2019 was an impressive year for The Foundling – we celebrated our milestone 150th anniversary, expanded many of our core program areas, and witnessed countless moments of achievement among the children, adults, and families we serve.
We are proud to announce Growing Together, our 2019 Impact Report, which illustrates our growth throughout the year – from program expansions to individual successes for thousands of people throughout New York and Puerto Rico.
For over 150 years, The New York Foundling has worked in partnership with our neighbors to ensure that everyone can meet their full potential when facing challenging situations. This hasn’t changed, and our staff continue to provide life-changing and meaningful support in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This series shares how The Foundling’s many programs are responding to the needs of their community.
The New York Foundling launched Camp Felix in 2008 to provide children in foster care with the magical gift of attending an overnight summer camp filled with sports, games, swimming, making friends, and connecting with others who have experienced trauma and hardship, and know what it is like to be involved in the child welfare system. Campers stay active, nurture their creativity, and connect with nature.
Located an hour north of New York City, Camp Felix has come a long way since its first summer and is now open to children in all of The Foundling’s child welfare programs. Typically, children attend our overnight summer camp for 1 or 2 weeks and immerse themselves in activities that instill feelings of self-confidence, resilience, self-respect, and a strong sense of community. Our campers return home filled with confidence, newfound strength, and the belief that they can “achieve anything.”
COVID-19 has changed what Camp Felix will look like this summer. The group activities and communal settings that define the overnight camp experience would be difficult to adapt to current safety guidelines, and so The Foundling made the decision to cancel 2020’s traditional camp season. The health, wellbeing, and safety of our campers, their families, and Camp Felix staff is too important to risk. However, thanks to The Foundling’s dedicated and creative team, this summer, children and teenagers will experience the magic of Camp Felix at home!
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Foundling had hopes that in-person operation of Camp Felix in August would still be possible – but as things progressed and the world changed, team knew they had to begin planning a virtual program instead. “The kids need this camp,” says Jane Feyder-Siegel, the camp’s Program Director. “It was always our back-up plan to run it online if we couldn’t do it in-person.”
With the support of our partner The Felix Organization and generous funders, Camp Felix At Home will deliver high-quality, interactive camp-themed programming supervised by veteran Camp Felix staff members throughout the month of August. The virtual camp experience will feature 2-3 hours of daily activities, including fitness, yoga, arts and crafts, theatre and dance, STEM workshops, musical performances, and more. Virtual campers can participate in the entire program start to finish, or they can choose select weeks, days, or activities based on their interests.
“When we told kids and caretakers that we were still going to run Camp Felix, it was a great relief to them,” Jane continues “Children and families look forward to camp all year long. It’s a real get-away for them and an opportunity for them to be carefree kids.”
At first, planning a virtual camp was daunting. “But we put our heads together, got creative, and we’re really excited about what we’ve come up with.”
While some activities like swimming, rock climbing, and basketball can’t be adapted to an online platform, many other camp favorites will return. Each day will still start with the Morning Circle where campers and staff sing songs and talk about daily and weekly goals and challenges. “We can’t give out a Cleanest Cabin Award this year, so instead campers will be competing within their own homes to see who can complete the most household chores—things like dusting, vacuuming, doing the dishes, or helping their parent/guardian with dinner.”
A week before Camp Felix At Home begins, campers will receive a care package, including a t-shirt, journal, set of headphones, snacks, coloring and activity books and supplies, arts and crafts supplies, and a frisbee.
The camp’s programming will allow campers to pursue a variety of interests. STEM workshops provided by Engineering for Kids will enable campers to explore cyber robotics, parachutes, and candy catapults. Musical theater workshops, led by Broadway Bound Kids and based around routines from Hamilton and The Lion King, will teach campers to project their voices and develop their stage presence. Acting workshops from Boston Casting will offer improv and stand-up comedy instruction.
“There will be a lot of trial and error with Camp Felix At Home, but the kids are excited and open-minded; and families love that we are still finding a way to come together and do something special,” Jane says. “Parents and foster parents want their kids to spend the summer doing fun, productive activities, and exploring new passions and hobbies, albeit remotely.”
To learn more about how The New York Foundling is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, visit our emergency response page. Stay tuned for more stories from the frontlines as we continue to support our neighbors on paths to stability and strength.
Read past posts in the ‘Our Work Continues’ blog series:
For over 150 years, The New York Foundling has worked in partnership with our neighbors to ensure that everyone can meet their full potential when facing challenging situations. This hasn’t changed, and our staff continue to provide life-changing and meaningful support in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This series shares how The Foundling’s many programs are responding to the needs of their community.
At The New York Foundling, we see education as the pathway to independence. All of our programs lay the groundwork for healthy development, wellbeing, and self-determination by teaching critical life and learning skills. Youth in foster care face especially significant challenges in their lives that contribute to notably lower academic performance, from reading and math standardized test scores, to school attendance, to high school graduation rates, to college enrollment and graduation.
The Foundling’s Road to Success program, an innovative long-term, one-on-one tutoring program for youth in foster care with The Foundling, is designed to support young people in foster care in reaching their full academic potential. Road to Success goes above and beyond the expectations of a typical tutoring program by providing true mentorship to students and working closely with families in a coordinated effort to improve academic achievement.
Since March, Road to Success program tutors have worked diligently to ensure students stay on track for educational success and don’t fall behind in the wake of the disruptions and challenges caused by COVID-19.
When COVID-19 hit New York City, all students were asked to shift into remote learning immediately and for the near future. For underserved communities – including young people in foster care – securing access to technology and navigating the new classroom process posed significant challenges. For the young people in our Road to Success program, they had a special support on their side – our Road to Success tutors. “We spent the better part of March and April securing the equipment and resources needed to provide every student with the tools they needed to succeed—and that wasn’t easy,” shares Joni Rivera. As Assistant Vice President of The Foundling’s Educational Services, Joni oversees a number of educational support programs, including Road to Success.
“One of our students, for example, is visually impaired and needed a specialized device and software to be able to do her work,” Joni elaborates. “We hounded her school until they finally got her what she needed. The good news is that with the right technology, staff support, and the student’s perseverance, she’s still slated to graduate high school this summer.”
While the New York Department of Education promised to provide iPads for all the students enrolled in its public schools, not every student in Road to Success received one during the initial distribution—even though the State tried to prioritize children in child welfare. “We had to provide our students with that technology on our own,” Joni explains. “Thankfully, we received generous donations and were able to purchase iPads for the rest of the students who needed them.”
Once students had secured technology access, the tutors of Road to Success were able to get students back on track for educational success. Like many students making the transition to remote learning, our Road to Success participants experienced expected challenges like time management skills and a need for increased digital literacy, but our participants also continued to other challenges unique to youth in foster care.
“Our tutors do a lot of advocacy work on behalf of our students,” Joni explains. Because of COVID-19-related shutdowns—along with a lack of access to scanners and printers—applying for college has been especially difficult for many of the college bound students in the program. Young people in foster care face some of the lowest college enrollment rates in the nation, so enabling our participants to apply to and matriculate into college is one of the most important roles that our Road to Success program has. Some problems with application submissions have been easier to solve than others—such as installing scanner apps on student phones—but compiling the required financial documentation has been very challenging.
“When our students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and their college applications, they need to prove their ‘non-tax-filer’ status to the school,” Joni explains. “Even within the SUNY and CUNY school systems, there’s no standardized way to do this. Each college campus has their own set of hoops to jump through.” Proving this status is critical to securing financial aid, and to completing every application.
Joni continues, “Pre-COVID, students would get verification documentation from the IRS, but since the outbreak, the IRS’s offices have been closed. You can’t call them. You can’t email them. There’s no way to complete the process online. It took a lot of phone calls from our staff about multiple students, but SUNY and CUNY finally agreed to accept letters from caseworkers as an alternative.”
“I can’t even imagine kids doing this on their own without support,” Joni adds. “It’s been difficult enough as it is for us, and we’re adults who’ve been trained to do this work. It’s just crazy to think about how many students in foster care, who don’t get the kinds of support we provide, must be falling through the cracks right now. Now more than ever, I think it’s really important to highlight the need for educational advocacy and tutoring in the foster care space.”
To learn more about how The New York Foundling is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, visit our emergency response page. Stay tuned for more stories from the frontlines as we continue to support our neighbors on paths to stability and strength.
Read past posts in the ‘Our Work Continues’ blog series:
Haven Kids Rock, the acclaimed musical arts program at Haven Academy, just released a new music video. The video, which features the song ‘Scars,’ stars co-founder Nefertiti Jones and numerous Haven Kids Rock participants.
Each year, The Foundling partners with City Winery to produce an exclusive wine that benefits our community. With a portion of proceeds going directly to support The Foundling, this is an easy way to support the children, adults, and families in our programs, while enjoying a limited-edition summer wine. This year’s offering, We Are Intertwined, is a fine Rosé of Syrah sourced from high-quality Californian terroir.
The wine is available online for purchase here, with free delivery in the New York City area. For $119, you will receive a case: 3 bottles of our custom Rosé and 3 bottles of sparkling Cava (6 total). A portion of your purchase will directly go to The Foundling’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.
At The Foundling, we are committed to providing strength, stability, and hope to our neighbors – and right now, our programs are more important than ever. With your purchase of We are Intertwined, you can join us in providing support to the New York City community during these uncertain times.
For over 150 years, The New York Foundling has worked in partnership with our neighbors to ensure that everyone can meet their full potential when facing challenging situations. This hasn’t changed, and our staff continue to provide life-changing and meaningful support in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This series shares how The Foundling’s many programs are responding to the needs of their community.
Youth who are tried as adults for crimes committed while under the age of 19 face the very real threat of being sentenced to adult prison with adult convictions that impact their futures. The Foundling’s Families Rising program is one of a select few that targets this high-risk population and provides them with evidence-based Functional Family Therapy (FFT) as an alternative to incarceration.
Families Rising works to reduce family conflict, substance abuse, recidivism, and violent behavior in the long term. In addition to its historically high rates of treatment completion, the program has demonstrated a significant impact helping participants with viable alternatives that avoid incarceration and a criminal record, leading them to stay in school and avoid re-arrest. The program is also estimated to save taxpayers millions of dollars each year in incarceration costs.
Throughout COVID-19, our dedicated Families Rising team has continued to provide FFT treatment and support to youth and their families.
Before youth can be screened into programs like Families Rising, which is a rehabilitative alternative to incarceration, they have to wait for a court referral. With criminal courts closed due to COVID-19, referrals of youth to The Foundling’s Families Rising program have decreased dramatically. Virtual court hearings are at a minimum, reserved only for the highest-risk cases.
But for the many young people who are already enrolled in Families Rising, therapy sessions have continued during COVID-19 but in a telehealth format. “We’ve had more instances of rescheduling,” says Kimberly Sweeney, a Families Rising Supervisor. “Because of COVID-19, we cannot rely on popping up at someone’s home for a session, so we are now addressing potential attendance struggles as a clinical matter in therapy sessions.”
Negative peer influences, fights with family, and impulsive decision-making are the most common trouble factors for youth. “Kids do what other kids are doing,” says Kimberly, “Since other kids are staying home due to COVID-19, the kids we help are, too. So that works to our advantage.”
Family involvement is an incredibly important factor in the program’s success. “One of my kids wasn’t going to school,” Kimberly explains, “But then his older brother came home from college early because of COVID-19. Our client started logging into the remote learning platform and began sending screenshots of the work he was doing to both myself and his school counselor. His brother was such a good influence. He reinforced all the skills and good behaviors we were trying to teach.”
And moments like this one couldn’t happen if youth are tried as adults and put in adult prisons. “Flooding the criminal justice system isn’t going to help kids make better choices, go to school, or improve their family and community relations,” Gomattie states, “It’s not going to fix recidivism.”
“If the risk of punishment at Rikers was enough to encourage people to behave differently, then it would have worked already,” adds Kimberly, “Families need more support addressing maladaptive behaviors, so their kids don’t end up in Rikers.”
“We need more programs like Families Rising—programs that actually address the issues that got the kid arrested in the first place,” Gomattie continues, “If we don’t treat the root causes, how are we going to produce any real lasting results?”
To learn more about how The New York Foundling is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, visit our emergency response page. Stay tuned for more stories from the frontlines as we continue to support our neighbors on paths to stability and strength.
Read past posts in the ‘Our Work Continues’ blog series:
For over 150 years, The New York Foundling has worked in partnership with our neighbors to ensure that everyone can meet their full potential when facing challenging situations. This hasn’t changed, and our staff continue to provide life-changing and meaningful support in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This series shares how The Foundling’s many programs are responding to the needs of their community.
Four years ago, a partnership was created by The New York Foundling which brought together New York City’s Administration of Children’s Services (ACS) and the City University of New York (CUNY) with the goal to help more young people in foster care attend college and earn a college degree. This partnership is more commonly known as The Dormitory Project. The program provides a wide range of supports – academic, social, financial, and professional – to ensure students graduate from college. Students are supported by College Success Coaches, who live alongside them on CUNY campuses across New York City and are deeply attuned and trained to respond to the challenges and stressors that young people in foster care face. The Dormitory Project also includes academic support led by a team of tutors who ensure that each student is prepared to do well in their classes, develop effective study habits, choose a major, and identify a long-term academic plan.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, The Foundling’s dedicated staff have worked tirelessly to help students adjust to remote learning and support those who are facing further hurdles and obstacles so they have an equal shot at educational success.
Before COVID-19, the achievement gap between students in foster care and their peers was already significant. Now, says Joni Rivera, who oversees The Foundling’s Dormitory Project, “students and staff face challenges exacerbated by COVID-19.” Staff spent the first month of the outbreak trying to get students access to technology, adjust to a remote learning format, and stay on track with their courses. But it’s been tough.
“Not only are they switching over to remote learning, they also had to worry about finding a place to live mid-semester and move,” says Joni, “It had an impact on their learning.”
In March, when CUNY campuses shut down, The Foundling’s staff helped its Dormitory Project students find new places to live for the short term—this ranged from family and friends, to foster families, and if that wasn’t possible, limited housing at Queens College remained available.
“CUNY has been incredibly supportive through the pandemic,” says Elizabeth Tremblay, who currently acts as the director of The Dormitory Project, and is an Associate Vice president for The Foundling’s School Based Mental Health Services. “When we couldn’t find alternative summer housing for about 40 students, CUNY graciously agreed to keep one of their dormitories open and house them there. CUNY is also letting our students store some of their belongings in secure places on campus, especially since many have moved into housing arrangements where there isn’t a lot of extra space.”
All tutoring sessions and meetings with College Success Coaches are now done online. Students connect with them on a weekly basis for career counseling, educational advocacy training, and help navigating personal and peer conflicts. Students are also hearing from their tutors on a daily basis, which is an increase from the weekly sessions that took place before COVID-19. Typical tutoring sessions last one to two hours, depending on the students’ needs.
However, the transition from in-person meetings and learning to remote formats was harder for some students than others. “Some students were stressed and frustrated,” says Joni, “It was just difficult in the beginning.”
However, tutors were able to reel in struggling students and get them back on track. “Overall, we saw an increase in student engagement and participation,” Joni continues, “and real progress with students advocating for themselves. That is, students talking to their professors about problems they were having, asking for extensions, and make-up work.”
As a result, the program reported a lot of A’s and B’s on student final exams and – in very exciting news – thirteen students graduated this spring: ten with associates degrees, and three with a four-year degree. These results “really shine a light on how important it is for older youth in foster care to have someone in their lives who will advocate for their education,” Joni says.
CUNY is now offering credit/no credit courses, and program staff are helping students decide which to choose, as well as register for summer and fall classes. Online learning will continue through the summer and possibly also the fall.
“The work we do has a profound effect, especially during these difficult times,” Joni adds, “A huge push from our staff brought students who fell off the map back around. If it weren’t for them, these struggling students might have dropped out. So, we’re really giving these kids a fighting chance.”
“But our students are resilient, too,” Elizabeth says, “COVID-19 has highlighted that with support and the right people around them, older youth in foster care can acclimate to change and achieve successful outcomes in education no matter what their circumstances.”
To learn more about how The New York Foundling is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, visit our emergency response page. Stay tuned for more stories from the frontlines as we continue to support our neighbors on paths to stability and strength.
Read past posts in the ‘Our Work Continues’ blog series:
When single moms faced a pandemic crisis that might send their children to state care, Christian families stepped up to help by hosting children in their homes. New York, however, only allows hosting via licensed foster care agencies.
The New York Foundling’s CEO, Bill Baccaglini, said the group still has available foster homes even in the pandemic, and none of the organization’s foster parents requested children’s removal because of COVID-19.
“We haven’t seen this few kids in foster care in New York City since the early ’70s,” said Baccaglini. But he added: “We’re very nervous about, at the other end of this, what happens to abuse and neglect reports. … What does the system look like a few months after the pandemic?”
Haven Kids Rock, a musical arts program at Haven Academy, our K-8 charter school, typically performs their annual musical, Unstoppable, in the spring. While their event was canceled this year, the students didn’t let social distancing stop them from expressing their feelings and experiences through song and dance.
The program created Unstoppable, Virtual Tales From The Schoolyard, a digital production featuring new music video clips and highlights from the past year. The event streamed live on YouTube earlier this month – watch it above.
Unstoppable, which is based on the real-life stories of Haven Academy students, covers topics such as bouncing between foster care homes, looming deportation, living in homeless shelters, and gun violence. The resilient stars of Unstoppable wear their scars as badges of honor and strength through song and performance.
For over 150 years, The New York Foundling has worked in partnership with our neighbors to ensure that everyone can meet their full potential when facing challenging situations. This hasn’t changed, and our staff continue to provide life-changing and meaningful support in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This series shares how The Foundling’s many programs are responding to the needs of their community.
The Staten Island Community Partnership, an initiative of the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) operated by The Foundling, works hand-in-hand with residents, community groups, service providers, and local government to encourage and develop new approaches to solving issues facing children, including child abuse and neglect. The partnership aims to weave a safety net for families with family-centered and community-based services that provide impactful and educational opportunities. Together with those closest to the challenges at hand, the partnership engages community members to understand their strengths and needs and create sustainable solutions that produce positive change.
Similarly, Healthy Families Staten Island is a free, home visiting program designed to help new and expectant parents meet the challenges of parenting and ensure the healthy development of their children. The program is designed to help prevent child abuse and neglect by promoting positive parenting skills and parent-child interaction. Participants are also connected to community resources that help to strengthen their families.
Throughout COVID-19, our dedicated staff have continued to provide meaningful engagement and support to residents of Staten Island.
The Foundling has been serving the community of Staten Island for decades. The Foundling’s Staten Island Community Partnership (SICPP) and Healthy Families Staten Island program (HFSI) are two programs that work closely together to support the North Shore Staten Island community. Together they aim to reduce the number of children and families involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems through preventative measures and support.
“We’re basically the glue that bands together a network of community-based organizations, and the core of what we do is finding and solving local issues.” Christopher noted, “We have ambassadors who are our eyes, ears, and feet within the community, who are trained to identify potential trouble spots. Some we’ve identified in the past include things like teen vaping, gang action, and understanding sexual consent. We’ll then either design interventions to address those issues or refer individuals to existing programs or The New York Foundling for help.”
Due to social distancing and stay at home orders, it has been more challenging than ever to monitor people’s well-being. “Most of what we know is through word of mouth,” says Valarie Taveras, The Foundling’s Assistant Vice President overseeing both SICPP and HFSI.
“With everything shutdown, one of the issues we’ve seen in teenagers is they are getting bored,” Christopher said. “All the usual summer activities, extracurriculars, and job opportunities that were available to them before aren’t around now to keep them busy and out of trouble. So, we’ve had to get creative about virtualizing our events to keep community members in touch and engaged.”
For example, SICPP now partners with other organizations to host game-oriented virtual academies where teens can meet and interact through supplemental educational activities online. By the end of June, SICPP will be distributing 200 board games to families to help pass time during the summer months.
“We have an annual Fatherhood Fun Day event coming up that’s been completely virtualized,” Christopher says, noting the event will include a DJ and other entertainment for dads to participate in virtually with their families. Various organizations will be present to explain their work and services.
Throughout May and June, SICPP has also been supporting the North Shore with a grocery distribution program. Every week, the Partnership orders a large delivery of meat, fruits, vegetables, and other essential foods to organize and distribute. “So far we have given out 50 bags out each time, and expect to distribute even more in the weeks to come,” Christopher says.
“I’d like to give a special shout out to Khristian Taveras, another Foundling employee,” Valerie added, “He has consistently received the dry and frozen goods since the initiative’s inception. Without his help, the effort would have been delayed.”
Similarly, SICPP’s Laundry Initiative, “Washing away COVID,” has generated nearly 500 emails and registrations of interest. In partnership with Clean Rite Laundry Centers, 375 laundry cards worth $40 each will be distributed amongst the community. SICP is also piloting a program with ACS and Lyft that will supply $30 in rideshare credits for transportation and MetroCards, and taking on an “assistance grant” initiative to provide direct relief.
While SICPP works with all age groups, HFSI specifically helps soon-to-be and new mothers prepare for motherhood. Through intensive home visits, now conducted virtually, HFSI provides mothers with the coaching, tools, and skills they will need as a parent. The program starts prenatal, or at the latest when the child is three months old, and ends when the child is 4-5 years old.
“Many of the mothers we see are transient or here alone in the country,” Valarie explains, “They don’t necessarily have access to family support, information, and resources about having and raising a child. Motherhood is scary and nerve-wracking as it is, and then you add those factors. So, we are here to help them.”
“I was nervous at first about the transition to virtual home visits, but it was seamless,” Valerie continues, “We’ve had to adapt some of our events to fit a virtual format, but overall, not being in an office has been the only real difference.”
Such virtualized events include regular playgroups and HFSI’s annual baby shower. For the latter, packets full of traditional baby shower games and gifts were distributed to the mothers ahead of the event. Since the annual baby shower typically serves attendees food, HFSI also provided Target gift cards so they wouldn’t miss out on the perk.
“Even though all our events are virtual now, the Staten Island community is still excited to participate and stay connected.”
To learn more about how The New York Foundling is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, visit our emergency response page. Stay tuned for more stories from the frontlines as we continue to support our neighbors on paths to stability and strength.
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