%20(1).png)
THRIVE ON! and Children's Home of Kingston Launch IGNITE — A Year-Round Program Built for the Long Game
THRIVE ON! Network Inc. (THRIVE ON!) and the Children's Home of Kingston (CHK) have launched IGNITE, a new year-round experiential learning program within THRIVE ON!'s Y.O.U.T.H. Force track, custom-designed for CHK's Grove Street Academy youth. Built on the success of their two-month 8-Week Service Workshop, IGNITE represents a deeper, more sustained commitment — meeting young people where they are and walking with them across an entire year.
January 20, 2026
From Two Months to a Full Year
When CHK approached THRIVE ON! about deepening their collaboration beyond the 8-Week Service Workshop, the answer was clear: what these Early Thrivers needed wasn't a shorter version of what had worked — it was more of it. IGNITE is the result of that conversation: a 12-month, four-cycle program that follows the CHK school calendar and builds on itself season by season.
Running four days a week, IGNITE brings Early Thrivers to the Ulster County Community Action Outreach Center — a short walk from Grove Street Academy, which is itself a small but meaningful part of the experience. The program is built around four rotating learning pillars: COOK, GROW, BUILD, and SHARE.
Four Pillars, One Pathway
Each week of IGNITE follows a consistent rhythm designed to balance internal growth with hands-on application:
COOK — culinary skills, food knowledge, nutrition, and kitchen safety.
GROW — personal development, emotional awareness, confidence, and reflection, led in partnership with a SUNY Albany MSW intern using the Positive Youth Development 5 C's framework.
BUILD — construction fundamentals, tool use, and real infrastructure projects.
SHARE — communication, community engagement, field trips, and service.
The program is organized into four seasonal cycles — Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall — each building on the last. Early cycles focus on foundations and mindset. Later cycles move toward applied projects, community-facing work, and leadership. By Fall, Early Thrivers will be building a mobile grocery market, harvesting crops from gardens they planted, preparing meals for community members, and exploring workforce pathways through career exposure and — for select youth — paid work experiences.
A Program Built for These Young People
IGNITE is not a one-size-fits-all curriculum dropped into a new setting. It was custom- designed for CHK's youth — integrating frameworks including Positive Youth Development, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, trauma-informed social-emotional learning, and applied behavior analysis — in close partnership with CHK's clinical team.
"There is nothing quite like watching young people discover what they're capable of," said Candace Lindenlauf, Early Thriver Program Director and Vice President of THRIVE ON!. "IGNITE gives us the time and structure to actually walk alongside these Early Thrivers — not just for a few weeks, but across a whole year. That's where the real growth happens."
The program also reflects a growing partnership between THRIVE ON!, CHK, Ulster County Community Action (UCCAC), the Maternal Infant Services Network (MiSN), and SUNY Albany — each bringing expertise, space, and relationship to a model that none of them could build alone.
About IGNITE
IGNITE is an experiential skill-building and personal development program within THRIVE ON!'s Y.O.U.T.H. Force track, custom-designed for youth enrolled at the Children's Home of Kingston's Grove Street Academy. Built around four learning pillars — Cook, Grow, Build, and Share — IGNITE runs year-round in four seasonal cycles, meeting Early Thrivers where they are and supporting their growth across an entire school year.
About THRIVE ON!
THRIVE ON! is a youth-driven nonprofit based in Kingston, NY. Through its Early Thrivers program and Rootwork incubator, THRIVE ON! equips young people and grassroots leaders to design, build, and lead the solutions their communities need.