Acting programs help struggling NYC children build self-esteem

Pearl Gabel/New York Daily News

Children playing and learning at the Children's Aid Society's East Harlem Center on Oct. 25, 2013. The society provides opportunities to children in poverty.

Even before she lands her first movie role, aspiring actress Odley Jean has been the lead in plenty of real-life drama.

The 17-year-old senior at Brooklyn’s Clara Barton High School was jolted by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

“My sister and my nephews lost their home in Haiti and they had nowhere to live, so my mom had to buy tickets for all of them to come here and live over here,” says Odley. “We were living in a one-bedroom apartment and it was 13 of us.”

Her grades suffered as she couldn’t do homework or get enough sleep to focus in class. “There were times I had to sleep in front of my front door,” she says, tearing up at the memory.

Odley found solace in the unlikeliest of places — the stage.

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At school, she joined Opening Act, a grass-roots organization that brings professional acting workshops to New York City public schools and one of the programs supported by Variety, the Children’s Charity of New York.

“It helped my confidence a lot,” she says. “I really enjoyed it because at home I was going through a lot of stuff so it was really fascinating that I could be someone else for a moment.”

To honor the work that Variety New York does in bringing transformative arts programs to underserved children, the Daily News and Disney are partnering for a special screening of “Thor: The Dark World” Thursday evening.

Also being honored in the special Halloween screening are kids participating in The Children’s Aid Society, a charity that has been dedicated for more than 160 years to providing opportunities for children in poverty. The organization serves deserving kids at more than 40 locations in the five boroughs and Westchester with programs from prenatal counseling through college-prep programs.

For Emedardo Reyes, the Children’s Aid Society provides his son, Jayden, 3, with a spot in its Head Start program in its East Harlem community center.

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“It opens up a lot of doors for his future,” says Reyes. “He wakes up every morning really happy to go to school. He’s learned how to socialize and speak a lot better.”

Reyes worries, though, that given the organization’s struggles to wrangle funding from the city that there’s the possibility the program will one day close its doors.

“If it didn’t exist, it would be like keeping these children in a dark room,” he says.

Among the kids at Thursday’s screening will be Odley, who hopes to one day be on the big screen, too — perhaps in a third “Thor” film.

“I always tell my mom, 'One day I will pay the bills and you won’t have to work anymore.'”

For information on how to help, go to varietyny.org or childrensaidsociety.org