Non-profi t brings gaming center to Home Street site
BY JASON COHEN
Many people associate
video games with coding, but
one local non-profi t is out to
show it’s much more than
that.
DreamYard, which began
in 1994, is an organization that
has partnered with 45 schools
in the city that helps students
achieve success through the
arts.
In 2006, it opened the
DreamYard Preparatory High
School, 240 E. 172nd Street
and in 2009, in collaboration
with BronxPro Real Estate (a
unique, mission-driven affordable
housing developer), developed
a multi-arts and digitally
integrated community art
center that serves more than
300 students weekly.
Recently, DreamYard expanded
to video games. On
Tuesday, November 12, it
launched “BX Start,” a video
gaming center at 1017 Home
Street in Foxhurst. Rudy
Blanco, director of entrepreneurship
and gaming at
DreamYard, told the Bronx
Times, said the center has a
lot of potential.
“We need to form that
gaming community because
there’s no place for us right
now,” Blanco said. “We’re putting
a call out for all Bronx
gamers. The gaming industry
is so much more than playing
and coding.”
Blanco, 35, who has been
with DreamYard for 10 years,
explained this project didn’t
happen overnight.
He taught special education
for six years at DreamYard
Prep and eventually became
the technology specialist.
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Blanco started a coding
club, but quickly realized
many youngsters had a yearning
for more than that.
“There’s this fl awed practice
that this coding is the
way to go with technology,” he
explained.
So, four years ago, the high
school began a scholarship,
where students were asked to
write a narrative for a video
game, and much to his surprise,
numerous applications
were submitted.
“We put it out there thinking
only gamers would respond,”
he said.
He didn’t end the writing
and gaming there. In 2017,
DreamYard Preparatory and
AT&T teamed up to provide opportunities
for a dozen Dream-
Yard students to have summer
internships at borough AT&T
locations.
With the success of these
programs and his vision to
help kids succeed through
technology, Blanco knew he
had to do more. So, he continued
to hound his bosses for a
space and low and behold, they
found one on Home Street.
Blanco couldn’t contain
his excitement when discussing
the center. Since the soft
launch, where 250 people attended,
his phone has been
ringing off the hook.
There will be a journalism
and gaming program; it will
look at career paths in gaming,
game design, social media
and marketing, how to pitch
games and much more. Everything
is free and open to sixth
grade and up.
Rudy Blanco, the director of entrepreneurship
and gaming at Dream-
Yard. Schneps Media/ Jason Cohen
“Our focus is not coding,”
he stressed. “I would have
never thought to tie journalism
and gaming.”
According to Blanco, the
goal is to have a series of
workshops the second week of
December and begin full programming
in February.
“This is my baby it feels
amazing,” he exclaimed.
“There are so many parents
that are lost and don’t know
what to do. They just want
their kids to be around other
people.”
The new video game center by DreamYard. Schneps Media/ Jason Cohen
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