January Edition 2010 - New York Nonprofit Press

More documents

Recommendations

Info

10 New York Nonprofi t Press www.nynp.biz January ‘10 Founded in 1846, Seamen’s Society for Children and Families has been serving Staten Island for a very long time. “We are actually Staten Island’s oldest charity,” says President and CEO Nancy Vomero, who acknowledges that there is some friendly dispute with Snug Harbor involving technicalities over who actually holds the title. As its name suggests, the agency was established to “afford relief and protection to the destitute children of seamen… by providing an asylum for them with proper arrangements for their health, comfort and education.” In that first year, operating out of a rented house in Stapleton, the agency cared for 24 children at a cost of $1,800 Today, 163 years later, Seamen’s Society provides foster boarding home care for approximately 500 children, both on Staten Island and in Brooklyn. The agency also offers child abuse prevention services in both boroughs as well as child care, domestic violence and other programs. While Seamen’s Society is not the only provider of child welfare services on Staten Island, it is the largest and the only one that calls the Island home. Vomero, herself a native Staten Islander, believes this extended history and personal connection to the Island is extremely important in serving the borough. “Even though there are almost a half a million people here, Staten Island is like a small town,” she says. “Everyone knows everyone. When I go shopping I will meet foster parents, our day care providers, employees and clients. I don’t think a lot of executive directors have that same experience.” The same is true for the agency’s employees. A majority of those who work on Staten Island also live there. These personal connections carry over into institutional relationships and community partnerships. Vomero believes that even Family Court proceedings feel more personal on Staten Island because the judges often have close connections to the schools children attend and the neighborhoods in which they live. Many New Yorkers think of Staten Island as the City’s little piece of New Jersey – a moderately prosperous series of predominately white suburbs. It is an image that AGENCY OF THE MONTH Seamen’s Society for Children and Families Offering Shelter from Life’s Storms Since 1846 doesn’t match reality. “When ACS put out the RFP, Community District 1 on the north shore of Staten Island had the highest need in the City in terms of foster care placements,” Vomero explains. “There are certainly parts of Staten Island that are wealthier than others. Parts of CDs 2 and 3 have beautiful homes and neighborhoods. But, while the most need is here on the North Shore, there are a lot of problems in other parts of the Island as well. People don’t want to think anything negative happens there, but it does.” Staten Island has also seen significant changes in its ethnic makeup. The island has had a large Hispanic population, including a sizeable Mexican community, for some time. More recently, there have been increases in the Russian and Albanian populations. Seamen’s Society’s five-story headquarters building at 50 Bay Street in St. George houses its administrative staff and all Staten Island services. “This is where we need to be,” says Vomero. “It is central for transportation. Every bus and the one train on Staten Island all begin right here. The courts are here. Our workers can walk to Family Court.” The bright and airy headquarters, which opened in 2006, offers an inviting atmosphere for clients and staff alike – and represents a significant improvement over Seamen’s prior office space. The building was purchased and renovated at a cost of $7.3 million. The agency funded $5.3 million of the total project through triple tax-exempt Industrial Development Authority (IDA) bonds. “We still are working to raise the last $900,000 as part of our capital campaign,” says Vomero. Brooklyn While Seamen’s Society is best known as a Staten Island agency, it has long had a strong presence in Brooklyn. The agency opened an office on Willoughby Street in downtown Brooklyn to serve children in that borough as well as Queens and lower Manhattan back in the 1970s. In 1999, it opened a second office on Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville. The move preceded New York City’s call for child welfare agencies to re-locate offices into the communities they served. Ten years later, Vomero is in the process of closing the Willoughby Street office and consolidating all of Seamen’s Society’s Brooklyn operations into new, larger space in Brownsville. The new offices will offer additional meeting rooms for Family Team Conferences and other community-based programming. Seamen’s Society is an active participant in the East New York/Bronxville Community Partnership Initiative. (In Staten Island, the agency serves as fiscal administrator for that borough’s CPI). Foster Care Seamen’s Society recognized as far back as 1926 that institutional care was not the best plan for most children and began placing younger children and those with special needs in foster boarding homes. On average, approximately 60% of its 500 foster boarding home children are from Staten Island with the remainder from Brooklyn CDs 8 and 16. “It is probably easier to find homes with multiple beds on Staten Island than in some other boroughs,” says Vomero. “ACS calls us pretty often when they have larger sibling groups.” When it comes to foster parent recruitment, the small town dynamic comes into play again. “A lot of it is through word-ofmouth,” says Vomero. “We have a core group of foster parents both on Staten Island and in Brooklyn.” She credits the agency’s MAPP (Model Approach to Parenting Preparation) trainers and caseworkers for helping to ensure that foster parents feel supported. Seamen’s Society has just begun its transition to ACS’ Improved Outcome for Children (IOC) service model which delegates some case management decisions to agencies and features a Family Team Conference approach. “I like the Family Team Conference,” says Patricia De Jesus, Director of Foster Care Services. “It really pushes the agencies to get all the stakeholders to the table. Our birth parents look forward to the conferences. It is a chance for them to say what they want in an open forum. They get to identify what they feel are their strengths and really feel like they are part of the process.” Seamen’s Society also operates a Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home (TFBH) program for up to 32 children with more complex emotional and behavioral needs. “There are many children who are coming to us with much more serious problems,” says Vomero. Nancy Vomero Health and Mental Health Seamen’s Society directly manages medical and mental health services for children in its care. Dr. Jacob Gelles is Director of the Psychological Services Department. Lina Steiner, RN, directs the Medical Services Department. “We try to give them the highest quality care,” says Steiner. “Kids on Staten Island are seen here for well visits. In Brooklyn, we have an agreement with Brookdale Family Care. In Manhattan, we have an agreement with St. Vincents.” The goal is one-stop service. “We have a board certified pediatrician who comes in for ten hours a week,” says Steiner. “Our kids go right across the street to the dental clinic. We also have an optometrist who comes once a month.” Prevention Services Seamen’s Society provides child abuse prevention services – which allow families to avoid foster care placements -- both on Staten Island and in Brooklyn. And, if the reward for good work is more work, the agency is Safe Passage: A Path Away from Domestic Abuse The first priority for any domestic violence program is ensuring the safety of victims – usually vulnerable women and their children. Safe Passage, operated on Staten Island by Seamen’s Society for Children and Families, is going one step further. It recently began offering specialized therapy for the children of victims who have been traumatized by witnessing abuse. “We got a $38,500 grant from the Richmond County Savings,” says Jessica Amyotte, Supervisor of the Safe Passage program. “Now we have a part-time therapist who works with the children. They do play therapy – sometimes with the family, sometimes separately. They work with puppets and make models and drawings of the home. She is really getting tremendous results. Previously, there was nothing like this available on Staten Island.” Safe Passage gets approximately 200 calls a month from women at risk of domestic abuse and is working actively with 100 at any given point in time. The program’s five staff take calls, help clients assess their safety and needs and offer referrals to attorneys, the police, shelters, etc. “Sometimes women want counseling; sometimes they just want services,” says Amyotte. “Yesterday, for example, we had a call from a woman who needed transportation to family court to get an order of protection. Others will call us after they have left the situation for help with housing, counseling or counseling for their children.” The program saw a sudden spike in calls for help last year as the economic crisis began to impact families on Staten Island. While the recession isn’t over, the number of referrals appears to have leveled off, says Amyotte. Unfortunately, Safe Passage’s new therapist is already fully booked. “We have a waiting list,” says Amyotte. “There is a tremendous need out there.”
January ‘10 New York Nonprofi t Press www.nynp.biz 11 obviously doing good work. Over the past year, ACS has increased Seamen’s Society’s contract for general preventive services from 90 slots to 120 on Staten Island and from 30 to 75 in Brooklyn. The agency’s contractual capacity for its Intensive Preventive program, which serves Staten Island families with a history of parental substance abuse, was also increased from 30 to 50 slots. “I think it is a recognition of the quality of our services,” says Vomero. Seamen’s Society was among a group of agencies selected by ACS to begin using the IOC model with preventive programs in 2008. The experience with Family Team Conferencing was extremely positive, says Director of Prevention Linda Santlofer. “For a lot of our parents, this is the first time anyone ever talked to them about their strengths and not just about their faults.” The agency’s Family Rehabilitation Program, which was launched in 1991, uses teams of case planners and parent advocates to provide intensive in-home services for families where parents have substance abuse problems. “Initially, we are in the home three times a week,” says Santlofer. As parents move through phases of substance abuse treatment, the level of in-home supervision decreases. “We have really strong relationships with all the drug treatment providers,” says Santlofer. Child Care Seamen’s Society has been providing child care for poor and low-income families since 1970. “We have a program which serves 284 children,” says Vomero. Services are provided through a network of licensed independent Family Day Care providers who take children into their homes. Seamen’s Society provides training and supervision as well as managing placements and billing. “Most of the providers are here on the north shore,” says Nellie Suarez, MA, Director of Family Day Care Services. “People want them as close to the ferry as possible.” “This is a service that has consistently scored 100s on ACS audits,” says Vomero, AGENCY OF THE MONTH who adds that the program can also offer support for foster parents or families on prevention caseloads. Broadening the Base Over the years, Seamen’s Society has expanded its range of programs to meet the service needs of its current clients and other vulnerable Staten Island families. In 1997, the agency launched Safe Passages, which provides outreach, counseling, access to legal services and referrals to women who are victims of domestic abuse. With support from the Richmond County Savings Bank Children adopted by their foster parents gathered for an Adoption Month celebraton. Foundation, the program has recently added specialized therapy for children who have witnessed domestic violence. (See “Safe Passage” in box on page 10.) Seamen’s Society also operates a Food Card Outreach Program in partnership with United Way of New York City. The program’s supervisor and three Food Card Specialists go out into the community to provide low-income working individuals with information about the availability of federal food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Staff armed with laptops can do prescreenings on the spot and assist eligible clients in filing electronic applications. Last year, the program assisted more than 1,000 families to access benefits. Staff can also help clients navigate bureaucratic obstacles on the way to assistance. “It is almost impossible for people to do it by themselves,” says Jessica Amyotte who directs both the Food Card and Domestic Violence programs. “For example, Lauren Moro, our program supervisor, recently helped a client win retroactive approval for 18 months worth of benefits after she had been inappropriately denied.” Forward Through Education is another recent initiative which Seamen’s Society has launched with the support from the Staten Island Foundation and the Hearst Foundation. Retired Department of Education teacher Denton Mitchell has begun providing weekly academic and tutoring support for youngsters from all of Seamen’s Society programs. “Education is the key,” says Vomero, noting that the agency also has a scholarship program which provides support to youth in foster care and preventive programs who are enrolled in college or other post-secondary education programs. “Last year we gave out 19 scholarships,” she says. Vomero, a CPA, has been with the agency for 12 years, starting out as CFO. She was named CEO in June of 2006. “It is important to have someone who understands the finances,” she says. While not a social worker herself, Vomero believes she has developed a lifetime of human service advocacy experience as the mother of a daughter with developmental disabilities. Last year, Vomero bolstered what she considers to have already been a strong management team with the addition of Margaret O’Toole, formerly of Episcopal Social Services, as Chief Operating Officer. Looking Ahead Like all New York City child welfare agencies, Seamen’s Society is anxiously awaiting the results of ACS’ recent Request for Proposals which will determine service provider contracts for the next decade. “We Nineteen youth in Seamen’s Society programs received scholarships for post-secondary education this year. certainly are hoping to keep what we have now,” says Vomero. “And, we would like to expand our TFBH program and Intensive Preventive Programs into Brooklyn.” As she waits, Vomero is resting her hopes on Seamen’s Society’s strong performance evaluation ratings and ACS’ recent decisions to expand the agency’s preventive contract capacity. As for further expansion, Vomero has little interest in growing just for the sake of growth. “We want to add services where they are needed by our clients and the families of Staten Island,” she explains. “Most importantly, we want to make sure we are doing what we already do as well as possible.”
Page 1: NYNP New York Nonprofit Press Janua
Page 4 and 5: 4 New York Nonprofi t Press www.nyn
Page 12 and 13: 12 New York Nonprofi t Press www.ny

January Edition 2010 - New York Nonprofit Press

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?