New York Nonprofit Review March 2016

MEDIA - REVIEW DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

Issue N°8 March 7th, 2016

NEWS

NONPROFIT LEADERS GRAPPLE WITH POST-FEGS REALITIES Read more page 14

SP OTLIGHT

NOTABLES

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTER POLICIES p.17-19

AGENCY OF THE MONTH

INSIDE CLOSE TO HOME

I CHALLENGE MYSELF Read more page 8

p.20-22

TRADE TIPS

YOU NG MONEY

Fundraising strategies to reach millennials

Read more on page 5

FRONT-LINE HERO

CEO CORNER

LY NN LOFLIN, Executive Chef, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House

A Q&A with SUSAN STAMLER, United Neighborhood Houses

Read more page 7

Read more page 10

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2nd Annual

NonprofitOpCon “Streamlining Processes and Operations for New York Nonprofits”

June 9, 2016 at Baruch College, NYC This event focuses on streamlining processes and operations for nonprofits in New York. How do we make things easier and more pleasant for executive leadership, operations, IT, risk, finance, HR and more. There are new industry standards to consider, and new guidelines around applying for public funds to learn. Bring your organization into the 21st century and abandon old practices that are depleting your valuable resources! It’s a new day in the nonprofit industry; join us as we explore these insights and strategies.

Who Will Attend:

Executive Directors, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Accounting Officers and Chief Operating Officers of major nonprofits, City and State Public Officials, and Directors of Information Technology at mid to large sized New York nonprofits; those who service these executives.

Discussions to include:

• Pressures for, Managing and Leadership in Change • Nonprofit Efficiency: Managing Risk, Overhead and Failure • Assessing the real estate process – what are the current trends?

• Effect of the business cycle on nonprofits

Why:

Because of budgets and funding it appears that all nonprofits need automated systems, strong financial practices, smart real estate strategies and multiple grant tracking capabilities. This event will bring together top-level Board Members, Executive Directors and Chief Financial Officers from nonprofits across New York to discuss how to streamline operations processes and make smart choices that effect the day to day and year to year of nonprofit institutions.

• Human Resource Challenges Impacting Financial and Mission Success • What are the latest technological tools for streamlining processes?

• Finance strategies – best practices • Efficiently reporting outcome instead of output

Confirmed Speakers for 2016 include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Chief Operating Officer, Anderson Center for Autism Partner, ArtsPool Director of the Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management, School of Public Affairs at Baruch College Chief, Charities Bureau at New York State Department of Law Senior Project Manager, Center for Court Innovation President and Chief Executive Officer, The Children’s Village Vice President for Human Resources, The Children’s Village Advancement Services Specialist, City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law Founder & Executive Director, Community of Unity Executive Director, East Side House Settlement Director of Development & Communications, The Family Center Chief Strategy and Program Officer, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies Executive Director, Futures and Options Chief Executive Officer, GMHC Executive Director, Human Services Council Chief Executive Officer, LSA Family Health Service, Inc. Nonprofit Contract Facilitator, Mayor’s Office of Contract Services Executive Vice President, National Executive Service Corps Clinical Professor of Public Service, New York University President & Executive Director, Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York Executive Director, Project Pericles, Inc. Director, Reserve NY Executive Director, Salvadori Center Chief Operating Officer, Turkish Philanthropy Funds Executive Director, United Neighborhood Houses

For details on speaking opportunities and for sponsorship and exhibitor information please contact Lissa Blake at 646-517-2741 or lblake@cityandstateny.com

March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

MARCH 2016

CONTENTS TRADE TIPS

5. Young Money: Nonprofit Fundraising Strategies to Reach Millennials 6. Get Your Board to Play the Matching Game

NOTABLES

7. Front-line Hero: Lynn Loflin, Executive Chef at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House 8. Agency of the Month: I Challenge Myself 9. At the Board Table: Suzanne Marquard, GallopNYC 10. CEO Corner: Susan Stamler, United Neighborhood Homes 11. CEO Corner: Alan Mucatel, Leake & Watts 11. CEO Corner: Fatima Shama, Fresh Air Fund 12. Maximize the Return on Investment From Your Events

THANK YOU TO OUR ANNUAL SPONSORS!

AABR

JCCA

Abbott House

Leake & Watts Services

ANDRUS

Life's WORC

Astor Services for Children and

Long Island Adolescent & Family

Families

Services

The Bridge

Mercy Haven

Brooklyn Community Services

Mercy Home for Children

CAMBA

MercyFirst

Cerebral Palsy of Westchester

New Alternatives for Children

Child Care Council of Suffolk, Inc.

New York Asian Women's Center

Children's Home of Poughkeepsie

New York Common Pantry

Children's Village

Ohel Children's Home & Family

COFCCA

Services

Communilife

PSCH

Concern for Independent Living

Public Health Solutions

The Day Care Council of New York

QSAC

The Doe Fund

Richmond Community Services

East Side House

SCO Family of Services, Inc.

Family Services of Westchester

Seaman's Society for Children &

FedCap

Families

Forestdale

Sheltering Arms

Good Shepherd Services

Special Citizen's Futures Unlimited

Graham Windham Services for

St. Catherine's Center for Children

Families and Children

St. Christopher's Inc.

Green Chimneys

St. Dominic's Home

Greystone Programs, Inc.

St. Francis Friends of the Poor

The Guild for Exceptional Children

Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood

Health and Welfare Council of Long

Center

Island

Staten Island Mental Health Society

Heartshare Human Services of NY

Stonewall Foundation

Henry St. Settlement

SUS

Hour Children

United Cerebral Palsy of NYC

Human Services Council

United Neighborhood Houses of

Independence Residences

NY

Institute for Community Living

University Settlement/The Door

MASTHEAD

InterAgency Council of

Vanderheyden Hall

City & State NY, LLC

Developmental Disabilities

Visions/Services for the Blind

Jawonio

William F. Ryan Community Health

JCC of Greater Coney Island

Center

SPOTLIGHT

NEWS

PERSPECTIVES

CAREERS

16. From Juvenile Detention, Redemption Songs 17. An 'Unjust' System: City Alters Policies Harming Homeless Domestic Violence Victims 19. Changes For Domestic Violence Survivors Are Baby Steps, Advocates Say 20. Close to Home Shifts From Correction to Rehabilitation 13. Nonprofits Welcome Palacio, an 'Unknown Quantity' 14. Nonprofit Leaders Grapple With Post-FEGS Realities 15. Nonprofit Revitalization Act Remains 'A Work in progress' 22. State of City Receives Mixed Reviews From Nonprofits 23. Helping Nonprofits Build From the Inside Out 24. Emergency Food Providers Fear Second 'Hunger Cliff ' 25. 'Sea Change' Called For to Help Low-Income LGBT Clients 26. Nonprofits Say Cuomo's Goals Require More Funding, Details 27. Anat Gerstein and Allison Sesso: Will State Ethics Reforms Silence Nonprofits?

27. Jeff Stein: Steven Banks' Winning Playbook 28. Craig Moncho: Violence in the Shelter 29. The go-to career center for New York’s nonprofit industry

61 Broadway, Suite 2235 New York, NY 10006 General (212) 268-0442 Advertising (646) 517-2741 info@nynmedia.com

Steve Farbman, Chairman Tom Allon, President / CEO Andrew Holt, Group Publisher Guillaume Federighi, Creative Director NYN Media

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BECOMING AN ANNUAL SPONSOR IN 2016, PLEASE CONTACT LISSA BLAKE AT 646-517-2471 OR AT LBLAKE@CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Lissa Blake, Publisher AimÉe Simpierre, Editor-at-large Jeff Stein, Contributing Editor Michelle Yang, Senior Designer Chanelle Grannum, Digital Manager Charles Flores, Marketing Designer To have your letter to the editor considered for publication, leave a comment at www.nynmedia.com, tweet us @nyn_media, email info@nynmedia.com or write to 61 Broadway, Suite 2235, New York, NY 10006.

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

AIMÉE SIMPIERRE Editor-at-large

T

his issue, we are taking you to places where government policies meet some of the most vulnerable people.

We go inside the domestic violence shelter system to tell the story of Margarita, an undocumented immigrant with two children who is a domestic violence survivor and has been without steady housing since 2008. We are heartened that in the midst of our questions and reporting for this story, the New York City Human Resources

Administration announced changes to domestic violence shelter policies that directly address some of the issues we raised. They were, admittedly, “baby steps,” but we can’t help but believe our reporting helped move the needle.

In a compassionate editorial submitted to us by a social work practitioner who works with the homeless, we revisit the story of a shelter administrator who lost her life in the course of her work and ask why such risks are sometimes part of the job. We also go inside juvenile detention facilities that are attempting to rehabilitate youth offenders by instituting Carnegie Hall-sponsored arts programs or relocating the actual detention centers so that they are closer to home, feel less like an institution and include a more “restorative approach.”

In the midst of advocating for policy changes and budget increases, it is essential to maintain focus on the lives that are being affected. The outcomes and impacts that everyone strives to measure play out in significant ways around kitchen tables, in newly opened supportive housing units and at your local church’s food pantry. I’m

proud of our reporting in this month’s issue and hope that you will take the time to be introduced to some people and some settings where the stories are not always comfortable, but need to be told.

Simultaneously, successful management and operations practices are what make programs run. So when the nonprofit community takes a moment to reflect on what caused one of the largest organizations in the sector to implode, we need to share those learnings as widely as possible. When the mindset of the next generation of potential donors to your organization requires that you strategize a totally different fundraising approach, we’ll want to share that, too. And if your board members need their fundraising efforts recharged, we can provide suggestions along those lines as well.

We’ve also taken the liberty of making a few suggestions to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration about how to handle the ongoing feud with Gov. Andrew Cuomo over homelessness policies in an insightful opinion piece by contributing editor Jeff Stein. I also hope you enjoy our newest segment, At the Board Table,

where we’ll be chatting with senior directors about their board’s culture and ways in which they’ve kept members engaged.

It’s essential that one of the largest service sectors in New York has a vehicle for sharing challenges, accomplishments and best practices with each other – and with those who can help make change. Expect that our original in-depth coverage of relevant issues will grow as we grow.

As always, we appreciate your submissions and your feedback. We also appreciate when you share our content with your colleagues on social media and other channels. I look forward to seeing you in person at our upcoming events so we can further network and learn from each other.

At New York Nonprofit Media, we hope to strike a balance between covering the people and policies that affect the sector, the individuals who keep the sector humming and the human beings in need that we all have dedicated ourselves to helping. To put it plainly, in the words of our founder Fred Scaglione, we remain a publication committed to serving the people who serve people. Stay tuned.

How well do you tell your organization’s story to donors?

Volunteers? Your Board? Funders? Government partners?

Do better.

Find out how we can help.

Visit us at www.anatgerstein.com or call us at 718-793-2211 4

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March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

TRADE TIPS

YOUNG MONEY Nonprofit fundraising strategies to reach millennials

JORDAN H. TALER

By CHRISTINA TALER

M

ore than 80 million Americans are millennials, making them the largest single age group in the United States. This generation of 18- to 34-year-olds grew up with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, 9/11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession, Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring. Challenging convention, they have single-handedly pushed charities to expand their traditional fundraising approach. They are a group not to be dismissed – according to a report by Blackbaud, 60 percent of millennials donate an average of $481 per year dispersed across 3.3 charities. Often wary and misunderstood, millennials are social-cause oriented and idealistic, and are poised to be an incredible untapped resource for many nonprofits.

So what do nonprofits need to know to convince this group, which Tom Brokaw calls the “Wary Generation,” to donate?

Millennials are the most educated generation in U.S. history. And yet, thanks to crushing student loan debt and the added benefit of a workforce entrée that dovetailed with the Great Recession, millennials carry with them financial insecurity stemming from economic instability. Many have chosen to live with their parents to save money and are wary of relying too heavily on credit lest they promote the same pitfalls that prompted the Great Recession. The result? Millennials are financially responsible and have less household and credit-card debt than any previous generation on record, according to TIME. What this means for you: Consider challenges and match gifts, which are

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particularly attractive to millennials who seek to maximize the impact of their money. Millennials also value their time and are willing to supplement a smaller donation with volunteer hours. Lastly, an explanation of the tax-deductible nature of a donation may help lock in a contribution.

Millennials want to make a difference. More and more millennials seek out not the highest paying careers, but those they deem the most impactful and rewarding. With their increased purchasing power, they have prompted an upsurge in corporate social philanthropy.

Moreover, according to the 2015 Millennial Impact Report millennials are the most frequent participants in workplace philanthropy and more than 50 percent of millennial employees made a donation in response to a coworker’s personal solicitation.

What this means for you: Make sure these donors understand the impact of their gifts and make an effort to build personal relationships. Members of this group are also natural ambassadors for your cause and have the potential to push their workplace to give to your organization, both at the corporate and employee level.

Millennials are unattached. Unlike the silent and greatest generations and in keeping with a trend set by the baby boomers, millennials are uncommitted to long-standing institutions. These uniquely action-based philanthropists give to help people and the causes that inspire them, not to organizations themselves.

What this means for you: Keep these donors engaged with your work. Use

key social media channels to regularly inform them of what you’re doing and ask them to promote your mission to their networks. Not only is this free advertising, trusted peer-to-peer support of your cause will go much further than any direct messaging that you could provide. Overwhelmingly, millennials give to charities that they first learn about through their peers. It’s going to take some work and constant courting

of your cause are a great way to bond with these donors. Be transparent as an organization, interact with these donors online and share a few insights about the individual staff members and funders that help make your mission possible.

Monthly giving or annual gifts require you to regularly create engaging content that uses storytelling to inspire passion and show impact. Millennials will appreciate this. Just don’t forget to make your

MAKE SURE THESE DONORS UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF THEIR GIFTS AND MAKE AN EFFORT TO BUILD PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS to make millennials repeat donors, but don’t be too quick to brand this cohort one-hit wonders, either.

Millennials are networked digital natives who have grown up with technology integrated into their lives. It should come as no surprise that the generation of the selfie is tech-savvy and fairly open.

Unlike their older counterparts, millennials are not afraid to tout their political viewpoints, favorite charities and causes, or what they had for breakfast. This is a group that craves connection and is responsive to storytelling.

What this means for you: Ditch the jargon and save the paper from your direct mailers for your older donors. Simple one-minute videos that tell the story

content accessible on mobile devices to drive traffic to your website and engage millennials on the platform where they are most likely to give.

As you broaden your fundraising strategy to better reach wary millennials, take risks, have a sense of humor, and don’t be afraid to reveal your organization’s inner selfie to your next generation of supporters.

Christina Taler is an associate director at the fundraising, development services, and strategic consulting firm CCS, and is pursuing an M.S. in fundraising management at Columbia University. For more nonprofit tips, follow her on Twitter: @stinafsays.

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

TRADE TIPS

GET YOUR BOARD MEMBERS TO PLAY THE MATCHING GAME

By GREGORY COHEN

W

hile nonprofits continue to scramble to raise the unrestricted funds necessary to ensure basic operations, it is not uncommon for funders, particularly government agencies, to require applicants to document matching funds to complete a program budget.

On the one hand, this is yet another example of the disturbing policy of requiring nonprofits to fundraise for a share of the work they’re being contracted to perform. But on the other hand, as

advisers who spend our days helping executive directors and board chairpeople motivate their board teams to fundraise more actively, we at Cause Effective see an opportunity when a match is required.

It can be the extra oomph needed to get your board members more involved.

Let’s look at the elements required for success.

Urgency: You must document your match by a specific deadline to apply for the funds. It’s now or never for your board to step up.

Case: Your mission has a face. Remind board members that they’re not asking for the organization in general, but for specific people receiving vital services.

Kick off your campaign with a live event where board members can interact with the program’s staff and participants.

Goals: Assure your matching goal is within reach of your board’s historic levels of fundraising. If the whole match amount would require a record-breaking effort by your board, segment off a piece that would be realistic given their actual performance.

Dive in, and, with your development committee allies, talk with the board members directly about what they would be willing to give directly to the campaign and who in their circles they might approach and for how much. It’s better to set an achievable goal and have your board make it – and feel good about themselves (and then perhaps bite off another piece) – than to set a higher threshold, fall short, and have your board’s view of fundraising confirmed as “too hard for us.”

Time-bound: Devise your campaign to raise the match with a clear start and end date that allows for planning, outreach, follow-up and celebration so your directors’ involvement is for a specific period of time. Best to schedule it during a quarter that does not contain a major asking event, such as a gala.

Build a team: This special campaign provides an opportunity to recruit some fresh blood. Are there board members with a particular attachment to the beneficiaries of the targeted program?

Can you anoint a board member to be

the voice of the campaign among his or her peers as a leadership training experience? (You should expect to provide plenty of support from behind the curtain.)

Have you recognized that these recommendations are the same as those that drive basic board fundraising? The match requirement gives you a chance to market core fundraising principles to your board in ways they might hear differently than the usual pleas for help.

These principles (urgency, case, goals, timing and team) can be used to construct any discrete special campaign to fire up your board.

Gregory Cohen is a senior associate at Cause Effective, which helps New York City nonprofits strengthen their relationship-based fundraising and build boards that govern and fundraise with confidence and skill. He has provided training and coaching and has led retreats for the boards and staff members of hundreds of nonprofits throughout the region. To read the fulllength story, visit www.nynmedia.com.

2016 Events Calendar Date March 16

Place Hunter College

Name Nonprofit FundCon

April

NYC

Front Line Heroes

Late May

NYC

Nonprofit OpCon

July

NYC

40 under 40

September

NYC

Nonprofit MarkCon

October

NYC

Nonprofit WorkCon

December

NYC

Nonprofit TechCon

Full day conference on Fundraising “Strategizing, Developing, Marketing and Raising Money for Nonprofits” Awards breakfast – Honoring the unknown leaders and advocates for change and social good Full day event on Operations “Streamlining Processes and Operations for New York Nonprofits” Awards breakfast – Honoring 40 under 40 rising stars in the nonprofit world Full day event on Marketing “Building your Brand: Marketing, Public Relations and Social Media for Nonprofits” Full day event on Workforce development “Recruiting, engaging and retaining top talent for your Nonprofit” Full Day event on Technology “How Technology has Changed Everything for Nonprofits”

If you are interested in speaking, suggesting a speaker, sponsoring or exhibiting please call Lissa Blake at 646 517 2741 or email lblake@cityandstateny.com for more information.

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NYNmedia.com

March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

CULINARY COMPASSION

By THOMAS SEUBERT

FRONT-LINE HERO

LY NN LOFLIN, Executive Chef, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House

A

fter more than 20 years as a restaurateur and farmer, Lynn Loflin took a break – of sorts.

A friend at the Children’s Aid Society, where Loflin served as an instructor for their Smart Foods/Healthy Food initiative, told her Lenox Hill Neighborhood House was looking for

a new executive chef to plan meals for their two senior centers, a women’s shelter and a children’s Head Start program – a very tall order. Better still, the nonprofit, which has a staff of 175 and an endowment of approximately $20 million, wanted to expand the number of meals it provided while replacing frozen and processed foods with fresh, seasonal, nutrient-dense meals.

Loflin applied for the position, and her expertise impressed Warren Scharf, executive director at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. “What stood out then about Lynn, which stands out now today, she has both a very diverse food background and is committed to the things we are committed to,” he said. “She cares about social justice.”

In the five years since Loflin took over as executive chef, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House added breakfast and dinner at the senior centers, and the women’s shelter now receives three fresh meals prepared in-house every day. The kitchen also prepares three meals per day on weekdays for children in the Head Start program.

In total, Loflin’s kitchen, staffed with 11 people, serves 400,000 meals

per year and uses fresh, local fruits, vegetables, grains and lean meats whenever possible.

Interest in Loflin and Lenox Hill’s methods spurred the nonprofit to launch The Teaching Kitchen in November 2015. The program is a three-day workshop followed by three months of technical assistance that helps nonprofits incrementally and affordably shift to providing clients with healthier, fresher meals. Loflin developed four areas of focus: menus and recipes; staff; facilities; and vendors and ingredients.

Loflin explained that raw produce and meats, though fairly inexpensive compared with processed foods, cost more in terms of labor. Preparing unprocessed ingredients for 400,000 meals takes time and skill. Loflin tries to balance rising labor costs by infusing more seasonal produce into her menus to offset costs. In addition, the executive chef began offering smaller meat portions and more fresh salad, much to the chagrin of some of her senior clients.

“Initially there was kind of a revolution,” Loflin said. “I realized I had

gone overboard and shrunk the meat portions from like a 12-ounce chicken breast to a 6-ounce.”

To compensate, she began to vary meat types from meal to meal and planned larger portions every so often to keep clients happy. Lunch one day might consist of baked tilapia with mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes, barley and butternut squash, while on another day it could be a shepherd’s pie with beef and turkey, plated alongside romaine, red cabbage and apple salad. Generally, the seniors are quite satisfied.

Natasha Hymovitz, who goes to the center for lunch and dinner every day, can’t carry groceries up to her fourthfloor walk-up. She said the meals at Lenox Hill have allowed her to “maintain her weight,” and she recognized the staff works hard to make the food “well-balanced and beautiful.”

Hymovitz recalled speaking with Loflin early on during her tenure as executive chef. “I told her, ‘You cook with love, and it shows in your food.’”

To read the full-length story, visit www.nynmedia.com.

Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership A Joint Program of Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business and Graduate School of Social Service

Learn about all aspects of nonprofit management and develop a solid foundation in social justice leadership.

• Program can be completed in 12 months • Class schedule designed for working professionals • Receive ongoing mentorship from a nonprofit CEO For more information, please visit fordham.edu/nonprofits | nonprofits@fordham.edu | 212-636-6676

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

AGENCY OF THE MONTH

LEARNING DETERMINATION THROUGH CYCLING

By MICHELLE ARNOT

Jackson Gonzales leads a group of student cyclists on I Challenge Myself 's College Bike Tour.

P

hysical education for the 1.1 million students in New York City’s public school system remains “in crisis,” according to Comptroller Scott Stringer’s aptly named 2015 report, “Dropping the Ball.”

But last year I Challenge Myself, a three-person operation in its 10th year, worked to pull 500 high school students from the Lower East Side to the South Bronx out of crisis by providing bikes and fitness training.

“Give kids bikes and you give them freedom, exercise and a foundation to handle long-term goals,” said I Challenge Myself Founder and Executive Director Ana Reyes, a New York City public school graduate and former teacher who was part of the New Visions for Public Schools, New Century High Schools initiative. In a city where 41 percent of high schools lack gym facilities and teens are hard pressed to earn the credits required for a diploma, she said, “determination is a muscle that everyone can train and strengthen.”

This simple premise prompted Reyes to set up Cycling Smarts in 2005, an elective youth development program that uses streets in all five boroughs as a training ground. Partnering with seven schools, I Challenge Myself serves at-risk students, many of whom qualify for free lunch or are coping with chronic health issues, such as asthma. Each spring the Cycling Smarts team trains for the Century Ride, a one-day, 100 mile loop from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to Carmel, New York, and back along the Putnam County Trail. It is the only challenge of this magnitude offered to youth in the United States.

Last June a team of 90 students, coaches and volunteers successfully made the journey.

Since its inception, I Challenge

8

Myself has set over 1,000 teenagers on the road to fitness with bikes and helmets. For students interested in pursuing higher education, Reyes added a weeklong summer College Bike Tour that covers 400 miles from Syracuse to West Point. Consequently, a group of West Point cadets has joined the pool of volunteers, recruited from organizations like the mayor’s office and New York Cycle Club, who double as mentors and role models. Volunteers are closely screened before acceptance. Students visit seven campuses along the route and end their tour at SUNY Syracuse.

“We couldn’t function without our volunteers, which includes most of our board members,” she added. “And for the kids, the Century Ride makes for powerful college essay material, it helps our students stand out from the crowd.”

This year, senior Jackson Gonzales received multiple college acceptances, two from schools he visited on the College Bike Tour. His application included an essay about how the Century helped him focus following the death of his father: “The nine other students, whom I now call friends, and I rode together, each with a different reason to keep pushing through this empowering and intimate experience. Sweat and tears ran down my face as I pressed my feet down on the pedals and felt as if I only took one step into a journey that demanded leaps; yet I couldn’t wait until the ride was over just so we could finally see the college we worked so hard to get to.”

Fifteen years ago, an epiphany inspired Reyes to create the nonprofit after she biked the 286 miles between Boston and New York City to raise money for an AIDS charity. A novice cyclist, she took advantage of free

training offered by the charity and used the six-mile loop around Central Park to build up stamina.

“I’d never been an athlete, so completing that challenge was particularly empowering,” Reyes recalled. “I thought, ‘Hey, somebody ought to do this for teenagers.’”

It dawned on Reyes that she was that somebody.

The timing was right. Childhood obesity was in the headlines. And still today, gains made by young people in other states that participate in First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move obesity-prevention campaign continue to elude New York City youth – despite an allocation of $19,076 per child, nearly twice the national average.

Applying her prodigious energy to I Challenge Myself, Reyes recruited a board from among the cycling community, applied for funding, set up shop in a donated space and started with one class of 30 kids. Since cycling is a male-dominated sport, at meetings she “got a kick” out of being the only woman in the room.

“Everyone soon got used to having me there,” she said.

Partnering with schools allows the $490,000 organization to operate with only three full time staff: Reyes, Program Manager Stephen Anthony and Fitness Coordinator Michael Collins. Participating high schools – Alfred E. Smith, Bronx Design and Construction Academy, East Side Community, George Washington, University Heights, plus three specialized campuses in Washington Heights – provide coaches who serve as on-site advisers. Part-time staff support supplied by nonprofits such as ReServe, which provides retired professionals for an hourly stipend, fulfill other necessary functions as

the organization continues to grow.

Last year marked a watershed for I Challenge Myself. The organization launched a pilot program called 4-toFIT, which provides endurance fitness training in four phases, without bikes, as well as nutritional instruction.

“We wanted to expand beyond cycling, which is expensive and poses a storage issue,” Reyes said. “Using light equipment allows us to reach more students.” Like Cycling Smarts, this curriculum culminates with a fitness challenge to measure progress. “We’ve enrolled 270 kids in three schools right now with good results.

If all goes to plan, we hope that 4-toFIT will serve as a model for schools in the USA and perhaps even abroad,” she added.

In May 2015, Reyes was selected by the Hearts on Fire foundation as one of two recipients of the “Be the Spark” award. “I was honored to be chosen, and for our programs to be highlighted within the greater community,” she said. Equally gratifying was a remark that emerged from a 2015 student focus group: “I think something I learned from the program is you don’t have to be scared of feeling weak at times. I think it is something a lot of people are afraid of. But in the end, it just makes you feel like you are stronger by leaving yourself open to being weak.”

“If kids take one lesson from our program, I’d like to think it’s to look at challenges as opportunities to learn and grow,” concluded Reyes.

“Every struggle can become a teachable moment if we learn to persevere and to pay attention to the fear that comes from the pain and discomfort that is a natural part of growth. We do live by our motto here.”

I Challenge Myself Founder and Executive Director Ana Reyes, front row right, with 2015 College Bike Tour participants and staff.

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March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

AT THE BOARD TABLE

BECOMING A ‘GROWN-UP’ BOARD A Q&A with Suzanne Marquard, GallopNYC

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allopNYC provides horsemanship services for individuals with special needs and is a finalist for VCG Governance Matters’ Brooke Mahoney Award for outstanding board leadership.

Suzanne Marquard worked as a corporate finance attorney for Prudential Insurance before retiring. Now she serves as board chairwoman at GallopNYC. NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: GIVE US YOUR PITCH – TELL US ABOUT WHAT GALLOPNYC DOES. SUZANNE MARQUARD: We bring the benefits of therapeutic horsemanship, creating a bond between people with special needs and horses. We help them walk, talk, behave, learn and connect better so they can live life more fully and independently. We have an average of about 325 riders a week in five New York City locations.

NYN: HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED?

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SM: I learned of it through a friend, it was a friend of (the organization’s executive director Alicia Kershaw), and I began volunteering when we first started giving our first lessons. As we thought about expanding and getting more riders, we realized we needed more instructors, and I thought, “I could do this.” I had recently retired and I am an avid horse person myself. So I knew about riding and had been learning about working with people with special needs, which is just thrilling, really rewarding. So in 2008, I became certified by what is now called the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, or PATH. I joined the board in 2008 also.

At that point we were kind of a founder’s board, so we went from gathering over lunch and running the organization that way, until Alicia said, we have to act a little more grown-up, and thought that we should have someone other than the executive director be a chair of the board. So she asked me to do it.

NYN: HOW DOES GALLOPNYC FIND ITS BOARD MEMBERS? SM: Through networking first, through our current board members and volunteers, people we hear about. We also participate in United Way board fairs, and also we’ve been working with an organization called Youth INC. The other thing we have done recently is establish a rising professionals group. These are younger people who we hope to engage. And we’ve actually asked them to join committees of the board and shadow them and learn about what the board does.

Though it’s not necessarily expected that they’ll become board members – that is a place where we may solicit board members from in the future.

NYN: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS YOUR BOARD MONITORS? SM: We provide at all of the board meetings what we call a dashboard, which shows the rider demographics, the range of special needs or disabili-

ties that they have, the locations where they come from. We have a number of committees, which is what makes our board more effective, because they do the work in between the board meetings.

NYN: WHAT DO YOU THINK STOOD OUT TO THE BROOKE MAHONEY AWARD SELECTION TEAM? SM: I think it’s that we are keeping up with best practices and following those best practices. We have the committees really doing the work and focusing on things that they need to focus on.

All of them are passionate about our mission.

This is our first At the Board Table interview segment, where we will talk with board leaders and share what we learned with other nonprofits. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full interview at nynmedia.com. We are looking for candidates to interview for this space. Send recommendations to Aimee Simpierre at asimpierre@nynmedia.com.

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

ON HOW CITY AND STATE BUDGETS WILL IMPACT NONPROFITS

CEO CORNER

A Q&A with SUSAN STAMLER, United Neighborhood Houses

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nited Neighborhood Houses Executive Director Susan Stamler spoke with NYN Media Contributing Editor Jeff Stein about her organization’s advocacy work on the city and state budgets, establishing salary parity for nonprofit pre-K providers and other challenges facing the nonprofit sector. This interview has been edited for content and clarity. Watch the full interview at nynmedia.com.

NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: THE CITY’S PRELIMINARY EXECUTIVE BUDGET WAS RECENTLY RELEASED. WHAT DID YOU SEE THAT YOU LIKED? WHERE DOES THE ADMINISTRATION NEED TO MOVE? SUSAN STAMLER: First off, it’s always good to start off by saying thank you to Mayor de Blasio for increasing the minimum wage and making sure that that increase will appear in human service contracts. We’re really happy about that.

There were some other things that happened that we really wish we didn’t have to fight for. There are middle-school after-school programs that not only operate in the school year but also during the summer, and unfortunately there was no funding available for the summer portion. And so those children have nothing to do, their parents, who are working, have concerns of what will happen to them, and that’s going to be a big issue for us as we head into this budget season, making sure we get those dollars back into the budget.

In keeping with youth programming, the needs keep growing. We’re really proud of the work that the beacon schools are doing – and those are partnerships with settlement houses and other nonprofit organizations – that work in schools and run programs. The funding has been flat, so we’re seeking additional funding for those kinds of supports for young people and their families.

NYN: UNIVERSAL PRE-K HAS BEEN A BIG DEVELOPMENT FOR NONPROFIT PROVIDERS, BUT THERE’S

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A LOT OF CONCERN ABOUT THE LACK OF SALARY PARITY FOR NONPROFIT TEACHERS WHO ARE,

BY SOME ASSESSMENTS, PROVIDING HIGHER QUALITY SERVICES THAN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS. SS: Actually, there were several studies looking at a variety of indicators of what was successful in these early childhood programs, and, you know, I’m perplexed. I don’t understand why staff who must have the same credentials, work in programs dealing with the same type of young people, are paid at such different levels. And the fact that community-based programming operates year-round – so these staff are actually working longer and harder.

They have longer hours in the day. It’s not only the school day. And then there’s the wrap-around support for working families that work in the summer and work on school holidays.

So here you have our staff, who are just paid less money. And I can’t understand any rationale for that, especially when there are reports indicating that in fact the quality is as good, if not better, in community-based settings.

That’s in addition to a budget issue.

We’re really hoping that the mayor and his staff come to the table and start looking toward parity, because it’s not only unfair, but it’s also draining for our sector. Who can blame workers who have the credentials and have been trained to want to go and work where they can get paid more money? So we’re losing really wonderful staff and teachers in our community settings.

NYN: THE FIGHT FOR FUNDING FOR THE STATE MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE SEEMS TO BE STALLED. HOW WILL YOUR ADVOCACY CHANGE AROUND THAT ISSUE? SS: Well, that’s another head-scratcher. The governor did the right thing by increasing the minimum wage with a phase-in but totally left out the partnership that exists between government and the nonprofit sector. You know, in most cases in New York, government doesn’t run these programs, it’s the nonprofit sector that does. So I don’t understand how you can draw a line and see that if you’re in the human services or nonprofit sector you wouldn’t be eligible for the same kind of benefit.

So we were up in Albany this week, with a host of our executive directors and senior staff, and actually brought settlement houses from other parts of the state to go in and talk about what this means to them and how difficult it will be for budgets and programs, again, encouraging people to get a job in a fast food place, because they probably have a better career ladder.

NYN: WHAT OTHER ISSUES WERE ON EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS' MINDS DURING ADVOCACY DAYS? SS: The issue of summer jobs is very important in New York state. When we lost funding on the federal level for summer youth employment, the state and city did

step in, but they’re not meeting the need.

Even though there is money in the budget on the state level for summer youth employment programs, it’s clearly not enough.

Not only does a summer job put dollars in a young person’s pocket, but often it’s the first time they’re having a job. They have to wake up in the morning, put on clean clothes, go to work, deal with a supervisor. And in many instances, they’re working in community-based settings, so it’s a really wonderful experience all around. So that was a big ask, not only for us, but two weeks ago, we had 300 young people from around the state going up and talking about summer youth employment.

Another big issue ... is the need for more money for child care. Again, always needing to have more subsidized child care, but there are new federal regulations that will require additional health and safety inspections. That is an unfunded mandate to the state, and we’re hoping that the state doesn’t look for those dollars amongst our contracts, that they

actually put additional money in.

NYN: WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING THE NONPROFIT SECTOR ARE? SS: Have you ever heard that saying about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and her having to do the same thing backwards and in heels? I think when you look at what the nonprofit sector is facing, these are community-based agencies that are actually multimillion-dollar small businesses in the community. So in addition to adhering to regulations on the federal, city and state level, and in addition to hiring staff and providing quality services, we find ourselves operating in a business climate that is not very friendly at times.

So issues like salary parity, indirect rates and funding for all of the things that contracts should pay for but they don’t pay for, rent that goes up or adding rent in NYCHA sites – all of the business issues of running programs is really something that is a huge challenge for many program.

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March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

ON PERSONALIZED CARE AND THE FIGHT FOR $15 for content and clarity. Watch the full interview at nynmedia.com.

CEO CORNER

A Q&A with ALAN MUCATEL, Leake & Watts

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ew York Nonprofit Media sat down with Alan Mucatel, CEO of Leake & Watts, which supports children, adults and families dealing with poverty, disabilities, and a lack of access to education and basic services. This interview has been edited

NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: WHAT AREAS OF INNOVATION ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF AT LEAKE & WATTS? ALAN MUCATEL: We have a new approach at Leake & Watts that we’re calling Promise. For example, we think that every individual should direct their own services. We think that’s where it really starts, and one of the pieces that has been very popular here in New York state for persons with developmental disabilities is a personal outcomes measurement that is devised by (the Council on Quality and Leadership).

But we don’t just want to do that with our programs for people with developmental disabilities. We want to take that into every other aspect of what we’re doing. This personal outcome measurement system is really unique: You interview someone for about three hours, you ask them where they see themselves in the future and what’s of importance to them – what do we need to do to help you get there?

So imagine if a young person comes

to us in our foster care program, and while we focus on permanency and safety, we’re also really pausing to use this approach in that service. Or when a parent brings a preschooler who is diagnosed with significant autism to our children’s learning center. Not only is there the federally required individualized treatment plan, but we’re stopping to say: What do you want for your child?

NYN: WHAT ARE YOUR CONCERNS REGARDING THE DEBATE OVER RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE? AM: I think that the minimum wage is an absolutely critical issue, and we can’t deny it any longer. ... I think the challenges, though, are great. I think that they’re not just about making sure that the employees that are doing this work are making the minimum wage, but before this point, they were making more than minimum wage. So let’s say that someone is making $13.50 today. That is $4.50 higher than a $9 minimum wage. To get them to $15 but not compete with some other employment that is not asking nearly the same of them, I think, would be tragic.

Another thing to think about: Let’s

say that you’re an agency and I’m an agency. You may have decided to invest more in salaries, doing the same services, while I offered lower salaries but richer health care benefits. The agencies were both getting paid the same on the contracts. If we say, let’s just give your agency enough to get to $15, but we didn’t give my agency enough to offset the balance on the health care side, then we’ve done another disservice.

In the human services field, we also have to think about that we have funding from city, state and federal government. And what we definitely don’t want to be doing is cannibalizing from one program that’s supported in one way to another program that’s supported with a different funding source.

We also have to be talking about the employees who are making $15.50 right now who brought to the table additional skills, and maybe longevity or advanced degrees. Now how do we look at them?

These are complex issues and we need to spend a lot of energy here.

But we need to fund it, and we need to fund it right.

ON CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND MEASURING THE IMPACT OF FRESH AIR view has been edited for content and clarity. Watch the full interview at nynmedia. com.

CEO CORNER

A Q&A with FATIMA SHAMA, Fresh Air Fund

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ew York Nonprofit Media sat down with Fatima Shama, who became executive director of Fresh Air Fund in July 2015. They annually provide 9,000 low-income city children a free summer experience in the country at camps and with families in the Northeast and in southern Canada as part of its “Friendly Towns” program. This interNYNmedia.com

NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: YOU WERE VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS AT MAIMONIDES AND COMMISSIONER OF THE MAYOR’S OFFICE OF IMMIGRANT AFFAIRS. TELL US ABOUT YOUR CAREER PATH. FATIMA SHAMA: As a born and raised New Yorker, I have had the pleasure of being the beneficiary of so many different programs and opportunities, and now I get to do that for a living, and that’s pretty great. I love the ability to serve citywide.

My commitment around the breadth and beauty of this city means serving the diversity of this city.

health needs – whether they’re obesity or asthma, whether they’re gang violence or gun violence, whether it’s inequity of resources in schools – we get to have an opportunity to start a relationship with a child by bringing them into an environment where it is about them being a child.

Where it is layered with enrichment, where it is layered with opportunity, where it is layered with learning – whether it's about the sky and the stars or the lakes they swim in, or composting, or the arts. Where so many middle-income children have these things by default, where in our city that just isn’t the narrative. And as I move into this role, my function and focus is really on how do we broaden that dialogue, how do we think more creatively about our partners that are on the front line to help be that summer experience for children?

NYN: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR PRIORITIES MOVING FORWARD? FS: What is clear to me in my role now, having come from an interesting background, is the reality that the outdoors is in fact an opportunity to start a relationship with a child and their family. Where in some of our communities the public

NYN: HOW DO YOU MEASURE THE VALUE OF GETTING FRESH AIR? FS: That’s a great question, and one that I think we’re both wrestling with, but excited about. The camping experience allows us to look at impact very uniquely in that we have many children who come back summer after summer after summer,

and so measuring impact over time is going to be a much easier experience. But on the Friendly Towns experience, how do we measure impact? It is this experience where a child gets to visit with a family and learn and share so much about their own life, but what is it in that that we can measure? And that’s the part that I think is going to be either more complicated or more exciting, in particular because we have a nation that’s engaged in an interesting dialogue about differences – where the Fresh Air Fund has been engaged in celebrating differences and introducing them for its entire history.

NYN: HOW DOES YOUR CULTURAL IDENTITY INFLUENCE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE? FS: I was raised in a family where my parents came from two different places and were both of different faiths and so I say my home was a flavorful, delicious kind of celebration of differences. With that I have been a part of learning around the importance of celebrating different voices at a table. And so to me, my leadership style is inclusive. It is about how many voices are at the table to help figure out the solutions.

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

MAXIMIZE THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT FROM YOUR EVENTS

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s an event fundraiser in the late 1990s, it seemed all you needed was an honoree and a dream to fund your mission. It probably wasn’t as easy as I remember it, but it appears the game of checkers we were all playing back then has quickly turned into chess.

The philanthropic market has changed. Donors are now focused more on impact and are investing in fewer nonprofits. Corporations are less willing to solicit their roster of vendors for charitable donations because of a combination of real and imagined ethical and legal concerns.

The formula for event success has changed. While some organizations are completely turning away from special event fundraising, I actually see a greater benefit than ever for events – that is, if they are executed well and correctly placed within the context of your entire fundraising operation.

Special events can be an acquisition program for your major gift efforts. Every guest and donor is an opportunity to expand your pipeline.

Here are three things to focus on while planning your event that will help you

By CR AIG SHELLEY realize returns afterward that are exponentially greater than the funds raised at the event itself.

DIFFERENTIATE Think carefully about what will drive people to attend your event.

We’ve all been to too many events and are busier than ever. Without a compelling reason, someone may donate but choose not to attend your event.

The opportunity to engage that donor beyond the initial gift will be missed.

Use differentiation to make your event stand out. Differentiation can be done by location. For example, my company, Orr Associates, Inc. collaborated with Smile Train on their gala in 2014 and transformed the floor of the Barclays Arena, which at that time had never been opened for an event of this nature. This proved to be a unique offering that drew in attendees. You can also differentiate with entertainment.

For example, during OAI’s partnership with Boys and Girls Harbor, by far their most successful event was a 2015 gala that featured Jennifer Hudson and Vanessa Williams.

BRING YOUR MISSION TO LIFE Everyone who attends the event needs to leave understanding what you do and why it matters. Everything about the event needs to be on-brand and communicate the message you want guests to remember when they leave. OAI recently partnered with College Summit to help produce its first gala in over 10 years. A primary purpose for the gala was to introduce their important mission to a new audience. The entire evening creatively featured students and alumni. OAI brought the unique attributes of College Summit to life, and that’s what guests remembered. You don’t want people to leave talking about the food.

You want them to leave talking about your mission. Ensure you build your program accordingly.

MAKE A PLAN FOR EACH KEY DONOR IN ADVANCE Research your new donors and attendees as soon as you have their names. Prioritize who you want to

draw in. Where will they sit? Who on your board will be prepped to interact with them and what will be the intended messaging? What happens the week after the event? The month after? Sit with the key board members and solicitors in advance to create a plan for their guests and donors and then again after the event to learn what their guests had to say. Have them help you make a plan and engage them in it. Your events are your first impression for an audience of new investors. Make it a good one!

Craig Shelley is a vice president at Orr Associates Inc., a consulting firm to the nonprofit industry with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. He specializes in serving as an embedded fundraising, leadership and strategy partner to leading nonprofits. Prior to joining OAI, Craig served in a variety of positions with the Boy Scouts of America, most recently as national director of development and corporate alliances. He serves on the board of directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ New York City Chapter and is a certified fundraising executive (CFRE).

RECENT GALAS AND EVENTS

Attendees at the 2015 The Dignity of Family Life Award Dinner presented by Abbott House, which serves children, families and the developmentally disabled throughout the Hudson Valley and New York City.

(L to R) Brian O’Dwyer, Emerald Isle Immigration Center Chairman, honoree Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, honoree Deborah King, executive director of 1199SEIU Training & Employment Funds, and Ben Briscoe at the 23rd annual Robert Briscoe Awards.

The Campaign for Summer Jobs, co-chaired by United Neighborhood Houses and the Neighborhood Family Services Coalition, brought more than 300 teens from around New York to Albany to join in Youth Action Day. (Lindsay Perry/United Neighborhood Houses)

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Participants enjoy Sheltering Arms New York’s ninth and newest home for developmentally disabled adults in the Bronx.

The Open Door Foundation’s Harvest Hoedown, honoring former foundation board member Joyce Rheingold of Rye, raised almost $150,000 to support Open Door Family Medical Centers’ Patient Advocacy and Wellness programs.

NYNmedia.com

March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

NONPROFITS WELCOME PALACIO, AN ‘UNKNOWN QUANTITY’

By FR ANK G. RU N YEON

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any nonprofit human service providers are cautiously optimistic about Herminia Palacio, the new leader appointed to manage the problems of poverty and homelessness in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in January that Palacio – who has never held public office in New York – would take over as Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services at the end of the month. The post had been vacant since Lilliam Barrios-Paoli’s departure in August.

Palacio will oversee a host of city agencies, including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYC Health + Hospitals, the Human Resources Administration, the Department of Homeless Services, the Administration for Children's Services, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence and the Office of Food Policy.

“I’m happy that they’re filling the

NYNmedia.com

position, frankly,” said Tony Hannigan, executive director of the Center for Urban Community Services.

The appointment fills a leadership vacuum on the critical issue of homelessness, he said. But while Palacio’s resume looks impressive, he added, “she’s an unknown quantity to me.”

That sentiment was echoed by many providers and advocates, who nonetheless remained hopeful about Palacio’s upcoming tenure.

Christy Parque, executive director of Homeless Services United, said “we are especially heartened by the holistic perspective she will bring, which recognizes linkages between health and poverty and people’s ability to thrive in the community.”

“I don’t know her personally and we haven’t worked with her,” said Jennifer Flynn, executive director of advocacy group VOCAL-NY. Nevertheless, she said VOCAL-NY has “a lot of faith in the mayor’s ability to pick good people,” lauding de Blasio’s

existing “dream team” of Human Resources Agency Commissioner Steve Banks and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Mary Bassett. “She comes with a strong reputation, and with those commissioners in place,” Flynn said, “you can’t go wrong.”

Much of the mayor’s introduction of Palacio during a Jan. 5 press conference focused on her biography – a native of the Bronx whose blue-collar parents worked for the city. De Blasio also trumpeted her accomplishments working for health agencies in San Francisco managing the AIDS crisis and in Harris County, Texas, where she served as a top health official during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Some nonprofit leaders quietly expressed a lingering remorse over the resignation of Barrios-Paoli, who was a favorite among nonprofits in the human services field before she stepped down last August amid an

outcry over the mayor’s perceived lack of action on homelessness.

Barrios-Paoli had managed five city agencies under three mayors and had years of experience in leadership positions with New York City nonprofit organizations.

Javier Nieves, chairman of the Campaign for Fair Latino Representation said that while he couldn’t speak to Palacio’s abilities, he was pleased that the mayor had kept the position filled by a Latino.

Still, the appointment doesn’t represent progress on the underrepresentation of Latinos in city government. “It’s almost like musical chairs, filling up those positions that were previously held by Latinos. So, there is no net gain here, Nieves said.

Hannigan summed up the feelings of many service providers and advocates: “My feeling is, give her a chance.”

To read the full version of this story, visit nynmedia.com.

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

NONPROFIT LEADERS GRAPPLE WITH POST-FEGS REALITIES

By JEFF STEIN

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ne year after the shocking failure of FEGS, at a time when the human services sector is facing increasing uncertainty, leaders from nonprofits and government convened in lower Manhattan on Wednesday to assess the systemic threats to New York’s nonprofit providers.

At an event hosted by the Association for a Better New York, the Human Services Council, a membership organization that represents many of the most prominent social services nonprofits, unveiled a new report that used the closure of FEGS as a springboard to investigate pervasive issues degrading the operating capacity of nonprofits, potentially imperiling programs that thousands of New Yorkers utilize.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. The human services, as we know them today in the current environment, is not a sustainable approach, is not a sustainable system,” said HSC Executive Director Allison Sesso. “I think that before (FEGS) there was this assumption that it was only small organizations and that this couldn’t happen on a large scale, and the sheer volume of the transfers that had to happen at FEGS really woke us up to the capacity limits of the sector. The ability of the sector to absorb this is limited.”

Indeed, the report’s findings are grim. According to HSC’s surveys, 18 percent of human services agencies are operating at insolvency rates; 60 percent are financially distressed with no cash reserves. And 90 percent of funding for human services nonprofits comes from government sources, but government contracts regularly pay 80 cents on the dollar of actual program costs.

“It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that that’s not a good way to go forward,” Sesso remarked.

Sesso highlighted overhead costs as problematic for the sector, and tied lack of overhead funding to inadequate risk management and underinvestment in oversight systems.

“These are not considered program costs, things like HR departments, technology systems that let you run outcome measurements, actual staff members who are dedicated to oversight roles,” Sesso said.

Sesso also cited the human service sector’s low paid work force, and its rapid turnover, as habitually problematic given the needs of clients. “It’s particularly worrisome because we’re dealing with clients that are faced with trauma,” Sesso said.

“That’s what we’re trying to have them overcome, and then their case worker disappears.”

She also presented several solu-

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Panelists Chris Quinn, David Rivel, Paul Francis, Allison Sesso, Pat Swann, Steven Banks, and Gordon Campbell. (ABNY) tions outlined in the report: further leveraging the expertise of nonprofit providers earlier in the procurement process; adequately capitalizing the sector as the state shifts to Medicaid managed care; and reducing layers of regulations that, while laudable, are poorly designed and cost nonprofits and government too much money to carry out.

Sesso also announced that HSC would be unveiling an “RFP Risk Assessment” rating system so that nonprofits can better weigh the risk of taking on programs, as well as an annual rating of government agencies that nonprofit organizations contract with.

In a panel that followed Sesso’s remarks, city Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks echoed Sesso’s call to increase collaboration with nonprofit providers at the onset of program planning.

“As a commissioner, I wanted, for example, when repurposing our employment programs, to have consultations with communities,” Banks said. “We consulted with clients, we consulted with staff, we consulted with advocacy groups, but the procurement rules raised certain issues around consulting with potential vendors. These rules are really important – they have to do with ensuring that there is equal opportunity, ensuring that there’s not an inside track to get contracts, and also, frankly, they came against a background of corruption.”

Despite their laudable intentions, Banks said, these rules prevent the type of collaboration that is essential to craft programs that are responsive to community needs that nonprofits observe on the ground.

“As it was, when we issued our concept paper on the employment programs, I really appreciated that Council member (Stephen) Levin gave us the opportunity in a public hearing to talk about some of the is-

sues that were at work,” Banks said, pointing out a unique workaround.

“And frankly, the responses to the concept paper were terrifically instructive, which is why we’re about to issue the RFP now after taking time to incorporate the comments.”

Christine Quinn, president and CEO of Win, a prominent homeless services provider, said that a large part of nonprofits’ current struggles is that government simply is not fully funding services that it is mandated to ensure.

“We have in New York … a requirement that every person be housed,” Quinn said. “That is not negotiable.

You could go about meeting that requirement in a number of ways. The city of New York could provide all of those services. Not a way to go. We all know it. Better to have providers do it. But that means we are taking on a mandated-by-the-courts role of government of New York. The government at all of its levels needs to recognize the profound responsibility they have handed over.”

Quinn highlighted Win’s Scatter Site Housing Program as just one example of the sorts of losing propositions that nonprofits take on.

“If you look at a lot of the Scatter Site Housing Programs, they get x amount of rent in our HUD contract.

There is nowhere in the city of New York where you are going to find an apartment for that rent. So what do we do at Win? Look homeless people in the face and say, ‘You’re not getting an apartment?’ You take on apartments that cost more than you have money for and you hope that you’ll make up the difference by going to companies and foundations asking for money. But none of those groups want to fund what they see as mandated by the courts and others as the core requirement of government.

But honestly, if we at Win lived within the budget of the government, we would fail our clients.”

David Rivel, CEO of The Jewish Board, which largely absorbed FEGS’ programs in the wake of its collapse, said that the habitual gap between government funding and program costs forces all nonprofits, even those that are relatively well-endowed, to pass up essential investments.

“Even at the level that we’re doing it at The Jewish Board, there are lots of things that we’d like to do that we can’t do,” Rivel said “There are investments in business intelligence systems, there are data and outcomes work, there are innovative pilot projects that we’d like to do that we can’t do because when we go to a foundation or a corporation or an individual, the first ask has to be: Can you please fill the gap left by government funding?”

However, Banks cautioned against overemphasizing the funding gap and urged nonprofits to take a hard look at their own portfolios.

“The point about managing risk is in part how we contract and we fund, but also how each organization evaluates its contracts,” Banks said.

“When I got involved with the FEGS situation, it read a lot like the situation that I inherited at the Legal Aid Society. And there were a lot of flags within the organization that one could see, and I saw this because I had been through it running a nonprofit.

I think that’s an important thing that goes along with this. Not every contract is a contract that every organization can perform on even when we address some of the issues that we’ve been talking about.”

But Quinn insisted that much of the responsibility rests with government agencies, especially the many overseers of homeless shelters that do not currently coordinate inspections – a timely critique given the highly publicized feud between Banks’ HRA and the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

“There’s been much press and debate about the quality of homeless shelters, and that’s a good thing, because we want them to be the best they can be,” Quinn said. “But our shelters in New York City are inspected by seven or eight city agencies and at least one state agency. Every time one of those inspectors comes, no other work gets done, as you can imagine. And every inspector interprets the regulations differently, so you end up confused. Now, I’m in no way saying reduce the standards, but you coordinate inspections. You’re going to save nonprofits like Win money, because we’re not going to be chasing around every inspector, and you’re going to open up resources through that kind of efficiency in government.”

NYNmedia.com

March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

NONPROFIT REVITALIZATION ACT REMAINS A ‘WORK IN PROGRESS’

By ROSALY N RETK WA

N

onprofit advocates are working on a further round of revisions to the New York Nonprofit Revitalization Act of 2013 now that the state Legislature is back in session, according to Laura Abel, senior policy counsel at the Lawyers Alliance for New York.

LANY, which provides legal assistance to nonprofits, is part of a coalition that includes the New York State and New York City Bar Associations, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and the New York State Law Revision Commission. Abel said they have been “working on language we hope to present to the Legislature soon.”

The law, which was the first major overhaul of New York Not-for-Profit Corporation Law in four decades, took effect on July 1, 2014. It has since been tweaked with a series of clarifying amendments enacted between October and December of last year and is still “a work in progress,” said Robert J. Vanni, senior consultant to the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee’s Government Relations Committee.

Advocates say issues of immediate concern relate to some of the law’s provisions on related-party transactions and restrictions that determine who can serve as an independent director.

Under the original Act, to avoid conflicts of interest, nonprofits are required to more thoroughly scrutinize transactions with “related parties” such as directors, officers, key employees and affiliates, and also, any transactions with the relatives of those “related parties.” The Act specified a long list of family relationships that included parents, grandparents, and even “ancestors.”

Michael West, senior attorney at the New York Council of Nonprofits (NYCON) pointed out that this list was based on “bloodlines and nothing else.” “But in real life, when a conflict of interest occurs, it’s usually a transaction involving friends, not family.”

West said. “That’s where a lot of the abuse really lies.”

Therefore, December 2015’s amendments expanded the list to include “any other person who exercises the power of directors, officers, or key employees over the affairs of the corporation or any affiliate of the corporation.”

West wishes that clause had included the word “founder,” because founders who’ve left one nonprofit to start another venture can still have tremendous influence.

In addition, in April 2015, The Charities Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office put out NYNmedia.com

guidance stating smaller related-party transactions and those conducted during the ordinary course of business are exempt.

“And the language of that guidance is wonderful, but it doesn’t have the force of law,” Abel said. The details of a prospective law on this point “are being worked out now.”

Other nonprofit leaders are concerned that the regulation’s stipulations concerning conflicts of interest and related-party transactions might actually work against nonprofits’ best interests.

The law makes for “more formality” and “more procedural hurdles,” said Michael West, senior attorney at the New York Council of Nonprofits. “By so heavily regulating conflicts of interest, they’ve made it harder for certain directors to do things easily and cheaply,” he said, citing as an example a nonprofit whose board member might be willing to donate labor costs for a building project.

LANY is also concerned about the fact that currently, if a nonprofit pays more than $25,000 to, or receives more than $25,000 from, a corporation, and that corporation has an employee on the nonprofit’s board, he or she cannot be considered an “independent” director, eligible to sit on its audit committee.

LANY first noted this issue in a memo to Gov. Andrew Cuomo dated July 10, 2014.

“The Act should be amended to include a higher threshold or a sliding scale to measure director independence, so that transactions that are insignificant in scale are not disqualifying,” LANY wrote in the memo.

Large nonprofit hospitals can have a utility bill higher than $25,000, Abel explained. With this low of a threshold, a board director who is also the head of the local utility would be unable to sit on their board’s audit committee.

“That person might be the most knowledgeable about finance on the board,” Abel said.

Abel says LANY is pleased, however, with further clarifications that have been made regarding whistleblower policies.

The original Act required nonprofits with annual revenue in excess of $1 million and 20 or more employees to adopt and distribute a whistleblower policy to all of their directors, officers, employees, and volunteers.

Prior to the Act, most larger and mid-sized nonprofits had a whistleblower policy for their staff, but not for volunteers, West said.

In a June 2015 alert, the state attorney general’s office said that a non-

profit could meet that requirement by posting its policy in an easily accessible public place, such as on its website.

That guidance was codified into law with the December 2015 amendments.

Until this recent amendment, nonprofits would have felt obligated to hand out lengthy written policies to all of their volunteers – from the individual who assists with a roadside cleanup to the retiree who volunteers at the front desk.

“From a practical standpoint, that could dissuade people from volunteering,” West said.

The December amendments also delayed, for the second time, a provision prohibiting a paid employee from serving as chair of their nonprofit’s board of directors.

“The opposition stems in part from the popularity of the practice, especially among small organizations, of having the chief executive – often the founder – serve as the chair of the board,” according to an analysis published in January by the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine.

NYCON pushed for a total ban on any board members holding a paid po-

sition, but that “got left on the cutting room floor,” West said. Banning the chair from also serving in a paid position is “the entry to try to make that a reality,” he added.

The provision is now scheduled to take effect January 1, 2017.

William T. Gettman, Jr., executive director of St. Catherine’s Center for Children in Albany, agreed that employees should not become board members.

“The requirements are not that onerous,” Gettman said. He believes any nonprofit should be able to find five to seven non-employees to serve on its board, even in the less populated areas upstate.

As the Act continues to be tweaked, nonprofits are making the required adjustments while staying tuned for future revisions. Meanwhile, a self-administered checklist, put together by Marks Paneth’s Nonprofit and Government Group has been created to help nonprofits verify baseline compliance with all the Act’s current regulations.

He advised patience about the revisions. “Let some of these changes play out, and let’s see what the impact is.”

THE CENTER FOR NONPROFIT STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT Presents

Consulting Day for New York City’s Nonprofit Community Wednesday, March 23, 2016 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Baruch College, Newman Vertical Campus Conference Center, 14th Floor 55 Lexington Avenue @ 24th Street This complimentary event is a great opportunity to: • Meet with a consultant and discuss the challenges facing your organization • Receive up to two appointments consisting of a free 45-minute one-on-one session • Network with over 100 leading nonprofit organizations in NYC • Attend one or two workshops led by experts in the nonprofit sector

The cost is free and space is very limited. Appointments are required and will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis. Appointments and workshop registrations must be made in advance. Note: Maximum of two consultants in two focus areas and two workshops per attendee.

For the full schedule and to RSVP, visit tinyurl.com/SPAconsultingday.

RSVP Deadline: Friday, March 18, 2016 Call (646) 660-6743 or (646) 660-6806 or email nonprofit.workshops@baruch.cuny.edu.

Please note: Consultants providing advice in connection with this event are doing so as individuals. Consequently, all advice provided is theirs alone. The Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management at Baruch College School of Public Affairs assumes no responsibility for it.

This event is sponsored by Con Edison

OUR MISSION The mission of the School of Public Affairs and its programs is to enhance the performance of governmental and nonprofit institutions in New York and the nation in the interest of effective and equitable public service and public policy in a diverse society. We place special emphasis on educating responsive and accountable leaders who combine managerial expertise, creative and critical thinking, and rigorous analysis in the formation and execution of public policy.

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

SPOTLIGHT

FROM JUVENILE DETENTION, REDEMPTION SONGS CARNEGIE HALL

By FR ANK G. RU N YEON

T

here is a concert series in New York City that is beginning to attract attention and funding from city officials. These concerts have featured Carnegie Hall-selected musicians, professional sound crews and an internationally renowned gospel choirmaster – it’s their venue that is unique. The concerts feature a choir composed of juvenile delinquents and are often held in secure juvenile detention facilities.

While nonprofit music programs have long flourished in jails and juvenile halls across the country, New York City put its own money into these programs for the first time this school year through a larger $2 million Schools Out New York City grant from the Department of Youth and Community Development. Arts programs in the detention facilities were awarded $360,000 for a suite of offerings that include mindfulness programs, writing workshops, drama classes and music.

The hope is that city investment in these programs will grow, spurred by the idea that their benefits go far beyond simple extracurricular activities. In a recent study, Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf, a Harvard-trained researcher, analyzed the impact of a Carnegie Hall project conducted by Pastor Chantel Renee Wright, director of the Harlem-based youth choral group Songs of Solomon in New York City.

The study, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that incidents of “acting out behaviors” were reduced among youths that participated. There were no fights or altercations during the intensive three-week preparations. Moreover, she explained, those who participated did not drop out.

“That may not sound like a lot. But it really is. They can pull out at any time,” Wolf said. “There are likely to be other people in the ensemble with

16

whom they have a beef of some kind … It is a world in which they have to put that aside. That they come, that they behave, that there is no fighting, is pretty impressive.”

“The arts programs I think have made a huge difference,” said Bradley Pierre, director of programs inside the Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx, one of the city’s two secure detention facilities for middle- and high-school-aged youths. “For some of those kids, it’s a transformative experience. They are totally different in that setting when they are expressing themselves through music.”

The SONYC grant covers some of the cost of these programs and has allowed Carnegie Hall to extend its programs through the end of the school year. Nevertheless, they could use more funding.

Just over 2,700 youths were admitted to juvenile detention in 2015.

But due to the high turnover rate as children are moved into longer-term incarceration facilities or out of the system, at any given time there are just under 100 youths in the city's two secure detention facilities: Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brooklyn and Horizon. Carnegie Hall and other providers currently conduct their programming on-site at the detention facility after daily classes; youth remain in the facility throughout the day. The city grant covers 30 slots at each facility at $6,000 each. Providers call the city's new contribution significant, but admit it does not cover the true cost of the work.

“I think we still need more,” Pierre said. “We have funding now for after-school programs, but I still think there are opportunities to do more with these kids.”

WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO? Proponents say that the programs help break down emotional barriers

for troubled young people and allow them to develop their untapped potential and even recognize that potential in others.

“Given the opportunity, you can see people in a much more complex way. Not just black, not just Latina, not just from Queens,” Wolf said of the participants. “So they understand that person X has whatever gang or neighborhood affiliation, but he is also a very gifted musician. Or she is really an incredible vocalist. Or she started this program and wouldn’t even open her mouth and now look at what she did tonight.”

The effort to focus on juvenile detention as a vehicle for youth development is picking up momentum. This January, the New York City Council held a hearing to provide a space for providers to share early results and advocate for more funds. Still, more work must be done to both promote the link between arts programming and juvenile justice reform and quantify its impact.

“If you said, ‘How do you want to stop recidivism or change the percentage?’ I’m not sure you would say, ‘Let's start a bunch of arts programs,’” quipped Ann Gregg, director of community programs for Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. “It’s not the first place policymakers go to.” While arts programs aren’t a magic bullet, Gregg said, they can be an integral part of that larger solution.

Youths in juvenile hall "are at a crossroads for real potential change in their lives or real potential to be a statistic,” said Gregg. “And so, how can a musical experience help them change the course that they are on?

And change perceptions to themselves, to their families, to staff, and to the world at large about who they are, what their story is, and what they're capable of being?”

Wright, whose youth choral group Songs of Solomon has sung with pop

stars like Elton John at Radio City Music Hall, ran Carnegie Hall-funded workshops in the city's detention centers in 2012 and 2013. The group included her choir members and youths in detention. After three weeks of intense rehearsals they presented a full concert for their families.

For Wright, the change starts with choosing songs that share the universal message that everyone has the potential to be redeemed. After all, the young people in her choir aren't all that different from the juvenile hall participants, Wright said.

“I tried to pick music that would inspire them to unlock those hidden places that the system makes them shut down,” Wright said explaining her song choices for the juvenile choir.

While not all the music Wright employed was strictly gospel – R. Kelly’s “The World's Greatest” and Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” have also made the cut – others, like “This Little Light of Mine,” are gospel classics.

“Everybody has to know that no matter what you do, you can be forgiven and you can start all over,” she said.

From a social science perspective, that's significant to the positive impact of these programs, Wolf said.

“The music comes, by and large, from a church tradition that many of the kids came up in,” Wolf explained.

“And that gospel tradition is essentially about sinning and redemption.”

Wolf hopes that significance will come to be fully appreciated, and measured.

Politicians and government officials have shifted strongly toward “evidence-based practice,” Wolf said.

“What people want you to show is that it changes the recidivism rate. I can't show that with this kind of program,” Wolf said.

“The city – if it really cared about these issues – could set up a study. It has the capacity to do that,” Wolf said, explaining that only the city could create a database that tracks the progress of individuals after juvenile detention. The goal would be to find out what can be done to help save them from future incarceration.

Meanwhile, Dr. Wolf ’s research is already informing future programs at Carnegie Hall, and advocates point to personal experiences as examples of the change that can be made.

“A lot of the people I grew up with … a good amount of them are currently locked up,” said Orson Benjamin, who sings in Songs of Solomon. He credits being part of Pastor Wright's choir with helping him avoid that same fate.

“And so,” Benjamin added, “I always say, ‘Music – it saved my life.’”

NYNmedia.com

March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

SPOTLIGHT

AN ‘UNJUST’ SYSTEM City alters policies harming homeless domestic violence victims

By FR ANK G. RU N YEON with reporting by ANA MENDEZ “If they have no place to go (they) can end up going back to their abuser,” Kluger said, “or another unsafe housing situation with their children, and put themselves at further risk.”

DV advocates credit Mayor de Blasio for his efforts to assist homeless domestic violence victims, especially voucher programs like CITYFEPS and LINC, which provide rental subsidies for victims moving out of shelters and into their own apartments. The problem is that many landlords are skeptical of the vouchers. An earlier rent subsidy program, “Advantage,” was abruptly ended in January 2012 by the Bloomberg administration, leaving landlords in the lurch.

‘WHERE DO I GO NOW?’

Margarita says the shelter system has done more injustice than her abuser. (Frank G. Runyeon)

N

ew York City will change procedures for counting and evaluating homeless domestic violence victims as part of a 90-day review ordered by Mayor Bill de Blasio in December. The changes, which followed inquiries by New York Nonprofit Media, mark a departure from official practices that advocates have said were part of a system that often forces domestic violence victims to spend years cycling between city-run and specialized nonprofit-run shelters due to insufficient funding.

A city spokesperson outlined two principal changes.

First, the city will resume reporting the number of domestic violence victims in New York City shelters to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for their national report on homelessness after three years of electing not to do so.

This will better inform policymakers of the importance of addressing domestic violence as a driver of homelessness, advocates have argued, and could boost funding for specialized housing, which is currently overwhelmed by requests from domestic violence victims.

Second, the city’s Department of Homeless Services will begin providing childcare during sensitive intake interviews, instead of requiring children to be present. Removing children from the interview room would prevent what advocates described as additional trauma caused by children hearing a parent recount specific details of domestic violence.

Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks ordered the shifts in procedure as part of a top-down review of the city’s homeless services.

Victims of abuse and the nonprofNYNmedia.com

its that serve them will welcome the procedure changes, but advocates say the issues the city is addressing point to deeper systemic problems that leave many domestic violence victims feeling trapped in a web of bureaucracy as they are passed from one shelter to the next.

ONE FAMILY’S ODYSSEY THROUGH THE SHELTER SYSTEM “The system forces a person in this situation to walk around in circles,” said Margarita, a 44-year-old homeless victim of domestic violence and mother of two. She currently lives among the general shelter population of 58,000 run by the Department of Homeless Services.

Margarita fled her abusive husband in 2008, beginning an odyssey that has lasted nearly eight years.

Moving from shelter to shelter, she has navigated a tangle of city agencies that have taken her family in before pushing them out again.

Although Margarita was allowed time in specialized domestic violence shelters – which provide critical services that enable victims to recover, including trauma counseling, safety planning, educational workshops and an unlisted address – once she exceeded the government-mandated time limit, she had to move out. She has ended up in the general shelter system without those services.

“We know there aren’t enough domestic violence shelters for the need. And we are also fairly sure that at least 30-or-so percent of people in the DHS system are victims of domestic violence,” said Judy Harris Kluger, executive director of Sanctuary for Families.

Advocates point to past reports that show between 22 percent and 57 percent of all homeless women reported that domestic violence was the primary reason they are homeless. A 2006 Conference of Mayors report showed that 44 percent of the cities surveyed cited domestic violence as the primary cause of homelessness in their city. A report by the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness this past August found that during the 2013-2014 school year, approximately 28,000 schoolage children were living in New York City shelters.

Advocates say those numbers suggest that 20,000 individuals – a third of the general shelter population plus the victims in specialized domestic violence shelters – are homeless as a direct result of domestic violence. HRA reported that on Dec. 9, 2015, the mostly nonprofit-run domestic violence shelters catered to 933 families with children and 90 single adults, totaling 2,652 individuals.

The city’s estimate of the “DV” population is considerably lower.

The Department of Homeless Services reported just 2,582 families, or 22 percent of all families in its shelters – typically mothers with children – said domestic violence was their primary reason for homelessness.

Government funders impose limits on how long a “DV” victim can stay at specialized domestic violence shelters. Advocates have stretched that limit to 180 days. But the scarcity of affordable housing in the city, they said, means that even that six-month window is not enough time to get a family back on their feet and into a new home. When time is up, DV providers struggle to find a safe place for them.

Margarita would know. She moved out of shelter and into an apartment with an Advantage voucher in 2010.

While the situation was far from ideal – after signing the lease, she discovered the building superintendent was a registered child sex offender – Margarita lost her home again when the program ended. She fell back into a domestic violence shelter run by the nonprofit Violence Intervention Program, but when her time there expired, she wound up in a DHS shelter. The choice was a last resort, but she is not alone among domestic violence victims moving in with the general homeless population.

The path from domestic violence shelter to DHS shelter has become a well-worn trail for many women and children looking for housing after their time in DV shelter – so much so that the city decided in late 2014 to put a freeze on the 180-day limit DV victims have to find new housing.

This allows them to stay in DV housing and hopefully buy more time for shelter residents to find permanent housing under the new voucher programs.

While the freeze helps, advocates say, it has failed to keep victims out of DHS shelters.

“More people are fleeing domestic violence and entering shelter every day,” said Michael Polenberg, vice president of government affairs at the nonprofit Safe Horizon, the city’s largest domestic violence shelter provider. “Sometimes we're able to place them and sometimes we aren't, because there isn't capacity or because they need shelter in a particular borough. So, those folks are going to DHS.” Families entering the DHS system who claim domestic abuse have been required to provide an in-depth account of their abuse so the city can determine whether or not the family qualifies as domestic violence vic-

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Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

tims under the city’s technical definition. The NoVA unit, which stands for “No Violence Again,” interviews the victim – often a mother – in the presence of her children. Although the city has now pledged to begin providing childcare during these sensitive intake interviews, the way social workers currently conduct this grim interview can be psychologically damaging, advocates say.

“The women we have worked with have said the most traumatic part of going through the process of going into shelter in New York is that, ‘We have to be vetted by the NoVA unit,’” said Paul Feuerstein, president and CEO of the nonprofit Barrier Free Living, which provides housing to victims of domestic violence with disabilities.

“Many times it is the first time the children have heard the gory details of the domestic violence that their mother has been through. And it has been a traumatizing experience for the children involved,” Feuerstein explains. “There is literally no place for children to go while that is happening.”

Although 22 percent of all families in the DHS shelter system said they were homeless because of domestic violence, after evaluating those families, NoVA social workers determined that just six percent of all families were eligible for NoVA benefits, which, advocates said, only amounts to housing in a women-and-children-only shelter, without the services crucial to victims’ recovery.

‘THEY ASKED ME EVERYTHING’ Margarita submitted to the NoVA interview along with her then fouryear-old daughter and three-yearold son.

There were two desks in the crowded room, she said – one for her interview and another for a different mother with her children. Her NoVA social worker dispassionately filled out paperwork and began asking her questions, with her children seated next to her.

“They asked me everything,” Margarita recalled. “Details…and everything.”

Margarita sent her children to the corner to play with toys. She hoped they wouldn’t hear her describing the physical, psychological and sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of their father.

But they did.

Her son never mentioned it until much later and her daughter only remembers a little from that day, Margarita said. But her daughter had already been a victim. Her father abused her as well.

The NoVA unit deemed her family eligible for placement in a DHS NoVA shelter, housing a mix of DV victims and other women and children.

HRA spokesman David Neustadt told New York Nonprofit Media that Commissioner Steven Banks has “instructed DHS to create a space for childcare with appropriate staff so that domestic violence interviews can be conducted without the children being present.” Neustadt added

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that “the new system will be in operation as soon as DHS is able to build that space and hire staff.”

Most days, Margarita said, the struggle is less dramatic than the NoVA interview, involving mountains of paperwork and benefits applications on top of the day-to-day grind of taking her children to and from school while working as a cleaning lady. But the seemingly mundane indignities of the system pile up over time.

“My children are tired, they’re frustrated,” Margarita said, noting that they currently spend three hours commuting to and from school every day. But the primary problem, she said, is that her inquisitive young children don’t understand why they must keep moving – they have moved six times since 2008.

‘IT’S BETTER IF YOU GIVE US TO SOMEONE ELSE’ One day, Margarita said, her now 12-year-old daughter and 10-yearold son sat her down for a family meeting. “We have something to say to you," they said. Smiling wistfully, Margarita remembers them telling her, “We’re not going to keep moving to some other place. We'll take the money that we have and pay for a house.”

Her children wanted a place for toys, but the shelter had no space.

They wanted to do homework, but they didn’t have the Internet they needed. And when they were hungry, they wanted more than what the food

stamps could pay for.

So, her children offered an alternative, Margarita remembered. If we can’t move into a real home, her children told her, “It's better if you give us to someone else.”

Margarita’s children are American, but she is not. Because her children go with her to so many meetings, they’ve begun to understand that her undocumented status has added to the difficulty in getting benefits.

However, advocates say, her experience with the homeless system is not unique.

Amy Barasch, who headed New York’s Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence before taking her current post as executive director of the nonprofit Her Justice, explained that the homeless system in New York has often failed to meet the needs of women who are homeless as a result of domestic violence.

“These are individuals who have been brutalized by their partners, probably have children, are extremely vulnerable and are absolutely going to suffer more if they don't have housing,” Barasch said. “The trauma is exacerbated by the homelessness.”

Margarita agrees.

“Truly, of all that I've been through, all the injustice that has happened,” Margarita said. “It has mostly been the injustice of the system.”

She looked around the room of the shelter.

Then added quietly, “And here I am.”

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NYNmedia.com

March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

SPOTLIGHT

CHANGES FOR HOMELESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS ‘BABY STEPS’

By JEFF STEIN

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announces the city’s Supportive Housing Plan. (Demetrius Freeman/Mayoral Photography Office)

W

hile advocates and nonprofit leaders welcomed news that the New York City Human Resources Administration plans to make policy adjustments in regards to its services for homeless victims of domestic violence, many said much work remains to be done, with one advocate describing the proposed shifts as mere “baby steps” in the right direction.

In January, an HRA spokesperson told New York Nonprofit Media that the agency plans to resume reporting the number of victims of domestic violence in New York City shelters to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after three years of electing not to do so. Advocates characterize the count as an important tool for policymakers as they craft services and secure funding for domestic violence survivors.

The agency’s spokesperson also said that HRA will move to provide childcare during sensitive intake interviews in an effort to protect children from experiencing trauma as a result of hearing parents recount specific details of domestic violence.

Both policy adjustments come amid a comprehensive 90-day review of the city’s homeless services ordered last month by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The shifts, which followed inquiries by NYN Media, garnered praise from many corners of the nonprofit community.

“These changes will help us more accurately assess the extent to which domestic violence contributes to the homelessness crisis in New York City, and will minimize the trauma children experience by eliminating unnecessary and misguided protocols,” said Christine Quinn, executive director of Win, one of the city’s largest providers of services for homeless women and children. “Additional steps are needed, however, to ensure our system is responsive to the needs NYNmedia.com

of homeless families that have survived domestic violence.”

Carol Corden, executive director of New Destiny Housing, an organization that works to house victims of domestic violence throughout New York City, stressed the importance of an accurate count of domestic violence survivors in the shelter system given the magnitude of the population.

“Before the city stopped doing the count, domestic violence survivors were the third highest subpopulation in homeless shelters,” Corden said.

“We are happy that they are in fact going to do what should have been done all along.”

Corden also cautioned leaders against allowing domestic violence survivors to “fall off the radar” and called on de Blasio to appoint a representative from a domestic violence organization to his recently formed supportive housing task force, a “brain trust” that will guide the implementation of his administration’s $2.6 billion, 15,000-unit plan.

“We were struck that the supportive housing task force did not have a representative from a domestic violence organization on it,” Corden said. “Given that domestic violence victims are one of the most impacted groups, it’s interesting that there is no representative for this population. That’s something that we’d really like to see.”

Mary Brosnahan, president and CEO of Coalition for the Homeless, agreed that domestic violence organizations should be offered a seat at the table during supportive housing discussions, saying, “I can’t imagine there would be any pushback from the (de Blasio) administration on including a domestic violence organization on the task force.”

Brosnahan also agreed that supportive housing should be viewed as the overarching solution for homeless survivors of domestic violence,

and implored the mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to codify a new NY/ NY agreement on funding for additional units. While three such agreements have been struck between past mayors and governors, the potential for current collaboration has fallen by the wayside during a monthslong feud between Cuomo and de Blasio.

‘DHS 1.0 people’ who still have a very confrontational approach during intake interviews,” Brosnahan said.

“People are asking things like, ‘Well, why don’t you have a police report on this incident?’ I don’t know about you, but I would have reached my breaking point by then.”

Advocates also said that the de Blasio administration should use its current review of homeless services in the city to address problems in the way that domestic violence survivors currently navigate through a labyrinth of city agencies. Trapani cited the New York City Housing Authority's move earlier this year to give victims of domestic violence the same priority as homeless families and singles – who had been given emergency priority over domestic violence survivors – as an important step.

“We need to ensure that there is equitable access for survivors, in all of the city agencies, including HRA, HPD, and NYCHA,” Trapani said.

“When NYCHA has priority placement, we want to see the continued inclusion of domestic violence victims. NYCHA and HRA only belatedly came together for a one-time deal, in an effort to appease community outcry over the lack of access for do-

ADDITIONAL STEPS ARE NEEDED TO ENSURE OUR SYSTEM IS RESPONSIVE TO THE NEEDS OF HOMELESS FAMILIES THAT HAVE SURVIVED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE While advocates highlighted the need for more supportive units, they also stressed the importance of ground-level shifts during the intake process that could impact how domestic violence survivors access services at city-run shelters.

“You’re counting on people to self-disclose so that you can provide services, and there’s a lot of denial and a lot of shame connected with domestic violence,” said Catherine Trapani, director of New Destiny Housing’s HousingLink program.

“There are always people who won’t understand why certain questions are being asked. We need to make sure that we’re not dispassionate when we’re talking to potential victims.”

Brosnahan concurred, saying that the city Department of Homeless Services should make sure that its staff is properly trained to prevent victims from falling through the cracks when they enter the system. “The city needs to replace or retrain what I call

mestic violence survivors. But that deal was never enshrined in any plan.

Let’s be proactive, not reactive. Let’s be inclusive from the start.”

Others have hypothesized that absorbing DHS into HRA could help promote organizational cohesion.

“The funding for DHS comes from HRA. Where the dollars are, that’s where the operation should be,” said Ralph da Costa Nunez, president of the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness. “It was a mistake to break DHS off in the first place.

Right now you have duplication of all sorts of administration that make it so much more inefficient.”

Nunez added that city government is at a unique crossroads and could seize on its systemic review to enact lasting change for domestic violence survivors.

“There are so many families who have dealt with domestic abuse peppered throughout the shelter system,” Nunez said. “This is a real opportunity to deal with it.”

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SPOTLIGHT

CLOSE TO HOME SHIFTS FROM CORRECTIONS TO REHABILITATION

By JEFF STEIN

W

ith herds of deer punctuating the green expanses of The Children’s Village’s picturesque Dobbs Ferry campus, it’s easy to feel far removed from the harsh realities of the juvenile justice system.

And yet, in a far corner of the sprawling 180-acre property, a newly retrofitted cottage houses two teenagers who are restricted to a tiny fraction of the grounds.

They are the first participants in The Children’s Village’s “limited secure placement” program, a new subset of the New York City Administration of Children’s Services’ Close to Home initiative that places teenage offenders closer to their home communities, instead of at detention centers far

upstate. The initiative also takes a holistic approach to rehabilitation, combining residential services with therapeutic treatment and instruction from New York City Department of Education-certified teachers.

While The Children’s Village has spent two years as a Close to Home provider, LSP presents a notable shift. Unlike youth in the first phase of the program – called “nonsecure placement,” or NSP – LSP youth cannot leave the confines of their cottage and the area directly surrounding it, which is surrounded by unscalable 12-foot fencing and closely monitored by security personnel. For several months, a cramped two-story building is their bedroom, their classroom and

everything in between.

A NEW MINDSET Still in its infancy, Close to Home harnesses the concept that treatment – not simply imprisonment – holds the key to turning around the lives of juvenile offenders. But while The Children’s Village has provided services to similar youth, both at other sites and in its NSP program, LSP has forced staff to confront head-on the challenges – and rewards – of a more restorative approach.

“I think sometimes people find solace in the corrections mentality,” said Elizabeth Saracco, an Integrated Treatment Model liaison who works to amalgamate

The Children’s Village’s suite of services into a unified program for LSP youth. “But when you’re in that mindset, you don’t really have to have that relationship with the kids, because it’s hard when the kids leave or when they curse you out. If you think of yourself as a security person, then you’re not going to be vulnerable and you’re not going to build trust, which is so essential.”

Part of the internal conflict, according to Saracco, stems from training that necessarily emphasizes security precautions, given that the teenagers in the LSP program have violent histories.

“We train with things like shackles and handcuffs and we talk a lot about safety and security, so sometimes those two things can go

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into conflict,” Saracco said. “What should be at the forefront? Safety and security, or treatment? Trying to interweave those two things is our goal.”

Tina Schleicher, a clinical coordinator, agreed that Close to Home – and LSP in particular – has necessitated a new mindset for social workers.

“When you look at some of the kids just on paper, I think it’s overwhelming,” Schleicher said.

“You get a stack of documents and you see the history and the amount of trauma, the things that a kid has been through. And the idea becomes: How can this kid ever be successful? But then if you take a moment and think and look at how they have survived despite all of this, you think: How can they not be successful?”

However, according to Schleicher, it’s not just social workers who must embrace a new paradigm for LSP to be successful.

“Even parents are still struggling with these ideas,” Schleicher said.

“When we’ll talk to them about their kids, they’ll say things like, ‘Well, have they done their time?’ and ‘I hope he’s learned his lesson.’ The parents still have that concept that it’s about punishment. That’s why the contact that Children’s Village does before the kids even get here is so important. The idea that you and your family will be going through

One of the cottages on The Children's Village's Dobbs Ferry campus. (Jeff Stein) playing the video game “Minecraft.”

“This other kid kept coming and destroying my stuff,” he said. “He kept doing it, and finally I got so mad that I destroyed his whole world. And I knew that I shouldn’t have done it, but I was just so mad and I couldn’t control myself.”

WITH LSP, IT’S THE DIFFERENCE BET WEEN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT FEELS LIKE IT’S THERE TO PU T YOU DOWN ... AND ONE THAT’S GOING TO BUILD YOU UP. a therapeutic process to help your child be successful and that it’s all one long continuum of care for your family. That’s a very different idea from what folks are used to.”

USING A COMMON LANGUAGE As they attempt to set teenagers on a better path, The Children’s Village’s social workers deploy a treatment model called MST-FIT, or Multisystemic Therapy with Family Integrated Treatment, which focuses youths’ attention to mindfulness, goal setting and regulating destructive behavior.

“It’s totally different than the way that they’ve ever lived their lives or experienced their lives or interactions with people,” said Schleicher.

Once children begin to internalize skills and strategies, Schleicher noted, connections back to their lives at home abound.

At an afternoon MST session, for example, one of the teenagers connected the theme of the day, “distress tolerance,” back to an experience that he had at home NYNmedia.com

While the connection to virtual reality may seem inconsequential, Saracco said that making those mental connections in familiar settings can save a teenager from falling back into violent behavior when it really counts. Social workers hope that their efforts to impart skills like “distress tolerance” in relatable ways, like real-life connections or memorizable rap lyrics (which are printed on posters all over campus), can make a world of difference once teenagers are back in the community.

“I can imagine a scenario where a kid’s mom keeps bugging him about something, and after several times he flips out and starts destroying the apartment,” Saracco said. “But if he had just confronted it at the outset in a mindful way, he could have avoided that violence.”

Schleicher added that often parents and siblings struggle with similar problems as youth in the program, which makes family buyin a pillar of success.

“With MST they’re all able to get on the same page and figure out what is contributing to problems

from a multisystemic perspective – not just what the kid is doing, but what the family has some control over,” Schleicher said.

That process involves visits with family members, both during the youth’s stay at The Children’s Village and once they have rejoined the community, where social workers help family members understand the skills that will help their child thrive.

“We work with the family at home to learn skills and to be able to label them so that when the youth comes home, the parent has some context to what the youth is learning and we can all use that common language,” said Daphne Torres, supervisor of the MST program.

A CROWDED, YET THERAPEUTIC, ENVIRONMENT With an asphalt basketball court and adjacent weight room, at first glance the LSP facility looks like it could be one corner of a larger recreational camp. But once the front secure gate locks shut, an undeniable sense of confinement sets in.

The LSP cottage, which is separated from the basketball court by a small lawn, can incite a strong sense of claustrophobia. The cottage’s two floors and basement house a security checkpoint, classroom, kitchen and living room, nurse outpost, several bedrooms (the site’s capacity is six residents), and an isolation room (used in the event that one of the youth displays uncontrollably violent behavior).

With three DOE teachers, multiple social workers, administrators and other staff constantly present, staff members say that one of the biggest challenges in the facility is giving everyone enough space.

“One thing that makes it difficult is the size and people feeling on top of each other, and making sure that we stay away from this cabin fever idea,” Saracco said.

While the setting has its challenges, Schleicher said that, in

some senses, it mimics the types of environments teenagers will have to navigate once they’re back in the community.

“It’s a lot of the same struggles that we have in the community when those kids go home, where you’ll have families who are in overcrowded apartments, kids sleeping in the living room,” Schleicher said. “We recently had a case where there was five people living in a one bedroom apartment, and just trying to figure out how to use your skills and not kill each other in that environment.”

One way that The Children’s Village has attempted to mitigate that sense of cabin fever is by opting for more soothing interior design choices. The teenagers’ bedrooms, for example, have accented walls, specially secured curtains and colorful bedding that make them much closer in spirit to a college dorm room than a juvenile detention cell.

“When we were designing these spaces, we made a concerted effort to get away from making it feel institutional,” said Cristian Correa, assistant vice president of residential programs. “The choices that we made with the curtains and bedding were very intentional and, I think, are in keeping with the

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WE MADE A CONCERTED EFFORT TO GET AWAY FROM MAKING IT FEEL INSTITU TIONAL. overall goals of the program.”

According to Schleicher, those nurturing choices, along with the therapeutic and educational services, provide the best hope for breaking the cycle of incarceration that has plagued so many young lives.

“As someone who worked with OCFS youth long before this project existed, it was easy to start thinking of it as a revolving door, and the more times you’re in an out means something in communities,” Schleicher said.

“It’s really important that people are starting to moving away from that.”

“With LSP, it’s the difference between an environment that feels like it’s there to put you down and put you in your place and one that’s going to build you up,” she added.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Even with that environment in place, the staff at The Children’s Village have just a handful of

months before LSP youth head back home and into the community, where many of the same factors that led to their destructive behavior remain intact. In an effort to ease that transition, the program has worked in an extensive aftercare portion to keep tab son LSP youth.

“From an aftercare perspective, MST will look at whether or not the youth is staying at home, not being rearrested, and making sure they are in school or in a vocational program,” said Torres. “Those are three major goals that we work on. The way we work to achieve those goals is by working with the family to make sure that they are connected with the school and have a better relationship with the school, and getting the youth into a pro-social program so that the youth is navigating the community more successfully.”

However, according to Schleicher, staff work hard during their time with the LSP teenagers to help them envision a productive life after the

program, as well as the steps they’ll have to take to get there.

“For some kids, if they really want to do vocational or hands-on work, maybe they’re going to go to a technical college or an engineering school or electrical college,” Schleicher said. “And we start thinking about how they get there.

You’ve been using drugs. They’re not going to take you if you aren’t clean. Let’s give you a goal around managing that in the community.”

Schleicher added that the program’s emphasis on mindfulness

and incremental progress gives teenagers their best shot at surviving – and thriving – back home in dangerous and chaotic communities.

“We break it down into steps and look at what the behaviors are that are going to interfere with the steps they have to take to get their lives on track,” Schleicher said. “And if they’ve made a lot of progress in a setting where there’s a lot of control around the stimulus and the triggers for those things, we help them maintain that in a world where those things are free flowing.”

A bedroom in the LSP cottage on The Children's Village's Dobbs Ferry Campus. (Jeff Stein)

SPOTLIGHT

STATE OF CITY RECEIVES MIXED REVIEWS FROM NONPROFITS

By FR ANK G. RU N YEON

N

ew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio trumpeted his accomplishments in his State of the City address last month, lighting on some of the initiatives in his preliminary budget that will channel funds to many nonprofits tasked with tackling the mayor’s major challenges, including affordable housing, mental illness and income inequality.

The mayor thanked his wife, first lady Chirlane McCray, “the author of a new groundbreaking vision for a city where mental health challenges are addressed head on.” The $62 million ThriveNYC initiative aims to “shatter that stigma and deal with the public health crisis of mental health,” the mayor said, by supporting and promoting mental health while addressing mental illness.

The city’s nonprofit partners expressed enthusiasm.

“The way in which the mayor and Ms. McCray have spoken publicly about their own family challenges sends a clear and compelling message,” Moishe Hellman, co-president of

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OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services, said in a statement. “Getting help is much more important than worrying about stigma.”

In perhaps the most anticipated feature of the address, the mayor highlighted what will be a $2.5 billion public transportation project – the 16-mile Brooklyn Queens Connector, or BQX, streetcar line that would run along the East River waterfront from Astoria, Queens, to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, linking two boroughs that have been notoriously difficult to travel between.

The BQX, de Blasio said, “has the potential to generate over $25 billion of economic impact for our city over 30 years.”

Community organizations like the nonprofit Red Hook Initiative hope the streetcar will improve low-income New Yorkers’ access to higher-paying tech jobs – particularly the 40,000 NYCHA residents in 13 developments.

The mayor made only glancing mention of his $15 minimum wage proposal, saying simply that “50,000 city workers and contracted

workers will now be guaranteed a $15 minimum wage.”

Still, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies applauded the mayor’s plan to raise the wages of 50,000 workers across New York City by funding a $15 per hour minimum wage that would cover city-contracted nonprofit workers.

“While we commend the mayor for increasing wages for thousands of city workers, we appreciate that there still are many service providers whose work merits a pay increase,” FPWA said in a statement. The organization worried that early childhood educators would remain underpaid and said that more funding is needed for summer after-school programs.

The mayor touted his affordable housing plans, but Picture the Homeless, a homeless services nonprofit run by homeless individuals, was not impressed. The way the mayor presented his housing initiative, “is not the way it's going to play out,” said Ms. K., a member speaking for the organization who asked that her full name be withheld

for privacy reasons.

“It’s basically a developer program,” Ms. K. explained. The mayor was not listening to grassroots organizations advocating for nonprofit-run affordable housing and choosing instead to work with profit-minded developers resulting in a set of housing programs that are not tailored to the needs of the homeless community, she said.

Several of the mayor’s proposed budget line items went unmentioned in his speech, but nonprofits benefitting from those programs, such as efforts to alleviate elder abuse, said that the funding is what is important.

The mayor’s budget included $1.5 million to fund specialized teams of experts to respond to complex cases of elder abuse. “We've been talking about elder abuse, neglect and exploitation and the money really hasn't been there. So we're heading in the right direction – and I'm really thrilled about that,” said Risa Breckman, executive director of the NYC Elder Abuse Center.

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NEWS

HELPING NONPROFITS BUILD FROM THE INSIDE OUT

By ALICE POPOVICI

R

hea Wong, executive director of Breakthrough New York, has to write reports for donors a few times per year. Until recently the process involved dozens of Google Docs and Excel spreadsheets with various records about the organization and the students it serves.

Sometimes staff members provided missing details from memory.

“We needed a best-in-class data management system,” Wong said of the nonprofit, which helps gifted children and young adults from low-income backgrounds succeed in college and start their careers. “We’ve been shoestringing our way along for the last 16 years.”

What she needed was a system that gathered all of the information about each of the 370 students the organization now serves, including school records, report cards, extracurricular activities and internship information, in one place. Last year, with the help of a $35,000 grant from the Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund, a project launched in 2014 by the New York City Council and several nonprofits, Wong was able to jump-start the process.

The Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund, the first of its kind in New York City, is designed to help small nonprofits build capacity. To be eligible, nonprofits must serve communities where at least 51 percent of residents are people of color, and they must have demonstrated an effort to reach out to communities of color in selecting their leadership and board of directors. Funds can be used to support database management, to develop and train leadership and to conduct financial assessments, among other projects, according to grant application materials. Organizations with budgets of less than $2 million are given preference in the application process.

The fund responds to a recognized need. “Historically speaking, the larger organizations get more money,” said Sheelah Feinberg executive director of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, one of the organizations coordinating the grant.

Smaller, community-based organizations generally don’t have the access to funding for capacity-building projects Feinberg explained.

“The organizations that serve communities of color tend to be smaller organizations.”

Grant recipients said these funds provided much-needed finances for capacity building and in some inNYNmedia.com

stances helped organizations better understand themselves and plan for the future.

Last February, 80 nonprofits throughout New York City received a total of $2.5 million in funding to invest in capacity building and infrastructure projects during the first year of the grant. This February, an additional $2.5 million was awarded.

The grant is coordinated by the City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus as well as the Hispanic Federation, The New York Urban League, The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, the Asian American Federation and Black Agency Executives. It provides funding in areas including data management, leadership development and planning. It is administered by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development.

Lobbying efforts for the fund had been underway for several years, said Arva Rice, executive director of the New York Urban League.

“We felt that nonprofit organizations are clearly the lifeblood of New York City,” and in particular the smaller ones that serve specific neighborhoods.

The fact that nonprofit organizations are an invaluable resource was highlighted in particular after Hurricane Sandy devastated many of the city’s neighborhoods in Oct. 2012, Rice told New York Nonprofit Media.

Small nonprofit organizations were able to quickly step in and help.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE “We wanted to assess our programs” as well as whether members were getting the information they needed, said Andrea Louie, executive director of the Asian American Arts Alliance, a 35-year-old organization that supports artists and cultural organizations in New York City and has a membership program. The nonprofit used the $32,000 grant to hire a consultant that evaluated its website and social media engagement. The consultant also conducted 20 phone interviews and two focus groups with members.

The results, Louie said, “confirmed our suspicions that having a robust member program as well as a really robust online engagement takes a lot of resources.”

Considering that membership-based organizations have changed a great deal over the years, Louie added that the consultant’s conclusion led the organization to consider its future more carefully. “It might be that we decide to eliminate

the membership structure altogether,” she said.

The organization received another $32,000 during the initiative’s second round of funding this year.

Louie said it plans to hire another consultant to evaluate how well its programs and fundraising activities align with its mission.

Tia Powell Harris, executive director of Brooklyn-based Weeksville Heritage Center, suspected that the sprawling, 16-building public housing complex located steps away from the nonprofit organization is where its potential audience lived. But she needed to be sure.

The small African-American cultural institution, which houses a museum dedicated to preserving the history of one of the country’s first free black communities, did not have enough staff to do the research and outreach work, Harris said, so it applied for a Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund grant last year.

With the $35,000 the organization received in funding it hired consultants to work in four focus areas: marketing, community engagement, programming and graphic design. Part of the contractors’ work included in-person outreach at the Kingsborough Houses. They talked with residents, completed a small oral history project and developed branding materials such as a logo and activities calendar.

Based on the work the contractors completed and recommendations they provided, Harris said she now knows how to move forward. Harris learned that the nonprofit’s audience looks to the organization as its provider of history and that Weeksville should be reaching out to the Kingsborough community in particular because of its proximity.

The $33,000 grant the organization received this year will be used to analyze and develop its board of directors.

A ‘MORE SEAMLESS’ PROCESS Despite the positive impact the grant money has made, Harris and other grantees said the slow and sometimes disorganized documentation process for the grant, and the fact that the money had to be spent

by June 2015, was a challenge.

“I would have liked a little more time to bring the project to fruition,” Harris said.

Because of how the grant was structured, Wong could not spend the entire $35,000 on the consultant customizing her data management system. City Council guidelines restrict spending on for-profit consultants to 60 percent of the grant, Wong said.

The remaining funds were spent on staff and materials for the project.

Breakthrough New York received an additional $33,000 from the grant this year. Wong is using it to develop a data management plan for the organization’s fundraising and volunteer databases.

Feinberg said the organizations that managed the administration of the grant are working together to create a “more seamless” application process. Releasing the RFP two weeks earlier this year helped. The coordinating organizations hope the grant will continue, Feinberg said.

Councilwoman Margaret Chin, one of the leaders of the City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, said she and other council members will push for more funding in the next budget.

“We want to continue the support – a one-shot deal is not going to work,” she said.

Fourth-grade students from P.S. 372/The Children’s School in Brooklyn visit the Weeksville Heritage Center for a historic house tour and art workshop in March 2015.

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NEWS

EMERGENCY FOOD PROVIDERS FEAR SECOND ‘HUNGER CLIFF’ L+M Development Partners

By AIMÉE SIMPIERRE

“T

his is the second hunger cliff.”

That is the term Food Bank for New York City President and CEO Margarette Purvis used during her organization’s annual conference on hunger and poverty to sound the alarm about a pending reduction in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits that could put significant strain on a network of emergency food providers that advocates say is already terribly overburdened.

The cuts are set to begin making an impact across the nation on April 1 as a result of a provision passed in a 1996 welfare reform act. Able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWD) who have more than three jobless months within any three-year period will lose SNAP benefits unless they are employed and working (in-kind or voluntary work is acceptable) 80 hours during the month, or can document participation in a

is thrilled to congratulate

qualifying work or training program.

Food Bank for New York City, an umbrella organization serving about 1,000 soup kitchens and food pantries across the city, noted the first “hunger cliff” happened after an across-the board reduction in SNAP benefits took effect in November 2013, spurring an “immediate and widespread increase in visitor traffic” among emergency food providers. The cuts resulted in the estimated loss of 76 million meals for New York City residents, Food Bank reported.

During the conference – this year titled “Raising Our Voice” – Purvis called this second hunger cliff “worse” because so many of the organization’s members have been unaware of it. Much of New York state has been under a waiver that delayed the loss of benefits while unemployment rates were high. That waiver expired on December 31, 2015.

“We’re here to sound the alarm, and we feel like it’s our job for having such

a robust network, for having the data, to really try to get our group together, especially during this Raise Your Voice.

I’m like, ‘If you’re going to raise your voice, raise your voice about the thing that matters,’ and ABAWD matters more than anything else we’re facing,” Purvis said.

Although 20 counties, eight cities, four boroughs and four Manhattan community districts remain exempt, 53,000 New Yorkers could lose their benefits. Purvis feels the entire city will be dramatically affected. Food banks and soup kitchens typically serve individuals well beyond their immediate geographic area. When conference attendees were asked if their organizations served individuals from outside their borough, about three-quarters of the audience’s hands went up.

Food Bank for New York recently released a research brief about their network’s current level of capacity. The

Debbie Kenyon

brief analyzed survey results from 242 active food pantries and soup kitchens in January and found that as recently as last September, 90 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens were experiencing increased visitor traffic, and approximately half reported having run out of food that month.

But as the need has increased, funding has remained stagnant, Purvis said.

“Just because (emergency food service providers) are the ones to stand up for their neighbors doesn’t mean they should be the ones left holding the bag."

Swami Durga Das, executive director of The River Fund, hoped that more attention would be drawn to this issue.

Emergency food assistance providers are the “front line” in the war against poverty, he said. “The first issue is always food insecurity.”

“I mean the hunger cliff,” Das said. “I think before we were holding on with fingernails. I think we just let go.”

on her Outstanding Achievement

in Support of Workforce Development,

Education and Healthy Quality of Life Award

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NEWS

‘SEA CHANGE’ CALLED FOR TO HELP LOW-INCOME LGBT CLIENTS

By JEFF STEIN

“L

ove wins!” the headlines – and tweets – cried out victoriously last June. After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed same-sex marriage as a fundamental right throughout the country, gay rights advocates breathed a sigh of relief. Years of shifting cultural attitudes had finally led to tangible – and long-sought – rights for gay citizens.

But less than a year after the landmark Supreme Court decision, legal advocates remain cognizant of just how much work remains to be done for the LGBT community, despite some high profile gains. A startling new report by Legal Services NYC catalogs the habitual discrimination and abuse faced by many LGBT New Yorkers, highlighting an inextricable link between continued oppression, lack of access to essential services and sustained economic disadvantage.

“The public doesn’t usually associate poverty with the LGBT community,” said Cathy Bowman, LGBT and HIV unit director at Legal Services NYC’s Brooklyn office. “Unfortunately, that perception is wrong. Poverty is a huge problem for many LGBT people. Yet there are far too few legal resources to address the challenges and discrimination faced by low-income LGBT individuals.”

The report, which is based on interviews with over 300 low-income LGBT Legal Services clients, portrays a “truly heartbreaking” level of economic hardship, according to Bowman. According to the survey, 62 percent of those interviewed had difficulty paying for a basic need in the past year, including housing and food, forcing many clients to navigate complex and overburdened government agencies.

The report also highlights the astounding level of abuse experienced by low-income LGBT New Yorkers. A full 50 percent of respondents said that they had been victims of some form of violence, including domestic abuse, sexual assault or neglect by a parent or guardian; 39 percent of those interviewed said that they had been verbally harassed in public in just the last year.

Unsurprisingly, these harrowing conditions lead to a litany of legal needs.

However, according to the report, those needs are often not met, as low-income LGBT clients are habitually ostracized.

“Like all of the people Legal Services NYC represents, our LGBT clients lack resources and power,” the report states.

“But low-income LGBT people are too often also at the margins of efforts to provide help: at the margins of the legal services community because they are LGBT, and at the margins of the mainstream LGBT movement because they are poor.”

In many cases, low-income transgender clients face some of the steepest challenges, including security and safeNYNmedia.com

Mayor de Blasio marches in the 2015 Queens Pride Parade. (Ed Reed/Office of the Mayor) ty concerns in many venues that others take for granted, like public bathrooms.

According to the survey, “about 53 percent of transgender respondents have been denied access to or treated badly while using a bathroom or locker room that matches their gender identity.”

But one of the least safe places for transgender New Yorkers is the homeless shelter system, which is concerning to advocates due to the frequency that transgender individuals, especially youth, are kicked out of family homes when they express their gender identity. According to the report, Queens participants “reported that shelters are ‘hostile and filthy.’ They also feel that transgender women are not safe in shelters, even when they are placed in women’s shelters. For some, it is safer to live on the streets.”

Even transgender New Yorkers in seemingly stable housing situations reported constant threats to their security. Some respondents described feeling scared to change their name on housing documents. While discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identification is strictly forbidden by the city housing maintenance code, many low-income LGBT clients said that taking any requisite recourse was too difficult without the help of legal experts.

Respondents even described substantial discrimination in interactions with city government agencies. This despite recent changes, such as removing gender from government-issued identification cards and considering the deliberate misuse of preferred pronouns by government staff to be discrimination. In fact, 23 percent of participants who had experienced trouble receiving government benefits said LGBT discrimination was the cause.

For example, one client recounted the verbal abuse of a city Human Resources Administration security officer when trying to access government services. “My former partner accom-

panied me to apply for benefits at the Staten Island HRA office, one of the security guards said something offensive to one of his coworkers about him kissing me goodbye within earshot of us,” the participant said. “When I calmly approached him and told him that certain words are disrespectful and that he should keep his opinions to himself whilst at work he threatened to escort me out for ‘starting trouble.’”

Adam Heintz, director of the Pro Bono Services Department at Legal Services NYC, said that the findings of the report demonstrate that legal services nonprofits and government agencies must rethink how they interact with and serve low-income LGBT clients.

“A sea change is absolutely necessary,” Heintz said. “It’s necessary for every entity that touches the lives of LGBT clients, not just the courts, or City Hall, or HRA and welfare agencies, but all of us who are doing legal services work.

Historically, LGBT issues have not been viewed as ‘core to the work,’ and not important enough to make all low-income lawyers re-evaluate their intake processes. But this report demonstrates the opposite very powerfully. There’s a myth that LGBT people have money, that these are middle-class issues; that clearly is not the case. If we can create a sea change just amongst legal advocates in NYC, that will lead to a sea change in the government entities that we appear before.”

Heintz praised HRA for its recent commitment to training staff on LGBT issues, and admitted that it will take time for large government agencies to undergo meaningful transformations.

But he urged government agencies and nonprofits to continue to push each other to craft policies and programs that will help reach the most vulnerable LGBT New Yorkers.

Bowman agreed, adding that legal advocates must go out into communities that are hit hard by the inequities chronicled in the report.

“We need to target the communities where these issues are prevalent, like in the Queens Latino community and with HIV-positive clients. It’s up to us to figure out how to get into those communities and make access easier.”

On a recent Wednesday evening, Daniel Pepitone, an attorney with Manhattan Legal Services, settled into a corner room at Callen-Lorde’s Chelsea clinic for HIV-positive patients.

Pepitone was there as part of a unique partnership between two nonprofits that provides free legal access to Callen-Lorde patients. Many patients qualify for services through HRA’s HIV/ AIDS Services, or HASA, program and have limited, or nonexistent, financial and familial support.

“You never know what’s going to come up,” Pepitone said as he prepared for the evening’s clients. “It’s often so surprising to me that people will come in so focused on one goal, like getting their name legally changed, and I’ll start asking other questions and discover a whole series of legal needs that we have to address.”

That evening’s series of clients underscored Pepitone’s point, highlighting the expansive legal needs of the low-income LGBT community.

One client, accompanied by his Callen-Lorde intensive care navigator, sought relief from a fellow resident at his congregate care facility who had been accosting him with a daily barrage of discriminatory slurs.

“It started with shouting at my door. So I’d be woken up at 5 or 6 in the morning with ‘faggot,’ ‘bitch,’” he said, recounting an onslaught of insults and violent threats. “That was just the morning stuff. Then it turned into shouting out the window and through the walls.”

Even though the staff of his facility was aware of the frequency of the slurs, no effort had been made to relocate either party or respond with an alternative solution.

Another client, a Latina transgender woman, came in seeking help with a housing dispute that she suspected had discriminatory undertones. But as Pepitone began asking other questions, she asked for help with a living will, inspired in part by the unsettling experience of a transgender friend.

“I know a transgender girl from back in Mexico … when she died her family was able to get her body. They removed all of her implants and dressed her up like a man at the funeral. They drew in a mustache on her. I want it written down that my family can never do that to me,” she said.

When asked if she had been a victim of violence, one of the qualifying criteria for receiving legal aid, she responded matter-of-factly: “I’m a transgender woman from Mexico. The question is redundant.”

25

Issue N°8

March 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

NONPROFITS SAY CUOMO’S GOALS REQUIRE MORE FUNDING, DETAILS

By FR ANK G. RU N YEON

nonprofits said, they are currently in the dark over how or if the issue will be resolved.

EDUCATION

Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers his 2016 State of the State address and 2016-17 executive budget address to New York state lawmakers on January 13 in Albany. (Darren McGee/Office of the Governor)

T

he plans that Gov. Andrew Cuomo laid out in his State of the State address and budget lack the details and funding to make them a reality, nonprofit leaders told New York Nonprofit Media. Many expressed optimism that the hurdles could be cleared and were generally happy with the governor’s direction, but warned that poor planning and underfunding could derail his well-intentioned initiatives.

The governor made a series of spirited proposals earlier this month that could profoundly affect the nonprofit community, including a $28 billion increase in funding for housing, $2.1 billion more for education and a renewed pledge to enact a statewide $15 minimum wage. But the governor’s speech left questions for many nonprofit leaders about how those initiatives would meet current needs, fulfill previous pledges and impact the nonprofit community.

Part of the problem is that nonprofits were essentially left out of the governor’s address, said Doug Sauer, CEO of the New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc., which represents those organizations statewide.

Last year’s State of the State included several references to the nonprofit community, including how nonprofits address hunger, affordable housing, employment for minorities and community development. “There were lots of nonprofit themes,” Sauer said. “This year? Virtually ignored.”

“When you look at it, it’s devoid of much positive for nonprofits, even though his budget might be doing something,” Sauer said. “It was clearly not any kind of point of emphasis.

That’s a clear shift.”

MINIMUM WAGE In particular, the governor did

26

not address the thorny issue of how nonprofits could cope with raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, which Republican senators and nonprofit groups have said could cause nonprofits to suffer disproportionately because they often rely on state funds to do their work.

“He makes no reference to it,” Sauer said. “Nor does his budget include any money (to address it).”

The “15 and Funding” campaign, which aims to amend government human services contracts to fund the minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, released statements expressing cautious support for the governor’s plans, despite the omission.

“We stand with (Cuomo) in the fight to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour,” said Jennifer Jones Austin, executive director and CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the cosponsors of the campaign. “We remain hopeful that the increase will be funded for the more than 100,000 government contracted human services workers employed by nonprofits.”

The Human Services Council, another campaign cosponsor, added a critical note: “HSC is troubled by some aspects of the governor’s proposed budget, but we also have reason to be hopeful.” The organization listed key investments that should be included – but are currently missing – from the governor’s plans. Full funding for human service contracts topped the list.

Nonprofit leaders speculated that the governor’s silence on the issue could be political maneuvering to appease business interests ahead of difficult negotiations with state Senate Republicans – or perhaps the governor simply did not yet have a solution to the problem. Regardless,

Early learning and child care advocates were alarmed by a lack of funding that they estimate could result in 21,000 kids losing spots in child care programs as organizations redirect funding to meet new federal requirements.

“We’re very deeply, horribly concerned about the lack of investment in child care at a time when we have several new standards coming into effect in the state that are going to cost the state something on the order of $90 million – just in known costs,” said Betty Holcomb, policy director for the Center for Children’s Initiatives, referring to the federal Community Development Block Grant program. CDBG will require nonprofits to spend what Holcomb estimates will be tens of millions of dollars to fulfill new standards related to inspections, background checks and training. “And that could result in the loss of slots for tens of thousands of children.”

Although they were happy to hear of the governor’s new program to expand prekindergarten to three-yearolds, Holcomb noted that there is no new funding to help the more than 100,000 four-year-olds outside of New York City who still do not have access to full-day pre-K. While Holcomb said that New York City’s success in fully implementing universal pre-K was laudable, much of that credit goes to Mayor Bill de Blasio for providing funding to create the 68,500 slots needed for the city’s children to attend full-day programs.

New York state on the whole will continue to fall short of universal pre-K under the current funding.

“It’s a small step forward, but not enough,” Holcomb said. “And it just ignores and fails to fulfill the promise of full-day (pre-K) for 4-year-olds.”

The governor’s new funding regime for three-year-olds is welcome news, she said, “but that can’t be a substitute for what districts are ready and prepared to do.”

Other education nonprofits were more buoyant, especially those supporting service-rich “community schools.” Cuomo’s pledge of “$100 million to transform every failing school in New York into a comprehensive, holistic, full-service community school” energized long-term proponents of the schooling strategy.

“We are excited to see the state seize on community schools as a way to strengthen academic success,”

Phoebe C. Boyer, president and CEO of The Children’s Aid Society, said in a statement.

However, the $100 million alone would not be enough to properly transition struggling schools to the community school model, said Yolanda McBride, director of public policy at The Children’s Aid Society, which promotes the model and runs two community schools currently on New York’s receivership list.

“It’s a huge undertaking – turnaround is a huge undertaking,” said McBride, explaining that both training and dedicated resource coordinators would be needed to bring together programs and services to properly meet the needs of each school community. “We think there should be additional funding set aside – on top of the $100 million – to do that,” she said.

HOUSING Nonprofit housing advocates were happy to hear the governor’s $28 billion pledge for affordable and supportive housing in New York, but would remain watchful since the particulars of the plan haven’t been hammered out yet.

“His verbal commitment to the 20,000 units is very heartening,” said Giselle Routhier, policy director at Coalition for the Homeless. “But we still have very few details.”

Such large housing commitments typically are made in a joint plan between the mayor of New York City and the governor before they are announced. There’s some concern that the ongoing spat between Cuomo and de Blasio could impede progress on such a plan, which is expected to be called the New York/New York IV agreement. ”We hope that they can rise above that and acknowledge that this is very much needed to make sure supportive housing can come online quickly,” said Routhier. Housing developers need a concrete plan to have the confidence to seek funding and acquire the property needed to build the envisioned housing.

“Since both of their commitments are so long-term, we really need that in writing,” Routhier said of the mayor and governor’s multibillion-dollar promises for programs that will span 15 years. “That’s really important.”

On the whole, nonprofits were hopeful about the governor’s budget and message – still, they said, they need to be sure to hold politicians to their promises.

“It’s not that we’re trying to be ‘Debbie Downers’ here,” Routhier said.

“It’s our job to say what needs to be done to make sure this happens.”

NYNmedia.com

March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

PERSPECTIVES

WILL STATE ETHICS REFORMS SILENCE NONPROFITS?

By ANAT GERSTEIN and ALLISON SESSO

Y

ou’ll be hard pressed to find someone to argue against the need for ethics reform in Albany. However, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the government entity spearheading ethics changes, recently took a curious step toward what they deem ethics reform by requiring public relations firms that talk to the press about government issues to register as lobbyists and report their conversations. We find this troubling, and so should the thousands of nonprofits across the state. Nonprofits add a valuable perspective on legislative matters, often giving voice to the voiceless. We believe they could very well be silenced

by JCOPE’s move.

Specifically, JCOPE wants to know about conversations between PR firms and editorial boards. JCOPE writes that consultants “must file a bi-monthly report with the commission” and must “disclose the client, how much the client paid, and the specific government action (e.g., the bill number) that he or she attempted to influence.”

Groups that get government contracts, but oppose a government

proposal, won’t want to be on the (JCOPE) record.

For example, perhaps a group that runs community-based health clinics for uninsured and underinsured New Yorkers sees a proposed state reform to Medicaid as misguided for the individuals it serves. In the past, that organization could have had confidential conversations, through its PR firm, with editorial boards. These conversations are important in giving editorial boards a broader perspective as they decide whether and how to editorialize on a topic. Today, those conversations must be reported. Many groups may worry about the repercussions of contacting editorial boards. If those groups are silenced – especially the thousands across the state that receive government funding to run programs for the most marginalized, disenfranchised and disconnected people – who will speak up for them? Who will give them a voice in the fight against misguided bills, programs and funding proposals?

This regulation doesn’t just appear to be imprudent, it may be illegal, infringing our First Amendment

rights. We are not alone in our thinking. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article by Erica Orden, there are free-speech concerns among good government groups, too, including Common Cause New York and the Brennan Center for Justice.

This regulation seems to have little to do with lobbying. An editorial board is neither a government official nor a mouthpiece for PR people – a point made, unsurprisingly, in editorials from across the state: The Times Union, Crain’s New York Business, Newsday, the New York Post, the New York Daily News and others have all panned the rule.

We clearly need ethics reform in Albany, but not like this. The press offers a critical oversight mechanism but can’t be expected to be experts on everything. They must be able to easily get information from as wide a range of perspectives as possible. We hope to see this JCOPE rule overturned, by the legislature or by the courts, and soon. This is the height of the legislative cycle, after all.

Anat Gerstein is president of Anat Gerstein Inc., and Allison Sesso is executive director at the Human Services Council.

NONPROFITS ADD A VALUABLE PERSPECTIVE ON LEGISLATIVE MAT TERS … WE BELIEVE THEY COULD VERY WELL BE SILENCED BY JCOPE’S MOVE.

PERSPECTIVES

STEVEN BANKS’ WINNING PLAYBOOK

By JEFF STEIN

G

ov. Andrew Cuomo has won admiration for his shrewd political angling. But his administration’s recent gambit in the proxy war over homeless services must be recognized as blatantly opportunistic and detrimental to indigent New Yorkers. And the de Blasio administration, which too often finds itself playing defense, should take note of Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks' winning response.

In February, a mother and two of her children were stabbed to death at a Staten Island motel where they were receiving temporary housing assistance.

Shortly after the news broke, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the relocation of all remaining families at the motel, as

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well as new safety measures for emergency shelter hotels.

Instead of expressing solidarity and presenting itself as a partner in the wake of three horrific deaths, the Cuomo administration pounced for political gain. Despite being briefed on the city’s response earlier in the day, Sharon Devine, then the executive deputy commissioner of the state Office for Temporary and Disability Assistance, sent Banks a condescending and curt letter (which her office then leaked to the media), calling the violence “simply unacceptable,” “demand(ing) … immediate action” and “directing” the city to take measures it had already announced.

Devine also assumed that the mother “should have been housed in a domestic violence shelter” because the suspect was her boyfriend. Never mind that the city was never notified of violence in their relationship and had processed her using standard protocols that address domestic violence issues.

Banks immediately responded with his own letter, clearing up the timeline of events, debunking the state’s domestic violence shelter theory and enumerating the ways in which state inaction has stalled progress on homeless services. Banks questioned the state’s repeated refusals to increase a family rental subsidy that would help victims of domestic violence (and hasn’t been

raised since 2003). He dared the state to provide a list of available apartments that could be rented with the meager $1,050 subsidy it currently provides. He chastised the state for its inability to approve city plans for spending $220 million in homeless services funds, which were set aside last April.

And then a few days later – almost on cue – state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a scathing audit of the Office of Temporary Disability and Assistance, highlighting the unsafe and unsanitary conditions at shelters the agency oversees. An agency representative attempted to frame the report as outdated, but the damage had been done. Cuomo said that he agreed with the report’s findings and quietly reassigned Devine to the Worker’s Compensation Board. It would appear that her days of “demanding” and “directing” action on homelessness are over.

This battle was about more than scapegoating an OTDA commissioner.

It was about the Cuomo administration’s eagerness to score political points even as it struggles to keep its own house in order. It was about the state’s habitual us-versus-them mentality at a time when cooperation – like on a NY/ NY IV agreement and coordinated responses to shelter safety concerns – is desperately needed.

But the kerfuffle also highlights the

political savvy of Steven Banks. The HRA commissioner won this round of tit-fortat for the same reason his star is rising within the de Blasio administration: He is a policy wonk with decades of on-theground legal experience. As he showed in his letter to the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, he has the expertise and front-line knowledge to make nuanced arguments about the ramifications of policy, as opposed to the state’s simplistic argument that the crisis is an issue of management.

Banks has also proved himself deft at carving out an ever-growing role in the city’s response to homelessness, one that may become even more prominent if the city Department of Homeless Services merges with HRA, as many observers predict. This expanding role, combined with the installation of a relatively unknown and untested deputy mayor of health and human services, Herminia Palacio, will make him the de Blasio administration’s most credible – and effective – negotiator with the state.

It would be wise for the city to continue to lean on Banks’ expertise. And wiser still for the de Blasio administration to take a page from the Banks playbook in its never-ending feud with the governor’s office. It's time for the city to "demand" that the state be a partner, not a roadblock, in providing services for its most distressed citizens.

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March 2016

Issue N°8 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

PERSPECTIVES

VIOLENCE IN THE SHELTER The price of underfunding

By CR AIG MONCHO

I

f you expect to die at work, raise your hand.

I imagine not seeing many hands. In fact, I imagine not seeing any hands. No one expects to die at work, not even police officers and firefighters, much less social workers and their colleagues fighting the good fight in the nonprofit sector. In my 10 years working with psychiatrically and medically disabled homeless adults in programs at Coalition for the Homeless, CAMBA and Project Renewal, I had heard of only two assaults, though undoubtedly there were more. But never murder.

Late in the afternoon on Monday, April 27, 2015, my friend and colleague Ana Isabel Charle was abducted, sexually assaulted and shot to death as she left work at Project Renewal’s Bronx Boulevard Men’s Shelter, a 108-bed shelter for single adult men with mental illness located in the Bronx.

Ana and I had been clinical directors at two CAMBA-run shelters in Brooklyn, and in December 2013 she’d asked me to come on board as she prepared to open Bronx Boulevard Men’s Shelter. Since I was unable to join her team, Ana recommended me for a program director position at one of Project Renewal’s OMH-licensed transitional residences. I got the job, and once again we were at the same organization, leading our teams in the effort to help the single adult mentally ill population rebuild their lives.

Ana’s killer had his sights set on my 36-year-old friend and colleague, a mother of two young girls. At a vigil held in front of the shelter on May 6, word had it that he had told other shelter residents, “I’m going to kill that bitch.” If true, why didn’t anyone say anything? Was it the nosnitch culture that permeates the streets? Or that so many threats are bandied about every day no one pays much attention anymore? Was it a conscious and all-too-common choice not to get involved?

Ana’s death brought Project Renewal to its knees, rocked the homeless services community and sent shock waves through the entire city. During a June 2015 memorial, Project Renewal President and CEO Mitchell Netburn renamed “Bronx Boulevard,” as the shelter was commonly known, “Ana’s Place,” in her honor.

Much of our ensuing discussion

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in the homeless services community centered on increasing security, improving staff training and meeting the challenges posed by the reintegration of violent felons with mental illness. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what may have been missed in the time leading up to this heinous crime and how, going forward, we can minimize the chance of missing critical clues to impending disaster while working with a fragile, displaced community of mentally ill homeless people.

While focusing on security and training certainly makes sense (there is never enough of either), the time, money and effort being spent needs to be balanced in favor of detection and intervention before violence occurs. This can best be achieved by front-loading the response of homeless services providers to potential crises – through hiring more qualified and better paid staff, in sufficient numbers – rather than back-loading the response by increasing security and training budgets after someone has been killed or injured.

I recently met with a colleague who is a program administrator for a New York City-based nonprofit that he saids holds “13 or 14 city contracts” to run “about 73 shelters.” In discussing a wide range of shelter-related issues, we touched upon staffing at one of his programs, a 200-bed Bronx shelter for mentally ill chemically addicted women. I asked what his organization’s educational requirement is for case management staff. He answered, “A high school diploma or GED,” sheepishly adding that they’re hoping to improve the educational standard to require “some college.” “But right now,” he added somewhat forlornly, “Our main focus is getting more beds on line.”

With the shelter system bursting at the seams, I felt for my colleague.

We both understand the enormous challenge of running shelters for mentally ill, substance-abusing adults with front line staff whose highest level of education is, in most cases, a high school diploma or GED. Nothing against those whose education stopped after high school or after having obtained their GED – with salaries at roughly $32,000 to $38,000 per year, the system isn’t offering the competitive pay that would attract individuals with college degrees. These hardworking, dedicated case managers and other lower-paid front line staff have way too much asked of them while being inserted into situations they are, in many cases, ill-equipped to manage.

If we want social services programs serving the homeless and mentally ill to work to the benefit of us all, we need to press our leaders to provide enough funding to hire qualified professionals in sufficient numbers. Putting social workers with college-level experience on the front lines of the homelessness crisis in our city will automatically increase security by enhancing a

program’s ability to better manage the most challenging and potentially dangerous clients. Program staff need the time and space to engage and discover and intervene when a deeply troubled man with a violent history is walking around saying he’s going to kill a specific person and also wondering aloud how to talk to girls.

Without an immediate commitment to fund the appropriate staffing of our shelters, tragedies like Ana’s murder will become the cost of doing business. So in the aftermath of this senseless act, I continue to wonder, will nonprofits fighting the good fight be provided the resources and tools to engage their troubled clients appropriately? Will our thought leaders and politicians work to fill the gaps in “the system” and keep workers safe? Or are we waiting for more headlines?

Craig Moncho is a state-licensed social worker who has served the homeless in New York City since 2005. He blogs at www.thesocialworkpractitioner.com.

Ana Isabel Charle, who was abducted and killed last year as she left work at Project Renewal’s Bronx Boulevard Men’s Shelter.

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March 2016

Issue N°8

The go-to career center for New York’s nonprofit industry.

Featuring thousands of jobs each year, NYN Careers helps large and small nonprofits fill positions ranging from directors to human resources staffers.

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CAREERS

CAREER BOARD

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DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS This candidate will report to, and work closely with, the Foundation’s Executive Vice President. The Director (based in the Bronx) will oversee all fundraising and outreach activities (New York City market); design and execute a comprehensive development strategy; build and maintain relationships with public officials (local and state- wide, etc) ; develop communications/outreach efforts; work collaboratively with the Assistant Executive Director of the Bronx Programs; and serve as a staff member for the Bronx Advisory Committee. This candidate must have demonstrated excellence in organizational, managerial, interpersonal and communication skills; excellent writing skills; ability to work independently. He/she must have 5 plus years’ experience in development; experience with donor’s database (i.e, Raiser’s Edge) and experience with Microsoft Suites.

A Bachelor’s degree is required for this position, however a Master’s degree is preferred.

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FMA seeks an individual with a passion for nonprofit excellence. The FMA Senior Consultant will work with the FMA Outsourcing team to provide accounting services and be a strategic partner with our clients. The Senior Consultant reports to FMA Lead Consultants and Directors. As a senior role, this position participates in high level accounting/financial services and supervises, mentors, and helps train other FMA staff and/or client staff. FMA allows for a unique opportunity to create a flexible work environment.

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR InterAgency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies (IAC) is a provider association which represents 155 not for profit member agencies in New York City and surrounding counties. We are seeking candidates to fill the position of Executive Director. This position requires an effective communicator of advocacy positions related to the betterment of services to providers who support children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

We are seeking candidates with an advanced degree in a related field and executive level experience in a not for profit organization, or government entity, serving or advocating for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Significant experience with New York State’s delivery system of services is preferred.

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Please include salary requirements on the cover letter.

29

Issue N°8

March 2016

CAREER BOARD

MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES

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United Neighborhood Houses (UNH), the membership organization of New York City settlement houses and community centers, seeks an experienced fundraising professional for the position of Director of Development. Reporting to UNH’s Executive Director and working closely with the UNH Board, s/ he will be responsible for carrying out fundraising activities to raise approximately $ 3 million annually from individuals, foundations, and corporations. S/he will also oversee UNH’s communications activities to align with UNH’s work and fundraising goals. Qualifications include a minimum of seven years of supervisory fundraising experience.

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30

The Development Associate is responsible for the smooth administrative function of the development office as well as for coordinating corporate volunteer activities and assisting on fundraising events.

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DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS This candidate will report to, and work closely with, the Foundation’s Executive Vice President. The Director (based in the Bronx) will oversee all fundraising and outreach activities (New York City market); design and execute a comprehensive development strategy; build and maintain relationships with public officials (local and state- wide, etc) ; develop communications/outreach efforts; work collaboratively with the Assistant Executive Director of the Bronx Programs; and serve as a staff member for the Bronx Advisory Committee. This candidate must have demonstrated excellence in organizational, managerial, interpersonal and communication skills; excellent writing skills; ability to work independently. He/she must have 5 plus years’ experience in development; experience with donor’s database (i.e, Raiser’s Edge) and experience with Microsoft Suites. A Bachelor’s degree is required for this position, however a Master’s degree is preferred.

Please send resume with salary requirements to unhjobs@unhny.org

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES WE’RE HIRING! CAMBA IS HIRING FOR THE FOLLOWING FULL TIME AND PART TIME POSITIONS AT CAMBA’S FAMILY AND SINGLE ADULT SHELTERS • Security Guards • Case Managers • Shift Supervisors • Residential Aides • Driver/ Maintenance • CDL Drivers HOW TO APPLY: Please email your resume to submitresumes@CAMBA.org with your preferred position in the subject.

DISABILITY DETERMINATION COUNSELORS NEEDED Qualifications/Job Requirements: • Master’s in Vocational Rehabilitation and CRC preferred.

Bachelor’s degree required.

• 1+ years experience or education in area of disability • Awareness of wide variety of disabling conditions • Ability to read, analyze, interpret complex medical and psychological reports as they relate to functional limitations and employment.

• Interviewing skills • Ability to write reports of above work limitations according to federal, state funding legal requirements Please apply online at: http://www. goodwillnynj.org/careers > Search for jobs > Human Services.

NYNmedia.com

March 2016

Issue N°8

University Settlement and The Door are affiliate agencies that are distinct in their missions and populations served, yet share a common goal to transform lives by connecting and empowering people with compassion and dignity.

The Development Associate is responsible for the smooth administrative function of the development office as well as for coordinating corporate volunteer activities and assisting on fundraising events.

Please visit: www.universitysettlement. org/us/jobs/development/ development_associate/

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER ANDRUS, a prestigious $34 million dollar multi-service non-profit serving vulnerable children and families in Westchester County, is seeking a visionary and committed Chief Operating Officer. The COO is responsible for managing a comprehensive services and programs forANDRUS’s 24/7 operations.

Requirements: Master’s degree in human services or related degree, 10 years of senior organizational administration with 4 years in human services or not-for-profit settings, 5 years of experience working with notfor-profit boards.

ANDRUS offers an excellent compensation package including full benefits and a 401(k) retirement plan.

Please send resume and cover letter to andrusjobs@jdam.org or fax to 914-9653883.

CLINICAL ADMINISTRATOR Forestdale, a leading NYC family service agency located in Queens, seeks a part-time Clinical Administrator to manage Forestdale’s Clinical Department including our trauma-focused approach to working with its clients. In addition, the Clinical Administrator will lead the department in preparing itself for the transition to Medicaid Managed Care within foster care and related child welfare services.

Forestdale, Inc. offers a comprehensive benefit plan that includes medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, flexible spending accounts, generous vacation time, 401K, matching and pension plans.

Visit www.forestdaleinc.org for the full postion.

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL The Assistant Principal will lead the development and implementation of all high school programming. He/she will be responsible for maintaining a balanced and effective alliance between the Education Department and other departments within the agency. This position is responsible for supervision of all instructional and support staff within the High School, and will focus on the development of vocational programming in the Education Department. A Master’s Degree is required.

SOCIAL WORKERS JCCA is seeking Social Workers to provide treatment and case planning for children with emotional problems who require residential treatment and for their families in accordance with Agency policy/governmental regulations. Social Workers will provide therapeutic services to children and families with a minimum of one therapeutic contact per youth per week. REQUIREMENTS: MSW/ LMSW, great clinical assessment and interpersonal skills. Bilingual/ Spanish preferred. Send resumes to campusresumes@jccany.org.

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES SUPERVISOR – FOSTER CARE – Staten Island Supervises a unit of caseworkers to ensure the program adheres to the coordination of delivery of services to the children and families in foster care. LMSW/MSW, driver’s license and experience in child welfare required.

FTC FACILITATOR – Staten Island Responsible for facilitating all Foster Care Family Team Conferences (FTCs) in accordance with ACS FTC Model.

Communicate with Seamen’s Society program staff and FTC scheduler to ensure conferences are held timely and/or rescheduled appropriately.

Document FTC summaries in Connections.

MSW required.

APPLY:

jobs@roots-wings.org

Please apply at http://jobs. greenchimneys.org/careers/.

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES

CAREERS

DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE

CAREER BOARD

MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER ANDRUS, a prestigious $34 million dollar multi-service non-profit serving vulnerable children and families in Westchester County, is seeking a visionary and committed Chief Operating Officer. The COO is responsible for managing a comprehensive services and programs forANDRUS’s 24/7 operations.

Requirements: Master’s degree in human services or related degree, 10 years of senior organizational administration with 4 years in human services or not-for-profit settings, 5 years of experience working with notfor-profit boards.

ANDRUS offers an excellent compensation package including full benefits and a 401(k) retirement plan.

Please send resume and cover letter to andrusjobs@jdam.org or fax to 914-9653883.

NYNmedia.com

The Assistant Principal will lead the development and implementation of all high school programming. He/she will be responsible for maintaining a balanced and effective alliance between the Education Department and other departments within the agency. This position is responsible for supervision of all instructional and support staff within the High School, and will focus on the development of vocational programming in the Education Department. A Master’s Degree is required.

Please apply at http://jobs. greenchimneys.org/careers/.

SUPERVISOR – FOSTER CARE – Staten Island Supervises a unit of caseworkers to ensure the program adheres to the coordination of delivery of services to the children and families in foster care. LMSW/MSW, driver’s license and experience in child welfare required.

FTC FACILITATOR – Staten Island Responsible for facilitating all Foster Care Family Team Conferences (FTCs) in accordance with ACS FTC Model.

Communicate with Seamen’s Society program staff and FTC scheduler to ensure conferences are held timely and/or rescheduled appropriately.

Document FTC summaries in Connections.

MSW required.

APPLY:

jobs@roots-wings.org

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Featuring thousands of jobs each year, NYN Careers helps large and small nonprofits fill positions ranging from directors to human resources staffers.

Contact: Lissa Blake LBlake@NYNmedia.com

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

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