On local television channel BronxNet’s Bronx Social Justice and Anti-Violence Forums, our CEO and President Bill Baccaglini sat down with host Daren Jaime to discuss The Foundling’s juvenile justice and mental health programs. Watch the interview below:
New York, NY (April 19, 2021) – The New York Foundling is proud to announce the opening of a first-of-its-kind training and resource center in partnership with New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The Strong Families and Communities Training Center (SFC Training Center), which officially opened its doors in October of 2020, provides workshops for front-line social service workers across three core areas: training and technical assistance, implementation support for evidence-based practices, as well as coalition building and community engagement. These areas equip, support, and train both service providers and community members with best practice techniques and date-driven approaches to positively impact the communities they serve across The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.
The Center is grounded in the Communities that Care organizing model, an evidence-based framework that elevates community voice to see strengths in a community and have community picked services. In the difficult time of COVID, a key goal of the SFC Training Center is to train CBO family-serving staff in evidence-based parenting models to better serve parents, communities and families who are experiencing a great deal of stress.
“We are proud to be able to share our evidence-based best practices with social service workers and community organizers across other New York City-based agencies and organizations,” said Elizabeth Tremblay, Assistant Vice President at The Foundling and Director of The Foundling’s Strong Families and Communities Training Center.
“Opening The Strong Families and Communities Training Center in partnership with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is a critical step toward ensuring that The New York Foundling’s incredible work reaches every corner of the city. Importantly, we are thrilled to be building on The Foundling’s 150-year-long legacy of helping communities thrive and reach their full potential,” added Shannon Ghramm-Smith, Senior Vice President of Child Welfare and Behavioral Health at The New York Foundling.
The SFC Training Center’s unique approach includes open trainings that are based on community feedback and listening sessions to discuss training needs and topics to better serve families. Featuring expert peers with years in the field, the SFC Training Center adapts their programming to ensure the information is applicable and helpful for the peer workforce.
“The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is proud to partner with The New York Foundling on this important effort,” said Dr. Myla Harrison, Acting Executive Deputy Commissioner of the Division of Mental Hygiene at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “Strengthening the capacity of front-line staff to deliver high quality services to parents/caregivers and families in our communities will help promote children’s mental health and well-being.”
The SFC Training Center, which aims to train and upskill workers outside of The Foundling’s own staff, marks a new chapter for the organization’s robust set of social services helping children, families and people with developmental disabilities. By equipping practitioners from other agencies and organizations with their time tested and proven approaches to social services, The Foundling continues to demonstrate its strong commitment to broadening its impact on communities across the city outside of just its own services. To date, The SFC Center has trained over 200 care workers across various agencies and organizations in New York City.
About The New York Foundling
At The New York Foundling, we trust in the potential of people, and we deliberately invest in proven practices. From bold beginnings in 1869, our New York based nonprofit has supported a quarter million of our neighbors on their own paths to stability, strength, and independence. The New York Foundling’s internationally recognized set of social services are both proven and practical. We help children and families navigate through and beyond foster care. We help families struggling with conflict and poverty to grow stronger. We help individuals with developmental disabilities live their best lives. And we help children and families access quality health and mental health services core to building lifelong resilience and wellbeing.
For more information about The New York Foundling, please visit www.nyfoundling.org.
Written by:
Reïna Y. Batrony Cine, LMHC, Vice President, Community Based Services
Joni Rivera, MSEd, Assistant Vice President, Educational Services
For years, education has been at the forefront of our work at The New York Foundling. In fact, it’s a promise we make to each child we serve in our Foster Care programs. Through our collective work opening Mott Haven Academy Charter School in 2008, designing a one of a kind tutoring program in 2014, and creating a college success initiative with CUNY and ACS in 2016, we have remained focused not only on the safety and well-being of those who walk through our doors, but on education and the bright future it holds.
We are excited for what’s in store for the students we work with across New York City.
One of our biggest initiatives for 2021 is expanding the reach of Road to Success. This work began last year and is growing even more. We are now tutoring students in kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school. Our Afterschool Allies program, which began in 2019 as a small pilot program serving grades K-5, has now been folded into Road to Success, which will allow us to double our enrollment of elementary-aged students—from close to 25 to 50 students—by December of this year. A student’s ability to read at grade-level is strongly predictive of their future academic success, and we’re excited to reach more children once they enter kindergarten. The sooner we close the learning gaps that we often see with children who enter foster care, the sooner we can improve academic outcomes as they enter middle school, high school, and plan for college.
Additionally, we launched Road to Success Citywide with the goal of providing a long-term tutor to every 7th–12th grade student in foster care across New York City (making our efforts city-wide!). As a member of Fair Futures, a city-wide coalition of social services agencies that provides coaching, mentoring, and advocacy for children in foster care from middle school through age 26, we hope to reach more young people in the years ahead. If we can secure enough funding from the City, the Fair Futures initiative will be a gamechanger for all teenagers and young adults in foster care. Both Road to Success and Road to Success Citywide were founded in partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation—a steadfast supporter of The Foundling since 2013.
Another new initiative planned for 2021 is a 12-week STEM program for students in grades 6-12 who are enrolled in any of our tutoring programs. Participants will complete virtual classes each week to learn computer literacy skills, including how to code and create digital art. In the final weeks of the program, students will take the skills they learned to work on a project for their college portfolio – from the creation of a game to digital artwork.
We believe that the path to a better, brighter future for children in foster care is with education. 2020 was a challenging year, yet our students continued to grow, showing a testament to their perseverance and the efficacy of Foundling-run educational programs. We look forward to seeing even more success this year—and in the years to come.
| The Foundling’s tutoring and educational support programs for young people in foster care are generously supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Foster Care Excellence Fund in The New York Community Trust, Solon E. Summerfield Foundation, Blanche T. Enders Charitable Trust, and Con Edison. |
In 1869, we opened our doors and became a safe, stable, and loving home for infants and babies who couldn’t be cared for by their parents. More than 150 years later, The Foundling has maintained its commitment to keeping children healthy, supported, and protected from abuse, maltreatment, and neglect. Our legacy has not only continued through the years, but has grown stronger by working together with our community and our supporters. We help 30,000 of our neighbors each year across New York and Puerto Rico, with the goal of keeping children and families safe, supported, and together.
Initiatives like Healthy Families partner with new parents and provide guidance and linkages to community resources that promote positive childhood development. And Families Are Stronger Together uses an evidence-based approach to therapy that helps families experiencing crisis work through conflict and challenges and avoid a potential foster care placement. When there’s a clear risk and threat to a child’s health and safety, our Foster Care program pairs children with committed and loving relatives or foster parents. And, our innovative Child Abuse Prevention Program uses life-size puppets to teach elementary-age students how to detect and report abuse in their homes, while the Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection leads the charge in advocacy and education against corporal punishment.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month—and you can help us expand and grow our reach and impact as we share updates and information about our life-saving work.
| How it works: Simply follow or add @TheNYFoundling to your social media accounts!
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn For each new follower we gain between April 1-30, an anonymous donor will contribute $1 to support our services and programs that keep children safe.* |
Throughout April, we’ll be posting informative content on ways to recognize and prevent abuse and neglect. Not only will following The Foundling on social media allow you to hear about our latest news and updates, but you’ll help The Foundling secure additional funds to support children in our community through our $1 matching donation!*
In addition to following us on social media, please consider also making a direct donation to the Foundling’s child abuse prevention activities.
*$1 matched for each new follower on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn; up to $3,000 (between April 1—April 30, 2021).
It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since COVID-19 shut down our city. This once-in-a-century pandemic shook our community and endangered the children, adults, and families we serve on a scale we couldn’t have predicted. We still mourn the loss of life here, across our country, and the world. And we long for the way of life we enjoyed before.
But we’ve been resilient, too. When COVID-19 disrupted everything we knew, and brought many aspects of our lives to a standstill, our work at The New York Foundling continued.
In the past year, our staff and community have shown tremendous dedication and strength. They overcame each and every challenge from social distancing, to navigating technology and technology accessibility, and found creative ways to adapt.
Foundling staff facilitated virtual visits between families to help maintain connection and advocated on behalf of families when the family courts closed. We kept students on track with their classes and gave everyone the tools to self-advocate when pandemic conditions created academic hurdles. The therapists in our Families Rising and our other alternative-to-incarceration programs delivered holistic treatment to families via telehealth. Staff working in our Developmental Disabilities programs alleviated the emotional burden of social distancing for the men and women in our residences and found ways to keep them engaged and active in quarantine.
We continued to provide School Based Mental Health services to help students confront the emotional burden of being away from their classmates, teachers, and friends, as well as the unique stressors and challenges presented by the transition from in-person to remote learning. The Foundling’s Medical Clinics, like other pediatrician offices around the country, never closed, and increased communication allowed families to receive information and support throughout the health crisis. And our Camp Felix at Home program kept camp magic alive for Foundling kids last summer.
The Foundling will continue to adapt as needed, although we are now seeing a promise for a better year ahead. We strive to be the beacon of light and support for the tens of thousands of children, adults, and families in our community as we navigate our way forward and out of the pandemic.
And there’s good news ahead.
Students are back at Haven Academy and our Day Habilitation sites for people with developmental disabilities have reopened—and vaccines are being administered to keep this population safe and healthy. Our frontline staff and other essential workers are also receiving their vaccines—which is even more good news we are able to share. In addition, Foundling-operated medical clinics are seeing more and more patients face-to-face, and Camp Felix is hoping to put in place an in-person camp this summer.
In a new Gothamist article, Dr. Ruth Gerson, The Foundling’s Senior Vice President for Mental Health Services, discusses the ongoing trauma that young students are facing as a result of the pandemic. One year in, young people continue to find it difficult to cope with the disruption, isolation, and stress that school shutdowns have brought on. “It can be very hard to have the psychological distance from it to try to unpack it and really do evidence-based trauma treatment,” she says.
Throughout the difficulties created by the pandemic, The Foundling continued to lead the way ahead and provide guidance, support and compassion to our community during these uncertain times. Because of our supporters, our neighbors from New York to Puerto Rico stood tall and found resilience, hope, and the strength to persevere amid an unprecedented health crisis.
We’re proud to announce Our Path: Forward and Together, The Foundling’s 2020 Impact Report, which details our collective work and contributions over the past year. From our COVID-19 relief efforts to the powerful stories showing how individuals and families overcame obstacles, we invite you to read about the impact we made together.
Browse our Impact Report here, or learn about our larger reach on our updated Impact webpage.
In a press release, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. announced that beginning today, the non-profit organization The New York Foundling is supporting survivors of sex trafficking through its new child and youth sex trafficking intervention program, “the Phoenix Project.” The innovative program will serve approximately 50 to 70 young people ages 12 through 21 each year at locations across New York City.
Staten Island Advance recently profiled the work of our Staten Island Community Partnership, which has worked to address acute community needs that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initiatives over the past few months have included food distribution, laundry cards, funds for necessities, a school supply drive, and even fun events for families.
“I know we have had a meaningful impact through our outreach and initiatives by the positive responses from residents. They have expressed such heartfelt gratitude when we connect that it brings both a smile and a tear to our faces. Just the idea that we are helping to feed dozens of families each week is so rewarding and we are so pleased that we can continue the food pantry through the Spring,” says director Chris Dowling.
The year ahead is filled with promise and hope—and a path forward as our community makes its way through and beyond the pandemic. As 2021 unfolds, we are pleased to share a new and innovative program that will support survivors of human trafficking, and we have a brand-new training center housed within The Foundling that will broaden our reach to youth, peer, and family advocates who work at community-based organizations across New York City.
For more than 150 years, The Foundling has been steadfast in its approach and commitment to providing programs and services focused on well-being, safety, stability, and helping people build supportive and healthy relationships. Our work has intersected with children and youth who been involved in human-trafficking, or found themselves susceptible to becoming involved in one. This is why we committed ourselves to partnering with victims and survivors: through therapeutic support and mentoring, our services allow survivors to increase their self-esteem and overcome the obstacles and hardship they previously experienced. The program has been named The Phoenix Project and staff at The Foundling will use several evidence-based therapy models to help survivors attain independence.
In addition to providing therapy and mentorship to survivors of human trafficking, The Foundling has created a training center, The Strong Families and Communities Training Center (The SFC Training Center), that provides specialized workshops and assistance to social service professionals and peer advocates working with youth and families across New York City. Since the start of the year, weekly trainings have been attended by 30-40 people.
Trainings are currently held in a virtual setting*—with more sessions scheduled each month. Topics covered include: strengthening communication skills, learning how to establish healthy and safe boundaries, helping youth and families obtain and secure services, navigating technology, and recognizing when there’s a crisis. The SFC Training Center looks to partner with community-based organizations and social service agencies in the months ahead—with hopes to train even more professionals who have built careers centered around service-delivery and supporting those who are experiencing hardship.
“With both of these new initiatives, we are intervening at the micro and mezzo levels. From expanding direct therapeutic services to an underrepresented population to enhancing family protective factors and providing skills for parents and youth to thrive, we’re helping everyone move forward,” said Shannon Ghramm-Smith, Senior Vice President of The Foundling’s Child Welfare and Behavioral Health Division.
* Trainings are currently being offered virtually and plans are in place to provide in-person trainings later in 2021 across all five boroughs of New York City.
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