Women We Admire named Jessica Nauiokas, Executive Director & Co-Founder of our Mott Haven Academy Charter School, one of their Top Women Leaders of 2024. The list highlights accomplished professionals who “have not only risen to the challenges of leadership but have redefined what it means to succeed in The Empire State.”

As they write, ” In the absence of traditional public schools that could fully respond to the unique needs of child welfare-involved youth, Haven Academy partnered with The New York Foundling in 2008 to become the first effort of its kind in the country. Haven Academy has become a unique and nationally recognized model, designed to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of a student population that has experienced significant trauma.”

Read more on Women We Admire

City & State NY named Reïna Batrony, The Foundling’s Senior Vice President, Community-Based and Education Programs, to their inaugural Above & Beyond: Social Services list. This list recognizes exemplary leaders in the social services field, highlighting those dedicated to serving New Yorkers and making our communities happier and safer.

“I’ve always believed in giving everyone an opportunity,” Batrony says, adding that she chose to make her career at The New York Foundling “because of the mission and the vision, and the communities we serve. Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to elevate the voices of those who cannot find their own voices” – and she does it in four languages.”

Read more at City & State NY

The curtain rose Wednesday night in Midtown on ‘Shelter Me,’ a very special music written and starring teens from the south Bronx, telling real-life stories of children in New York City’s shelter system, Fox 5 News reports.

Read more at Fox 5 NY, or watch the video report below:

The Imprint recently reported on the opening of the NYC Department of Education’s new office for students in foster care, and the importance of improving educational outcomes for young people in care – highlighting The Foundling’s education programs, including Haven Academy.

“For children who were removed from their home and are now in an educational setting, dealing with that trauma, and trying to focus in school is extremely difficult,” said Melanie Hartzog, president of The New York Foundling. The Foundling-supported charter school in the Bronx, Mott Haven Academy, is unique in its approach. It is believed to be the first and only school in the country created specifically for children in foster care, with specially trained staff and goals centered on students’ emotional needs as well as their academics.

Read more at The Imprint

In honor of Foster Care Awareness Month, News 12’s Zhane Caldwell spoke with one Brooklyn college student who is prepping to cross the graduation stage in days about her upbringing and how the College Choice program (part of our Fostering College Success Initiative) provided what was needed to succeed.

Watch and read more on News 12