 We turn around the most at-risk adolescents with proven interventions. |
Evidence
Results are in from the 2010 evaluation of our crisis intervention program (Functional Family Therapy) that provides six months of intensive treatment to families and their teens who are at risk of foster care placement and juvenile detention. Our independent researcher studied 100 cases completed between 2009 and 2010. All of the participants arrived with high levels of "risk factors" that were measured at the start. These included serious parent-child conflict, noncompliance with rules, academic failure, criminal involvement, drug abuse, and mental illness. In short, a very challenging population.
We are proud to say that at the end of the program, the mean number of total risk factors decreased 61 percent. Even more amazing is that after treatment ended, families continued to improve their functioning so that by six months after treatment, there was a total 84 percent decrease in risk behaviors from where the youth had begun. We applaud and thank our staff, as well as The Robin Hood Foundation, which generously funds this project.
Raffle Round Up
On a freezing night last March, hundreds of supporters brought warmth and celebration to The Child Center’s annual gala at Terrace on the Park in Flushing. We are tremendously grateful to all who participated and helped raise money for our vital services to children. And a million thanks to the dinner dance committee that made it happen. It was a beautiful and successful evening, raising nearly $250,000.
$14,000 of the total came from this year’s closely watched raffle contest. The prize was a for a one-week trip to Rome for two. At $100 a ticket, a lot of people were willing to dream, while helping our cause at the same time.
And the winning number was? Ticket 00116, held by Bethanne DeMatteis and her husband Keith. "We were shocked," said Bethanne. "We never thought we’d win. We only did it because it’s a good cause. We wanted to help out." They will travel Rome in October and celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary at the same time. Congratulations!
A Lasting Legacy
 The generous Pearl and Ira Meyer. |
Pearl and Ira Meyer were an extraordinary couple, not only in their professional and personal lives, but in their compassion and generosity for disadvantaged children. Ira served on The Child Center’s board for nearly 20 years. After his passing, Pearl established our Ira Meyer Center for Children in his honor to provide crisis intervention for thousands of children with serious emotional issues. Pearl and Ira were married 46 years. Pearl continued to maintain a strong presence in our critical work – and the legacy Ira had established. She recently passed away and generously named The Child Center as one of the beneficiaries of her estate. Within the next few months, to honor their memory and commitment to our agency, The Child Center will rename and rededicate the center as The Pearl and Ira Meyer Children's Center. Those who knew them are confident that they would be delighted to be joined at The Center as they were in life.
The Child Center is a Major Employer of Youth
Though The Child Center is famous for helping at-risk children, few people know that we also are an employer of more than 400 part-time young adults. These are primarily high school and college students who come to us for their first paid jobs and resume building experiences. They work in our summer, after school, and peer leadership programs as activity specialists, instructors, tutors, group leaders, and some even become program directors. Each young employee receives training and mentoring.
 Daniel Valverde wiorking with children at PS 56. |
"I can work with any grade," said Daniel Valverde, age 20, "but my personality clicks best with the little kids. If they cry or feel uncomfortable, I am able to get them to communicate. I can get the shy ones to open up and join in with the other kids."
For the last four years, Daniel has been a youth worker at our PS 56 after-school program where he provides homework help and leads activities for kindergarteners and first graders. "Working here has made me more responsible and mature," he said.
"We think of our centers as being a place of opportunity for the local neighborhood," said Deep Ghosh, director of The Child Center’s Youth Development programs for more than a decade. "We try to groom our youth workers to become mentors and leaders to their younger peers, who usually come from the same neighborhoods and share many of the same experiences. It's a great opportunity to set a good example and to give back."
Many of our youth staff go on to become the social workers, teachers, and psychologists of tomorrow. Daniel recently declared an elementary education major at Queens College. As he explained it, "Because of this job, I want a career working with kids."
The Summer Time Advantage
 Summer is a time to learn, be outside, and have fun. |
The Child Center will provide fun and enrichment this summer at our camps throughout Queens. At eight locations, 1,400 kids will engage in lots of learning and doing, through creative projects, physical activities, social connections, and excursions to places like museums and baseball games.
"Our summer camps are wonderful for parents because they can go to work knowing that their children are in a safe environment with caring adults," said Nicholas Ferriera, assistant director of The Child Center’s Youth Development programs.
"Doing theme-based activities in the arts, recreation, and academic enrichment helps prevent summer learning loss," said Nicholas. "With field trips, our kids also get to explore their neighborhoods and the rich offerings of our city. We keep them learning. Plus they get to be with their friends and have a good time."
Facts:
- All young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer.
- Most students lose about two months of grade-level in math computation skills. Low-income students lose more than two months in reading achievement.
- More than half of the achievement gap faced by low-income students can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities. As a result, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college.
Source: National Summer Learning Association.
Child Center In The NY Daily News
We are proud to tell you that our work with this young man is featured in The Daily News today. Please read the story. Christopher recently met with the NYC mayor to tell him about how our program turned his life around.
There are specific moments when you have the chance to transform the whole course of a child's life. That's when we met 17-year-old Christopher. He was a good kid, but he'd gotten in with the wrong crowd. He'd been arrested and sent to juvenile detention. A judge ordered him and his family attend our Juvenile Justice therapy program.
Our therapist worked intensively with each member of Christopher's family, providing individual and group therapy. After six months, Christopher was getting great grades, excelling in sports, and acting as a role model for his younger brothers. Now, a year later, he's succeeding at his studies in college.
Without us, his next stop would have been Riker's Island. This story is proof that we CAN all make a difference, and that hope is real. Each day we are saving children's lives.
Playground in a Day
In an inspiring partnership, 240 volunteers joined forces on October 21 to transform an abandoned loading dock into a brightly colored playground at TheChild Center’s South Jamaica Clinic. This unique “community-build” project was organized by KaBOOM!--a national non-profit dedicated to “saving play” for children. Warner Music Group provided generous funding. It was an exuberant day as our photos show. (Photos by Michelle Kawka and Jan Ledbetter.) The new space was built from scratch in less than eight hours thanks to volunteers from Warner Music Group KaBOOM!, Swiss Re, The Child Center, and the local community.
The playground will be available to the 600 at-risk children who receive counseling, after-school tutoring, and special programs at this location.
“You have no idea what you’ve done for this entire community,” said NY State Senator Malcolm Smith at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. You’ve helped turn this neighborhood around.”
“We are so grateful,” said Sandra Hagan, executive director of The Child Center of NY. "For twenty years, it’s been my dream to have a playground here. And now this dream has come true.”
You can see the amazing transformation here.
Proving Our Worth
In today’s nonprofit world, the term “outcomes” has become a mantra. And why shouldn’t it be? Funders want to be sure they are getting a good return on their investment. In other words, we need to prove, with metrics and data, that our work makes children’s lives better
That’s why we are in the exciting process of gathering more results and evaluations. Each of the last two years, we’ve partnered with researchers from The Hunter College School of Social Work to do a formal evaluation of one of our programs. This year it was our “Functional Family Therapy (FFT), which is funded by The Robin Hood Foundation and NYC’s Children’s Services. With FFT we provide an intensive four- to five-month treatment for youth, ages 12 to 18 who have very serious behavior problems, such as violent acting out, criminal activity, and substance abuse.
The approach is “strengths based” engaging and motivating troubled youth and their families to achieve behavior change. Parents are deeply involved.
The results: Significant improvements in the youths’ behavior, their emotional health, family relationships, and school attendance. Even better: these improvements were sustained six months later according to follow up calls.
What does it mean? The Child Center is using a successful evidenced-based therapy that really works to improve the lives of high-risk youth.
After-School Programs Saved
Last January, the mayor proposed slashing 33 of the city’s out-of-school-time programs. More than half were in Queens, including two after-school programs operated by The Child Center. Thousands of families were distraught. After months of intense budget negotiations, the City Council restored this funding.
This September, The Child Center launched 12 after-school programs that will provide more than 1,800 children with safe and enriching activities, over the coming 2010-2011 school year.
To find out more about our after-school programs and why they matter so very much, read this article featuring our work.
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Four New After School Programs Studies have shown that children who attend after school programs are more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to become teenage parents, use drugs and commit crimes. The Child Center began this academic year by opening four new after school programs--in Flushing at JHS 185, Bayside at PS 188, South Jamaica at PS 223 and Richmond Hill at PS 56, areas where the need is profound and services still inadequate. |
Expanded Learning Time The Child Center has long been committed to creating and testing new models for after school learning, and has worked side by side with TASC for ten years to implement its model of quality after school programming. |
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ELT is different from the traditional after-school model in that it leaves ultimate governance in the hands of the principal. By doing this it is hoped that the program will mesh more closely with the school day to improve the skills of struggling students while still providing a rich array of cultural, artistic, creative and recreational activities. The Child Center’s ability to partner with schools to create high-performing after school programs was recently recognized when The Child Center was selected to be one of three recipients of the Partnership with a Purpose Award. |
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Child Center Opens First Transfer High School The Child Center of NY was chosen to partner with the Department of Education (DOE) in one of the first Diploma Plus High Schools in the New York metro area. It opened in September of last year. Transfer High Schools serve students who are at risk of dropping out or never accumulating enough credits to graduate from a traditional high school. The Child Center conducted extensive outreach in the community to find the 150 youth |
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most in need of intervention. Enrollment begins at age 16. In addition to a principal and full teaching staff, The Child Center’s Diploma Plus High School offers a full counseling program. Students are assigned an advisory team of counselor, staffed by The Child Center, and teacher, who work closely together so that, for the first time in their lives, students feel that the school’s personnel really care about them. This helps build their connection to the school and give them greater motivation to complete their Regents diplomas. The program also includes paid community internship experiences in which the students learn valuable work skills that will help to transition them into more successful post-high school years.TOP OF PAGE |
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A New Start for Head Start
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Now in our seventh year as a provider of Head Start to a diverse population of children in poverty, we opened our first center-based Head Start in Woodside last fall. The new facility is a big change for toddlers who can now learn in cozy, bright, state-of-the-art surroundings. Need in the |
community is so great that the program already has a waiting list.
Children and families are supported by many special services including developmental assessment, referrals for entitlements and case management. The new center offers an extended nine-hour day option for working parents, and has recently won an award from the Administration for Child Services (ACS) for a unique father involvement program.
Deputy Executive Director, Barbara Greenstein, who oversees Head Start, among other programs for The Child Center, developed the first Early Head Start in New York City in 1995. It was spotlighted on Good Morning America as a model program. We look forward to making other important strides in extending the reach of Head Start to the community.
| Each dollar you give goes directly to help children at risk in New York. | |
Spotlight on our staff members is updated regularly.
• Amanda Etienne
TIPP Project Director
• Rachelle Valbrun
TIPP Assistant Project
Director