Our Mission

Inner-City Scholarship Fund changes lives for the better by providing families with demonstrable financial needs the opportunity to give their children a quality, values-based K-12 Catholic education within the Archdiocese of New York. Inner-City exists to ensure that the gift of an excellent Catholic school education continues to be a viable option for students of all faiths today and for future generations to come.

Inner-City Catholic Schools

Students attending inner-city Catholic schools spend their days in extraordinary environments where they are safe and welcome, where excellent teachers know them and push them toward their individual potentials, where core values that remain with them throughout their lives are imparted.

Small class sizes, discipline and mutual respect combine to create a setting for profound achievement academically, emotionally, and spiritually. Something very special happens at these schools – students become their best selves.

Nearly seventy-five percent of the students enrolled in designated elementary and secondary inner-city Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York come from homes living at or below the federal poverty line. The average scholarship recipient’s family income is approximately $50,000 per year. Over 50% of inner-city Catholic school students come from single-parent households.

Despite these obstacles, inner-city Catholic schools enable its students and their families to overcome enormous odds and, through quality education, break the cycle of poverty. An astounding 99% of seniors attending Catholic high schools graduate and a further 98% of those graduates are accepted to higher education at universities across the nation.