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City & State New York has recognized Melanie Hartzog, The Foundling’s President & CEO, in their 2023 Power of Diversity: Black 100 list. This annual list highlights the elected officials, business executives, labor chiefs, community advocates and other trailblazers in New York who are writing the next chapter of Black life in America.

As City & State notes, “I had run a nonprofit before,” Hartzog said last spring about her new role, “but the scale of The Foundling was a new challenge, and it really got me energized.”

Read more at City & State New York

Camp Felix, our overnight summer camp, is a magical place. For the children in our programs, the streets of New York City are often all they know – there often isn’t the opportunity to experience nature, much less spend a week in the woods at camp. Many are growing up in difficult circumstances – and lack the chance to just relax and be a kid.

Camp Felix, which we’ve operated in partnership with the Felix Organization since 2006, provides children and adolescents in the child welfare system with a rewarding overnight camp experience. Running in August for one-week sessions, our participants have the chance to attend a summer camp with their peers, make memories, learn new skills, explore new surroundings, and build self-confidence. Our current location – located in Sandyston, NJ – features swimming, boating, fishing, a ropes course, and more!

Like all of The Foundling’s programs and services, Camp Felix seeks to build community and forge support systems for those we serve. Campers and counselors form strong bonds that are reinforced through camp reunions and repeat visits – providing the children we serve with the confidence to reach for their dreams.


Meet our Camp Felix Campers

Meet Kenneth, a former Camp Felix counselor


Your support is essential to this work. Your gift this holiday season will allow us to continue bringing camp experiences and other essential programs to New York children and families.

For participants at The Foundling, art can be a lifeline – it provides tools for self-expression, an accessible way to work through trauma, and a means of contextualizing one’s experiences. Many of the people we serve at The Foundling come to us feeling voiceless – from children in foster care struggling to cope with complex situations, to adults with developmental disabilities that face innate barriers to sharing their viewpoints – but through art, they find and showcase their strength.

Art is used to heal minds and souls across our programs – here are just a few of the ways:


Learn more about our Fontana Center’s Artist Collective

Watch Haven Kids Rock perform ‘Here Today, Gone Tomorrow’


We can’t do this vital work without your help. Your gift this holiday season brings art and other essential programs to more children, adults, and families across our community.

In a new brief focusing on 5 exemplary NY-based organizations, Center for Health Care Strategies profiled our Home of Integrated Behavioral Health and its efforts promoting health equity and culturally competent care.

Read more on Center for Health Care Strategies

Reïna Batrony, our Vice President of Community-Based and Education Strategies, was honored in City & State’s 2022 Responsible 100! This list recognizes New York business, government, nonprofit and advocacy leaders who embody the values of social responsibility in their work.

As Reïna states, “Social responsibility means long-term viability and sustainability that benefits society. It guides individuals’ and organizations’ responsibility to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to build toward independence.”

Read more on City & State

Remember the excitement of moving out on your own? Many New Yorkers may never get the opportunity – but they will now thanks to you and thanks to The Foundling. While those growing up without support systems or with developmental disabilities may dream of having their own home, they often struggle to find clear pathways to achieve that goal.

Today, residents in our Supportive Housing programs are seeing their dreams of independence come true. Vital Brookdale, our first supportive housing complex, provides purpose-built apartments and on-site guidance for young people aging out of foster care and adults with developmental disabilities: two groups that often struggle to secure and maintain housing.

In the videos below, see the benefits of this unique approach!


Meet Anthony, one of Vital Brookdale’s new residents

Meet our Supportive Housing team: The Foundling’s ‘Dreammakers’


The Foundling is committed to providing opportunities like this for our community – but we can only do it with your help. Your gift this holiday season will allow more people like Anthony to reach their full potential.

 

In an op-ed published in NYN Media, Dr. Mel Schneiderman, Senior VP of the Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection, writes about how New York’s corporal punishment ban is crucial to kids’ mental health.

“As pandemic-related disruptive behaviors continue in schools, mental health supports are the answer,” writes Dr. Schneiderman.

Read more at NYN Media

Pix 11 recently reported on diet culture, and how the holiday season often brings out mixed messages regarding food – which can be harmful to children and teenagers.  Dr. Ruth Gerson, our Senior Vice President of Mental Health Services, made an appearance to provide insight on the impact this could have on developing minds – and what parents should do to promote a healthy relationship with food during this time of year.

Watch the video:

Read more on Pix 11

In a recent op-ed for The Hill, Shannon Ghramm-Smith – our Senior Vice President of Child Welfare and Behavioral Health – writes on the benefits of kinship foster care. Kinship care, where a family member serves as a foster parent,  often results in much better outcomes for children and families. While it’s underutilized and often inaccessible, Ghramm-Smith argues that Congress and state legislators should work to change this.

Read more at The Hill

 

Pix 11 News reported on the opening of Vital Brookdale, our newest supportive housing complex. Watch the video report and meet Anthony McQueen, one of our residents.

Watch the video:

Read more on Pix 11

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