Florence Gray Center Renovations Officially Launched 

It was an exciting morning at the Florence Gray Center — FabNewport’s home since our founding in 2013 — as Governor McKee and local dignitaries gathered to celebrate the start of long-awaited renovations of what will now be known as the Florence Gray Community Learning Center. While there is sadness in leaving the space where so many memories were made, there is also great hope in knowing that more than $7 million will be invested in the Center’s transformation into a hub for workforce development, education, and health.

Though we’ve had to relocate temporarily, our hearts remain rooted in the North End and in the relationships we’ve built there over the dozen years. The promise of deeper collaboration among all the partners committed to serving the community makes this change worth celebrating.

In the meantime, FabNewport has found a new home at LaFarge Arts, the former Congregational Church on the corner of Pelham and Spring Streets. The space is raw and full of possibility — a fitting reflection of our learners, who show us every day that growth requires courage, curiosity, and heart.

As we settle in, we’re also taking time to imagine what’s next. Our team has been hard at work shaping a bold new idea we plan to share in 2026 — one that builds on everything we’ve learned from our in-school, summer and after-school programs and deepens our commitment to helping young people thrive year-round.

As we develop the vision for what’s ahead, we will be inviting families, friends and supporters to join us for empathy interviews — open conversations about what young people in our community most need to flourish. If you’d like to host or join a conversation, simply reply to this email. We’d love to listen and dresign together.

New home, same heart. Together, we can turn change into opportunity — and uncertainty into growth.

Ellen/Steve/Sam/Chris

On a cool autumn evening in early October, as the harvest moon rose over the water in Jamestown, about fifty members of the FabNewport community gathered in the backyard of Steve and Brenda Edgerley. It wasn’t a gala or a formal event — it was a circle of friends, family, and supporters, all coming together in the spirit of heart work.

Stories filled the evening: alumni like Autumn, now in college, shared how FabNewport has become family; Nezi, a Rogers High School senior, spoke about discovering her passion for mentoring younger students; Caitlyn talked about choosing courage over comfort while teaching others to kayak and surf. Every voice reflected the same truth — that growth happens through connection, courage, and care.

As the light faded, longtime champions Steve Edgerley and Al Reynolds closed the evening with a heartfelt invitation to continue investing in this shared journey.

The night was a reminder that in times of change and uncertainty, community is our anchor — and your belief keeps the heart work going.

National Afterschool Alliance Report: America After 3PM

We thought some of you would be interested to see this report. Children and families are desperate for more high quality programming.

You can see in the summary graphic below, produced by the national Afterschool Alliance, that afterschool (and summer, of course) is important to families for many reasons. The sad truth only one in four kids gets the access to the afterschool programming they desire. Your investments help meet the need.

We are also pleased to report that we are working with the Rhode Island Afterschool Alliance to establish an apprentice and pre-apprentice program to make it easier to launch, and grow, a career as a “youth” worker. The goal is to professionalize these important pathways.