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<\/p>\nWe believe that in order to truly affect change it is not enough to provide support and opportunities to youth and families on the ground, but also to advocate on their behalf. We fight for the policies and legislation that can open up opportunities systematically across the city. Good Shepherd Services is a leading voice in public policy discussions and within numerous coalitions. We are especially active at the city and state levels. Every year, our advocacy work translates into budgetary, legislative, policy, procurement, and programmatic changes that benefit the children, youth and families we serve.<\/p>\n
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Learning to Work<\/b><\/p>\n
Learning to Work is a City Wide student support service program that supports over-age and under credited students in completing their high school diploma.\u00a0 Since 2005, Good Shepherd Services has served over 30,000 students, placed over 7,000 students in internships or paid trainings, and supported the post-secondary education enrollments of 2,500 students across the Bronx and Brooklyn.\u00a0 Between 2017-2020, 87% of GSS students exiting our programs, graduated with a high school diploma.\u00a0 For the last 10 years, the funding levels of these programs have been threaten. Last year, the City proposed a\u00a0complete elimination<\/a>\u00a0of the program. Good Shepherd helped to mobilize over 4,000 individuals to participate in 16 virtual rallies that called on the Mayor and the Chancellor to restore funding to Learning to Work.\u00a0 The final cut was the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 school year was 25%.\u00a0 This year the Mayor announced that\u00a0DOE will experience cuts in the 2021-2022 school year<\/a>\u00a0which\u00a0means that the 25% cut Community Based Organizations experienced this year, will carry on to the next school year.\u00a0 The Coalition is advocating for a full restoration of the cuts and will be hosting a series of borough virtual rallies to denounce the cuts.<\/p>\n Learning to Work rallies\u00a0<\/b>will feature\u00a0<\/b>youth, parents, schools and Community Based Organizations who will speak to how these in school supports have been vital during the pandemic and how devastating additional cuts will be to both Transfer Schools and Young Adult Borough Centers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Summer Advocacy<\/b><\/p>\n On March 10th<\/sup>, Gary Adams and Luis Fuentes from our Bronx after school programs hosted the first #FundYouthNYC City Wide virtual rally to denounce the Mayor\u2019s Preliminary budget proposal to eliminate School’s Out New York City (SONYC) summer funding that will impact over 45,000 middle school students across NYC. Good Shepherd is a middle school SONYC provider in both the Bronx and Brooklyn.<\/p>\n You can join the #FundYouthNYC Summer Camp Borough Rallies one the following dates:<\/p>\n The rallies will be live streamed on Facebook at\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GoodShepherdServicesNYC<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div><\/div><\/p>\n City<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n In January of 2021, New York City Mayor De Blasio\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0the Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 which extended the Fiscal Year 21 cuts to DOE community partnership contracts to Fiscal Year 22 and eliminated all middle school School’s Out New York City (SONYC) summer slots.\u00a0 In February of 2021, the DOE restored\u00a0the remaining $3.1M of the original $9.16M Fiscal Year 21 cuts made to the city\u2019s Community Schools Initiative.\u00a0\u00a0Last month, the Learning to Work Coalition met with DOE leadership and learned that the Office of Budget and Management informed DOE that the cuts experienced in Fiscal Year 21 will likely continue onto next year as well as additional cuts. This means that the 25% cut CBOs experienced in FY21 for the Learning to Work contracts and that the $9.16M cut to Community Schools will carry on to FY22.\u00a0 For Good Shepherd Services, this cut amounted to $2 million in Fiscal Year 21.\u00a0 While City officials share new about cuts, the NYC Mayor De Blasio announced in December of 2020 that the NYC Department of Education (DOE) would\u00a0expand<\/a>\u00a0the Community Schools Initiative to the 27 neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID-19. The request for proposal for the schools was released in February of 2021. \u00a0Annie Minguez Garcia, Director of Government and Community Relations, is leading the advocacy to fully restore the LTW, Community Schools and SONYC cuts that support youth across this city.<\/p>\n State<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n In January of 2021, NYS Governor Cuomo\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0the Executive Budget which proposed $38 Million cut to the NYC Administration \u00a0for Children\u2019s Services (ACS) which includes a 8% cut to Preventive Services.\u00a0 Good Shepherd is leading an op-ed to raise awareness to the preventive services cuts and\u00a0Hawa Diaby<\/a>, a\u00a0Supervisor at Good Shepherd Services’ North Bronx Family Center\u00a0preventive services program\u00a0testified at the Citizen\u2019s Committee for Children Virtual Rally for New York\u2019s Children.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Executive Budget also cut both Advantage and Empire State after school. \u00a0Michelle Yanche and Annie Minguez Garcia are on the policy Committee of the NYS Network for Youth Success and\u00a0hosted the Regional After School Forum<\/a>\u00a0in March to denounce the cuts.\u00a0 Several after school staff from Brooklyn joined Annie Minguez Garcia in the Network\u2019s virtual Advocacy Day in February to advocate with the legislature for restoration.\u00a0Sandra Cummings, Community Schools Director at Boys and Girls High School, joined Annie Minguez Garcia and the NYS Community Schools Network Virtual Advocacy Day to advocate for Community Schools funding in January.\u00a0The Executive budget did include $6 million for the Making College a Success Initiative which supports foster youth attending college.<\/p>\n <\/div><\/div><\/p>\n Teens Take Charge hosted a Mayoral Forum on March 4th<\/sup>\u00a0which covered education, youth employment, mental health, safety, and more issues important to youth across NYC. You can stream the full forum\u00a0here<\/a>. Good Shepherd partnered with Teens Take Charge to feature questions from the following three participants:<\/p>\n You can view their sections\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n On March 9th,\u00a0Kenny, a Good Shepherd Learning to Work grad from Brooklyn partnered with Advocates for Children for an interview with CBS 2 to advocate that the State Education Department and the NYS Board of Regents give students aging out of school this year the opportunity to return in the 2021-2022 school year & earn a high school diploma. You can view the interview\u00a0here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n <\/div><\/div><\/p>\n Fostering Youth Success Alliance<\/b><\/p>\n On January 26, more than 75\u00a0college-age youth in care joined child welfare agencies and other advocates from across New York State for Fostering Youth Success Alliance\u2019s (FYSA) annual advocacy day in Albany virtually. Advocates met with 48 State Senators and Assembly Members and their staff to share their stories and stress the importance of fully funding the New York State\u2019s Foster Youth College Success Initiative (FYCSI).\u00a0 FYSA was pleased that the Governor\u2019s Executive Budget included $6 million in resources necessary for foster youth to access higher education in the 2021-2022 school year and thank the leadership in both the Senate and the Assembly who will fight to protect this investment during the budget negotiations.<\/span>\u00a0Good Shepherd Services operates a foster care agency in the Bronx and participates annual in the FYSA Advocacy Day and will continue to monitor the State Budget to ensure that legislators protect the $6 million included in the Executive Budget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From 2015-2020 1,500 foster youth received direct support through the program and even more than 1100 are on track to do so this year.\u00a0 Nationwide just 18-24% of youth in care will enroll in college after high school and less than 3% will go on to graduate. FYCSI provides these foster care youth and alumni with the resources necessary to earn a college degree and achieve true independence, but it needs continued funding in order to do so. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tele-Health Advocacy and Paper\u00a0\u200b<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Following New York Governor Andrew Cuomo\u2019s State of the State address in Jan, in which the Governor pledged to expand and improve access to telehealth services, the Clinicians in Child Welfare (CCW), whose members\u00a0<\/b>promote best practice and advocate to enhance the delivery of services in the child welfare system,\u00a0<\/b>released\u00a0<\/b>a report on why these services are so critical, especially to the communities hardest hit by the virus.\u00a0 Joan Siegel, Chief Medicaid Officer, and Annie Minguez Garcia, Director of Government and Community Relations are among the authors of the paper.\u00a0 Previously inaccessible to New York\u2019s Medicaid recipients, expanded telehealth services have made strides in closing New York\u2019s health equity gap \u2013 deeply benefitting the groups previously excluded from these services. The paper\u2019s findings make clear that the city and state must permanently remove harsh restrictions hamstringing access to these critical services.\u00a0 The paper, \u201cAccomplishments of Telehealth within New York\u2019s Child Welfare System: An Exploratory Survey<\/a>,\u201d draws from quantitative and qualitative study results from 249 participants who responded to the survey to highlight how communities have used\u00a0behavioral health telehealth during the pandemic.\u00a0Of those surveyed, 120 were parents or caregivers, 71 were foster parents, 51 were individuals receiving services, and seven were unknown.<\/p>\n Key findings include:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u200bAdvocating for Human Services Investments<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Dana Altneu, Assistant Director of Contracts testified at the New York City Council Committee on Contracts hearing on the preliminary budget on the Human Services Council priorities.\u00a0 The priorities include: the restoration of the COLA on the personnel services line of all human services contracts at a rate of at least 3%, comprehensive emergency pay for human services workers retroactive to March 23, 2020, when non-essential workers in New York were ordered to stay home, and sufficient funding to fully honor the Indirect Cost Rate Funding Initiative for FY20, FY21, and going forward. You can view Dana\u2019s testimony here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advocating for extension of the Eviction Moratorium<\/b><\/p>\n On January 25th<\/sup>\u00a0as the eviction moratorium in New York state is set to expire, Rosanna Cruz\u2014a Benefits Assistance Program leader for Good Shepherd Services \u2014 testified before the New York City Council Committee on General Welfare regarding the importance of increasing access to rent relief programs. At Good Shepherd, we provide individuals and families with hands-on assistance in applying for public benefits. During the course of this pandemic, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of clients requesting assistance with rent relief. But burdensome requirements are preventing too many families from accessing this necessary service. Some New Yorkers collecting unemployment are even finding that they now don\u2019t qualify for rent relief. Rosanna called on the City to expand the number of people eligible to apply for rental programs\u2014and place special attention on helping families with children at risk of entry to shelter. You can view Rosanna\u2019s testimony\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div><\/div><\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n
City & State Budget<\/div><\/p>\nYouth In Action<\/div><\/p>\n\n
Staff In Action<\/div><\/p>\n\n
Past Highlights<\/h1>\n
<\/p>\nClinton Global Initiative<\/div>