.