Patch reports on The Foundling’s recent Fall Fête. The event hosted over 400 guests at its Fall Fête 2024 on Wednesday at Cipriani 25 Broadway in Manhattan, and raised more than $825,000, which will go to support The Foundling’s 40 programs spanning education, child welfare, community health and behavioral health, juvenile and criminal justice, and support for people with disabilities.
Melanie Hartzog, The Foundling’s President & CEO, has been named to Crain’s New York Notable Black Leaders 2024 list, which celebrates Black New Yorkers’ success and advancement, spanning industries from law and finance to nonprofits and the arts.
“As president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit The New York Foundling, Melanie Hartzog has overseen the transition to a “one front door” approach that helps families in need of foster care, mental health, education, housing or juvenile justice services access the full range of evidence-based programs provided by the organization.”
In a news report in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, NY1 Noticias interviews Delila Nadal, director of our Staten Island Community Partnership, and reports on the program’s weekly Free Market, which provides food and household goods for over 80 families on Staten Island’s North Shore each week.
“When I was a child, my family and I used to use food pantries and it was a horrible thing because they would throw you a box, a bag and that was it. But in this food pantry it is a little different because it is a personalized attention that each person receives,” she explains.
The Imprint reports on “The Reckoning: Transforming Systems to Achieve Family Justice and Integrity,” an initiative headed by The New York Foundling and other partner organizations, which has held gatherings over the past year dedicated to discussing how child welfare organizations can reduce the harm and trauma that the foster care system has caused for families, particularly those in Black and Brown communities.
“Reflecting a significant shift in the social services field, the discussions have focused less on how to remove kids quickly from homes where parents are accused of abuse and neglect, and more on how to “narrow the front door” to foster care. More than 600 social workers, nonprofit executives and staff, legal experts and advocates for parents’ rights have joined the hours-long convenings that began in March,” writes The Imprint.
“We haven’t always gotten it right,” Melanie Hartzog, CEO of The New York Foundling said on stage at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. “But now there’s an opportunity for us to build on that urgency, to really think about a different way of looking at what we call foster care.”
“Delila Nadal says she never stops working – from picking up phone calls to unloading food from trucks and unboxing it – because she says her work is imperative to a hungry community. Nadal is the director of the Staten Island Community Partnership, a program under The New York Foundling that provides social services to anyone struggling,” shares NY1.
In a news report in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, NY1 interviews Delila and reports on our Staten Island Community Partnership’s weekly Free Market, which provides food and household goods for over 80 families on Staten Island’s North Shore each week.
Women We Admire named Jessica Nauiokas, Executive Director & Co-Founder of our Mott Haven Academy Charter School, one of their Top Women Leaders of 2024. The list highlights accomplished professionals who “have not only risen to the challenges of leadership but have redefined what it means to succeed in The Empire State.”
As they write, ” In the absence of traditional public schools that could fully respond to the unique needs of child welfare-involved youth, Haven Academy partnered with The New York Foundling in 2008 to become the first effort of its kind in the country. Haven Academy has become a unique and nationally recognized model, designed to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of a student population that has experienced significant trauma.”
The independent, non-profit publication The Imprint featured The New York Foundling’s dedication to supportive housing, including youth transitioning out of the foster care system and into transitional housing or independent living.
They note our programs as, “[…] a stand-out, gleaming alternative for youth aging out of foster care — providing not only otherwise unaffordable amenities, but a place to call home, alongside on-site social services.”
Our CEO & President Melanie Hartzog, two of our participants, and Bonnie Langer who oversees education and housing services at The Foundling spoke with the reporter. They shared their experiences with the individualized and supportive programs and services developed at The Foundling.
“We’re able to provide the type of support that young people need and deserve,” Melanie Hartzog, The New York Foundling CEO & President.
Bonnie Langer focused on the importance of retention and on-site case managers, “By expanding those opportunities, we’ve really been able to give youth a larger voice in making those decisions.”
“New York Foundling and residents of Vital Brookdale in Brownsville celebrated the unveiling of a new mural titled “Colors of My City” by muralist Layqa Nuna Yawar on Aug. 23,” reports Brooklyn Paper. Read the full story, which features quotes from Foundling staff, the mural artist, and Vital Brookdale residents who are depicted in the artwork
Read more at Brooklyn Paper
Pix 11 reported on our new mural, “Colors of My City,” located on the side of Brookdale Hospital Medical Center. This artwork, created by artist Layqa Nuna Yawar, is a tribute to the local community, and features many of the residents that reside in our Vital Brookdale supportive housing complex. “It makes me feel good. I was happy. I was crying. I was excited,” says Patricia – one of our participants who is depicted.
NYN Media reports on the opening of our mural at Vital Brookdale, our supportive housing complex, in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
“You got to put yourself back here a year ago when it was just a blank wall, and now it feels like there’s something vibrant, it feels like there’s something that reflects the neighborhood and is also aspirational in some ways,” says Dante DeBlasio, who worked as project manager for the project.