Dear Supporters,
With the school year in full swing again, I want to tell you about a recent day at Whitney Young Jr. campus in the South Bronx, where we operate an early childhood program and a community school. This campus is located in one of the poorest Congressional Districts in the country, but you wouldn’t know that based on the rich experiences that youth and families have access to here.
As soon as you step foot in the building, you see our community school office. Parents know that they are welcome to drop in any time to get assistance for their children. There are also learning opportunities for the parents themselves, including courses for high school equivalency diplomas and English as a second language. Around the corner from the office, every Thursday, we host a food distribution program where families can purchase affordable, farm-fresh produce to make sure that there’s healthy food on the table every night.
Children’s Aid
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On site, there are also staff advocates who help ensure our children have no barriers to everyday attendance; nurses who help them stay healthy; and counselors who support their social-emotional development.
The beautiful thing is that what’s happening at Whitney Young is also happening at all 20 of our community schools across the city. We’re breaking down barriers for our children brick by brick. We’re making sure that our young people — and their families — have everything they need to succeed and thrive.
Your support makes it possible for our children to have not only a quality education, but also a quality life. To see their smiling faces as they bounce down the hallways is to understand the power and the importance of our mission.
C. Boyer President and Chief Executive OfficerCaroline Gallagher Chief Development Officer
Anthony Ramos Vice President, Marketing and Communications
ChildrensAidNYC.org 212.949.4936
On the Cover:
A preschooler plays catch with her teacher at our Richmond Early Childhood Center on Staten Island.
Shakima didn’t even know such an option existed. Jeremiah began school, and Shakima describes the on-site access to doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals as “godsent.”
At the health center, Jeremiah created a plan with our medical providers to keep the asthma attacks at bay. Before and after lunch, and before and after gym class, Jeremiah would receive an intensive inhaler with a special “spacer” treatment administered by medical professionals. After some time, Jeremiah became more comfortable with these treatments and our staff, and he learned how to administer the spacer treatment on himself. On days when he was frequently using his self-administered inhaler, Jeremiah could refill it at our SBHC between classes. With this continued care and support, Jeremiah’s asthma continued to improve.
Office of Public Policy
Assistant Director Michelle Avila was honored as a City & State New York “2022
Jeremiah, a Children’s Aid community school student from 2019-2022.
For many parents, sending their child to elementary school each morning is as simple as saying, “Have a great day.” For a Bronx resident named Shakima, the experience was much more difficult — her son Jeremiah was severely asthmatic and had prediabetes. “In elementary school, if he was having trouble with asthma, all they would offer him was an icepack,” Shakima said. “So, if he wasn’t feeling completely well or his asthma was acting up, he just stayed home from school.” Jeremiah racked up many absences.
When Jeremiah entered middle school in 2019, his mother found I.S. 219 New Venture School in the Bronx, a Children’s Aid community school that has one of our school-based health centers (SBHCs) on site. It felt too good to be true —
When Jeremiah got into a healthy routine, he was inspired to continue the momentum. Working closely with our SBHC, Jeremiah received nutritional counseling and created a nutrition plan. After some time, he lost weight and improved his blood sugar levels, which, combined with his improvement in his asthma, increased his overall health significantly.
By the end of middle school, Jeremiah accomplished a feat he never would have thought possible: he avoided having an asthma attack at school for three years — and he credits that to the careful care and attention he received at his SBHC. Jeremiah is currently in ninth grade at “A School Without Walls,” a virtual high school based in Brooklyn. “He’s doing awesome at school and with his health,” said Shakima. “We haven’t had any issues with asthma.”
Nonprofit 40 Under 40.” She was recognized for securing $1 million in city discretionary funding, spearheading our 2020 census outreach efforts, and for her advocacy for the federal child tax credit and COVID-19 relief funds for nonprofits and families.
Goodhue Community Center Office Manager Katie LiVolsi won a Nonprofit Staten Island community service award for her 14 years of incredible impact on the Staten Island community and for her dedicated service during the start of the pandemic.
families were served by our prevention services July 2021 – June 2022, 98% of whom successfully maintained strong families and prevented foster care placements.
In 1994, Kansas-native Robert Goheen wrote to Children’s Aid asking for information about his family history, which he knew involved the Orphan Trains — an 1854 - 1929 movement to find homes across the country for New York City’s homeless children. Shortly after, he was delighted to open the mail and find a six-page response with photos enclosed.
youth worked in our paid Summer Youth Employment Program positions this summer.
93%
of children ages 3-7 receiving medical care in our community health centers had a well-child visit.
Robert learned about his maternal grandfather, Frank Brady, who was a shipbuilder in Brooklyn. He died around 1910, and his wife, Anna, died a few years later in 1915. Their death left Robert’s mother, Gertrude, and her three siblings orphaned. The siblings were then placed on the Orphan Trains to live with families in Hiawatha, Kansas.
Robert read about how his mother became close with Anna Laura Hill, the Children’s Aid social worker who checked in on the siblings and provided financial support all the way through 1942. Robert was heartened to read in the letter that Gertrude acted as a surrogate mother to her siblings, “coming to their aid, counseling and supporting them…urging them to continue school.” Robert also read about his mother’s siblings, like his uncle Walter, who Children’s Aid moved back to New York City to enroll
in farm school. After farm school, he joined the Navy, and then moved to the Bronx to begin working for a brush company.
The letter also contained the location of Frank and Anna’s unmarked burial plot in Brooklyn’s Evergreens Cemetery. Touched by this piece of family history he thought was lost, Robert asked his daughter, Michelle, to travel to Brooklyn with her husband to provide something Frank and Anna were missing for 100 years — a proper gravestone.
Robert was so grateful that he began donating to Children’s Aid. When he passed away in 2015, his family contributed more than $5,000 in his memory to us.
Throughout this journey, Michelle was fascinated to learn about this history and about what we do in New York City. “I really admire the help you provide to children and families,” she said. “That letter about our family history was so graciously presented, and my dad was always so appreciative.” Michelle continues to donate to Children’s Aid today, year after year, giving back to help ensure that today’s young people have what they need to succeed and thrive.
Our Public Policy Team partnered with our Summer Youth Employment Program office this summer to offer dozens of young people a paid opportunity to learn about public service and advocacy.
This was the 11th year of our Community Building Summer Internship Program, and its first time back since the pandemic. During the 10-week program taking place Mondays through Thursdays, youth interned in local government offices of elected officials to learn about public service. Every Friday, youth worked with the Children’s Aid Public Policy Team on how to identify the causes closest to their hearts, how to tell powerful stories about those issues, and how to effect change through advocacy.
“This was my first job,” said Emily Argriro. “Before this, I didn’t know what local leaders did. But being in [New York State Assembly Member] Edward Gibbs’ office showed me how much they help their constituents with important issues. I learned a bunch about community building and made a bunch of new friends.”
Our interns worked at political offices throughout New York City, including: U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres; Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson; Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine; New York State Assembly Members Michael Cusick, Manny De Los Santos, Inez Dickens, Charles Fall, and Edward Gibbs; New York City Council Members Shaun Abreu, Oswald Feliz, Kamillah Hanks, Rafael Salamanca Jr., Althea Stevens, and Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala; and New York State Senators Cordell Cleare, Gustavo Rivera, and Luis R. Sepúlveda.
They learned about the impact that these local offices have on the lives of their neighbors, and came away with the knowledge that they could be change-makers in their communities.
During the sessions with Children’s Aid, interns completed advocacy projects on issues they feel are facing their communities. They chose challenging topics like gun violence, police brutality, and youth mental health. Through their research, they not only explored the extent of the problems, but also potential solutions. They shared their projects with staff from political offices and Children’s Aid employees at a culminating event in August.
“We really learned about the value of youth advocacy,” said Zelena Victor, one of the youth participants. “We bring out a voice that isn’t often heard.”
Photo Key: 1. Children’s Aid staff honoree representatives with President and CEO Phoebe C. Boyer, pictured in the center of the group. 2. From left, student co-hosts Daren Manning and Sockona Doucoure emcee the event and describe their experiences at our Hope Leadership Academy. 3. Guests raise their paddles in support of our young people during the direct pledge and auction. 4. Back row, from right, David Vaucher and Trustee Gregory E. Kerr, M.D., with their table guests. 5. At the cocktail reception, from left, Trustee Eren Rosenfeld, Trustee Russell Diamond and Mica Diamond, and Trustee Linda Kao. 6. Children’s Aid youth ambassador Tauryian Sparrow recounts her years in our foster care program and her relationship with her Children’s Aid mentor. 7. Executive Vice President Sandra Escamilla-Davies speaks from the podium. 8. Piper Sandler guests with Todd Snyder, fifth from left, and President and CEO Phoebe C. Boyer, sixth from left.
Photo Key: 9. A preschooler poses for her first day of school. 10. Our Curtis High School Health Ambassadors host an information table for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September. 11. Our Food Box program provides fresh produce to our families. 12. CBS covers comedian Tracy Morgan and former Knicks player Allan Houston giving career advice to our broadcast journalism program students. 13. Our preschools celebrate Dads Take Your Child to School Day on September 22. 14. Students from our community school C.S. 211 enjoy a field trip to Playland Park. 15. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, second from left, announces $160,000 in discretionary funding to our Goodhue Community Center and seven other Staten Island organizations. 16. After-school program participants explore Staten Island’s nature. 17. After-school twins show off artwork at our community school I.S. 219 New Venture School.
The 3- and 4-year-olds raced around the garden in search of a cucumber. When they finally found it, in a bed near the entrance gate, they were in awe of the giant green fruit sprouting out of the soil.
It was the beginning of a beautiful morning in a newly redesigned garden at our Next Generation Center in the Bronx. The Next Generation Center primarily serves teenage youth in foster care and young adults who have aged out of the system, but this garden serves a much younger crowd. The produce from this garden will be used to feed the Bronx Early Childhood Center children who raced around the garden and found the hidden cucumber.
Our Go!Healthy team has spent time this year reclaiming and revamping green spaces in our sites across New York City, thanks in part to a USDA farm-to-school grant. In addition to harvesting the produce, we have planted or replanted gardens for use in food education, teaching our schoolage children about the process of planting, cultivating, and cooking fruits, vegetables, and grains.
“The possibilities seem endless with how we can use the space to educate our youth about nutrition, the natural world, and working outside,” said garden coordinator Ava Poon. “Especially while living in the city, it feels so exciting to foster the connection between where our food comes from in the garden to how it got on our plates in the classroom.”
The garden also recently facilitated a connection between our educators and our families. For the first time since the pandemic started, parents have been able to join their children for outdoor excursions.
From a fall festival to daily fresh food for our young people, we’re only just beginning to reap all the good that this garden will grow.
