Skye Ostreicher speaks to our CEO & President, Melanie Hartzog. They disucss how she parlays her government experience into the nonprofit sector to help provide social services in New York City, the upcoming opening of our Vital Brookdale supportive housing, and more.
Read more on City & State, or watch the video below:
Bill Baccaglini, The Foundling’s former President & CEO, appeared at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service this week. He was conferred an honorary doctorate of humane letters, as well as gave a commencement address to this year’s class of nearly 500 graduates.
“You don’t do this because it’s easy. You’ve chosen to do this because it needs to be done,” he said in his address. “We’ve seen enough suffering to know that the true heroes are those individuals who believe that the highest calling and greatest gift is to have the opportunity and ability to improve the lives of those around them.”
The American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF) announced the winners of its 2022 Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health at its annual benefit held in conjunction with APA’s 2022 Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
The Foundling was one of the recipients of this award, given our commitment to providing mental health treatment and social services targeted to the needs, strengths, and cultures of its diverse community. The award honored our goal of removing disparities, particularly in the following communities – LGBTQIA+ youth and their families; the Deaf community; and Latinx and African American families in Harlem.
2021 has been a year of transformation. From the pandemic’s continued impact on our community, to major leadership shifts in city, state, and federal government, it’s been a year of change for all of us. Thanks to your support, The Foundling has not only navigated this new landscape, providing life-transforming services to over 30,000 children, adults, and families in New York and Puerto Rico, but has also expanded our reach, impact, and vision for the future ahead.
Our latest Impact Report, Transformation, chronicles this work over the past year – and showcases the successes you have helped us achieve. Explore the report, which includes powerful stories from our participants, leadership and donor spotlights, and details on how our programs are continuing to provide support and stability for our neighbors in need.
Browse our Impact Report here, or learn about our larger reach on our Impact web page.
Mott Haven Herald highlighted our Haven Kids Rock performing arts program in a recent feature, which features interviews with co-founder Nef Jones and two of the Haven Academy scholars currently in the program. “What I love about it is it helps me communicate with people. I can express how I feel with just singing or acting or dancing,” says one of the students. “It really connects to you in life, which sometimes can help you feel good about yourself.”
Read more at Mott Haven Herald
Since 1970, the TCS New York City Marathon – the world’s largest marathon – has been a source of inspiration for runners around the globe. On November 6, 2022, over 50,000 athletes will once again take to the streets for a 26.2-mile route through all five boroughs of New York City. While the lottery for general admission to the race is now closed, The Foundling still has spots available for dedicated runners. Join us in becoming a part of this important milestone!
In partnership with New York Road Runners, The Foundling is proud to support a team of ten runners. Apply today to join The Foundling’s 2022 TCS NYC Marathon team, as spots will fill up quickly! The final deadline to secure your spot is June 1!
In Fall 2021, our Day Habilitation participants were invited to join in a VisABILITY art workshop series to help develop their creative talents. Workshops were led by The Foundling’s creative facilitators, with each one introducing our participants to a different artistic medium – from photography to poetry.
In the course of these workshops, many of our participants found that art provided a novel way to truly share their voices and experiences with the world. “We have a lot of individuals that really have a hard time expressing their feelings and emotions…but if you look at their artwork, it speaks a thousand words,” says Lamont Issacs, Assistant Vice President of our Day Habilitation program.
The VisABILITY project culminated in an art exhibition to showcase these bold and powerful works – and on March 23, The Foundling’s Developmental Disabilities team hosted a celebration of the exhibition at Vinny’s Café (a community space within Vincent’s Village, a supportive complex for seniors managed by the Sisters of Charity Housing Development Corporation.)
Jill Gentile, who leads our Developmental Disabilities Division, provided opening remarks on March 23.
This special event allowed Foundling staff and Trustees, Sisters of Charity, program participants, and friends and family to enjoy refreshments, admire the artwork, contribute to a group installation, and learn more about the VisABILITY project. For many of our Developmental Disabilities participants, this was the first time they had attended a gallery event, and it was a wonderful experience where their abilities, viewpoints, and talent were acknowledged and celebrated.
Artists had the opportunity to share and discuss their work.
“With the art showcase, we’re really giving an opportunity for the community to think more about what a society that’s more inclusive of the experiences and abilities around us might look like,” shares Carly Johnson, one of The Foundling’s Clinical Coordinators and a VisABILITY Workshop Facilitator.
And our VisABILITY project is not over – our art gallery continues to garner interest from the community and local officials.
Our participants’ artwork, photos, paintings, collages, textile arts, and more – was beautifully displayed throughout the café.
Additionally, The Foundling has also launched a corresponding digital exhibition featuring a virtual tour, art to view, and even the opportunity to purchase original works (with proceeds benefiting the artist and funding additional VisABILITY workshops). View the exhibition here.
Interested in learning more about the VisABILITY Project? Hear our participants and staff speak about their experiences in the video below:
At The Foundling, we understand that many of the behavioral challenges exhibited by children and teenagers are often linked to past trauma, stress, and other environmental factors. In our Health and Behavioral Health programs, we couple personable and compassionate care with evidence-based therapeutic models to help children and families get on track for success.
Based on the insights he’s learned throughout his career, Dr. Akeem Marsh, the Assistant Medical Director of our Home for Integrated Behavioral Health, recently co-edited a book – Not Just Bad Kids: The Adversity and Disruptive Behavior Link – which hit bookstores earlier this year!
Dr. Marsh and co-editor Lara J. Cox began developing the book after conducting a series of presentations drawing on the patterns and behaviors they’d noticed within their psychiatry practices. Dr. Marsh’s passion for the topic is rooted in both his previous work within New York City’s juvenile justice system, as well as his current role working with children and families at The Foundling.
“Within the Home of Integrated Behavioral Health, the overwhelming majority of the people we serve have been traumatized – not only by whatever happened that landed them in foster care, but also often by the systems that they’ve been involved with,” Dr. Marsh says. “They get to us at some point on that journey. And on our psychiatry team, we work to not further that trauma, but to facilitate the process of healing. It’s really about meeting people where they’re at, and being sensitive to things they might have experienced.”
The book covers this topic in great detail, and aims to provide child welfare professionals with background that can be easily applied to their clinical work. Targeted chapters involve context and tools for working with young people that have been involved in the child welfare system, juvenile detention facilities, and more.
“Those chapters talk about the specific aspects of those systems, and how certain behaviors might manifest in youth that have had those experiences,” Dr. Marsh says. “We really tried to cover all the bases – providing context for how these kids behave in school, as younger kids, as teenagers. We give vignettes and stories that show what methods work and what should be avoided.”
Dr. Marsh hopes that the book will help professionals view ‘problem kids’ differently and encourage them to address root causes of behavior, rather than enacting harsh punishments and punitive measures that aren’t effective long-term.
“Anyone who works with kids should want to understand where they’re coming from,” he says. “Psychiatrists, pediatricians, social workers, teachers, police officers: they may notice behaviors, attitudes, or actions that don’t make sense on the surface. This book helps put those things into context and provides background – ultimately helping them be more empathetic, and better able to provide support to young people in our community.”
Dr. Marsh is excited to share these ideas, and hopes that the book will spark change. “I really hope we see a reimagining in the way this work is done,” he says. “Formal training often sets expectations that things are always done a certain way, which doesn’t always meet the needs of the children and families we serve. I’m interested in seeing how we can be creative in meeting the needs of our community.”
Dr. Marsh’s book – Not Just Bad Kids: The Adversity and Disruptive Behavior Link – is available for purchase through a variety of retailers. Additionally, those with institutional access may access the full book via ScienceDirect.
Interested in hearing more from Dr. Marsh and learning about our trauma-informed therapeutic models? Watch our Health & Behavioral Health overview video here:
Christiane Palpant
The Foundling is excited to partner with Agora Gallery artist Christiane Palpant this spring. Christiane’s painting, The Journey Aglow, will be featured on the label of this year’s exclusive Foundling Rosé, and a portion of the proceeds from her current gallery exhibition will go directly to supporting The Foundling’s work.
Christiane is captivated by the natural world – particularly skies, clouds, and horizons – and her landscape paintings illustrate and evoke gratitude, resilience, and beauty. Like many of those in our Foundling community, Christiane’s life has been a winding journey.
Our 2022 Rose label, featuring Christiane Palpant’s painting, A Journey Aglow
She discovered painting as a healing outlet while on bed rest for nearly a year, and recently quit her lifelong career in financial services to devote her life to her art. This month, she is setting out in a modified van (which she’s named Millicent) on a 25-week cross-country journey to paint in all 50 states and further pursue her creative ambitions.
In the interview below, Christiane discusses her artistic career, the painting featured on our 2022 Rosé, and her connections to The Foundling’s work supporting children, adults, and families in reaching their full potential:
You’ve had an interesting journey in becoming an artist – one that shows a lot of inner strength and required a lot of bold choices. Can you share a little about this trajectory?
It has occurred to me that I approached my healing journey from both a left brain and right brain perspective. In left brained fashion, once I realized that my healing journey was a marathon, I constructed a spreadsheet with daily mini-goals and milestones. But my right brain kicked in when I asked myself what I could do while on bedrest in order to keep myself mentally strong. Picking up the paintbrush was my answer and I attacked it with great passion painting sixty works that first year. Nonetheless, healing was still a difficult and arduous process, but I am filled with gratitude for family, friends, and faith. There were several powerful conversations that helped guide difficult life decisions. I’ll never forget when one friend shared, “Healing is not linear.” Understanding that better has helped me to embrace the ebbs and flows of both the healing journey and creative process.
During your upcoming travels, you plan to interview women across the country that have made major life changes after experiencing trauma or dramatic events. This has a parallel with many of our Foundling participants, who often draw on the challenges they’ve overcome when transforming their lives. What draws you to these stories in others? Can you share the goal of this project?
Along with painting in all 50 states, one of the missions of my Millicent van journey is to capture the courageous stories of the women whose voices haven’t been heard. Just like the clients of The Foundling, these women have not only transformed their own lives, but often have made a very positive impact on those around them. These poignant journeys knit the souls of our communities. Capturing these experiences is especially interesting to me because of my own encounter with a near death experience followed by more than a year on bed rest. I know how difficult it was to continuously take one figurative step after another and make daily bold decisions that changed the trajectory of my life. I believe many people can identify with pivotal moments in life and will be eager to hear of other compelling journeys.
Can you share a bit about the painting that will be featured on the Foundling’s 2022 Rosé – The Journey Aglow?
The painting, The Journey Aglow, is very special to me. I painted it after spending a week with a dear friend who has three children from the foster care system. This painting gives the feeling of being on a journey with someone special, cresting a precipice and gasping in wonder at the view. The heavens are aglow, and it is a beautiful respite after so many trying moments. Scenes like these bring moments of gratitude for the soul, refreshment, and interconnection.
Christiane, Agora Gallery, and The Foundling gathered at the opening reception for “Interconnection and Intuition” on March 3, 2022
Your exhibition at Agora Gallery is called “Interconnection and Intuition.” As our wine is called “We are Intertwined,” we feel there’s some symmetry here! What does the word ‘Interconnection’ mean to you? How do the paintings in the exhibition demonstrate this?
My paintings featured in Agora Gallery’s “Interconnection and Intuition” exhibition were painted during the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was a poignant time during which human connection became sacred, revered, and sought after in safe settings. The titles of my pieces tie to my feelings during the painting process. The viewer can capture the sentiment with titles such as Calm Amidst the Chaos and descriptions of Resilience, Contentment, and Respite.
The words ‘Intertwined’ and ‘Interconnection’ are also the perfect description for my upcoming Millicent van art journey through all 50 states. In my previous financial services career, I traveled extensively across the US. As a result, I am planning to connect on my travel route with dear friends and family in 47 of the 50 states. I can imagine there will be many new friends that will unfold during this powerful and creative experience.
What is your personal connection with The Foundling’s mission and values?
My close friend and former college roommate fostered three children and ultimately adopted them a couple of years ago. I’ve been actively engaged in their lives the past decade and I’ve watched the positive impact on these beautiful, vulnerable lives. (The children on their own started calling me ‘Dad’. I think it’s hilarious and touching.) Additionally, I teach at Georgia State University and this year I have mentored a young lady who came from the foster care system. She is a special lady and even at her young age has aspirational dreams of owning her own business. Because of these powerful personal experiences, The Foundling’s mission is near and dear to my heart.
What are your goals for the future?
For the past two decades I have kept my goals listed on a spreadsheet. (This is my left-brain kicking in.) While on bedrest for more than a year I created goals for 7 specific areas of pursuit: art, teaching, writing, speaking, consulting, media, and travel. My project with The Foundling, Agora Gallery, and City Winery is on the right path for accomplishing the goals I’ve listed. The 50-state Millicent trip also is the trajectory I have envisioned. As Thoreau said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined.” I look forward to future meaningful projects with The Foundling and Agora Gallery.
Christiane’s work, including The Journey Aglow, is on view at Agora Gallery – her exhibition, “Interconnection and Intuition,” runs from March 1-22, 2022. Learn more here (10% of all sales from the exhibition will be donated to The Foundling. Christiane will also be donating a portion of the proceeds from the art she sells on her 25-week cross-country trip to The Foundling.)
The 2022 limited edition of We are Intertwined, The Foundling’s exclusive Rosé produced annually in partnership with City Winery, will be available exclusively from April to June as well as featured in local New York City restaurants. The wine is available for pre-order now, with a percentage of each sale going directly to support our work! This 2020 Rosé of Pinot Noir is refreshing and crisp, with hints of clementine and strawberry. Learn more and place an order!