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Hello my name is Tinamarie Panyard. I am the Operating Director of Different Directions.  We are a collective of homeschooling families, teachers, students and teens who run classes, outreach and community events primarily attended by homeschool families but open to all. Different Directions is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing low cost or no cost educational enrichment for students of all ages in the New York City and surrounding area.

We currently have a schedule of forty classes six days a week serving over 150 families. Our families come from all over the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area to participate in our socially academic minded programming. Our collective of homeschooling parents and educators believe educating our children takes a village. Though the majority of our students and families are homeschoolers we are not exclusive to homeschool students. We also provide teen work study programs, social outlets and activities for tweens and teens and family programming. 

Many families who chose to homeschool do so because their children have been failed by public and private schools. The situations range from students who have been neglected academically because they are not learning the way the rest of the class learns to students who have been abused by peers and sometimes even the adults in the schools, who were supposed to protect them. Families homeschool for a myriad of reasons, some because they are educators who feel there is a better way for their family some because they want their child/children to have to best they can provide and for them it means a home tailored academic and social program. Different Directions is not a school, it is a learning lab, a community center and a haven where people come to heal, strive and thrive. We are a community with a calling to take control of our lives and our children's future. 

Different Directions has been incorporated since 2009 and has been working out of the Church For All Nations located on 57th Street since our inception. Recently the church building has had a change in management and is being reclaimed by the district. They are closing down the building for much needed renovations. This unfortunately means we are losing our home.

Our space at 417 W. 57th street is about 2500 sq feet with three rooms, a kitchen and two bathrooms. Different Directions has operated on a small budget for many years. Our revenue comes from donations and members of the collective dividing the cost of rent and operating expenses. We need $50,000.00 to move into a new space.

Our goal is to find a space that Different Directions can call home. We have six years of teaching supplies, equipment, furniture and families looking to relocate so we can continue providing interesting classes and much need safe social surroundings. 

All money donated will go directly to securing a new home for Different Directions.