My full name is Carlos Anthony Montanez, and I've been with Henry Street Settlement
since the age of five years old, starting out as a camper.
I grew up in Vladeck Houses, which is
directly across the street from 301 Henry Street.
Growing up in a low income area, it was a
struggle, and Henry Street made it so much easier for me and my family.
My family has been a part of Henry Street for, I want to say, nearly 40 years.
When I was 14, with my first summer job at
Camp Henry Street, I loved it because I wasn't a camper.
I was actually helping out with the kids,
making their food, going on trips with them.
I've always wanted to give back.
Years later, their President, David Garza then he hires me to do that to place
teenagers and young adults for these summer jobs all over the city.
I was living in Nashville, Tennessee.
I'd been there for the past several years
working in radio, but I decided to move back.
I moved the last week of February.
The whole reason I moved back to New York
was because my great grandma passed away and I was too far from home.
I have no family in Tennessee.
All my friends and family live in the Lower East Side, and my friends, they put
it in my head, they're like, "Hey, you're not married, you don't have kids.
There's nothing really holding you back.
You're not happy in Nashville; just come home.
It might not be forever, but
you need your support system and you don't have that out there." I got here right
before total lockdown of the city, so I never got
to really work in an office and do what I needed to do.
It was all remote and they were figuring it out, so that was tough.
The job only lasted eight days because
Mayor de Blasio cut the funding of summer youth employment.
Even summer camps were gone.
There was no program to do, so I was laid off.
However, Henry Street has been helping me look for a different job.
Even though I'm in the situation I am
right now, it could be a lot worse if I didn't have Henry Street.
They really really had my back I think all my life.
I struggled a lot growing up, but I had family who was always supportive.
I had a whole organization that would help mold me and tutor me and make sure I have
the right education, and that was Henry Street.
The whole point of Henry Street Settlement is to help people in the community.
They helped me out so much, and more people need to know.