Since 1982, The Maria Lucadamo Crisis Nursery and Family Center of The New York Foundling has been providing New York City parents and caregivers in crisis a safe, non-threatening place for their children while they get the help they need. We are a free, voluntary service located at The Foundling’s New York City Headquarters.

While we care for children in a nurturing environment, our skilled staff will provide parents with the following:
- counseling
- case planning
- linkages to community-based support services
- practical items such as diapers, formula and emergency cash for food and aftercare.

Learn how The Foundling’s Crisis Nursery can help you

In addition to providing a safe haven, The Crisis Nursery runs a 24-hour, 7 day a week Parent Helpline. Parents can call the Helpline and receive crisis counseling and intervention, parenting support, referrals and the information they need to ensure they can properly care for themselves and for their children.

New York Foundling Parent Helpline 1-888-435-7553

The Foundling is a leader in developing services addressing the unmet needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, all tailored to prevent foster care placement for Deaf children and children of Deaf parents. As New York City's only ACS-funded prevention program serving this population, our ongoing, extended services include:
- Individual/family counseling
- Career and budget planning
- Individualized parenting and home management skills training
- Advocacy skills enrichment so parents may advocate for themselves and on behalf of their children with school officials, health care providers, etc.
- Housing and public assistance advocacy

To learn more about this program, please call 212-206-4111 (TTY 212-463-0979 or VP 866-954-9869) or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Mott Haven Leadership Program was developed in an effort to counteract the increasing number of gangs the young men were joining and the poor academic performance witnessed in the Mott Haven community. Since its inception in 1999, the Mott Haven Leadership Program, a component of Mott Haven’s General Preventive Services, has worked with over 1,000 teenage boys, ages 8 to 17, and recently young girls, with the introduction of a Girls Leadership Program. Our goal is to provide these young men and women with information and skills that will motivate them to improve their academic performance and help them make the best choices when in vulnerable situations.
Using educational trips, recreational activities and individual tutoring, the program helps participants learn to:
- value education
- control their own behavior
- resist peer pressure
- resolve conflicts without violence

The Leadership Program has been highly successful in targeting high-risk youth and offering positive alternatives to the negative behaviors that result in violence, substance abuse, school failure and teen pregnancy. Since its inception, there have been many success stories that reflect the potential of young people in the Mott Haven community.

Located at our North Manhattan site, The Pathway Center for Chemical Dependency strives to empower adults who have substance abuse issues with the awareness, tools and motivation to:
- overcome their chemical dependency
- change their self-destructive ways
- work toward a brighter, more productive future for themselves and their families

The Center is a 6-9 month outpatient treatment program licensed by the NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS.) The program provides an array of services including:
- comprehensive treatment for chemical dependency
- individual and group counseling
- advocacy and referrals to community-based providers for services such as medical care, housing and public assistance
- case management
- vocational/educational support and training
- on-site nursery

In the Program, a team of Foundling professionals works with each client to prepare an individualized treatment plan, which, in addition to the services listed above, may include:
- psychotherapy
- referrals to inpatient rehabilitation or detox facilities
- introductions to Twelve Step Recovery Programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous

Individuals may be referred to the Program by hospitals and community providers. Self-referrals are accepted.

The Pathway Center for Chemical Dependency
New York Foundling
2090 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, 7th Fl
New York, NY 10027
718-772-0292

The Mott Haven section of the Bronx is one of the poorest Congressional Districts in the country. Families living in the community have multiple, complex needs and The Foundling has been providing services to them for more than 40 years through the Mott Haven Prevention Program.

The goal of the Mott Haven Prevention Program is to stabilize families living in high-risk situations and avoid foster care placement for their children. Foundling staff works closely with all members of the family to identify their needs and develop a comprehensive plan of neighborhood-based services by which to address them. Services include:
- housing
- day care
- education
- health care
- foster care
- substance abuse treatment
- referrals to other community-based resources

Through counseling, advocacy and referrals, we work to strengthen these families and ease the situations that put them at risk.

Most families in the Program are referred by New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), however The Foundling welcomes clients who walk in, call in, or who are referred from schools. The Program serves families who live primarily in Community Districts 1,2 and 4, but accepts referrals from all other CDs in the Bronx.

New York Foundling
Mott Haven Prevention Program
364 E. 151st St
Bronx, NY 10455
718-993-2600

Healthy Families Staten Island is a free, voluntary home visiting program designed to help parents meet the challenges of parenting and to ensure the healthy development of their children through a positive, strength based approach. The program offers expectant and new parents ongoing intensive, weekly home visiting services beginning in the prenatal months or shortly after the birth of the child.

Services include:
- providing comprehensive information to enhance parents’ knowledge and skills, including the areas of child development, bonding, parent-child interaction and positive discipline
- empowering the parent(s) through education and job training
- linking the family to a medical home in the community and promote well baby visits and immunizations as outlined by the time schedule set by the Department of Health

For eligibility criteria or to make a referral, please call 718-303-8967.

Click here to download a program brochure.

The Foundling offers individual and group day care programs that help low-income families achieve financial independence and peace of mind by providing safe, nurturing child care and educational activities in their communities.

Family Day Care Program

For more than 40 years, The New York Foundling Family Day Care Program has been providing high quality, affordable family day care services to families and children in the Bronx and Manhattan.  More than 75 trained and licensed Family Day Care Providers offer safe, culturally sensitive, in-home day and after school supervision, integrated with educational activities.  They provide a comfortable family-like setting to hundreds of children in the community and convenience and peace of mind to their working parents. The services are offered on a sliding fee scale and are supported by subsidies from New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS).

If you are a parent or caregiver, click here to learn more about our Family Day Care Program and whether your family is eligible to participate.

If you are interested in becoming a provider, click here.

Seton Day Care and Preschool

Located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Seton Day Care and Preschool, a Montessori-based facility serving 75 children, is a full-time day care program for children aged two months to 36 months. Children are separated into four small groups according to their age range, in order to provide an educational program that can best serve their developing cognitive and social/emotional abilities. The children spend the day in our bright, cheerful, and well-maintained home base rooms under the supervision of professionally trained and caring staff in an environment that is safe, encouraging, and respectful of their individual characteristics. The length of each child’s day is based on the parent’s work schedules. As a year-round facility, applications and admission to Seton may be made at anytime during the year.

Seton Pre-School’s primary commitment is to provide each child with a supportive and educational all-day learning environment. Home-base rooms are carefully ordered with a wide variety of materials, and children are encouraged to make their own choices and discoveries in order to develop confidence and skill in independent learning. Important in the curriculum is the growth of the child’s social and emotional life, both as an individual as well as in being a member of a group. Children are provided with every opportunity to develop to their fullest potential.

Applications and admission to the Pre-School may be made at anytime during the year. For more information, please email us ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or call 212-369-9626.

Head Start is a program of the US Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. In 1973, The Foundling established a Head Start preschool program in Puerto Rico to serve the island's isolated, rural areas and low-income urban neighborhoods. Today, the Program serves more than 1,100 children and their families. Now used as a model for other agencies, Head Start offers parents job training and, whenever possible, employment. Many parents who begin working as assistant teachers in our program go on to receive academic credentials as fully certified teachers.

For more information, call 787-753-1321 or visit www.nyfpr.org.