Leif Ellis

Urban Upbound’s mission is to provide public housing residents with a comprehensive group of accessible, vital, and impactful services to tackle poverty and change lives. We work with the more than 30,000 individuals living in four Western Queens public housing neighborhoods – Queensbridge (the largest public housing community in the nation), Astoria, Woodside, and Ravenswood. Urban Upbound serves clients through four comprehensive programs: 1.) Workforce Development: providing soft skills job readiness training and one-on-one career counseling, as well as job placement and retention assistance for the unemployed and underemployed. 2.) Financial Fitness Program: providing a suite of financial empowerment services including one-on-one crisis and short-term counseling, one-on-one long-term asset building counseling, community-based financial educational workshops, free tax preparation and comprehensive public benefits screening and enrollment. 3.) Youth Development/College Access: Urban Upbound’s youth services include in-depth SAT, college preparation, and college retention services. 4.) Community Revitalization: Urban Upbound ensures public housing neighborhoods have access to community assets such as mainstream financial services through the Urban Upbound Federal Credit Union, opened in 2010, the Urban Upbound FCU is the first low-income designated credit union in Queens ever.