SPRING 2014 · VOL. 08 · NO. 01
From the President and CEO Remember your first summer job?
CAMBA Keeps Families Together
Wasn’t it great to feel grown up and starting your career… cashing your first check… deciding how to spend (or save) your own money? As much as you enjoyed the cash, you also pocketed some valuable experiences that influenced you for a lifetime: You gained a first-hand taste of the real world, glimpses into various fields open to you, an introduction to mentors and an understanding of why education is so important.
Nicola Wills of CAMBA, left, with Felicia and her father Ronald
Ronald had a hard life: He was estranged from his mother, lived on the streets, dropped out of school. That’s why he beams now when he reports that his 16-year-old daughter Felicia was named “Student of the Month,” made the honor roll and aspires to become a lawyer. Against all odds, Ronald has become a successful parent—thanks to his unwavering determination, hard work, help from Case Manager Nicola Wills at CAMBA’s Myrtle Avenue supportive housing residence and a pilot project called Keeping Families Together (KFT). Ronald and Felicia’s struggles embody some of the most challenging issues that confront families whose children are at risk of foster care placement. Felicia, who never knew her mom, rotated through homeless shelters as her dad fought to hold a job—and hold on to custody. Their lives changed when the Corporation for Supportive Housing, Robert Wood Johnson and CAMBA implemented a new model program at the Myrtle Avenue Apartments in Bedford-Stuyvesant. This unique program provided extensive wrap-
around services that ensured Ronald and his daughter remained together and thriving: safe housing, access to health care, counseling, legal services, job assistance, benefits, education, parenting classes—whatever they needed. After the KFT pilot ended, Nicola says that CAMBA modeled services for all 11 families living in the Myrtle Avenue Apartments on this initiative—with impressive success rates. “We’ve been fortunate in so many things,” Ronald says. “Nicola is what makes this program work so well,” he adds. “If you go to her and say ‘I need this,’ she is always ready to help.” After life in a shelter, Felicia says she feels safe at Myrtle Avenue. “I’m comfortable in this building and I have friends here.”
Summer jobs and internships, coupled with meaningful learning experiences, lead to personal growth. And they are especially beneficial for the low-income teenagers that CAMBA serves, who too often lack entry into the job market. That’s why CAMBA builds work opportunities into so many of our programs for teens, from our Learning to Work program for high school students, to Summer Youth Employment jobs, to our Beacon Centers, which hire young people as they develop leadership skills. To meet the employment demand for more of our young people who seek a productive summer in 2014, CAMBA has launched our first annual Earn and Learn Fund. This campaign seeks support to create paid, meaningful internships for 25 qualified high school students and reaches out to companies to provide paid summer internships. Turn to page 3 to meet some CAMBA students who’ve benefited from summer internships and let them tell you how these opportunities transformed their lives. Please consider reaching into your pocket or asking your company to help a young person Earn and Learn this summer. You will change the trajectory of a young life!