Promise in Action: Fall 2021

Promise in Action

What’s Inside 2 From the CEO

3 A Loving Tribute to Maria Swenson, a Special Woman

4 Children’s Aid Creates Pandemic Blueprint for Youth in Foster Care

5 A Partnership to Support Academic Recovery

8 Keeping His Eye on the Target, Preparing to Make an Impact

Fall 2021

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From the CEO The full return of in-person instruction this fall has allowed us to celebrate one more step on the long road to recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

It has also allowed our staff to better assess and support the needs of our students and families who are still struggling during this difficult season.

We anticipated many of these challenges — and we have welcomed the opportunity to assist our clients in addressing them.

Among our students, we have seen learning loss related to last year’s school closures and disruptions. In particular, students are catching up on writing, expressive language, and math — skills that are best developed in communal settings with consistent feedback. Our young people are also continuing to cope with the emotional challenges that the pandemic posed. After a couple of months working with our students again, it’s clear that they need time and support in redeveloping their social-emotional skills. We are confident that their resiliency, strengthened by our staff’s dedication, will shine through in the coming months.

Promise in Action A publication of Children’s Aid, helping children in poverty to succeed and thrive.

Children’s Aid 117 W. 124th Street, 5th Floor New York, NY 10027

Amy Engel Scharf Chair Phoebe C. Boyer President and Chief Executive Officer Caroline Gallagher Chief Development Officer

At our community schools and community centers, we have been embracing the simple joys of being together again. It’s been a thrill to hear our students enjoying their education and the company of their peers like never before.

Even small moments, like a young learner getting applause for holding up a notepad with their first-ever written word, have been profound and moving.

Our educators, administrators, and counselors have been able to reestablish and strengthen bonds with children and families, which will allow us to meet their needs more readily.

As we look ahead, we are optimistic that public health guidance will take us to the next phase of recovery from this pandemic. With the end of the calendar year around the corner, we want to wish you and your families a happy, healthy, and enjoyable holiday season ahead.

Warmly,

Phoebe C. Boyer President and Chief Executive Officer

Anthony Ramos Vice President, Marketing and Communications ChildrensAidNYC.org 212.949.4936 2

On the Cover: A little girl enjoys back-to-school season at our Drew Hamilton Early Childhood Center in Harlem.

Children’s Aid | SPRING 2020 Children’s Aid | FALL 2021

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A Loving Tribute to Maria Swenson, a Special Woman

Promise in Action Maria Swenson (right) used to tell her daughter Ingrid (left) what it was like growing up as an immigrant in New York City in the 1930s. Maria’s father was the first member of the family to make the journey from Slovakia to the U.S. He worked in the building trades in order to sponsor his wife and children. Once here, both of Maria’s parents worked multiple jobs with long hours, leaving Maria on her own in busy New York at a very young age.

The school Maria attended had a partnership with Children’s Aid, and she recalled that as a 6-year-old, we provided her with emotional support, medical and dental care, as well as safe experiences in nature. Maria said that all of this helped her as an adult.

Maria grew into a brave and adventurous woman, always open to new possibilities.

Shortly after she graduated from vocational high school with a certificate in secretarial studies, Maria married and traveled to Europe, where her husband was stationed in the military. After his tour ended, she and her husband returned to the U.S. and moved to many different states for his work. Maria embraced life and tackled the challenges and rewards of creating a loving home for her family. She

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retained her love of nature, especially bird watching, and shared this passion with her children.

Maria eventually started a new life chapter in California with her youngest daughter, Ingrid, who pursued a career in public accounting and investment management.

As Ingrid’s career developed, she had the opportunity to contribute financially to worthwhile charities. Because Children’s Aid had been such a lifesaver in Maria’s childhood, both Ingrid and Maria agreed that Children’s Aid was deserving of generous support.

During Maria’s twilight years, it became apparent that she needed more care.

Ingrid answered that call and took an early retirement. When Maria passed away in 2019, Ingrid wanted to honor her mother’s strength and resilience, so she decided to make one of the most powerful investments a supporter can make — committing to a legacy gift for Children’s Aid. Ingrid shared that she “… wants to create a brighter future for the next generation of New Yorkers and their families, just like my mother experienced.”

If you were a Children’s Aid kid, please tell us your story. We would love to hear from you.

Executive Update Our Homemaker Services program, which helps parents maintain a safe living environment for their kids, recently received a threeyear accreditation from Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). We are now one of fewer than 10 agencies working in New York City that have been backed by CARF. Vice President of Collective Impact and Director of National Center for Community Schools Abe Fernández was recognized on City & State New York’s 2021 Bronx Power 100 List for helping create a cradleto-college and career structure in the Bronx, and for spreading our community schools strategy locally and nationally.

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Every Step of the Way 85% of our early childhood kids met or exceeded their developmental milestones, despite pandemic disruptions.

95%+ K-8 respondents strongly agreed that our summer enrichment program helped them acquire positive relationship skills, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and decisionmaking skills that they can use in the school year.

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mental health counseling sessions offered in the 202021 school year to children and youth struggling with emotional wellness during the pandemic.

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Children’s Aid Creates Pandemic Blueprint for Youth in Foster Care

As part of Children’s Aid’s state advocacy work, we serve as the backbone organization for the Fostering Youth Success Alliance (FYSA). FYSA was launched in 2014 to promote policies and programs that offer young people with foster care backgrounds opportunities to set high expectations and achieve their goals.

FYSA works with city and state agencies, advocates, and stakeholders across the state impacted by the foster care system, focusing advocacy on the socioeconomic issues that impact youth with a foster care background, including K-12 education, higher education, housing, and health. FYSA’s signature initiative, the Foster Youth College Success Initiative, helps more than 2,000 current and former youth in care who attend college in New York state with financial, academic, and emotional support. We also provide opportunities to develop advocacy skills, including: Foster Youth Shadow Days with elected officials, our Annual FYSA Advocacy Day at the state Capitol, and our Student Advocate Program. Recently, we launched the Foster Youth Online Forums to address needs during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, FYSA conducted a pandemic impact survey of older youth from foster care and this summer released the results in a report: “Moving Forward: A Post-Pandemic Blueprint for New York’s Foster Youth.” Staff from

Children’s Aid, the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, and the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies designed the study’s survey (a replication of a May 2020 national survey by Foster Club), focusing on housing, education, and health care.

To help spread the findings, we hosted a series of four webinars with students; community leaders; advocates; and state, city, and federal elected officials focused on understanding and addressing the needs of New York state’s foster youth in the aftermath of the pandemic. We also spotlighted policy recommendations that address both pre- and post-pandemic issues of concern for young people with a foster care background across the state.

Overall, we found that, without intervention and additional resources, the instability and disconnection magnified during the pandemic will persist and prevent growth and achievement for the state’s foster youth. For example, our survey found that nearly 25% of respondents faced or feared housing instability. Our policy recommendations for that issue include increasing direct assistance to help former youth in care secure and maintain supportive housing in New York City and expanding access to housing subsidies for all New York state youth with a foster care background.

This COVID-19 impact study reinforces FYSA’s call for legislators to address the urgent needs of thousands of young people striving for success, and Children’s Aid will continue to uplift these calls.

Children’s Aid | SPRING FALL 2021 2020

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A Partnership to Support Academic Recovery When schools closed at the beginning of the pandemic, we all hoped summer 2020 might mark a return to normal. But shortly before the start of the break, the New York City government announced restrictions and cancellations to summer programming. Our staff found some common themes in their conversations with our families: Kids across the city were disappointed by the prospect of losing out on even more time with their friends, and parents were worried that their kids would fall further behind in their learning.

In response, Children’s Aid partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to craft a programming plan to meet the unique needs of the moment. Long regarded as a nationwide leader in education, the foundation was the perfect partner to work with Children’s Aid’s National Center for Community Schools (NCCS). The foundation recognized the unique multidimensional role that Children’s Aid has as a leading provider of programs and services; as an expert resource that offers technical assistance and guidance to school districts around the country; and as effective advocates for public policy changes.

The foundation’s Senior Program Officer Jill Hawley said this trifecta of services was crucial, specifically our, “ability to move quickly to activate staff, resources, and funding to meet immediate needs.”

“Recovery Lab” launched in summer 2020 and enabled 29 community-based organizations (CBOs) to support nearly 6,700 students from high-poverty neighborhoods who were most likely to be impacted by disruptions in learning.

“Recovery Lab” sites focused primarily on ensuring students were ready academically, socially, and emotionally for the 2020-2021 school year while also recognizing that students’ needs extended beyond the classroom. The programs connected students with food assistance, telehealth services, access to technology and remote learning devices, and more.

By the end of the summer, outcomes had exceeded our expectations. At Children’s Aid’s own “Recovery Lab” site in the South Bronx, for example, students gained an incredible three months of reading proficiency during just a five-week period. With support from the foundation, Children’s Aid published a report that was distributed widely to other providers. According to Jill, it “shares critical lessons learned for other CBOs, and includes insightful recommendations for policymakers and funders in such areas as flexibility, technology, staff capacity, the role of CBOs, and the need to focus on both academics and social-emotional learning.”

This school year, thanks to continued support from the foundation, we’re building on the lessons from “Recovery Lab” to launch “Improvement Lab,” which takes the pandemic recovery work to the next level of impact. It ensures that a pilot group of CBOs can work more effectively with community schools by strengthening their partnerships and increasing school attendance.

We are grateful to the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, the Robin Hood Relief Fund, the Gray Foundation, and the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust for underwriting the program implementation phase of Recovery Lab.

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Photo Key: 1. Annual Benefit Co-hosts Richard Lloyd and Keisha Lewis Moreno. Both are sophomores at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School in the Bronx, a Children’s Aid community school. 2. (Left to right) Board Member and Benefit Host Committee Co-chair Tom Reynolds, Benefit Honoree Reggie Van Lee, Staten Island’s P.S. 31 Principal Dan Singleton and his wife, Karyn Lind. 3. President and CEO Phoebe C. Boyer, Benefit Committee Member Leslie Bhutani. 4.

Benefit Honoree Reggie Van Lee’s table of friends and colleagues. 5. Benefit attendees raising their paddles during the pledge moment. 6. (Left to right) Board Member and Benefit Host Committee Co-chair Beth Leventhal, Janet Franco, Vice President of Education and Head of School Drema Brown, Children’s Aid College Prep Charter School Board Member Michelle Rumph, Barbara Widder. 7. (Left to right) Board Member and Benefit Committee Member Sebastian Guth, Corina Fibig, Benefit Committee Member Julie Guth, Andreas Fibig.

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13 6 Photo Key: 8. Children’s Aid alumnus and current NYU drama student Manny De La Rosa performs at our annual benefit. 9. Lucas Hunt running a live auction at our annual benefit. 10. Children enjoying a book together during backto-school season at Drew Hamilton Early Childhood Center in Harlem. 11. COVID-19 vaccines are administered outside our Richmond Early Childhood Center on Staten Island. 12. Kids celebrate Halloween at P.S. 8 in Washington Heights, a Children’s Aid community school. 13. A child shows off their letter practice at our Drew Hamilton Early Childhood Center in Harlem.

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Please note: All guests were required to show proof of full vaccination at the door and were requested to be masked when not actively eating or drinking. Children’s Aid limited event attendance to 33% of the venue’s capacity. Further, a special air filtration system and rigorous sanitation protocols were employed to ensure the continued safety of guests.

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Keeping His Eye on the Target, Preparing to Make an Impact Cesar attended Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School, a Children’s Aid community school. In the ninth grade, Children’s Aid mentors encouraged him to join the technology club. Though he was younger than some of his peers, Cesar decided to take on a leadership role.

Cesar Villalona still vividly remembers the first Children’s Aid program he participated in. “I was introduced to the archery program where I was taught the basics by Coach Brown,” he said. “This was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had, and it really was the first time I opened up to trying something new and exploring new interests.”

Cesar, the youngest of four siblings born to Dominican immigrants, continued to take advantage of Children’s Aid programming throughout middle and high school. He received homework help at Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School in the Bronx and participated in our Go!Healthy cooking classes where he learned to make nutritious vegetarian meals.

As part of a Verizon initiative, the club was asked to create solutions for a community issue. Cesar suggested that his team clean up the polluted Bronx River. Their app, which tested the turbidity, PH levels, and salinity of the water, won second place in the nationwide competition.

Cesar worked hard to gain acceptance to college, and received a financial aid package to SUNY New Paltz to study computer science. But it wasn’t enough. A discrepancy of a few thousand dollars per semester would force Cesar to find ways to fill the gap, so our College Access and Success program stepped in with an $8,000 scholarship. Cesar recently began his freshman year at his dream school as a first-generation college student. “In college, I hope to continue to grow, learn, and ultimately make contributions to the field of computer science,” he said. “I hope to make a big impact on the world.”

S AV E T H E D AT E

23RD ANNUAL

GOLF CL A SSIC MAY 9 2022 BALTUSROL GOLF CLUB

For more information or to reserve your spot, please contact events@ChildrensAidNYC.org.

ChildrensAidNYC.org

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  : ChildrensAidNYC

#CAGolfClassic

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