Executive Director

Thomas | Mission Possible

“We remain committed to providing transformative, life-saving programs, services, and support to the thousands of LGBTQ-identified young people who come to us when they have nowhere else to turn.”

On Thomas Krever's second full day at Hetrick-Martin (under former Executive Director David Mensah), he was asked to do the near-impossible-provide a Comprehensive Education Plan (CEP), a blueprint, utilizing community analysis, for expanding the Harvey Milk High School into a fully functioning, independent public transfer high school for at-risk youth—and do it in four days. Having had years of experience developing national programs for disconnected youth, though, he knew he could get it done. "What I needed," Thomas recalls with a laugh, "was a phone, a computer, and a bunch of take-out menus."

Five years later (a year and a half as executive director), Thomas daily explores new possibilities to reach out to the community. "We've formulated and instituted a best practices model for working with LGBTQ youth," he says.

Under Thomas Krever, Hetrick-Martin has developed Senior Institute, a mandatory class for graduating youth to help them segue into the post-school world and know their outside systems of support. And onsite HIV testing now provides a safe environment that greatly increased the number of youth getting tested.

Thomas's mantra is PYD: Positive Youth Development. "Every youth needs to be viewed for their strengths and their resiliency," he says. "That's the core of our programs. Love, accountability, a voice in their future, to be treated with dignity. The true test of any good program is, first, what you provide to the young person, and second, what those young people provide by giving back."

It's a test that Thomas, who grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, took first-hand. As a high school student, he was encouraged by one of his teachers to join Council for Unity, a club that empowered youth. From being a member, he remained active as a volunteer in the program through his college years (he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College and later his Executive Masters in Public Administration at Baruch College). Ultimately, he joined the Council as a staff member (and later vice president), helping to develop sites across the country to address the issues faced by youth, especially those in gangs and those having been incarcerated.

For Thomas, it's all about developing well-rounded young citizens who receive services in a safe, nurturing, and loving environment and, having done so, recognize their personal responsibilities to giving back to their community so that the next generation of young people have the opportunity to learn and grow as they did. As Thomas says, "That is our ultimate goal; that is their legacy and truest testament to the programs here at Hetrick-Martin."

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