Historic Preservation Initiative
The 7.5 acres Visitation Property is a climate haven, which could be the site of a self-sustaining complex, including a recovery center and film studio equipped with state-of-the-art technology, as well as Pre-K, Kindergarten, elementary and middle schools offering progressive instruction.
The existing VA Property contains a 19th century monastery and school buildings that could provide dorm space for at least fifty (50) students. An innovative architectural design could house additional students with rooms for guest researchers, which could generate income.
The recovery center may be dedicated to therapies addressing post-conflict traumatic stress using the climate haven as an oasis that offers activities and cultural programs for the students enrolled in the schools who could be connected through technology to programs abroad.
The climate haven, could also support a studio dedicated to documentary filmmaking as one way to support media innovations that promote healing from trauma.
The Pre-K, Kindergarten, as well as elementary and middle schools, grades 1-12, may be organized to educate displaced youth from different areas in the world learning in multiple
cohorts of twenty (20), thereby supporting their integration into society.
The school year could be divided timewise in a way to offer learning opportunities for more displaced youth in each grade while still retaining small classes across different grades. A novel educational model may be designed to meet the basic human needs of the displaced.
The film studio could focus, in part, on the placement of the seniors educated at the middle school in various internships, thereby offering possibilities for youth to connect back to their
areas of origin in ways that promote a culture of peace.
There is potential for engagement in Pre-K to 12 learning, including hybrid courses that connect educational programs specifically identified in different parts of the world to students in the Brooklyn complex, as strategic partnerships are nurtured to make the complex self-sustaining.
Innovations in learning with a focus on helping youth acquire foundational experiences in education, thereby establishing a solid basis for their futures, may be complemented by the
previously mentioned internships in documentary film to promote engagement with society.