In the 12 years since Mott Haven Academy opened its doors in the South Bronx, our school has been guided by a spirit of deep empathy and defined by the never-give-up attitude of our staff and students.
That caring and resilience have been especially evident in the weeks since we closed on March 13.
How can teachers and school administrators support their students who are undergoing trauma or a crisis? Last week, our very own Bonnie Loughner, Assistant Vice President of our School & Community Impact Program, lent her expertise to a panel discussion dedicated to the topic.
Spotting and Supporting Kids in Crisis, hosted by the Robertson Center at Success Academy on February 27, brought together experts in the behavioral health field to speak about how school personnel can identify children and adolescents that are experiencing trauma, employ strategies to address these challenges, and ultimately build a school community that is supportive, caring, and welcoming to all students.
The Foundling does this in a variety of ways: our School-Based Mental Health program works within New York City’s public schools to provide behavioral health services in-school for students that need it, our School Response Teams in Staten Island and Brooklyn provide effective mental health training to school staff, and our on-site mental health clinics increase access to vital care.
This work has real impact – the number of crises in the schools we serve has gone down by approximately 40% in the past three years!
At the panel, Ms. Loughner was joined by Jacob Ham of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Stephen Powell of the National CARES Mentoring Movement, and Peter Brown of Success Academy. The panelists spoke about effective methods of spotting and supporting struggling children, as well as how educators can find and access resources for outside help to promote the best outcomes for their students.
As Ms. Loughner discussed in her recent guest post on The Incredible Years® Blog, parents and teachers are often unaware of the signs of mental health issues and how best to respond to them, which can prevent children and adolescents from getting the help that they need. As children spend over 943 hours a year in school, providing teachers with effective methods to provide support can be transformational.
Thanks to the efforts of Ms. Loughner and the rest of our Health & Behavioral Health team, we are supporting children and adolescents in building the groundwork for a lifetime of good health, wellbeing, and self-determination. We are excited to continue to provide this important support, training, and assistance to educators and students across New York City.
Performances begin March 4 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater for the world premiere of Ren Dara Santiago’s The Siblings Play. Directed by Jenna Worsham (Agnes) the new work marks the professional playwriting debut of Fila-Rican playwright Santiago.
Set in a rent-stabilized Harlem apartment in 2014, The Siblings Play follows three teenagers left to raise each other in their parents’ absence. The play looks at the ways in which they protect, love, fight, and diminish in the wake of their family history; and the complexity of what it means to grow up with parents who are too young to be parents in the first place…
The Siblings Play is working with six community partners, Counseling in the Schools, The Drama Club, Healing Tree, New York Foundling, Student Leadership Network, and The Possible Project on a series of post-show conversations, student matinees, and work experience.
For 50 years, the TCS New York City Marathon – the world’s largest marathon – has been a source of inspiration for runners throughout the world. On November 1, 2020, over 50,000 athletes will once again take to the streets for a 26.2-mile route through all five boroughs of the City. While the general admission lottery is now closed, charity partners – like The Foundling – still have marathon spots available.
In partnership with New York Road Runners, The New York Foundling is proud to sponsor a team of five dedicated runners. Team members fundraise $3,000 for our programs, and in exchange, they receive marathon entry, VIP benefits, and encouragement from our Foundling community. For the past three years, The Foundling’s marathon team has raised thousands of dollars to support our children, adults, and families in transforming their lives, while having the opportunity to participate in their own life-changing experience.
Our team will fill up quickly – apply by March 27 to secure your spot! For more information on joining the team, please visit our team page or contact Nicholas Kohomban at Nicholas.Kohomban@NYFoundling.org or 212-206-4124.
Bonnie Loughner, LCSW, Assistant Vice President of our School & Community Impact Program wrote the following post, detailing the impact of using the Incredible Years® behavioral health program in NYC classrooms:
The New York Foundling is one of New York City’s oldest and largest social service organizations. With an internationally-recognized and interrelated set of research-backed services, we work in partnership with children, adults, and families who are working to create transformational change in their own lives.
The Foundling provides evidence-based and evidence-informed programs that focus on keeping families together, preventing abuse and neglect, providing academic support for youth, and giving people with developmental disabilities the tools and training they need to lead independent lives. We understand and know that inter-disciplinary evidence-based preventive interventions are crucial to increasing protective factors for children and families and lead to better outcomes in the long-term. This is notably true in an educational context with children spending between 943 to 1,016 hours a year in a school setting with learning continuing in their home (Pew Research Center, 2014).
In 2016, The Foundling partnered with Incredible Years® as a way to support children and families with social emotional development and parenting skills. We knew that the schools we served needed access to tested and effective preventive programs because we saw the amount of crises that were happening on a daily basis. We looked to Incredible Years, as well as other evidence-based programs, as a way to help shift schools to a more proactive mindset…
Read more at The Incredible Years® Blog.
The New York Foundling on Thursday announced that it has more than doubled its Developmental Disabilities Division’s residential and day habilitation sites and locations and expanded its services. The expansion, which brings more than 50 new supportive residences and three-day habilitation sites to Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, is a result of the Foundling taking on programs and services previously operated by the THRIVE Network and Catholic Guardian Services, officials said.
THE NEW YORK FOUNDLING KICKS OFF THE NEW YEAR WITH A MAJOR EXPANSION OF ITS DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES DIVISION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – New York, NY (February 18, 2020) – The New York Foundling today announced a major expansion of its Developmental Disabilities Division, more than doubling its residential and day habilitation sites and locations, including a major growth in its overall programming and services for individuals and their families. This is a result of The Foundling taking on programs and services previously operated by the THRIVE Network and Catholic Guardian Services, and brings over fifty new supportive residences and three day-habilitation sites across Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
For over forty years, The Foundling has provided critical services to children and adults with developmental disabilities, taking a person-centered approach to each person’s goals, interests and well-being. Today, The Foundling not only provides full-time residential care to individuals across the city, but also has an extensive network of day and community programming, employment services, and coaches who work hand-in-hand with men and women to help ensure they have a say in the care they receive.
FAST FACTS:
The care of residents and program participants will remain uninterrupted, and participants will continue to be supported by the staff and team members that they previously worked with.
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.
The number of city kids in foster care dipped to an all-time low last year, falling to under 8,000, New York City officials announced Thursday.
The results from the city’s annual foster care census showed a precipitous decline from the 1990s, when there were 50,000 kids in foster care, and a continued improvement from 2010, when there were 17,000.
Officials attribute the drop to increased investment in services like mental health and substance abuse counseling for parents under investigation by the agency that can help children stay in their homes. The agency is offering these “preventive services” to 24,000 families, officials said.
Note: The New York Foundling is one of the city’s largest preventive services providers.
Students at one Bronx school got a blast from the past Tuesday. The Jurassic World Live tour stopped by Mott Haven Academy to teach students how prehistoric times impact the modern world.
The tour featured Olive, a life-sized baby stegosaurus who let students have a hands-on learning experience. Principal Ashlyn Field says it’s part of a district initiative to add more science into the students’ curriculum. “We a few years ago decided that we don’t have enough science in our curriculum, so we overhauled K to 5 and added a lot of science into it and so students a learning about pushes and pulls and forces and plants and animals and survival,” says Field.
New York Foundling President & CEO Bill Baccaglini appeared on Spectrum News NY1’s In Focus to discuss The Foundling’s work in Puerto Rico, and what is needed to provide stability and support within the communities that are most impacted by the ongoing earthquakes.
The Foundling has been providing Head Start and Early Head Start programs on the island for decades, providing vital support to 1,500 children and families on the island. Joined by Luis Miranda, Founding Partner of The MirRam Group and a leading voice for NYC’s Hispanic community, and Frances Lucerna, Co-founder and Executive Director of the NYC/Puerto Rico-based non-profit El Puente, Mr. Baccaglini discusses the mental health services we’re committed to providing as we look ahead, how children and families in the regions most impacted by the earthquakes are doing, and what needs to be done in terms of rebuilding Puerto Rico’s infrastructure and communities.
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