Grants Newsletter February 2013

Making your giving matter more... since 1924 February 2013 NEWSLETTER

GRANTS

You know that good feeling you get when you help make things better?

This newsletter looks at grants that were made possible in large part by generous New Yorkers who wanted to make a difference—and set up endowed funds with us. To find out how you can leave your own legacy, contact our general counsel, Jane Wilton at (212) 686–2563 or janewilton@nyct-cfi.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 A $42 Million Gift from Brooke Astor to Educate Young New Yorkers 2 Keeping Baby on Track when Mom is in School 4 When Free Food Means Keeping Fido at Home 4 Headhunting Locally for Jobs in the Yard 5 Emergency Grants for Sandy Relief 6 Other Grants

Who’s There for the Child whose Mom is in Jail?

M

ore women than ever before are being sent to prison in New York, and more than half are mothers. The trauma of separation from their children can be devastating and visits are often difficult and infrequent, especially if mom is placed upstate.

“Incarcerated parents are often single parents and their children need people in their lives that will provide positive feedback, guidance, and consistency,” says Patricia White, program director at The Trust. She adds, “gangs thrive when young people have no other family.” The absence of a caring parent makes it more likely that kids will get in trouble, abuse drugs, and stop going to school, eventually repeating their parents’ mistakes and ending up in prison.

Children and their mentors at an Hour Children square dance and craft party at St. Patrick’s Church in Astoria, Queens.

“Incarcerated parents are often single parents and their children need people in their lives that will provide positive feedback, guidance, and consistency.”

—Patricia White, program director at The Trust

Stuyvesant, and Harlem. The grant will also be used to get kids involved in afterschool and summer programs and to continue to make the case to the City and State that investing in these children today really pays off.

Five-year-old Maria’s mom and dad both served time and are now released. She spends quality time with her mentor Yesilin while her mother attends school full time.

Hour Children, a group that has helped the incarcerated and their families for 26 years, runs a mentoring program for kids ages 4 to 17 with a parent currently or recently in prison.

“At our Christmas party this year, people thought some of the mentors might be aunts or uncles—they were so involved in the lives of the kids—there is a real quality and depth to their relationships,” says Sister Theresa Fitzgerald, the executive director of Hour Children. She says they try to match the children with mentors soon after incarceration of their mothers (and sometimes fathers) to help with the initial trauma of the parent’s absence.

Some pairs have been together for more than four years.

Last year, federal funding for this and similar programs was cut, but our 2011 grant of $60,000 helped make sure all 200 children were able to stay with their mentors. The grant also helped hire an organizer who secured additional foundation funding and built public support for the program.

A December grant of $100,000 is helping Hour Children work with Children of Promise, the Family Center, and In Arms Reach to support 250 mentoring relationships at locations in Long Island City, Bedford-

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A $42 Million Gift from Brooke Astor to Educate Young New Yorkers This year, Santa was wearing pearls. In late December, The New York Community Trust was selected by the New York State Attorney General’s Office to administer the $42 million Brooke Astor Fund for New York City Education. Of the Fund’s estimated total of $42 million, approximately $35 million will improve the reading skills of City students in the early grades.

“We’re honored to be able to carry out Brooke Astor’s charitable legacy. In a city of truly great philanthropists, her personal connection to the New Yorkers she helped was singular,” said president Lorie A. Slutsky. “We look forward to combining our experience in the field of education with Mrs. Astor’s vision to help our young students become great readers.”

The Trust will assemble an advisory committee that will consult on grantmaking. We expect to issue guidelines for grant proposals in the spring.

Keeping Baby on Track when Mom is in School Babies of teen mothers often start off behind the curve: premature birth, poverty, and inexperienced parenting threaten their ability to relate, cooperate, show initiative, or exercise self-control as they grow. Without developing these skills, a child will face a lifetime of challenges and have a difficult time learning and participating in a regular classroom.

With a grant to the Center for Children’s Initiatives, staff in high school and CUNY child care facilities are being trained to assess and foster social and emotional development of infants and toddlers. Photo: FamilyMWR

While their mothers go to high school or community college, many of these little ones spend their days in care provided by the Department of Education and CUNY community college child care programs. Most CUNY students balance work with studies, and many have the added stress of being new immigrants and English language learners. Because these children face so many obstacles, giving them the support they need is critical.

Many teachers, however, are not trained to recognize and take action on social and emotional development cues and red flags.

With a $50,000 grant, the Center for Children’s Initiatives will work with the Devereux Early Childhood Initiative to train teachers in these child care facilities to assess children’s social and emotional development, and work with parents to bring the nurturing home.

If a 2-year-old hits her playmates or gets easily frustrated and throws tantrums, her young parents may not know how to show her other ways of getting what she needs or expressing herself. “Parents will often yell or tell their toddler ‘No!’ but not explain why or help the child to get past her bad behavior,” says Nancy Kolben, the executive director of the Center. “Infants and toddlers need love and nurturing care in order to feel valued, have a sense of security, and have healthy social and emotional

functioning,” says Susan Damico, assistant director of the Devereux Center for Resilient Children. “Our programs show how every moment of every day is an opportunity to provide this care: through holding, making eye contact, smiling, singing, reading, and play.”

“Teachers know the importance of milestones, such as crawling, walking, and talking,” continues Kolben.

When a child isn’t meeting these milestones, teachers know that intervention is necessary to help the child catch up. The Devereux Approach gives teachers a 5-step method to assess the behavior of infants and toddlers, help them build resiliency to cope with change and adversity, and make sure the child is getting necessary help. It gives teachers and parents concrete tools to help children foster trust, play well with others, express their feelings, and develop patience.

“Infants and toddlers need love and nurturing care in order to feel valued, have a sense of security, and have healthy social and emotional functioning.”

—Susan Damico, assistant director of the Devereux Center for Resilient Children

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Headhunting Locally for Jobs in the Yard Finding the right person for the job is a job in itself, but do headhunters for middle- and entry-level positions exist?

Fewer pets will go hungry this year after a Trust grant to the Food Bank for New York City helped double the size of its pet food program.

When Free Food Means Keeping Fido at Home More pet owners are surrendering cats and dogs to shelters for adoption because they can no longer afford to feed them. Food stamps don’t cover pet food in New York, so when jobs are lost or social security payments can’t cover medicine and dog chow, New Yorkers are facing the painful choice of letting their pets go hungry or dropping them off at a shelter.

They do at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, one of the biggest job creation success stories in recent City history.

A $65,000 grant is enabling the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation to add staff to its employment center to assist growing businesses in the Yard meet their workforce needs. It will work closely with business employers to identify qualified local residents who meet these needs, providing human resource services for companies without an “HR” department.

The center will work closely with Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, which was recently awarded $50,000 to train military veterans, local public housing residents, and hard-to-employ New Yorkers.

“We have a strong track record of placing folks in jobs that start at $12 an hour and become pathways to the

Thankfully, more fortunate animal lovers found a way to make sure the City’s furry inhabitants are cared for.

Three funds in The Trust were set up by will to benefit animals. Together, they fund our modest animal welfare grant program.

This year, a grant of $59,000 supports the Food Bank for New York City’s pet food distribution program. New Yorkers can go to one of twenty food pantries for free cat and dog food that they can bring home in addition to food for the human members of their families. Last year’s $63,000 grant helped the Food Bank double the size of the program and negotiate agreements with five additional manufacturers, including Del Monte and Central Pet Food.

Member food pantries can log in to the Bank’s online system to get updates on availability and put in requests.

“With the help of our donors, the Food Bank is not just ending hunger in New York, but allowing an elderly woman to keep her sole companion or kids to keep the family dog,” says program officer Irfan Hasan. “Cats and dogs avoid the trauma of being sent to a shelter they risk never leaving.”

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(Above) Rob Easter, distilleryman, tests the proof of a newly made spirit at Kings County Distillery.

(Right) An employee at Crye Precision sews specialized ballistic gear for the U.S. Armed Forces.

Photos: Amy Wolf

middle class,” says Andrew Kimball, executive director of the Development Corporation. He also points out that hiring local is “stabilizing for the individual and the businesses,” as people with easy commutes are more likely to stay at their jobs.

A portion of the grant also helped Navy Yard businesses flooded by Hurricane Sandy get up and running again.

The Corporation counseled tenants on applying for emergency City, State, and federal business loans.

Kimball continued, “Because we went to work quickly, our tenants are well positioned to receive significant loans once they become available.”

Emergency Grants for Sandy Relief Within hours of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall, many of New York City’s nonprofits mobilized, organizing and distributing donations; dispatching volunteers; and helping people find food and shelter and apply for FEMA assistance. Libraries, advocacy groups, community development organizations, and others worked around the clock, supplementing the work of the City’s first responders. We weren’t surprised that Trust donors also responded immediately, contributing $500,000 in two weeks. In short order, we made $500,000 in emergency grants to help groups providing disaster relief.

They are listed below.

The Trust’s Hurricane Sandy Fund is accepting donations and we will continue to make grants to help recovery and rebuilding efforts.

Astella Development Corporation, $15,000, Coney Island, Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York, $15,000, Citywide Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), $15,000, Lower East Side, Manhattan Community Health Action of Staten Island, $20,000, New Dorp Beach, South Beach, and Midland Beach

(Above) New York Cares held a feast prepared by award-winning New Orleans chefs at Middle School 53Q in Far Rockaway. More than 50 volunteers made the day special for residents by serving food and providing holiday cheer. Photo: Josh Winata (Below) Though most of its Rockaway branches were severely flooded, Queens Library’s buses provided a place for families to take refuge from the cold. Outside the mobile library, volunteers and library staff distributed supplies and grilled hamburgers.

City Harvest, $35,000, Citywide Citymeals-on-Wheels, $15,000, Citywide Food Bank for New York City, $35,000, Citywide Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), $10,000, Lower East Side, Manhattan Heritage Preservation, $15,000, Citywide Institute for Community Living, $13,000, Long Island City, Queens Mental Health Association of New York City, $15,000, Citywide Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, $40,000, Rockaways, Queens; Staten Island; Coney Island, Brooklyn New York Cares, $15,000, Citywide Ocean Bay Community Development Corporation, $25,000, Rockaways, Queens Project Hospitality/El Centro del Inmigrante, $50,000, Staten Island Queens Library Foundation, $32,000, Rockaways, Queens Red Hook Initiative, $30,000, Red Hook, Brooklyn Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, $15,000, Rockaways, Queens Salvation Army, $30,000, Rockaways, Queens; Staten Island United Neighborhood Houses, $60,000, Lower Manhattan The Trust also contributed $1 million to the NYC Nonprofit Recovery Loan Program to give interest-free loans ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. Priority is being given to organizations that have suffered the most severe losses and/or are operating in the most devastated areas. The loans will be made against expected claims filed with the nonprofits’ insurance firms, payout from FEMA, contracts, and grants.

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Other Grants Getting Down to Business ACCION USA, $30,000 for a microloan fund for female entrepreneurs and workshops on cash flow management, bookkeeping, and credit repair. | Citywide Center for Working Families, $80,000 to promote and expand a statewide program that creates green jobs and finances energy-retrofits for an aging housing stock in Albany, Buffalo, Binghamton, Long Island, and New York City. | Statewide Citizens Housing and Planning Council of New York, $75,000 to research the effects of demographic changes on neighborhood housing markets. | Citywide City Futures, $40,000 to study Queens County’s economy with an eye toward identifying strategies for expanding the borough’s ability to generate jobs. The Center for an Urban Future will conduct the study, working with the Queens Economic Development Corporation and dozens of Queens community, civic, and business leaders. | Queens City Limits, $40,000 to restart the Bronx News Network, an online news digest aggregated from six community newspapers. | The Bronx Neighborhood Opportunities Fund, $75,000 to support community development organizations. | Citywide Workforce Development Corporation, $160,000 to manage the New York Alliance for Careers in Health Care, a project started by The Trust that trains workers for available jobs in health care. | Citywide Gay and Gray Queens Community House, $30,000 for recreation, arts, exercise, theater outings, and social services for gay and lesbian elders. | Forest Hills, Queens Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), $53,000 to redesign the agency’s social service offerings at the City’s first gay and lesbian senior center and expand its program for gay elders in Harlem. | Citywide and Harlem Arts and Culture Actors Fund, $25,000 for a joint program with the Medicare Rights Center to train volunteers to help aging actors, dancers, and musicians register for Medicare. | Citywide Hive Digital Media Learning Fund, $200,000 for a grantmaking program that promotes adolescents’ learning through digital media. | Citywide

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GRANTS Newsletter

Building robots is part of the curriculum at a National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering Academy, a competitive program in City high schools in which students take advanced math, science, and engineering courses.

International Documentary Association, $250,000 for cash awards to filmmakers producing documentaries that examine issues and social conditions across America in the manner of Pare Lorentz, who made documentaries for the Franklin Roosevelt administration. | National Latino Public Broadcasting, $18,000 for community screenings of a new documentary on the history of Latinos in America at City museums, community centers, and schools. | Citywide Long Island City Cultural Alliance, $45,000 to hire a coordinator to promote and increase attendance at its member arts groups in Long Island City. | Long Island City, Queens School’s In Learning through an Expanded Arts Program (LEAP), $35,000 to help teachers use the arts to improve the literacy skills of third, fourth, and fifth graders in 13 elementary schools. | Brownsville, Bushwick, Clinton Hill, Cypress Hills, East Flatbush, and Midwood in Brooklyn; the East Village and Lower East Side in Manhattan; and Castle Hill, Fordham Heights, Melrose, and Williamsbridge in the Bronx.

National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, $132,500 to provide college scholarships to black and Latino students to study engineering. | Marble Hill, Bronx; Downtown, Brooklyn; Richmond Hill, Queens; Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan

Free Legal Help on Staten Island Legal Information for Families Today, $30,000 to help residents navigate family court. | Staten Island Legal Services NYC, $30,000 to expand legal help for the rapidly growing immigrant communities on the Island. | Staten Island Help for Young Immigrants MinKwon Center for Community Action, $45,000 for a coalition of eight immigrant groups that are helping youth who were brought to this country without papers understand and apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which lets them work and study in the U.S. without fear of deportation. | Flushing, Queens Sauti Yetu Center for African Women, $40,000 to help eight immigrant groups representing different languages, nationalities, and neighborhoods improve their relationships with public schools to help English language learners succeed socially and academically. | Citywide Biomedical Research Mount Sinai School of Medicine, $44,000 to study new methods to reduce hospital-acquired infections. | Harlem and Upper East Side, Manhattan Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, $80,000 to study neuropathy in veterans with traumatic brain injury. | Citywide

Health Systems American Geriatrics Society, $100,000 to train clinicians in community health centers to diagnose and treat the elderly. | Citywide Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, $80,000 to train clinicians to identify and treat girls and young women who are victims of intimate-partner violence. | South Bronx and Upper Manhattan New York Medical College, $60,000 to study how earned income tax credits improve the health of poor children. | Statewide Improving Social Work Catholic University of America, $48,000 to document the use of effective practices by recent graduates of social work schools. | National National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, $345,000 to provide scholarships for graduate social work students in health care. | National Towards a Brighter Future Center for Economic Opportunity, $300,000 for Project Rise, an intensive education and paid internship program for unemployed young people, former foster care teens, and those without high school diplomas. | Citywide HeartShare Human Services of New York, $60,000 for cash grants to poor families to keep on the lights and heat. Families are also referred to other social services. | Citywide South Asian Youth Action, $65,000 to offer a new eighthgrade course to prepare for the City’s Specialized High School Admissions Test and a new summer leadership program for high school students. | Elmhurst and Richmond Hill, Queens

Students in LEAP’s Arts Learning Leads to Literacy program visit Senator Gillibrand’s office to read stories they have created in class with teaching artist Adriane Haye.

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909 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 www.nycommunitytrust.org Address Service Requested

GRANTS February 2013 NEWSLETTER

Inside:

A $42 Million Gift from Brooke Astor to Educate Young New Yorkers, Keeping Baby on Track when Mom is in School, When Free Food Means Keeping Fido at Home, and More ...

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 5013 New York, NY

The grants described in this issue were approved by The New York Community Trust’s governing body at its December 2012 meeting. For grantee contact information, or for more information about the grants, please call The Trust’s receptionist at 212.686.0010, ext. 0.

This issue and past newsletters can be found at www.nycommunitytrust.org.

If you’d prefer to receive our newsletter by e-mail, write to newsletter@nyct-cfi.org.

A grant to the Long Island City Cultural Alliance is helping bring more visitors to destinations such as Socrates Sculpture Park, which exhibited Floating Echo by Chang-Jin Lee.

Most of the grants in our newsletter are made possible through the generosity of past donors who established permanent, charitable funds with us during their lifetimes or through their wills. To learn more about setting up a fund, now or in the future, please contact our general counsel, Jane Wilton, at 212.686.2563.