News and Events Archives - Page 9 of 14

Migrant Families Being Given Clothing at P.S.1

With the arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers in New York City, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park began our Newly Arrived Migrant Families Initiative to offer assistance to those in need. With this initiative individuals and families are screened for immediate needs and services and provided with assistance either by CFLSP or referred to others in our community. Beginning in September, CFLSP has helped 250 adults as well as 235 children under the age of 18, and counting.

Last Friday, CFLSP attended a resource fair for asylum seekers at a local shelter, sponsored by Alexa Aviles. At this fair, CFLSP informed those attending about the resources and supports that we offer.

Center for Family Life is providing newly arrived migrant families with essential items including food and toiletries such as specially provided microwavable meals, soap, toilet tissue, and diapers. These families are also given clothing, including professional wear and winter items. Beginning October 8th, staff in our P.S. 1 school site began distributing clothing donations to migrant families. Each Saturday between 11AM and 1PM, families can select clothing and other donated items while children engage in crafts and activities. CFLSP staff at our Main Office have been referring migrant families, or anyone else in need, to P.S. 1 for clothing items.

CFLSP also provides legal assistance including consultations with attorneys and staff paralegals. As of October 24th, a dedicated CFLSP staff member has been going daily to the City’s main Navigation Welcome Center near the Port Authority in Manhattan to share legal information, such as details concerning ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), with migrants and to make referrals to legal and other service providers. On day one of her visit, our dedicated staff member estimated she spoke with 100 people, providing translation services and passing along vital information.

Our Employment Program also offers migrants employment consultations, ESOL classes, and leads Know Your Rights workshops. With these resources, individuals are given a better chance of finding suitable employment to provide for themselves and their families.

Caseworkers in our Family Counseling Program are also offering newly arrived families assistance with our immigrant trauma counseling program and preventive services. Our preventive services coordinators screen individuals for public benefits, provide eligible clients with emergency cash assistance, offer youth supports, and assess other needs.

Newly arrived families with children enrolled in any of our neighborhood schools are also immediately enrolled in after school childcare, giving parents a greater opportunity to find work and fostering children’s development. In addition, CFLSP has been providing individuals with information on our school-based neighborhood center programs that offer free evening and weekend activities to people in the neighborhood.

In the beginning of October Phil Marriott, a CFLSP Board member, assisted CFLSP staff on a trip to Costco and generously donated food for migrant families. With Phil’s contribution, CFLSP was able to provide meals such as lasagna, chicken patties, and burritos to over 700 people!

Center for Family Life in Sunset Park is proud that we have been able to help newly arrived migrant families in New York City with our range of services. We encourage any donations that can aid in this effort to welcome and assist our new community members and thank all of those who have continuously supported our work!

Celebrating Community 2022

October 14, 2022

by Kathleen Lion News and Events

Thank you to all who joined us in honoring Eric Brettschneider and the firm Latham & Watkins LLP!

Our Corporate Hero and Honoree, Latham & Watkins LLP

Study Circle participants at the library preparing proposals to share with official electors

September: Thriving Families Safer Children

September 27, 2022

by jfrancois News and Events

Thriving Families Safer Children is a project designed to promote solidarity between community members and to build their capacity to use available community level data to support advocacy and to demand the dismantling of unjust social policies.

This project engages Community Study Circles comprised of diverse groups of Sunset Park residents. These groups, which meet weekly, engage a popular education methodology and are facilitated by community member Zenayda Bonilla, who serves as the Peer Advocate. Participants in Study Circles begin with an exploration of their own migration and settlement stories. In this way, Study Circles become a safe and welcoming place for community members where they can be introduced to and become conversant in publicly available data. The group uses the data to identify the ways that immigrant and BIPOC residents are disparately impacted by economic and social challenges. Specific attention is given to data on economic and social factors which result in disproportionate involvement in the child welfare system. Attention is paid to interpreting data on child welfare investigations and child removals with a goal of uncovering “the story” that data can tell us about human experience.

Participants in these groups look at data on socioeconomic status of members within their neighborhood alongside comparative data showing the socioeconomic status of people in adjacent communities. They also review data on the number of people living in poverty, relying on public assistance, receiving Medicaid, as well as the level of education reached by members of their communities. This data is personal to those reviewing it as it represents their own and their neighbors’ situations and experiences.

Participants share what they learn with others in their neighborhood and present their observations and proposals for positive change to elected officials and advocacy groups in New York City. Further, Study Circles give those impacted the most by the child welfare system the resources and understanding necessary to challenge the system’s policies. Zenayda Bonilla and Julia Jean-Francois have discussed the problems associated with the current child welfare system in their recently published article “Reflections on our Work in Community- Troubling the Frame,” which is part of the Summer 2022 edition of the journal Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly. Julia Jean-Francois has also written about this issue in her chapter, “Community Based Organizations and Public Child Welfare Authorities: The Challenge of Partnerships,” in the recently published book Leadership Reflections: How to Create and Sustain Reforms in Children and Family Services.

In their article in the Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly Bonilla and Jean-Francois write about reform efforts in the child welfare system in New York City and how these have impacted Black and Brown communities. They bring attention to the long history of community surveillance and family separation and investigate the current and historical conditions which perpetuate disproportionate participation in the child welfare system. They suggest that the solution to this is to support community driven advocacy that focuses on the wellbeing of communities as a whole. To read more about this, click the link here.

Thriving Families Safer Children supports community members to dismantle barriers that perpetuate inequity in their neighborhoods through data driven advocacy that is framed and carried out by the community itself and that can promote a just and inclusive New York City.

August: “Life Lines” Community Arts Project Explores

September 27, 2022

by jfrancois News and Events Youth and Community Development & School Partnerships

“Life Lines” is a free, nationally-recognized program that brings together social group work, the arts, and education to involve middle and high school youth in group experiences that promote leadership, develop creativity, and build community.

This summer, the theme was “Art as Nourishment,” and our program participants explored many different ways that art and art-making can provide nourishment to themselves and to their surrounding community.

Our Visual Arts Troupe led workshops for younger children in the Center for Family Life elementary school summer camps at PS 94 and PS 169, working together in small groups to explore patterns and sculpture-making. Our troupe members learned that by offering their attention, mentorship, and art-making skills to these groups, they could provide meaningful activities for the elementary schoolers and bring them joy.

Life Lines Visual Arts Troupe also experimented with nourishing their community through public art, creating colorful tunics with messages they felt were important to share.

The troupe traveled to Governors Island and took pictures with their wearable art in different locations. They also visited the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center to see the immersive art installation “Sun Seekers” by sisters Amy and Jennifer Khoshbin, a sculpture and performance work that inspired our group with its attention to healing and reconnection with the natural world.

The third summer project was group murals. This was an opportunity for our troupe members to remember that making art can be a way to nourish themselves, and that sharing art is a way to nourish those around them – a great reminder to take into the Fall as we reach the end of another wonderful summer!