STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Two Staten Island students are working to provide free activities to kids and adults with disabilities every week through a new youth-led program.
Joshua Krivoruk and Hamza Qunaj, both juniors at Susan E. Wagner High School, Sea View, founded Autism Without a Voice at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.
The program began after Joshua and Hamza spent time working with kids with autism at a summer camp in Brooklyn, where Joshua grew up for most of his life before his family moved to Staten Island. The pair worked at the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, which provides care and activities for individuals with disabilities.
Joshua and Hamza, pictured here, are students at Susan E. Wagner High School, Sea View. They began Autism Without a Voice at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year.(Courtesy of Ora Ulaj)
Joshua shared that he felt he found his calling to work with kids with disabilities, while Hamza also has a personal connection — his younger sibling has autism.
“Me and Hamza both have a personal connection to it,” said Joshua. “I met a kid over the summer, and he told me I changed his life. So I was like, I have to be more involved in the future, and my career has to be something with autism. Hamza — his brother’s autistic, and he’s always looked for something to give back. We’re trying to give back as much as possible.”
Joshua is shown here with a student.(Courtesy of Ora Ulaj)
The two friends decided they wanted to continue their work to support kids with disabilities.
“We worked over the summer and we both feel like we need to start something,” said Joshua. “So then coming into our junior year, we were like, how do we even make this possible — and we have the connection for the JCH. We went to them and were like, ‘What if we run programs for you guys?’”
Alexandra Levitsky, mental health therapist and director of youth with disabilities at the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, explained that the two students reached out to help with the Youth M’Power program.
Students are pictured taking part in light boxing activities.(Courtesy of Ora Ulaj)
“They started offering more ideas and more classes that we can offer, that they would run and they would oversee,” said Levitsky. “They just needed me to supervise it and give them the space to be able to do it, and help them with offering some of our already current clients, while they can build up a clientele of their own.”
The program for teens with disabilities — ages 13 to 21 — provides a safe space and opportunity to engage in fun social activities. It runs primarily on Sundays, now in partnership with Autism Without a Voice, to offer a full three-hour program.
“I’ve already gotten amazing feedback from parents, we had a good outcome in clientele. I started getting texts from parents saying how great it was, that kids came back happy. The parents have three hours to go do their errands and have a little bit of freedom so it’s been wonderful,” said Levitsky.
She added that working with individuals with disabilities has to be a passion — one she has seen from Joshua and Hamza.
“I say it all the time — it has to be a passion. It’s not just a job. You have to love what you do and you have to do it with so much intention,” she said.
Joshua and Hamza said they want to expand and bring their free program to Staten Island.(Courtesy of Ora Ulaj)
Joshua and Hamza involved even more students on Staten Island to volunteer, many from Wagner High School, to provide activities to individuals with disabilities. That includes light physical activity like boxing, science experiments, social groups, jeopardy games, sign-making, and more.
“It’s a lot of creativity, a lot of talking,” said Joshua. “We try to build social-emotional skills to the best of our ability.”
Several Staten Island high school students help to make Autism Without a Voice a success.(Courtesy of Ora Ulaj)
Currently, the activities run by Autism Without a Voice are funded by private donations. The pair of friends said they created a GoFundMe in hopes of continuing to fund the program and keep it completely free for families.
They said they want to expand and bring their free program to Staten Island, while also creating a non-profit to receive even more funding.
Those who are interested in learning more about the program can reach out via email at autismwithoutavoice@gmail.com, or visit the program’s Instagram @autismwithoutavoice.