MEDIA - REVIEW DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
Issue N°5 September 10, 2015
SPOTLIGHT: EDUCATION
THE PRE-K PERIL Read more page 22
THE BARGAIN THAT CLOSED ST. VINCENT ’S p.14
MAYOR AL REPORT CARD
K2: THE NEW CR ACK
p.17
p.19
REMEMBERING FRED The voice of New York nonprofits
PERSPECTIVES
“DE BLASIO’S POLICIES FAILING BLACK AND HISPANIC STUDENTS”
p.10
Read more page 25
THE LANGUAGE OF CODE Read more page 26
A
AGENCY OF THE MONTH
FRONTLINE HERO
GIRLS WRITE NOW
NATALIE COX, BREAKTHROUGH NEW YORK
high school student, Corrine Civil, sat in a New York City cafe with her mentor Robin Marantz Henig, an author and New York Times Magazine contributor. The pair, brought together by Girls Write Now, a nonprofit that partners female writers with high school girls, worked on a writing prompt using a line lifted from a magazine as inspiration: “You finally had to sit down and have the talk.” Henig jotted about a character getting the sex talk for the first time, while Civil crafted her own short story. Once they finished writing, Henig read what Civil wrote and was initially confused. What did this have to do with sex? “Even as I was reading her piece, I wasn’t watching it unfold in the right way,” said Henig, who is white. “It was a talk about how black kids should behave when cops stop them. It was that talk.” Henig and Civil (who is black and Hispanic) often wrote in their one-
on-one sessions about their views on race-related issues, like the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, with telling results. In addition to discussing writing, the pair also discussed college, family, boys and many other personal issues. “We’ve tried new writing genres together, watched each other transition into new stages of life, and I really appreciate her advice,” Civil said of her mentor. “Even though my time as a mentee has ended, she will always be my mentor.” After spending three years in the Girls Write Now Program, Civil graduated from high school and starts classes at Columbia University this fall. Over its 17-year history, Girls Write Now has served over 5,000 girls from all five boroughs with its writing and digital media mentoring programs. Ninety-four percent of program participants, referred to as mentees, are girls of color. Read more page 8
O
n Breakthrough New York’s website, beneath a list of guilty pleasures including curly fries and Bravo TV, Natalie Cox describes why she cares about making “breakthroughs” happen for students: “We can equip students and future educators to be the change they wish to see in the world.” Cox, senior program director at Breakthrough, is in a unique position to help bring about that change. Overseeing programs at Breakthrough, a nonprofit that provides
mentoring for academically inclined, low-income middle schoolers, Cox helps lead an organization of students teaching other students. Volunteers and other staff members work tirelessly to inspire, mentor and educate students in order to get them to and through college, hopefully breaking cycles of poverty, and this process can become discouraging even for a dedicated staff. “I deeply understand the challenges of being a front-line Read more page 7
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September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
SEPTEMBER 2015
CATEGORY INDEX TRADE TIPS
4. Business of Your Nonprofit: The Three A’s of a Successful Agency 5. Building Your Brand: Critical Communications 6. Grant Tips: Arts Groups Diversify Funding
NOTABLES
7. Frontline Hero: Natalie Cox 8. Agency of the Month: Girls Write Now 9. CEO Corner: Tony Hannigan, Center for Urban Community Services
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NEWS
SPOTLIGHT: EDUCATION
PERSPECTIVES
CAREERS
EVENTS
10. Remembering Fred: The Voice of New York Nonprofits 14. The Bargain that Closed St. Vincent’s 17. Mayoral Report Card 18. A ‘Global Institution’ 19. The ‘New Crack’ 20. Fighting $15
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Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
TRADE TIPS
BUSINESS OF YOUR NONPROFIT
THE THREE A’S OF A SUCCESSFUL AGENCY By DAVID BUCCIFERRO
CONTINUING EDUCATION for Licensed Social Workers FALL 2015 Workshops at-a-Glance New York State now requires licensed social workers to obtain authorized continuing education credits to maintain their license. NASW-NYC is a State approved CE provider
David Bucciferro, senior adviser, Foothold Technology
I
n a time of diminishing resources and ever-changing regulations, today’s providers are entering a new era of care characterized by increased oversight activity and a shift in service delivery from volume-based to value-based, among other changes. Success in the new environment will require more complex methods of documentation, and a new approach to management incorporating a special focus on three A’s: accountability, accessibility and affordability. Providers will need to be accountable to more people and in new ways than ever before. As a result, they will need to promote accessibility (as appropriate) to a large array of data, and be able to obtain this data in a means that is affordable. An electronic data management system is critical to accomplishing these goals. Accountability is defined as meeting the obligation to report, explain or justify something in a responsible, answerable, explicable way. Administrators, managers, practitioners and staff at all levels of the organization must be aware of the lines of accountability, and determine the best ways to measure it for both external and internal needs. For external requirements these metrics may be predetermined, but for internal ones, metrics need to be developed and used as a tool in agency and outcome management. Data alone is not the key to success, though – you’ll also need the ability to analyze and present it. Raw data may satisfy some of your external needs, but you'll need to link the right pieces of data together to create information that tells a story and helps you make informed clinical and administrative decisions.
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Whether examining your accountability to services recipients, families, your board of directors, staff, state or federal government, or other stakeholders, a set of quality useful metrics need to be developed and the data obtained to calculate these metrics. Accessibility is the degree to which you can make your data available to as many relevant people as possible. Questions to ask about your data are: “Is it easily entered? Easily retrieved? Easily understood? Easily used?” It’s critical to know who needs access to your data: direct care workers, senior administration, billers, supervisors, consumers, community members, regulators and others. Then you need to know for each group how they want to access the data: whether on a desktop computer or mobile device, in real time or report-based, and whatever other factors are relevant. Mechanisms and procedures need to be developed that ensure key staff have access to and knowledge of the system so they can review the data on an ongoing basis. All of this must be accomplished in a manner affordable to the agency. Affordability is based on an assessment of the cost of action versus the cost of inaction. Can your agency find the dollars for an electronic health record (EHR)? In this new climate of health information exchange, the more pressing question is: “Can you afford not to have an EHR?” Investigate the consequences of not having a data management system, and find ways to help defray the costs. Consider state and federal grants, philanthropic opportunities and the potential for increased revenue a quality EHR/data management system can create. Lost accreditation, lost business lines, loss of funding or reduced rates are real possibilities without the ability to provide data to those to whom you are accountable. Change is here, and it’s happening rapidly. Data interoperability is not just nice – it is mandatory as the nation embraces health information exchange. A functional EHR is critical to applying the three A’s because it will place at your fingertips the information you’ll need not only to sell yourself to funders and system overseers externally, but to provide the wisdom to guide your clinical and operational decisions internally, ensuring success for your agency.
Register Today! Seating is limited NASW-NYC offers courses designed to enrich your professional development and advance your social work career All workshops will take place at the Chapter office unless otherwise specified To learn more about our Continuing Education workshops and conferences, including registration and email alerts, go to naswnyc.org/ce What Social Workers Need to Know About the World of the ICD 10, DSM-5 and PQRS Carmel L. Gold, LCSW, BCD September 10, 2015, 6 PM – 9 PM 3 hours of continuing education Enhancing Therapeutic Presence and Effectiveness with Mindfulness Donald Fleck, LCSW, DCSW September 26, 2015, 10 AM – 5 PM 6 hours of continuing education Cornerstones to Successful Couples Therapy: The Art of Intimacy and Connection Carole Gladstone-Ramos, LCSW, CASAC September 28, 2015, 6 PM – 9 PM 3 hours of continuing education The Use of Personal Narrative in the Lives of Our Clients Lauren Taylor, MA, MS, LCSW October 3, 2015, 10 AM – 5 PM 6 hours of continuing education Social Work Practice with Domestic Violence Bonnie Glass, LCSW and Josie Torielli, LCSW October 8, 2015, 6 PM – 9 PM 3 hours of continuing education Child Development Milestones and Why They are Important Diane Black Greene, LCSW October 13, 2015, 6 PM – 9 PM 3 hours of continuing education Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Clinical Social Work Practice Susan Dowd Stone, LCSW October 17, 2015, 9 AM – 4 PM 6 hours of continuing education Mastering the DSM-5 Jerry Wakefield, DSW, PhD October 18, 2015, 10 AM – 5 PM Location: TBA 6 hours of continuing education
Introducing Vicarious Resilience: Reframing the Impact of Working with Individuals and Communities Surviving Trauma and Loss Madelyn Miller, PhD, LCSW October 26, 2015, 6 PM – 9 PM 3 hours of continuing education Undoing Racism Workshop: Antiracism Training for Social Workers David Peters, LMSW, Kimberley Richards, PhD, and Cyndi Carnaghi, LCSW October 29 & 30, 2015, 9 AM – 6 PM (This is a two day workshop) 16 hours of continuing education Exploring Reentry from Prison: Strengths, Obstacles, Challenges Carl Mazza, DSW, LMSW, ACSW November 9, 2015, 6 PM – 9 PM 3 hours of continuing education Understanding and Managing Challenging Behaviors in Children and Adolescents (with an Emphasis on Learning Disabilities and Impulse Disorders) Rick Greenberg, PhD, LCSW-R December 5, 2015, 10 AM – 5 PM 6 hours of continuing education
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September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
TRADE TIPS
BUILDING YOUR BRAND
CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS By ANAT GERSTEIN
I
often encounter nonprofits – those with budgets ranging from under $1 million to several millions – that tell me that they simply can’t afford a strategic communications program. My response is always the same: You can’t afford not to have one. The fact is, nonprofits that get their story out and make their case to stakeholders do better than those that don’t. They experience smarter growth, they attract more funders, they have stronger and more productive relationships with supporters, and they have better outcomes for clients. Communications pays off. Several years ago, Michael Clark, the outgoing president of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York (and the man who founded the New York Community Trust Nonprofit Excellence Awards), challenged me to come up with a list of measurable outcomes that could be achieved by smaller nonprofits that invested in consistent communications.
The list included increased fundraising, volunteerism, attendance, participation and government funding. Additionally, organizations that make their case help shape government policies and practices that are better for them and their clients. Clark and the management committee of the Nonprofit Excellence Awards, including the trust’s Pat Swann and Philanthropy New York’s Ronna Brown, recognized the importance of “regular and effective communications and use of communications technology” as one of the eight areas of management excellence for the awards program. According to the program, excellence in communications includes: active and effective branding; telling your story; strategically integrating a communications plan into all organizational planning; establishing regular formal and informal strategies for gathering feedback on services from target audiences; and incorporating feed-
back into practices. So, what is a small nonprofit to do? With as little as two hours set aside per week for communications, you can make an impact. Start by setting a measurable goal and then identify some tactics that could help you achieve your goal. Here are some ideas: 1. Share good news with your stakeholders by sending a short, monthly email about a client whom you have helped, new funding you have received, a program you have grown, or something similar. 2. Invite a local reporter to see one of your programs or events. It doesn’t have to be a new program or the first event of its kind – you just need to give them a good reason to report on it. Remember to share any press clips on your social media pages, and with funders, donors and your board. 3. Outdated website? Spend an hour a week cleaning it up, adding new content and uploading new, engaging photos.
4. Put out a monthly statistic about a program outcome and tell the story of a client you helped. Post these stories on your website and social media, and send them to your supporters or potential supporters. You won’t regret starting a communications program. You’ll just regret not doing it sooner. Even a modest communications program can have a positive impact. It will help you: 1. Raise more money from individual donors. 2. Secure funding from government. 3. Shore up relationships with corporate donors, leading to continued and increased funding. 4. Increase attendance. 5. Improve participation. 6. Successfully influence policies. 7. Keep important constituencies – your board, community members, financial supports – engaged and committed.
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Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
TRADE TIPS
GRANT TIPS
ARTS GROUPS DIVERSIFY FUNDING By THOMAS SEUBERT
Keen Company actors.
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ith a two-cast member musical already planned for their 15th season, Keen Company, a nonprofit off-Broadway theater troupe in Midtown, reviewed fundraising projections for the coming year. “The necessity of having to look at things a little bit smaller from a cast perspective ended up being a plus,” said Jonathan Silverstein, who directed the plays. Actresses in both shows, “John and Jen” and “A Walk in the Woods,” were nominated for Drama Desk Awards. But despite the laurels, Keen, now in its 16th season, needed to address the issue of finding funding. “It’s really been about how we’ve been able to creatively find different ways to get private grant money,” Silverstein said. “As we grow, we realize we can’t rely on public grants.” Complaints of stagnant or disap-
pearing public funding reverberate throughout the New York City creative nonprofit community; public funds have either been cut or cannot keep up with inflation. Funding from the National Endowments for the Arts for New York City nonprofits dropped 15 percent since 2008. Funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs decreased 16 percent during the same time period, and funding from the New York State Council for the Arts fell 49 percent, all numbers accounting for inflation. This volatility in government support has forced nonprofit arts organizations to pursue private funding options. Across New York City the number of arts and culture nonprofits rose 54 percent in the last 10 years despite significantly less grant money, according to a June report by the Center for an Urban Future called “Creative New York.”
“City and state funders are telling us to diversify our funding base,” said Lynn Lobell, grants and resource director at the Queens Council for the Arts, whose regrant program saw a 28 percent drop in funding from 2008 to 2015 – mostly due to government belt-tightening. “It makes sense.” To remain financially secure, Lobell advocates for an even distribution among public, corporate, foundation and individual funding. “You want public grants to be the least because you never know when you’ll be cut,” she said. Following the recession, corporate donations for arts organizations dwindled and have yet to return to previous levels. “There aren't enough audience members to attract corporate sponsorships,” said Ginny Louloudes, executive director of The Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York. “There’s very little corporate money out there for philanthropic giving.” So creative nonprofits have looked to private donations to patch holes left by shifting funding bases. This typically comes in the form of either donations from affluent benefactors or crowdfunding campaigns. Harlem Stage, a nonprofit that supports artists of color, recently moved away from relying on government money to a “private funding model” where big donors are pursued. “It’s much more labor intensive,” said Patricia Cruz, the group's executive director, who says her staff constantly works on cultivating benefactors. For creative nonprofits like Harlem Stage that seek wealthy private donors, the best place to search for donors is within established audiences, encouraging those with an interest in art to financially support it. Then, by offering certain perks, benefits, and special access to artists and exhibits, nonprofits can entice audience members to join their boards.
Many nonprofits, following the slide in government funding, felt they already exhausted this option or found themselves without the resources to doggedly pursue philanthropists. As a result, many agencies embarked on crowdfunding campaigns via platforms like Indiegogo or Kickstarter. In New York City, creative projects have raised $105.3 million on Kickstarter since its inception in 2009; that’s 2 percent more than city cultural organizations received from the NEA during the same time span, according to the Center for an Urban Future. This doesn’t mean, however, that crowdfunding campaigns guarantee success without much effort. “There is constant follow-up and follow through with your donors,” said Lobell, who specializes in grassroots fundraising like crowdfunding. “One might assume, if they are unfamiliar with this process, that it is as easy as pressing a button, but indeed you have to set goals and keep up with them until they are met or you will not be successful.” “My experience with nonprofits has been if they need $10,000 and get $7,500, they can use that and ask for the rest from someone else,” Louloudes said. According to those experienced in the world of crowdfunding, the best way to secure all of a project’s funds involves focusing campaigns on specific projects. Donors don’t want to pay the electricity bill but instead want to know their money will go to a creative pursuit. Louloudes says people who tighten their purse strings at the thought of donating to a creative nonprofit are acting at a detriment to their city. “If you don't have a city with a robust arts ecosystem, you're not going to survive. What's the difference between living in Newark and New York? The arts.”
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The Rockland Independent Living Center Inc., mourns the passing of Fred Scaglione. You have made a great difference for many in the not for profit community and will be greatly missed. George Hoehmann Executive Director RILC www.rilc.org NYNmedia.com
September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NOTABLES
BREAKING THROUGH TO STUDENTS By THOMAS SEUBERT
O
Front-line Hero NATALIE COX
n Breakthrough New York’s website, beneath a list of guilty pleasures including curly fries and Bravo TV, Natalie Cox describes why she cares about making “breakthroughs” happen for students: “We can equip students and future educators to be the change they wish to see in the world.” Cox, senior program director at Breakthrough, is in a unique position to help bring about that change.
year at Tulane University, Cox started volunteering at the only functioning middle school in the decimated city. She was inspired by the dedication of the students, teachers and parents who were risking their lives for education. “It really shifted my perspective of how I wanted to spend my day, how I wanted to spend the professional hours of my day,” she said. After graduation, Cox joined Teach For America, teaching high school English for four years, three in California and one in New York City. In 2011, she joined Breakthrough as a site director and has grown with the program. Since she joined, Breakthrough has expanded from one site to three, and last year, Cox spearheaded a substantial shake-up of the program. Breakthrough had previously guided students through high school, but only 59 percent of those students went on to graduate college. Even though that is well above the national average, Cox says, she and the rest of Breakthrough wanted to extend the program to see its middle school students go on to earn college diplomas.
Overseeing programs at Breakthrough, a nonprofit that provides mentoring for academically inclined, low-income middle schoolers, Cox helps lead an organization of students teaching other students. Volunteers and other staff members work tirelessly to inspire, mentor and educate students in order to get them to and through college, hopefully breaking cycles of poverty, and this process can become discouraging even for a dedicated staff. “I deeply understand the challenges of being a front-line program person,” said Cox. “I did it myself, and I know what they are going through. It’s easy as a front-line program person to lose sight of what you’re doing.” While Cox doesn’t refer to herself as a “front-line” person at Breakthrough, her colleagues regard her as an in-the-trenches manager. To inform her decision-making, Cox works closely with students and calls on years of her own teaching experience for guidance. When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans during her senior
And after the first year of the newly implemented pilot program, 100 percent of college-enrolled Breakthrough students were on track to return for another semester of school. Cox says her larger managerial decisions, like extending Breakthrough’s programming, are informed by her days as a teacher. “Her expertise as a teacher has crafted her ability to truly understand what excellent teaching and rigor looks like,” said Rhea Wong, Breakthrough’s executive director. “For Natalie, it's about the students first, and she relies on her years in the classroom to ensure we are making decisions with our students' well-being and success in mind at all times.” Wong added that Cox, even with her important role as a team leader, still makes time to have lunch with students, volunteer at events and even mentor students when she can. “I still make it a point to learn every single student’s name and meet as many of their families as I can,” Cox said. “I still want to have that personal connection with all of them.”
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Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NOTABLES
AGENCY OF THE MONTH
GIRLS WRITE NOW Program teaches teens to express themselves through writing By THOMAS SEUBERT
A
high school student, Corrine Civil, sat in a New York City cafe with her mentor Robin Marantz Henig, an author and New York Times Magazine contributor. The pair, brought together by Girls Write Now, a nonprofit that partners female writers with high school girls, worked on a writing prompt using a line lifted from a magazine as inspiration: “You finally had to sit down and have the talk.” Henig jotted about a character getting the sex talk for the first time, while Civil crafted her own short story. Once they finished writing, Henig read what Civil wrote and was initially confused. What did this have to do with sex? “Even as I was reading her piece, I wasn’t watching it unfold in the right way,” said Henig, who is white. “It was a talk about how black kids should behave when cops stop them. It was that talk.” Henig and Civil (who is black and Hispanic) often wrote in their oneon-one sessions about their views on race-related issues, like the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, with telling results. In addition to discussing writing, the pair also discussed college, family, boys and many other personal issues. “We’ve tried new writing genres together, watched each other transition into new stages of life, and I really appreciate her advice,” Civil said of her mentor. “Even though my time as a mentee has ended, she will always be my mentor.” After spending three years in the Girls Write Now Program, Civil graduated from high school and starts classes at Columbia University this fall. Over its 17-year history, Girls Write Now has served over 5,000 girls from
“Part of our mission is to give girls a voice,” said Maya Nussbaum, founder of Girls Write Now. “Part of that means putting pen to paper but also knowing how to present their work and share it.” To work up to this, girls meet weekly in one-on-one sessions with their mentors and then in monthly writing workshops with other mentors and mentees. Over the course of months, the pairs work on crafting pieces to present at the Girls Write Now CHAPTERS reading series, which features mentees – sometimes joined by their mentors – reading their work on stage. Girls in the digital mentoring program have opportunities to present and explain the process of their projects as well, which are also writing-driven. The presentation aspect of the program holds great significance for the mentees. Though she was nervous, Civil cites her first reading series, where she read about her mother’s hospitalization following Superstorm Sandy, as an important developmental moment for her. “Writing about it, and being able to turn it into a sign of my resilience, was very cathartic for me,” she said. “It was a real breakthrough for me, in terms of my confidence in my writing and performing abilities.” In addition to the reading series, Girls Write Now compiles the girls’ work into an anthology, which has been honored by the Indie Excellence Awards and the New York Book Festival, to name a few. The writing pieces in the anthologies reflect a yearly theme developed by Girls Write Now. With over 80 percent of non-graduating mentees returning for a second year, it’s important to Nussbaum that
EVEN THOUGH MY TIME AS A MENTEE HAS ENDED, SHE WILL ALWAYS BE MY MENTOR. all five boroughs with its writing and digital media mentoring programs. Ninety-four percent of program participants, referred to as mentees, are girls of color. Ninety-three percent are considered high-needs, and 100 percent of mentees go on to college, thanks in part to a college-bound curriculum incorporated into the mentoring programs. But at the core of Girls Write Now is the goal to develop the creativity of young women.
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the programs remain rigorous and stimulating. “In order to provide that environment, we are really using our curriculum model but (are) infusing it with new ideas,” she said. “We are actually trying to break down the somewhat artificial boundaries that exist between writing and digital media. We see them as all fundamental to what girls need to be successful in the 21st-century school and job market.”
Girls Write Now, in addition to being recognized twice by the White House for its work, regularly attracts well-known guest speakers for its reading series and monthly writing workshops. Last June’s CHAPTERS reading featured Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes, and in the past, speakers have included Roxane Gay, Emily St. John Mandel and Tiphanie Yanique. Laura Maria Censabella spoke at a December writing workshop about her award-winning play "Truly Mary" and how she relates to the girls in the program. “When I was the age of most of the girls who participate in Girls Write Now, I didn't believe that I could write a play or screenplay because I didn't know any writers where I grew up in Queens, let alone female writers,” Censabella said. It’s true that female writers are underrepresented to this day. Over the past five years, VIDA: Women in
Literary Arts has compiled data on major publications that review books revealing that, generally, more book reviews are written by men about books also written by men. In 2014, women made up less than 40 percent of U.S. newsrooms, according to ASNE, which collects census data. Henig, who has been with Girls Write Now for almost seven years and has had two mentees, doesn’t think either will end up being a professional writer, and knows many girls in the program won't. And to her, that’s OK. “These are ethnically diverse writers, and they are writing about their experiences that aren’t typically white middle-class experiences,” she said, adding that by developing their writing skills, girls can have a larger positive impact on society. “Obviously, we need more literate, thoughtful, expressive people to tell us their view," Henig said. "Or else we won’t understand it.”
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NYNmedia.com
September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
MARY PENDER GREENE Career/Executive Coach Clinical Supervision Leadership Development Organizational Consultant Psychotherapist Author & Speaker
Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-R, CGP
Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-‐R, CGP is an accomplished individual & group psychotherapist, executive/career coach, consultant, speaker and author with 20+ years of experience. She is the President and CEO of MPG Consulting. The MPG Consulting team brings to organizations a wide range of experience as clinicians, trainers, managers, and organizational consultants in mental health, child welfare, and other social service settings. The team enhances clinical capacity as well as performance by offering culturally and racially attuned training, supervision, and consultation services in many critical areas. Mary is the author of Creative Mentorship and Career-‐Building Strategies: How to Build Your Virtual Personal Board of Directors, published by Oxford University Press, (2015).
212.245.2510 • mpg@marypendergreene.com • marypendergreene.com
NOTABLES
CEO CORNER
Q&A with TON Y HANNIGAN, Center for Urban Community Services
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ew York Nonprofit Media sat down with CUCS founder and CEO Tony Hannigan to discuss his organization's genesis, as well as its influential work with one of New York City's most vulnerable populations: single street homeless. The following interview has been edited for content and clarity. NYN: WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE BIGGEST NEEDS FOR SINGLE POOR NYNmedia.com
PEOPLE IN NEW YORK? HOW DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION HELP THIS POPULATION? TH: The biggest need that we see and have seen for many years is housing, affordable housing. People need affordable housing. What CUCS does is really focus on special-needs populations among single people. That includes people with mental illness, people with HIV/AIDS, and more recently focusing on primary health care issues among those groups. They are a marginalized group. Services tend not to be geared toward them. Supportive housing, which CUCS was instrumental in bringing to the fore back in the early to late '80s, focused on single people. It was a unique venture.
– and it started out with single people who were mentally ill – there have been three big rounds of it and now there’s a New York/New York IV, which is a much smaller round. That’s 5,200 units statewide. That’s the first statewide agreement. All the other New York/New York agreements were citywide. One agreement was for 9,000. This one is 5,200, and that only will be 3,900 for New York City, which is not adequate. The community I work with, the organizations and advocacy groups, we’re really pushing for a larger New York/New York IV. It’s kind of stuck at this point. The city administration recognized the importance of New York/New York IV. We’re trying to get everybody to the table for that.
NYN: WHAT IS YOUR ORGANIZATION PUSHING THE CITY TO DO ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING? TH: Since Mario Cuomo and David Dinkins there were agreements called New York/New York. These were agreements between the city and the state to develop supportive housing, and New York/New York I was the first round of that. Seeing how successful supportive housing can be with multiple populations
NYN: THERE’S BEEN A LOT ABOUT HOMELESSNESS IN THE NEWS. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS MISSING FROM THE CONVERSATION? TH: We have to have places for people to live. We’ve had the street counts, and I know the Post has been very critical of those for years now. They’re not perfect, as the Post pointed out. It was 25 degrees during the last count. These are national efforts that HUD really pulls together.
At least each year we are comparing apples to apples. In the past count we’ve seen the reduction in New York City – except that we did not see one in Manhattan – essentially a 5 percent reduction in street homelessness. Part of that has to do with redoing the way outreach teams – and CUCS has an outreach team – but redoing it citywide, starting in 2007. The focus is on determining who’s chronically homeless. There’s a vulnerability index that we use that goes to length of time, homeless problems that the person has that get priority. Now why all this focus? I think part of it is there’s invisibility about homelessness. The press is making people see them again. There’s that effect. There may be differences in the way the previous administrations and this administration handles encampments. As a person who works with homeless people and has done this for 30 years, I would like to see the goal of ending street homelessness. There’s always going to be some people who are homeless but the numbers say that right now at the last count there are about 3,200 people living on the streets. It seems doable.
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Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NEWS
REMEMBERING FRED The voice of New York nonprofits By JEFF STEIN
IT WAS WITH DEEP SADNESS THAT NEW YORK NONPROFIT BROUGHT TO OUR READERS THE NEWS OF THE PASSING OF FRED SCAGLIONE, THE PUBLICATION’S FOUNDER AND ORIGINAL EDITOR, ON AUG. 6. SINCE THEN, WE’VE RECEIVED AN INCREDIBLE OUTPOURING OF THOUGHTFUL AND EMOTIONAL REMEMBRANCES FROM THE NEW YORK NONPROFIT COMMUNITY, MANY OF WHICH WE’VE PRINTED ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES.
Founder and editor emeritus of New York Nonprofit Media, Fred Scaglione
F
red Scaglione, founder and editor emeritus of New York Nonprofit Media, who was widely considered a leading journalistic voice for the state’s nonprofit sector, died on Aug. 6 after a long battle with cancer. He was 65. He is survived by his sons, Thomas and Adam Scaglione, as well as his close friend and partner, Wendy Conway. Scaglione’s work with New York Nonprofit media – which was originally founded under the name New York Nonprofit Press – conscientiously and thoroughly covered the triumphs and challenges of nonprofit agencies. Long based in Chatham, New York, NYNP was founded under the maxim of “serving people who serve people,” and Scaglione’s in-depth reporting highlighted the
efforts of agencies from across the state, from the tip of Long Island to New York City, the Capitol Region and beyond. Known for his fastidious interviewing, compassion for the work of human services organizations and acute understanding of budgetary matters, Scaglione was able to distill the complex inner workings of government and nonprofit agencies down to cogent analyses. The publication’s “Agency of the Month” feature became a sought-after honor during his tenure, and his breakdown of the state’s budget was often a vital source for nonprofit executive directors and government agency heads alike. In May, when Scaglione was honored at the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies’ annual meeting, Gerald McCaffery, president and CEO of MercyFirst, reflected on NYNP's – and Scaglione’s – impact on the state’s nonprofit sector. “It pointed out to me that we now had a public forum, a place to identify and press issues we believed were important about our sector and the work we did,” McCaffery said. “We would be able to get the attention of the powers that be in more public ways than ever before. People at every level were reading and paying attention to what was printed in New York Nonprofit.” Scaglione was born on Nov. 16, 1949, in New York City’s Queens Village, where his parents, Frank Scaglione and Winnefred “Peg” Avis, settled after World War II. His father and
Remembering Fred Scaglione
– A Compassionate Communicator –
Fred will be remembered by the LaSalle School community for his intense interest in the future of child care. Fred’s clear, creative, and insightful journalism fueled the imaginations of his readers inspiring them to want to learn more, see more, and do more for the youth and families in New York State. www.lasalle-school.org 10
mother met during the war while his father served as a medic in the Eighth Air Force in England. As a child, Scaglione loved Western films and baseball, and was a dedicated Cub Scout and Boy Scout, with his mother serving as his troop’s leader. As an adolescent, he was an avid and successful swimmer at Bishop Reilly High School. Thomas Scaglione, one of Fred's two sons, said the environment of postwar Queens, combined with the family’s tradition of work for the public good, helped set Fred on his eventual career path. “His dad, ‘Pop Frank,’ was part of the (Works Progress Administration) and helped build the baseball fields around Queens,” the younger Scaglione said. “As a kid, whenever Fred played baseball on those fields, he would brag to his friends, ‘My pop built this.’ He also always described himself as a city kid, and everything that being a city kid entails – like taking public transportation everywhere – really gave him the overall sense that New York City is one big community.” Upon graduation from high school, Scaglione continued his
studies at Queens College, where he pursued a degree in urban affairs and policy analysis. He would later receive a Master of Public Administration degree from The New School. During his time as a Queens College undergraduate, Scaglione supported himself by working as a cab driver, which gave him an even more intimate knowledge of the city. It also had its dangers, and Scaglione was robbed three times. The final hold-up became an enduring story for the Scaglione clan. “The third time he got robbed, it was by a group of kids,” the younger Scaglione recalled. “He jumped out of the cab and chased down one of the kids, tackling him to the ground. But of course Fred, being a peaceful man, couldn’t bring himself to do anything violent. Instead, he took the kid’s wallet. Later that night, he paid a visit to his mother so that she could hear all about what her son had been up to.” After a series of jobs, Scaglione eventually landed his first true introduction to public service and city government: a post as director of inmate workers programs at Rikers Island. Under his leadership, the inNYNmedia.com
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mate workers program quadrupled in size and his efforts made the Rikers Island bakery a profitable enterprise. Building on his successes at Rikers, Scaglione transitioned to the Child Welfare Administration (now the Administration of Children’s Services) as an analyst, and later as assistant commissioner in charge of budgetary matters. “His understanding of the many challenges of funding – or lack thereof – for the agencies was very reassuring,” said Paulette LoMonaco, executive director of Good Shepherd Services. “While at ACS, Fred’s main concern was always the good of our program participants and the well-being of the agencies.”
agencies, Scaglione was able to publish New York Nonprofit Press’ inaugural edition in 2002. “It was a tremendous financial and personal risk for him, as he had a family,” LoMonaco said, “but he was motivated by a desire to give voice to the agencies and those we serve.” While the task of operating an independent newspaper was never an easy one, Thomas Scaglione says that the crux of his father’s 13 years of work on New York Nonprofit was a deep admiration for the nonprofit organizations he covered. “He always said that it was easier to write about this stuff than to do it,” Thomas Scaglione said. “Actually running an agency or working at one – that’s the difficult work. Of course,
HE WAS MOTIVATED BY A DESIRE TO GIVE VOICE TO THE AGENCIES AND THOSE WE SERVE. It is this understanding that Scaglione would, many years later, channel into his dream project: a dedicated news source for the men and women of New York’s human services sector. With the help of publisher Robby Long, art director Marcia Kammerer, and support and encouragement from dozens of the state’s nonprofit
there were also some negative stories – cracking cases on people that were doing illegal work and holding organizations accountable. That was important to him, too.” “But he always had a tremendous amount of respect,” Thomas Scaglione added. “He was always very impressed by the work that people did.”
The New York Foundling will always remember
Fred Scaglione
for his tireless dedication & unwavering commitment to the nonprofit sector.
“Fred Scaglione was a staunch advocate for the nonprofit sector, and in particular, human services. He was a dear friend to FPWA and many of its staffers, ensuring our voices were heard on critical issues. Fred shined a bright light on the complexities of nonprofits. He cared deeply for the workers. He was everything you could ask for in a journalist: diligent, clever, bold, fair, and a truth seeker. Fred Scaglione was a gift to the nonprofit sector and will be deeply missed.” –Jennifer Jones Austin, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies
NYNmedia.com
“The top reason why I loved Fred Scaglione was his great sense of humor. The fact that we shared a similar sense of humor – ironic, world-weary but not jaded – created our bond. But this formed only one part of our bond and mutual respect. The other critical piece for me about Fred was that behind his sense of irony was a sense of real compassion and caring and an unrivaled gentlemanly spirit. Fred was a true believer in this work of helping people in need. That belief shone through everything he wrote and did. His sense of outrage was often correct and always fueled by his belief that poor and sick people were getting hurt or not getting a fair deal. An old boss of mine once told me that the flip side of every cynic is an idealist. That was Fred. I will miss him. I already do.” – Nancy Wackstein, United Neighborhood Houses
“Fred had the conscience of a saint, the heart of a lion and the brains to champion social causes that truly matter. A social worker and a journalist – rare indeed! He was reasonable and frequently kind toward those he admired for doing good work. NPCC often benefitted from his attention. He also could be scathing toward those who didn’t pass his smell test. Fred saw his mission then and every year since as explaining and exploring the complicated, hard work of helping people, particularly in the human services. He did his homework, brought real passion and depth of experience to every piece, and wound up creating a journalistic legacy that will profoundly influence journalistic coverage of nonprofits for years to come. I’m not sure we will soon see Fred’s like again, but we surely will sorely miss him.” – Michael Clark, Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York
“Fred's legacy of the New York Nonprofit is an invaluable contribution to the sector and to all of our efforts. It has been, for many years, a central place for us to get and share our news. Fred was smart and committed. We are sorry to lose him and grateful for all he has given us.”
“Fred cared deeply about our sector. He knew our work, understood the nuances and his clear and honest voice improved these lives of kids and families in New York and beyond.”
– Lesleigh Irish-Underwood, United Way of New York City
– Dr. Jeremy Kohomban, The Children's Village
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“I knew Fred for the past 21 years, beginning in 1994 when I became an assistant commissioner at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. Fred mentored me on budget issues and was a terrific colleague. When I moved from government to Catholic Guardian Services, I reconnected with Fred in his capacity at NYN. He was passionate about the new venture he had undertaken. His friends and colleagues came together and marshaled the resources to do just that because we believed in Fred personally. We wanted our story told, but more importantly, we believed that Fred had the integrity and fortitude to carry the message forward in the proper spirit. He was a pioneer, entrepreneur, journalist and good citizen. On a personal level, I tremendously valued both his friendship and our professional relationship. I could always count on him. And I really liked him. He was such a good person.” – Craig Longley, Catholic Guardian Services
“Quite simply, he was one of the first champions of the nonprofit community. He founded NYNP on the premise that we needed accurate reporting from someone who understood our perspectives and challenges. He did this while holding us all accountable – funders and government alike. I was proud to call him my friend. He will be missed.” – Doug Sauer, New York Council of Nonprofits Inc.
“Fred reached out to me before he started the New York Nonprofit and shared his plan for the publication. I admit I was skeptical of such an effort, having seen two newspapers dedicated to human services in earlier years go out of business. Under Fred, NYNP far surpassed what came before, reflecting sound reporting and opinion, and always at the cutting edge of what was affecting the sector. I was especially appreciative of his including developments within the social work profession. He was smart, respectful, incredibly productive, and had a deep sense of integrity.”
“Fred was long a supporter of the nonprofit community, informing the public and telling the whole story when it came to nonprofit news. His in-depth reporting influenced both perceptions and policy. Personally, he was an all-around good person and a good friend to us. We are so pleased we had the opportunity to honor Fred for his support at our annual meeting in May. He will be sorely missed.” – James F. Purcell, Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies
“I was really impressed by his dedication, loyalty and advocacy for the disabled. Fred was an entirely selfless individual. He had a mission to help the disabled by highlighting both the organizations that worked with them and the challenges they face.”
“I saw changes in city or state policies, which – if only they could be implemented – could greatly increase the numbers of people being helped or the quality of services they were receiving. But was I, just like so many other executive directors, ready to take on a new advocacy effort that might take years and never succeed? That's when I'd call Fred. I'd talk with him about the policy proposal and the facts I had, trying to convince him to write a story. And often he did, which became a piece that could be sent around, help to create a coalition for change. A regular editor would almost surely not have done this; it was too soon in the process to know if the idea had attraction. The typical media editor was just interested in the facts. Fred was a much-needed editor-supporter for the nonprofit field, which gets little attention for its dreams and visions. Fred Scaglione, on a personal and professional level, was a great treasure for nonprofits, and for society.”
– Jill A. Warner, Jawonio Inc.
– Allan Luks, Fordham Center for Nonprofit Leaders
– Bob Schachter, National Association of Social Workers, New York City Chapter
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“Fred was a natural journalist because he was genuinely interested in people and what was going on. He wasn’t just easy to talk to – he was impossible not to talk to. I looked forward to every conversation with Fred. He had a way of making you feel like he appreciated it very much when he was helping you and your cause.”
“Fred was the reporter you called with good news (man did NOT get bitten by dog today) and he would print it. He cared about the work the sector did and the people who did it. He never played 'gotcha.' On tough issues, he gave you time to think and respond thoughtfully – but if you waffled, he would gently but strongly put you back on the hook. He was also the guy to call to find out what was going on – he knew what was happening from Staten Island to the Upper East Side. And he not only knew what was happening now, but the history of why it was happening, who the leaders were, and what they were trying to accomplish. Everyone trusted him. I am just one of many who have admired him for many years and appreciated his extraordinary dedication. Together we lamented many a thing gone wrong, but we also shared many a good laugh. The young journalists walking in his shoes have a lot to live up to.” – Fran Barrett, state interagency coordinator for not-for- profit services
“He created an important means for people to follow and understand nonprofit human services. It is good to see you working to carry it forward.” – Jack Krauskopf, Baruch College
– Jeff Foreman, Care for the Homeless
Thank you, Fred. You shined a spotlight on our sector. You told our stories with intelligence and grace. (Put that on the record.)
NYNmedia.com
Lawyers Alliance for New York honors
Fred Scaglione and is grateful for his:
commitment to covering the latest legal developments in the nonprofit sector;
dedication to nonprofit capacity building; and
championship of nonprofit organizations and the clients they serve.
We are proud to continue Fred’s work in support of New York nonprofits and their vital services.
www.lawyersalliance.org
Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NEWS
THE BARGAIN THAT CLOSED ST. VINCENT’S The political nexus of nonprofits and real estate By BOB HENNELLY
I
t was just another lazy summer afternoon last month when Idrissa Camara, a 53-year-old father of three, agreed to stay late at his job as a private armed security guard protecting the federal offices at 201 Varick St. in Manhattan. A little after 5 p.m., Kevin Downing, a 68-year-old veteran and former federal employee, walked through the metal detectors in the lobby and shot Camara in the head. Downing, who had been at war with the federal government after he was allegedly fired for being a whistleblower several years ago, shot himself in the head and died at the scene. Camara, meanwhile, was transported to Lenox Health Greenwich Village, just a mile uptown, at the site of what had been, up until 2010, St. Vincent’s, a Level 1 trauma hospital capable of handling gunshot wounds. Camara was declared dead at 5:55 p.m. There’s an official blue sign just a block away from Lenox Health Greenwich Village (until recently called Lenox Hill HealthPlex) that
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uses the upper-case “H” symbol and the word “hospital” to direct the public to the facility. Yet when it opened last summer the management of the Lenox Hill facility, part of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, were clear that it was not a hospital and would not be the place to handle trauma like a gunshot wound. If someone was brought to the site with such a grievous injury, The New York Times reported, “the doctors at the Healthplex would do everything that would be done in a hospital” and “then transfer the patient by ambulance to the nearest appropriate hospital,” which “for trauma patients” would be Bellevue Hospital Center, nearly 2 miles farther uptown. The FDNY, which responded to the scene, pointed out that Lenox Health Greenwich Village is approved for cardiac arrest patients, and Camara was in traumatic arrest. It is impossible to know whether Camara, a family man who loved his work, could have been saved had St. Vincent’s Hospital still been open.
‘A BIG LOSS’ Since before the Civil War, through the scourge of HIV/AIDS and during the two World Trade Center terror attacks, St. Vincent’s had served the Greenwich Village neighborhood with distinction. Camara’s tragic scenario had been raised as a hypothetical years before it happened by community members caught in a bitter battle that raged right up until the hospital closed in April 2010. For months up until the nonprofit hospital’s board of trustees pulled the plug, community members hit the streets and went to court in an effort to save St. Vincent’s. The facility had a long-standing reputation for serving the poor effectively and with compassion. It was also a teaching hospital. Even today, five years after the closure, passions still run high in the West Village, where the rest of the St. Vincent’s site is now being redeveloped into hundreds of luxury apartments. “A great obstetrics division as
well as an ER – it was a full-service hospital,” said Mike Quinn, who grew up in the neighborhood on Charles Street. “It is a big loss. It is a big hole in terms of city services when it comes to hospital services you need.” “You really don’t have a medical facility that is close by,” agreed Elizabeth Warren, a retail worker who has lived in the West Village for 10 years. “It’s more empty luxury apartments nobody can afford.” The fate of St. Vincent’s was ultimately decided at the political nexus where the city’s worlds of nonprofit philanthropy and powerful real estate development converge. There is so much cross-pollination between the two spheres that it can be hard to delineate the two. Nonprofits need the philanthropy provided by developers, who in exchange garner naming rights and influence in how the nonprofits operate – all as a way of ‘giving back.’ Nonprofits also count on the political clout of their real estate patrons, who shower politicians at every level NYNmedia.com
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with tens of millions of dollars. By some estimates the real estate industry provides 10 percent of all the campaign cash donated in the Empire State, which is funneled through limited liability companies to mask the source of the funds. Best case, this symbiotic relationship advances the city’s civic agenda and the public interest; in the worst case, nonprofits are co-opted by commercial development interests that use the cover of their good deeds to advance their business agenda. The reality is likely a messy amalgam of both. TWO TALES OF ONE HOSPITAL In the case of St. Vincent’s, there are two widely disparate narratives: The powers that be did the best they could to advance the public interest in difficult times, or the city’s rich and powerful figured out how to make money off closing the neighborhood hospital. There is strong evidence that the nonprofit Catholic hospital was, in part, a victim of its own generosity and willingness to take all patients regardless of their ability to pay, a core value of the Sisters of Charity, the religious order that started the hospital. With over $1 billion in debt, the venerable institution was poorly positioned to withstand the Great Recession. At the same time, the state was coming to the conclusion – via the Berger Commission – that it had too many hospitals with some of the weakest balance sheets in the country. The late Dr. Richard Daines, who was the commissioner of the state Department of Health, told The Associated Press in 2010 that St. Vincent’s had about $2 million in debt for every one of its hospital beds, at a time when governments at every level were cutting back. State regulators estimated St. Vincent’s was losing $5 million to $10 million a month. This, of course, begs the question: Where was the regulatory oversight that could have stanched the bleeding out of such an important community institution? Back in 2007, emerging from its first bankruptcy, St. Vincent’s went public with a “hail Mary” rescue plan which called for the building of a new hospital across the street from the existing facility. The ambitious plan relied on funding generated by a $1 billion residential development to be built on the campus by the Rudin family. Before the Great Recession, the plan and its players seemed well matched. The Rudins had been riding to the rescue of New York City sites for decades, even as their real estate business became increasingly more successful. According to Forbes, the Rudins are the 61st-richest family in the nation and can trace their fortune back to 1905. Today William Rudin chairs the Association for a Better New York, a nonprofit founded by his father in 1971 as a civic-minded response to the fiscal crisis when New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy. When Gov. Andrew Cuomo formed a panel to advise him on the search for the next Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and CEO, he named Rudin to the search committee. Rudin’s bio included chairing the board of the Battery ConservanNYNmedia.com
cy, as well as memberships on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Real Estate Board of New York and New York University. By January 2010 the optimism around the Rudin redevelopment plan had faded. The hospital’s leadership announced that its fiscal condition was deteriorating rapidly. A handful of potential rescue scenarios surfaced, including one from Continuum Health Partners, which owned St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center. Under the proposal, St. Vincent’s would be closed but a health care center with some walk-in emergency capability would be established instead. It would no longer receive 911 ambulance runs. Continuum would assume St. Vincent’s massive debt load and, in exchange, get the hospital’s valuable real estate. In just a matter of days, local elected officials, led by then-City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, blasted the proposal because it would leave the West Side from Park Row to 59th Street without a full-service emergency medical facility. “Every minute an ambulance has to travel longer to reach a hospital is another minute with a life in jeopardy,” warned Quinn. Continuum quickly withdrew its bid and Gov. David Paterson announced the formation of a committee to help keep St. Vincent’s open. But the panel would not have long. By April 2010 St. Vincent’s was back seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Attorney Yetta Kurland led the neighborhood legal battle to keep St. Vincent’s open. Kurland says that even though St. Vincent’s was organized as a nonprofit charity, its leadership was cut off from the very community it served, which desperately wanted to save it. “On April 6 in 2010, without any kind of public notice, against all the open-meeting laws and rules that are supposed to be involved in 501(c)(3) happenings, the board of trustees secretly voted to shut down St. Vincent’s hospital,” Kurland told New York Nonprofit Media in an interview. “That was on April 6. By April 30 the hospital had been shut down.” Kurland says that even though the hospital was a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity, its leadership made millions of dollars even as the hospital was saying it was hundreds of millions in debt for years of uncompensated charity care. “We saw the year be-
fore the bankruptcy a golf outing for $278,000, professional fundraising fees that they spent almost $4 million for, undisclosed other unknown expenses for over $104 million, management consultants of over $17 million, over half a million dollars for lobbying,” Kurland said. “What’s supposed to happen is a closure plan is submitted to the Department of Health and it outlines how patients are going to be taken care of, how patient records are handled, how all of the services that are happening in the hospital will still be provided to the community in other ways because you just can’t shut down a hospital,” Kurland said. “That’s black-letter law. That’s part of
the public health law.” In an in-depth story published in America-The National Catholic Review not long after the closure, Jane Iannucelli of the Sisters of Charity, a St. Vincent’s board member, faulted the state’s Department of Health for the closure. “I think the easiest way to explain why … St. Vincent’s is closing its doors tomorrow is that the state Department of Health said there is no need for an acute care hospital in Greenwich Village,” Iannucelli told the publication. “And while St. Vincent’s had many problems, they were on their way to being fixed. But with the Department of Health saying there’s no need for an acute care hospital here, the board had no choice but accept a vote to close.” Former St. Vincent’s Chief Operating Officer Arthur Webb was quoted in The Villager as conceding that St. Vincent’s had “consultants coming out the eyeballs” and on a “general basis, St. Vincent’s wasn’t well run for decades. This is a classic case where history hindered progress.” THE BIGGER PICTURE The St. Vincent’s saga was playing out as Wall Street was coming under increasing attack for self-dealing and a lack of transparency. As a consequence, under the Dodd-Frank Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has promulgated rules that require publicly traded corporations to disclose what their CEOs are getting and the median compen-
The 2015 Volunteer Fair provides you with an opportunity to introduce your nonprofit agency’s mission, goals and volunteer needs to the community. Attendees are encouraged to make volunteering a part of their lives. The previous volunteer fair attracted over 55 exhibitors and 250 attendees. The fair is open to the general public, college students and high school students. This year there will be a coat and winter outerwear drive to benefit atrisk clients of local nonprofits, a blood drive conducted by American Red Cross, and a 10K race held in conjunction with Alumni Weekend. We recommend that you bring the following items: banners, table top displays, table cloths, push pins, scissors, extension cord (if needed), pens and other items to decorate your display. Please email volunteer_fair@ longislandvolunteercenter.org by September 30 so that we may include you in the program. There is no charge for exhibitors and lunch and beverages will be served. Farmingdale State College 631-420-6000 www.farmingdale.edu Long Island Volunteer Center 516-564-5482 longislandvolunteercenter.org 15
Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
sation for the rest of the company’s employees. Critics of the nonprofit sector point to the case of William Rapfogel, the former executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, as an example of the need for more stringent oversight. Rap-
than $1 million a year. But does that nonprofit designation guarantee the people at the top are always acting in the public interest? Jim Sheehan is the chief of the Charities Bureau under Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. His office is charged with keeping an eye
WE NEED A MUCH MORE ROBUST GOVERNING STRUCTURE FOR NONPROFITS. fogel was convicted last year for his role in a scheme that bilked the social services nonprofit of $9 million since 1992. Rapfogel and his fellow conspirators used overpayment to the nonprofit’s insurance company as a way to steal from the nonprofit. In turn, the insurance company made tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions. In New York City and around the nation, nonprofits employ thousands of people and make land-use decisions that have major impacts on surrounding neighborhoods that have nowhere near the clout and influence that these charity behemoths have. The top executives leading these 501(c)(3)s often make high six figures and sometimes more
on the 80,000 charities licensed by the state of New York. “Transparency is critical. That’s what was driving the passage of the Nonprofit Revitalization Act,” Sheehan told New York Nonprofit Media, referring to the reform law championed by Schneiderman and signed into law by Cuomo in 2013. “You have to have effective audits by third parties, and the board members on these nonprofits must be independent.” Former attorney general and governor Eliot Spitzer told New York Nonprofit Media that nonprofits need much more scrutiny than they have received in the past. “It took awhile for me to figure this out,” Spitzer said, “but the real unused jurisdiction of the attorney general is
in the realm on the nonprofits.” “In the private sector,” Spitzer continued, “shareholders do have a window into how a company operates through proxy statement and filings like a 10-K. You can file shareholder motions. For nonprofits there are no shareholders. As a contributor, once you’ve given money you’re done. Nobody knows what goes on inside them. We need a much more robust governing structure for nonprofits.” THE AFTERSHOCKS Six months after the closure of St. Vincent’s, the impact on other Manhattan hospitals was seismic. Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, Bellevue Hospital’s chief of emergency medicine, said the closure of St. Vincent’s had been “a significant disaster” for emergency care. “We are seeing people in rapid succession continuously in every space we’ve got and trying to achieve excellence in the face of substantial chaos a good part of the day and night,” Goldfrank told the Daily News at the time. Emergency room admissions at Bellevue spiked by 25 percent and resulted in an unsettling increase in patients assaulting medical staff and threatening other patients lying too close to them, according to Goldfrank. Similar upticks in ER traffic were reported by other Manhattan hospitals. By March of 2012, Quinn was hail-
ing a grand bargain struck by the City Council, the Bloomberg administration and Rudin development. As part of the deal to clear the way for Rudin’s hundreds of luxury units and town houses, the neighborhood got a new elementary school, a 15,000-squarefoot park, an AIDS memorial and commitments for additional historic preservation – but no hospital. At the St. Vincent’s site there would be the freestanding emergency room where Camara died last month. The project was also scaled down from its initial design. The issue would haunt Quinn in her bid for the Democratic mayoral nomination, when her critics went wall to wall with negatives ads linking her ultimate support of the St. Vincent’s redevelopment plan to the nearly $30,000 she got from a half-dozen Rudin executives in campaign contributions. As The New York Times reported at the time, Quinn did lobby to reduce the scale of the project and was successful in doing so. Quinn supporters have made the case that the former speaker got the best deal for the neighborhood, which was in her council district. “The thing we were never able to get to was how to hold these people responsible,” said Kurland, who remains convinced that St. Vincent’s was targeted for redevelopment all along because the property had become so valuable. “And in terms of avoiding this kind of stuff, where was the oversight?”
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September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NEWS
MAYORAL REPORT CARD Despite recent bad press, nonprofits praise de Blasio’s ‘critical and smart moves’ By JEFF STEIN
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his has not been the Summer of de Blasio. Among the most biting criticisms that the mayor faced – on the Legionnaire’s outbreak, the Uber fight, his feud with the governor – are those focused on his handling of New York City’s social services. The New York Post’s editorial page has recently been decrying the city’s “surging vagrant population” and the publication has lampooned those who prioritize housing for the homeless over mental health considerations. National television pundit Joe Scarborough reinforced this narrative last month, blaming the mayor’s “misguided liberalism” for the city’s “homeless epidemic.” But in spite of the recent bad press, leaders of the city’s human services nonprofits remain largely committed to the mayor and his vision. James Parrott, deputy director and chief economist of the Fiscal Policy Institute, says this broad support stems from the administration’s overhaul of the annual budget process as it relates to nonprofit organizations. “For the last several years under Mayor Bloomberg, nonprofits complained bitterly – and justly so – about the annual ‘budget dance’ in which the mayor dropped from his proposal hundreds of millions of dollars in social service contracts that the council had secured in the prior year’s budget,” Parrott explained. “Advocates were then forced to lobby and rally throughout the spring to get the council to restore the cuts. Mayor de Blasio has not only done away with all of that, but he’s boosted funding by hundreds of millions of dollars for enhanced programming in a number of areas.” Parrott says the Fiscal Policy Institute’s recent tallies show that city funding for human services has increased 14 percent since de Blasio took office, compared with a 5.5 per-
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cent increase in federal funding and a 2.9 percent decrease in state funding. “The contrast with the previous administration – as well as with the state government – in this regard could not be more stark,” Parrott said. Nonprofit leaders across the human services spectrum, from homeless services to education advocacy, say the budgetary changes have translated into substantial gains in programming. “This administration has made significant progress toward ensuring that all New York City children have access to high-quality, affordable early childhood education and after-school programs – opportunities that we know help close the achievement gap and lift families out of poverty,” said Michelle Yanche, assistant executive director of Good Shepherd Services, a nonprofit that offers school-based services and has been a vocal advocate for after-school education funding. “In conjunction with community-based organizations, an expected 70,000 kids will be enrolled in pre-K this year, and more than 100,000 middle school students will have access to enriching after-school programs,” Yanche said. Christy Parque, executive director of Homeless Services United, also says that her agency has recognized a remarkably positive shift, despite public perception that the homeless population is growing. “The expansion of Homebase, the consolidation of legal services at the Human Resources Administration, the expansion of funding for eviction services – these have been critical and smart moves by the administration to stop the growth of homelessness in New York City,” she said. Parque argued that these expansions should not be forgotten in the face of questions from the media about the efficacy of the city’s efforts
to decrease the homeless population. “The barrage by the tabloid press has simply perpetuated the myths and stereotypes about who is homeless, defining the problem incorrectly,” Parque said. “In reality, we have made huge gains with this administration. We are within arm’s reach of solving veterans homelessness in New York City, for example.” However, while human services leaders praise the mayor’s overarching progress, many have raised specific questions about the administration’s management of funding and program implementation. Yanche cited a recent battle to restore $24 million in grants to community organizations – including Good Shepherd Services – that was initially removed from the mayor’s executive budget. While the funding was restored in June, allowing programming for thousands of underserved middle school students to go forward, it took a massive mobilization on the part of advocates and providers, including rallies and letter-writing campaigns. “There is still progress that our city needs to make to ensure that summer programs continue and are not forced to fight for funding, as they were this year,” Yanche said. Human services nonprofits have sparred with the administration on many issues on which they were previously aligned. Advocates for universal free lunch for middle school students, for instance, have expressed befuddlement at the mayor’s decision not to expand this past year’s pilot program. “The participation in middle schools this past year was really strong – 10,000 more students eating per day, which is a 9 percent increase in participation,” said Liz Accles, executive director of Community Food Advocates, a nonprofit that led the
Lunch 4 Learning campaign for free universal lunch. “We saw those numbers as a great success and were very surprised that the administration did not decide to expand the program in the final budget.” Nonprofit leaders have also expressed concerns about the implementation of the recently won cost of living adjustment for contracts with the city. While the 2.5 percent increase for city contracts was welcomed as a victory by the sector, details of its rollout have yet to emerge. “While we were very excited to get the commitment, the implementation details have been slow,” said Michelle Jackson, associate director and general counsel of the Human Services Council. “Providers have been waiting to get a sense of the details because without them, nonprofits are unable to put the changes into their budgets.” Jackson was also concerned that the cost of living adjustment implementation could have unintended consequences for nonprofits. “We’re concerned that there could be unfunded reporting requirements,” Jackson said. “Nonprofits have limited ability to meet new administrative requirements, especially when contracts provide low overhead rates.” Parrott added that the administration should be cut some slack, given the scope of its achievements with human services nonprofits. “Like many others, I would like to see things happen faster,” Parrott said. “But I also have the luxury of looking across the entire city budget and seeing what’s going on. While I may feel impatient at times, I understand that there has been very ambitious implementation, from universal pre-K to housing. This administration is taking on huge problem areas.”
We relied on the knowledge and insight Fred Scaglione shared within the non-profit community, and appreciated his accessibility and good humor. Fred made a significant contribution to our field and will be greatly missed. www.nycommonpantry.org 17
Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NEWS
A 'GLOBAL INSTITUTION'
A Q&A WITH JANICE WEINMAN, CEO of Hadassah NYN: COULD YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF ALL THE DIFFERENT ARENAS HADASSAH IS INVOLVED IN? JW: Hadassah is an over 100-year-old organization. We are comprised of 330,000 members. We have representation in every single congressional district. Not only are we an organization here in the United States, but we have groups all over the world. And, as you may know, Hadassah is extremely active in Israel, because
we have the Hadassah Medical Organization, which is comprised of two hospitals in Jerusalem. The two hospitals serve a million patients every year. We are a very global institution, focusing primarily on health care, both in Israel and in the application of the work that is done in our hospitals here in the United States. For example, we were very active in stem cell work, which we are reintroducing in our agenda. We are very involved in heart health. We have a large cardiac unit and cardiac presence in Jerusalem. Here in the United States we have applied that to a program called Every Beat Counts and Every Step Counts, which is a resource for women to learn how to prevent heart disease. NYN: WHAT IS HADASSAH’S MESSAGE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE INVOLVED IN THE BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS) MOVEMENT ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES? JW: We are very concerned about BDS. We find that it is a destructive force. It is a movement that can un-
dermine all the accomplishments Israel has made and for which it is not being recognized. Instead, people are focusing on non-truths, on accusations that are simply false, on calling Israel a racist country. In fact, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that focuses on human rights, that focuses on pure democratic opportunity for people, that absorbs people from every part of the world, and that provides an education that is both uplifting and is opened to all. So to sanction Israel, or to apply a boycott or divestment, is simply using a tactic that is inappropriate, unfair and really not necessary in this case. NYN: WHAT WOULD HADASSAH LIKE TO DO GOING FORWARD TO TRY TO BRING PEOPLE TO THE TABLE WHO HAVE HOSTILE VIEWS TOWARD ISRAEL AND ESPECIALLY THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS? JW: We are doing a few things with regard to BDS to begin with. With regard to BDS, we have published, with the Israel Action Network, guidelines on how to talk about Israel. It is
called “How to Talk About Israel,” and in there we provide an explanation of every component of these anti-Israel movements – BDS and some others, including anti-Semitism, which is more and more closely aligned with anti-Zionism, as the line between the two becomes very thin – and we describe how you can answer questions, and we have role-play exercises so that people not only learn about what BDS is and understand the consequences, but also learn how to talk about it. We are also starting to convene a group of Jewish women organizations, whereby we will be approaching the female presidents of colleges and universities so that they speak out against BDS on their campuses. We have a special tool that we feel others can use, called Curriculum Watch. In Curriculum Watch, we provide to publishers and state legislators information about textbooks and those aspects of textbooks that either misrepresent the truth about Israel or World War II or have omissions about what has happened, both in terms of Jewish history as well as world history.
In memory of a great guy who was dedicated to the nonprofit sector. We miss you, Fred Scaglione.
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NYNmedia.com
September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NEWS
THE ‘NEW CRACK’ K2 is hurting the homeless – and those serving them By FR ANK G. RU N YEON
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grizzled man with a whitestreaked beard collapsed into a heap on the sidewalk. “This is the K2 capital of the world, right here,” an FDNY lieutenant said, shaking his head as he called in an ambulance last month on Lexington Avenue just south of 125th Street. A small crowd gathered around the man, who stared blankly at the pavement and drooled onto the ground. Four others appeared groggy, and another fidgeted spastically as he paced around the small gathering, nibbling on a soda can. “I’ve had six or seven ambulances here at one time,” the lieutenant said, scanning the scene and prodding a few of the zombified men. “It’s starting to spread. Park, Lenox, Third Avenue,” he said gesturing to the surrounding streets. K2, also known as Spice, is a name for synthetic cannabinoids sold over the counter even though it’s illegal. Law enforcement officials say it has a particularly devastating impact on the mentally ill in the homeless community. As the popularity of the drug has surged, a heavy burden has landed on nonprofits that provide them housing and services. Carol Allette, a program director at the Center for Urban Community Services, runs The Kelly, a small building on 127th Street that provides transitional housing for 40 mentally ill homeless adults. She has seen firsthand the damage K2 does to the people she’s trying to help. “Our goal is to get people back to feeling great about themselves, back to integrating with society,” Allette explained. “And here comes this terrible monster of K2 that literally rips that dream away again.” K2 is sold at bodegas, smoke shops and retail shops across the state, but Harlem has remained a hotspot, with one strip on Lexington Avenue earning the moniker “K2 Boulevard.” It has been illegal to sell or possess the drug since 2012. Still, many shops
NYNmedia.com
continue to sell the small shiny packets marked as “potpourri” that read, “Not for human consumption.” The drug has surged in popularity in recent years, largely because of its availability and low cost. Packages sell for anywhere from $5 to $20 for several grams at the corner stores, and K2 smokers will often sell a joint on the street for just $2. Health and drug enforcement agencies are struggling to control its spread. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said the “dangerous and deadly poison” has surged at an “unprecedented” pace and a flurry of legislation has sought to curb its use among vulnerable populations, especially young people. “I’ve been smoking K2 for four years,” said José, a homeless man who lives at The Kelly. “I found out that marijuana was too expensive,” he said, recalling how he made the switch to K2, a cheaper drug many call “synthetic marijuana” – although experts say the term is a misnomer since its effects can be closer to PCP or angel dust. “It’s not ‘synthetic weed,’” José said. On the street, the substance has a different name, he said. “They call it the ‘new crack’ in New York.” “I got a lot of friends that died of K2. Heart attack,” José said. “A couple of puffs. No air. Their heart, it goes so fast, sometimes slow,” he said patting his chest. He says he has lost three friends to K2. The city’s health department lists serious side effects for the drug, including extreme anxiety, confusion, sedation, paranoia and hallucinations. Synthetic cannabinoids can cause kidney failure, raise blood pressure, reduce blood supply to the heart and cause heart attacks. “I’ve seen the effects of meth, crack,” said Nikita Price, civil rights organizer at Picture the Homeless. “And this is worse than all of them. I don’t know how anyone can get away with calling it synthetic marijuana,
because I’ve never seen marijuana take that kind of effect.” Price said she saw one K2 user holding a conversation with a car tire. Another used an orange road cone as a megaphone to talk to a fruit vendor. And while those instances sound harmless, the behavioral effects can be dangerous. Dr. Van Yu, the chief medical officer for Janian Medical Care, has worked on several K2 cases at The Kelly. “There’s been more fighting because of K2,” Yu said, noting that staff members have called 911 several times because of aggressive behavior they believe is brought on by the drug. NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said homeless K2 users are a potential danger to the public, saying a significant number of them are mentally ill and the drug can exacerbate their symptoms. “It puts them into a state where they are totally crazy,” the commissioner told City & State in a video interview last month. “They have superhuman strength, they are impervious to pain,” he said, and pose an “incredible danger, potentially, to the public.” While several homeless services providers agreed that K2 users’ behavior can be disturbing, a bigger concern, they say, is the mischaracterization of the vulnerable people they serve. “They’re victims, they’re not demons,” said Tony Hannigan, founder of CUCS and a longtime homeless services provider. “When they’re seeing their friends having seizures, winding up in the hospital, they want off,” he said. And this, Hannigan believes, is where organizations should be focusing their efforts. “They want help getting out of the trap. So, where
we’re going in our thinking is, that is what we have to do.” He said there should be a continuing effort to provide effective drug treatment for homeless K2 addicts. Still, this is easier said than done. In an effort to skirt federal drug laws, K2 chemists are constantly changing the brew that is sprayed onto the plants in the packets, which means the drug itself is changing. This complicates both drug treatment and how nonprofits should react to a psychotic episode triggered by K2. “How do you create protocol to deal with this?” asked Christy Parque, executive director of Homeless Services United. “If the ingredients are changing, if the behaviors change with the person who takes it, it makes it a very, very unsafe situation.” Some of her member organizations, including CUCS, are struggling with the effects that the drug has had on their ability achieve their goals. For example, Allette said that even the smell of K2 on some clients’ clothes has disqualified them during interviews for supportive housing, which has kept people in The Kelly’s transitional program longer than she would hope. Fewer clients have moved out of The Kelly and into more permanent housing over the last few years. In 2012, The Kelly placed 56 individuals into supportive housing. In 2013 that number fell to 47, and in 2014 it dropped to 45. José said he tries to keep K2 out of the The Kelly – as the rules require – but fearing where he might end up if he had a bad reaction on the street, he said, “I smoked in my room.” He’s trying hard to quit now, he said. But people still ask him, “‘Where’s that K2? Get me that K2,’ they say. I tell them, ‘Sorry, I don’t want to do that no more.’”
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Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
NEWS
FIGHTING $15 Nonprofits fear proposed wage hike could have harmful unintended consequences By JEFF STEIN
that was very recent. This is really uncharted territory.” Despite these calls for concern, other nonprofit experts contend that wages are just a symptom of a larger problem – low levels of government funding for nonprofit services – and that the community would be better served by focusing on this root cause. “Low starting wages for nonprofit workers are a manifestation of the larger issue of inadequate payment for nonprofit services,” said Jack Krauskopf, director of the Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management at Baruch College. “I think that it’s generally a good
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hough many are celebrating the Fast Food Wage Board’s recommendation to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 an hour, some nonprofits are describing it as one of several well-intentioned progressive initiatives that may end up hurting those on the front lines of social work. Charles Houston, executive director of the Queens Center for Progress, a nonprofit that provides a host of services to adults and children with developmental disabilities, fears that without government intervention, the wage board’s decision will greatly impact nonprofits’ ability to retain workers who provide essential services to some of New York’s neediest individuals. “What differentiates nonprofits is that we have a very limited ability to increase revenue,” Houston said. “A commercial firm can raise the price of a service, or they have a profit margin and can fund a salary increase without raising prices. Neither apply to nonprofits. We’re a break-even operation.” Houston worries that his organization’s inability to keep up with the new fast food industry wages will present hard choices for his employees. He says QCP offers a starting wage of just under $11 an hour for direct service professionals, the employees who work directly with disabled clients, providing educational, health and transportation services. One such employee, Keshia Butler, a day service professional at QCP who leads instruction and provides supervision and transportation for disabled individuals, says the wage board’s decision will impact many
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nonprofit employees who love working with clients but desperately need increased income. “Yes, we’re passionate about what we do, but we don’t get paid,” Butler said. “Two of my girlfriends who work at agencies have multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Honestly, I would work two jobs if I could, but I have a young child at home, so my significant other is the one with two jobs right now.” Given the harsh reality of supporting herself and her family, Butler says the fast food wage increase offers a choice she would rather not make. “When I see stuff like this on the news, I think that maybe I should work fast food,” Butler said. “I’ll be less stressed, and it’ll be easier for me to pay all of these costs that keep adding up, like my son’s tuition and my MetroCard.” Some economists also share Butler’s concerns. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington, D.C., think tank, agrees that the decision could apply significant pressure to the nonprofit sector. “It could certainly present a difficult situation, where people will have to leave jobs where they are doing much more socially productive work simply because they need to put bread on the table,” Baker said. However, Baker also noted the lack of historical precedence for such an isolated minimum wage increase. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of data on the impact a localized wage increase will have on the entire market,” Baker said. “The closest thing that we can point to is the Los Angeles hotel workers increase, and
idea to raise wages for low-income workers,” Krauskopf continued. “If it has to be done incrementally, then it’s better than it not being done at all.” But Houston maintains that the fast food wage increase represents a threat to his organization. “We offer better benefits than fast food employers, but I’m not convinced that will be enough to keep people,” Houston said. “Thousands of people will be affected by this. Our staff members create incredible relationships with clients who are nonverbal and have multiple disabilities. To disrupt those relationships is horrible.”
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October 14 and November 20, 2015 9:00am - 5:00pm (two-part event) Learn about the management of challenging emotions, advanced skills for severely dysregulated clients, DBTspecific components of therapist support, and potential problems and solutions in teaching DBT. (12 CE hours)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: What It Is and How to Use It with Andrew B. Schmidt, PhD, LCSW; Marcia Kimeldorf, PhD; Joseph Madonia, LCSW-R, CASAC; and Michael Wheaton, PhD
December 7 and 8, 2015 9:00am - 5:00pm (two-day event) Review the nuts and bolts of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approaches and their integration in a clinical setting, and learn the application of CBT in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, depression, substance abuse and transdiagnostic anxiety. (12 CE hours) The Silver School of Social Work is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0012.
UPCOMING WEBINAR The Social Worker in Public Schools with Scott Bloom, MSW, LCSW-R This series of webinars will provide a comprehensive, integrated approach to children’s mental health in order to better address the mental health needs of students. » The School As Client: What Every Social Worker Needs to Know About Working in Schools in the 21st Century (1 CE hour) (Self-Study, originally aired July 14, 2015)
» Who’s Walking Through the Classroom Door: Working with the Clinician’s Construction of the Student (1 CE hour) September 29, 2015 | 5:30 - 6:30pm » The School Social Worker in Action: Emergency, Crisis, and Drama (1 CE hour) October 20, 2015 | 5:30 - 6:30pm Additional self-study webinars available.
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Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
SPOTLIGHT: EDUCATION
THE PRE-K PERIL Providers say city funding isn’t enough to stay afloat By GABE PONCE DE LEÓN
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n the same month he took office, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a bold plan to provide some 73,000 free, full-time, high-quality universal pre-K seats in New York City before the end of the following year. That was in January 2014, when there were 19,483 fulltime seats in the system. Since district schools lacked the capacity to accommodate a ramp-up of that magnitude, community-based organizations, or CBOs, were called upon to perform a critical role in the expanded delivery system. The De-
at $10,000, though many providers are offered less and, under certain circumstances, some receive more. Yessenia Rosario, the executive director of Nicholas Cardell Day Care Center in Inwood, recalls contacting the Education Department when her school’s lease expired and a $3,500 rent increase went into effect – around the same time her insurance rates also rose. Rosario asked the Education Department for an increase on her current funding rate of $9,997 per child, which she claims is insufficient to cover her
ALL THAT I’M TOLD IS, YOU’VE GOT TO MAKE IT WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE partment of Education anticipates that 1,150 CBOs will provide universal pre-K programming in the coming school year. Despite constituting over half of the total universal pre-K sites, many contracted CBOs now claim they are facing distinct challenges in the disrupted prekindergarten landscape emerging out of the Pre-K for All initiative. “CBOs have to pay rent, and many CBOs have other kinds of overhead costs that (Education Department) programs may not, and so the perchild rate may not be completely equitable for CBOs versus non-CBOs,” said Kaplan, senior director of schools and community education at Phipps Houses, which operates universal pre-K sites in the Bronx. The per-child rate the Education Department offers its universal pre-K providers is typically capped
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operating expenses. “All that I’m told is, you’ve got to make it work with what you have,” Rosario said. “So if I’m getting paid a set amount for the next three years, but every year my insurance is going to go up, every year my rent is going to go up, how am I going to pay for those increases if you’re not going to change your rate?” The situation confronting Nicholas Cardell Day Care Center is, according to multiple accounts, not unique. “There are issues around expirations of leases and a lot of the centers remain fiscally unstable,” said Gregory Brender, co-director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, which oversees 38 CBOs. In many cases, the challenge stems, at least in part, from the strain some providers were already under from EarlyLearn, a program run by the city Administration for Children’s
the disparity in teacher salaries and benefits across the early the childhood education system. Last year the city took a step toward narrowing the gap by granting substantial pay increases to lead universal pre-K teachers in CBOs, bring their starting salaries nearly in line with their counterparts with similar credentials at district schools. In July, the administration announced it would offer signing and retention bonuses – of $2,500 and $3,5000, respectively – to CBO teachers. The benefit packages those teachers receive, however, still lag well behind their Education Department counterparts, as does their potential for salary growth. And despite addressing certain salary inequities, the mayor’s initiatives have exacerbated others. Within a given center, for instance, a teacher who works with 3-year-olds may earn almost $10,000 less than a colleague
Services that provides child care and early childhood education services to mostly low-income families. “The implementation of universal full-day prekindergarten was layered on top of the EarlyLearn early childhood system, which was extremely fragile,” said Stephanie Gendell, associate executive director at the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. “Because of numerous issues related to EarlyLearn – including inadequate rates for providers and salaries and benefits for staff – the implementation of expanded prekindergarten created more instability in many instances. While the CBO community stepped up to be critical partners in implementing this priority mayoral initiative, many continue to struggle due to inadequate rates and poor compensation for staff.” One of the most widely reported sources of systematic instability is
VCG GOVERNANCE MATTERS & THE CENTER FOR NONPROFIT STRATEGY & MANAGEMENT Present a Nonprofit Seminar: “Outstanding 2015 Nonprofit Board Leadership: A Conversation With the Winners of the Brooke W. Mahoney Award for Outstanding Board Leadership” Monday, September 21, 2015 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Baruch College Information & Technology Building, Newman Conference Center, 7th Floor, Room 750, 151 East 25th Street (Lexington & 3rd Avenues) New York, NY
The winner and finalists from this year’s Brooke W. Mahoney Award for Outstanding Board Leadership will sit down with Dean David Birdsell of the Baruch College School of Public Affairs (and Chair of VCG-GM) for a conversation about what makes their Boards--and their organizations--successful. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION: David M. LaGreca Executive Director, VCG Governance Matters PANELISTS – Board Leaders of: Transportation Alternatives Global Kids New York Bar Foundation Queens Community House Reach the World
MODERATOR: David S. Birdsell Dean, School of Public Affairs, Baruch College & Chair of the Board of VCG Governance Matters
Cost: $20 VCG non-members, $15 VCG-members, $5 Students with valid I.D., Free for Baruch students with valid student ID RSVP at governancematters.org (event section)
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NYNmedia.com
September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
working with 4-year olds – even if they hold the same credentials. Many CBO teachers, represented by DC 1707, haven’t gotten a new contract since 2006 and, according to the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the directors it represents haven’t received a pay raise in 10 years. “Now the (universal pre-K) teacher’s salary is very far above the contractual base for a CBO director,” said Randi Herman, first vice president of CSA. “There has been no movement to rebalance those scales.” CBO directors claim that the effect of equally credentialed teachers being held to the same quality standards as their Education Department counterparts without receiving commensurate salary and benefits has led to diminished morale and high turnover. “Because of their credentials, (the teachers) almost always end up going to the Department of Education,” said Marcia Lawrence, program director of the BronxWorks Early Childhood Learning Center. There is also evidence that the reported migration from existing CBO programs to district schools is not limited to teachers. Many centers report declining student enrollment in the fee-based EarlyLearn program, which offers pre-K programming to 4-year-olds with extended hours of care. According to a brief prepared by Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, enrollment of 4-year-olds in ACS-run programs dropped from 14,195 to 11,425 between November 2013 and November 2014, though the report acknowledges that factors other than universal pre-K expansion could have impacted the decline. The fact that EarlyLearn is funded on a pay-for-enrollment basis in which providers receive per-child reimbursement can cause budgetary strains when enrollment drops without a corresponding decline in fixed costs, such as salaries and facility-related overhead. In an effort to lessen a portion of the fixed-cost burden, the city announced in June that it would provide reimbursement for allowable expenses, independent of enrollment. An ACS spokesman said the agency plans to implement the policy this fall. To recruit and enroll families in the expanded universal pre-K program,
the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and the Education Department initiated an outreach campaign, staffed by enrollment specialists with experience in political organizing as well as personal ties to particular communities. Among CBO directors, one frequent gripe is that Education Department recruiters have targeted students already enrolled in their programs. “We have had families who have been enrolled in our programs receive calls from the (Education Department) saying, ‘We know that you are at this site, but we have (an Education Department) program that’s
through the application process to find the right program for them. “We are meeting families where they are, and in doing so, we are fulfilling our commitment to provide every family with access to free, full-day, high-quality programs,” the official stated. “Our goal is provide parents with options, in all communities.” Others raised doubts around the motivation underlying the Education Department outreach campaign. “The mayor has made a commitment to put a certain number of kids into a certain number of seats. The political implications of not be-
THERE ARE PROVIDERS WHO HAVE HAD TO TURN DOWN A CONTRACT BECAUSE THE RATE DID NOT WORK three blocks away that you can enroll in and if you go there then your child will continue in that school for kindergarten,’” said Linda Rodriguez, associate executive director of early childhood services at The Child Center of NY. “In communities where it’s very difficult to get in to certain schools, that becomes very enticing to a family.” Numerous providers attest to the challenges of maintaining their enrollment amid that competitive climate. According to Rosario, Education Department staff has persistently recruited from her 3-yearold class. “Even when the family expressed that they wanted to stay where they were, they continued to get recruiting phone calls asking them to consider signing up for P.S. 5 or Washington Heights Academy,” she said. Rosario recalled a recent episode in which one of her classrooms was fully enrolled until an Education Department recruiter contacted the mother of one of her students. “She dropped me like a hot potato,” Rosario said. “I thought I was all set and done; now I have to aggressively go into my wait list.” According to an Education Department official, enrollment specialists have been “counseling” families
In Memory of Fred Scaglione The Anderson Center for Autism community appreciates all that Fred did to support people with disabilities. He will be greatly missed.
ing able to do what he says he’s going to do would be significant, no?” Herman said. Since they are reimbursed on a per-student basis, providers claim that losing enrolled students at the last minute can erode their bottom line. Enrollment uncertainty, however, is not limited to the publicly funded system. Wendy Cole, director of the Maple Street School, a parent cooperative preschool located in Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, believes
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there should be greater collaboration between private providers and the Education Department in certain areas, including coordination of enrollment. “It would be great to know by July what school 4-year-olds are going to, so all of us can make sure that we’re having our schools filled with children,” she said. “In fact, if they could do it more like May or June, that would be great.” Since there might be 115,000120,000 4-year-olds living in New York City, and the current target for universal pre-K enrollment is in the 70,000 range, experts confirmed that the full citywide delivery of pre-K education will remain – even after the Pre-K for All rollout is complete – reliant upon a diverse ecosystem of private providers. “By offering families pre-K options outside of the private-pay model, Pre-K for All is disrupting the pre-K space in New York City and driving competition and raising the bar of quality,” an Education Department official said. In some parts of the city the supply of new universal pre-K slots and demand for them is yet to fully align. Established centers in some neighborhoods worry that new universal pre-K sites will chip away at their enrollment. In certain communities, the current number of universal pre-K seats may exceed demand. Other providers report a scarcity of slots in their service areas and wait lists in the hundreds. Lois Lee, director of the Queens
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From Westchester to Montauk, “We Protect New York” 23
Issue N°5
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
Corona Early Childhood Center, recalled families coming to her on the first day of enrollment and “begging” to stay on her waiting list. “Parents were bringing me acceptance letters and they were sent to JFK, Manhattan, all sorts of places,” she recalled. According to Lee, infrastructure limitations have been the major obstacle thus far to a more balanced distribution of universal pre-K slots. But according to another contracted provider, who also runs a universal pre-K site in Corona, the funding rate the Education Department offers prospective providers could also limit supply. “Last year we were awarded two direct (universal pre-K) contracts – one for Astoria and one in South Jamaica,” said Rodriguez, “but because the cost-per-child rate was too low we had to turn them back. Because they were not self-sufficient, the cost-perchild rate was not enough to be able to pay for the operation of the site.” According to an Education Department official, the city negotiates contracts with CBOs “to ensure they offer free, full-day, high-quality pre-K education.” The official said that the Education Department assesses per-student “costs for vendors based on a detailed analysis around the specific needs and operational expenses each program will incur. These expenses can vary throughout New York City.” Sherry Cleary, the executive director of New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute at CUNY and a member of the mayor’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten Implementation Working Group, noted that the per-child rate of $10,000 offered to universal pre-K providers is “more than I’m aware that anybody else pays for six hours and 20 minutes of school programming for 4-year-olds.” Cleary added that the federal government reimburses child care for poor families at a national average of $5,000 per year for a 10-hour day, for 12 months. “There are providers who have to turn down a contract because the rate
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did not work,” United Neighborhood Houses’ Brender said. “There are also providers who are either using creativity or plain old private fundraising to supplement programs.” Some programs in middle- or upper-income areas have the ability to supplement public funding through fee-for-service programs during non-pre-K hours – which may not be an option in more disadvantaged communities. “We don’t want to put another burden on these parents,” Lee said. Lee says her school struggled with an initial per-child rate of $8,000. Later, the rate was bumped to $9,000. “We can get by,” she said. “That doesn’t mean it’s wonderful.” Lee insisted, however, that providing education to a community in need has to come first. “You have to do the best you can with whatever they give you,” she said. While some providers maintain that the reimbursement they receive is inadequate to cover the full scope of program costs, others say more funding should be deployed toward additional resources – such as increased access to social workers in low-income communities. “There is an algorithm that the (Education Department) uses to factor their rate for each organization, and I think that has contributed to some challenges in the program,” Phipps Houses’ Kaplan said. “We have one site where we get $11,200 per child and we have another site where we get $10,000 per child. That’s a pretty significant difference in perchild funding, and that site that has $11,200 per child is going to have access to different types of resources than the sites that have $10,000 per child.” According to a report by Child Care Aware, the average annual cost of center-based care for a 4-year-old in New York was $12,355 in 2012 – the highest in the country. Some community centers have apparently reached the conclusion that the reimbursement rate offered by EarlyLearn – which is typically higher than the universal pre-K rate,
but also covers extended service – is a better option for their pre-K programs. “Some directors I spoke with actually gave back some of the classrooms that they were awarded with the (Education Department) and went into the ACS, because once they did the math they were actually going to be losing revenue by going the (Education De-
partment) route,” Rosario said. In January, the Campaign for Children, a 150-member coalition of advocates, civic leaders and early childhood providers, released a report that concluded: “the current EarlyLearn rate is insufficient for agencies to be able to provide a high-quality early childhood education to children and to adequately hire and compensate well-trained, qualified staff. The current rate structure leaves many agencies with budget deficits and makes the current system unsustainable.” That report further noted: “EarlyLearn providers have also been essential to the implementation of the full-day prekindergarten expansion for 4-year-olds, as all of the 4-year olds in EarlyLearn programs are also part of the pre-K program. Thus at the same time as the providers have been trying to sustain their program with the EarlyLearn rate, they have also been dealing with the challenges and opportunities presented by the pre-K expansion.” According to Rosario, when her school’s board decided to contract with the Education Department, she told them, “‘You do understand that by getting an Education Department contract you’re going to lose $50,000 from the bottom line?’ And that's a hard thing to swallow. But they did it because everyone else was doing it. But, financially, it wasn’t a good move.” “If you’re the only program in town charging a fee,” she added, “where are parents going to go?”
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NYNmedia.com
September 2015
Issue N°5 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
PERSPECTIVES
DE BLASIO’S POLICIES ARE FAILING BLACK AND HISPANIC STUDENTS By DELLA BR AVE
A
fter the state test scores were released earlier this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio stood up at a press conference and told New Yorkers that “everyone has a share in this success today, and it’s something to be very, very proud of.” I couldn’t help but wonder what success the mayor was talking about. This year’s test results showed that more than 200,000 black and Latino children couldn’t read or do math at grade level – but de Blasio called this “progress.” The total number of black children who passed their math and English assessments actually decreased. The inequality in educational opportunity is widening under de
I never thought that, to years later, educational opportunity for black children in New York City would actually decline, or that white students would be making twice as much progress as black students. That certainly is not what we signed up for. Ending the “Tale of Two Cities” means that de Blasio has to end New York’s Tale of Two School Systems. But since de Blasio took office, we’ve seen plenty of big announcements but not enough results. The families that I know haven’t seen the bold change that was promised; we have seen more of the same. What makes this so frustrating is that we know what works in our schools. New York City’s best schools are proving that any child can succeed. So then why is it that the mayor has fought to limit school choice? Why is he trying to keep us out of the very schools that we know will make a difference for our kids? only getting worse. These test scores aren’t simply a jumble of numbers to me. My son is one of those 200,000 children stuck in a school that is failing him. He goes to a failing district school where his teachers barely pay attention to him. I only hear from his school when they’re calling about a problem. He comes home with little or no homework. I know this school is not giving my son theresources he is entitled to as a student in New York. I know what another year in a failing school means for him – the stakes are too high. As a black male in today’s society, the odds are stacked against him. His future will
ENDING THE ‘TALE OF T WO CITIES’ MEANS THAT DE BLASIO HAS TO END NEW YORK’S TALE OF T WO SCHOOL SYSTEMS Blasio. By trapping kids in failing public schools with expensive, unproven experiments like “Renewal” schools, and opposing efforts to give low-income families of color the right to choose better schools, like quality charter options, the mayor is doing little to bridge the gap between his“Tale of Two Cities.” At his press conference, the mayor ignored the lack of true progress for black and Hispanic students so that he could sell his version of whatprogress looks like. His vision of “success” is apparently a divided school system where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is NYNmedia.com
If de Blasio wants to talk about “progress” that actually speaks to black New Yorkers, he has to stop ignoring the educational crises that are hurting black children in this city. He must find a way to give parents an option to go to a good school that doesn't involve wasting three critical years of students’ lives in an ill-fated attempt to turn persistently failing schools around. And he must stop opposing charter schools – which most parents in my neighborhood desperately want access to. It’s time for the mayor to live up to the promises he made to New Yorkers. Parents like me cannot afford to wait any longer. Della Brave is a parent of two public school students in Harlem. This op-ed originally appeared on www. CityandStateNY.com.
To our dear friend
Fred Scaglione whose friendship, support and dedication to the nonprofit world made a lasting difference for all of us. The Board and STaff of JewiSh Child Care aSSoCiaTion
be determined by whether or not he can get access to a quality school. Here’s what makes me angry: In today’s New York, the chances of that are still slim to none. I know I’m not the only parent who feels this way. As I thought more about what this means for my neighbors in Harlem, I couldn’t help but think about how hopeful many of us were when de Blasio was elected. I remember when he promised to end income inequality in New York. This promise inspired many black New Yorkers during his campaign, including me, to cast a vote for him.
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Issue N°2
September 2015 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
PERSPECTIVES
THE LANGUAGE OF CODE Coding should fulfill the language requirement in public schools By RESHMA SAUJANI and RICHARD K AHAN
A
t a time when the public and private sectors are struggling to create jobs, the technology sector is struggling to fill innumerable open positions. Jobs in computing fields are among the highest paying and fastest growing, and yet our current workforce is not equipped to fill them. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that by 2020, there will be 1.4 million new computer science jobs, but only 400,000 computer science students. It’s time our education system prioritizes the skills these jobs demand in a scalable way. At Girls Who Code and Urban Assembly, we’ve dedicated our missions to addressing these gaps in the market by preparing the next generation with the skills they’ll need to pursue 21st-century opportunities. Thus far, we’re making great strides. Girls Who Code will have taught computer science to more than 10,000 girls by
26
the end of 2015 between our Summer Immersion and Clubs programs. Urban Assembly is a leader in creating next-generation career and technical education schools that introduce students to the most in-demand skills in the workforce. This year, for example, Urban Assembly opened the Maker Academy in New York City, to steep students in coding, 3-D printing and other skills that will prepare them for computer science programs and jobs. These are important steps. But it's simply not efficient to think we can address this problem school by school, program by program. One easy yet impactful way our school systems have historically addressed these challenges is through language acquisition. Back in the 1990s, when we began to see major economic, political and cultural shifts in the global marketplace, schools across the country began expanding their Japanese language offerings. In the 2000s, Mandarin
has become the language of choice for students seeking a leg up in the job market. Imagine how much skill building our schools could achieve if the state allowed coding to fulfill the language requirement. For starters, it makes good educational sense. Coding builds on the problem-solving and critical-thinking skills inherent in the new the Common Core state standards. It requires students to take a challenge, break it down into parts, understand the relationships between those parts, pose a solution, and then test it to see if it works. Coding makes problem-solving visible. It also prepares students for the computer science Advanced Placement exam that would allow them to enter college with credits in a STEM field. Allowing coding to fulfill the language requirement would also accomplish several other important goals. It would raise awareness among many more families – and
their children – about the importance of computer science skills for long-term success; it would expand coding to many more students throughout the New York City school system; and it would create demand for more teachers to learn these skills and become certified in this language. Unless there is demand, after all, it's hard to increase supply. For our students, learning those skills today translates into a pathway to the jobs and the middle class of tomorrow. Reshma Saujani is founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sectors. Richard Kahan is founder and CEO of Urban Assembly, a network of 21 small high schools in New York City. This op-ed originally appeared on www. CityandStateNY.com.
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Issue N°5
September 2015
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. Contact: Lissa Blake LBlake@NYNmedia.com
CAREERS
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MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
MANAGER OF ADMINISTRATION
SUBSTANCE ABUSE COUNSELOR
Award winning youth development program seeking dynamic individual to: oversee and manage the administrative team, budget, vendors, procurement, and more; develop and implement multiple organizational systems; collaborate with and support team members to improve administrative functions and support our mission. Qualifications: BA, 2-4 years experience, 1 year management experience, strong computer skills with a focus on Microsoft Excel, Spanish language a plus.
Counselor will conduct assessments and individual, family, and group counseling sessions; maintain documentation of each treatment session and reports for referrals; provide emergency coverage and crisis intervention; conduct random drug tests on all clients; plan long-range goals. Hours: 8:30 - 4:30. Benefits: medical, dental, 401K, PTO. Qualifications: LMSW, LCSW, LMHC, min. 1 year treatment experience; valid NYS driver’s license; computer proficiency. Submit resume, cover letter, and salary requirements.
Contact: Grace Lee, glee@harlemrbi.org
Contact: Employment@EACinc.org
YOUTH PROGRAM ASSOCIATE Associate will help develop support programs for visually impaired youth and their families, including direct services, after school programs, pre-vocational skills and work training. Responsibilities: coordinate with departments, manage external relationships, publically represent VISIONS, provide logistical and program support, track relevant legislation, and more. Qualifications: BA in related field, people-person, NYS Drivers License, Spanish fluency a plus, criminal background check agreement. Contact: www.visionsvcb.org
Nurse will oversee the health care needs of all students at the school. Decisions and responsibility for the care of the students are met by the nurse in consultation with other ancillary providers and clinicians as needed. Will delegate assignments, provide direct care, maintain documentation, attend staff meetings, and more. Qualifications: min. 5 years experience preferred; experience working with children/adolescents; ability to multitask.
The non-profit mental health agency is growing. Job openings: - LPN P/T - Case Manager F/T - Community Residence Administrator F/T - Adult Home Administrator F/T - Maintenance F/T and P/T Execllent benefits (if applicable) Contact: www.mercyhaven.org
CONTRACT ANALYST-FINANCE Will prepare and monitor contract expenditure reporting and assist in recognizing budget spending and modification needs. Major duties include preparing monthly billing/expenditure reports, variance analysis, annual budgets; tracking budget modifications, supporting program staff to properly manage spending. Requirements: BA in accounting or HS diploma with 2+ yrs. relevant experience; min. 1-2 years experience with Social Service Agency preferred; MIP or Fund Easy preferred; computer skills with focus on Excel; deadline-driven and strong communicator; commitment to the organization’s mission. Contact: http://www.goodshepherds.org
Contact: HR@LaSalle-school.org
DIRECTOR OF REGISTRATION AND INSPECTION Will supervise registration and inspection activities in accordance with terms and conditions specified in contract agreement, including reporting, data management, and program accountability to necessary agencies. Responsibilities: directly supervise staff, complete and renew applications, ensure proper completion of inspections, perform quality control checks, and more. Qualifications: BA in education or related field; 5 yrs. program experience with child care preferred; 5 yrs. supervisory/ managerial experience; experience working in human services field; computer proficiency, travel and valid driver’s license/car as needed. Contact: www.childcaresuffolk.org
VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Will provide leadership, direction and coordination for all institutional advancement, fundraising, alumni/parent relations, external relations, communications, publications and events. Requirements: BA; proven institutional strategy with min. 10 yrs. of successful management/development; knowledge of NY philanthropy; successful record of fundraising and managing campaigns; experience in leading volunteers and staff; knowledge of mental health/social service field. Submit cover letter and resume. Contact: Bryan Murphy, andrusjobs@ jdam.org
DIRECTOR OF NURSING Supervises and instructs all staff members who provide health-related care; participates in counseling and teaching of consumers, students and their families; assists in developing programs, policies and procedures; ensure proper documentation tracking system; and more. Requirements: certification by NYS DOE as RN; 1 yr. experience in nursing or nusring administration field. Contact: Apply at www.NYNcareers.com
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REGISTERED NURSE, PART TIME
MULTIPLE OPENINGS
MULTIPLE OPENINGS QSAC provides Autism services. Job openings: • Direct Support Professionals FT/PT • Special Education Teachers FT/PT • NYS Certified Teaching Assistants FT • Registered Nurses FT • After School Therapy Assistants PT Submit resume and cover letter. Contact: Recruiter@QSAC.com
ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Will analyze asset, liability, revenue and expense accounts and assist in preparing balance sheet and profit/loss analysis; perform month-end closing entries; review staff work for accuracy and completeness; assist in year end analyses for external audit firm. Requrements: BA in accounting or business, CPA candidate preferred; 5-7 years experience. Contact: Apply at www.NYNcareers.com
CLINICAL SUPERVISOR & PROGRAM DIRECTORS Comunilife is seeking clinical supervisors for residencies in Queens and the Bronx and program directors for sites in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Qualifications: master’s degree in social work with certification or master’s in clinical psychology; 3 years post-grad clinical mental health experience; bilingual in Spanish/English is a plus; experience with HIV/AIDS or substance abuse populations preferred. Contact: Please email resume with cover letter and position(s) of interest to: recruitment@comunilife.org or apply online at: www.comunilife.org/careers.
NYNmedia.com
Issue N°5
September 2015
EVENTS
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MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS
SEPT 17
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NONPROFIT MARKETING CONFERENCE
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OCT 4
9:00 AM
BROOKLYN WALK TO END ALZHEIMERS
Coney Island Brooklyn Walk
The NYC Alzheimer’s Association Chapter is recruiting walkers, supporters and volunteers for its 7th annual Walk to End Alzheimers. The two mile walk is expected to raise $175,000 for the vital programs and services the organization provides. A special “Memory Wall” will be constructed on the boardwalk where participants can post mementos, messages or photos of someone in their lives they have cared for or who is affected by Alzheimer’s. Info: www.alznyc.org/brooklynwalk
DEC 10
8:00 AM – 5:00PM
NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE New York Nonprofit Media New York, NY NYN continues its conference series this December with its technology conference (TECHCON). The full day event will feature tech leaders who will inform nonprofit executives and staffers what free tools to use, how to use tech to enhance your message, the importance of backup and disaster recovery systems, and more. Info: Lissa Blake, LBlake@NYNmedia.com
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