Black History Month has so many meaningful lessons for the youth we support, including the fact that so much of that history involves rising over adversity and overcoming obstacles to success. We are doing many things this month that allow our African-American students to see that strong individuals— who look like they do and have faced similar challenges—have successfully led, invented, created, composed, written, and changed the course of history.

This year’s national theme for Black History Month is “African Americans in Times of War.” For the entire month, Biondi School students are learning about and honoring the African Americans who protect our country. That history came to life when African-American veterans from the Samuel H. Dow American Legion 1017 Post visited the school. They engaged our students and offered words of encouragement as they talked about their experiences in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf.

Black History Month is also being marked by other Leake & Watts programs. Our Residential Treatment Center youth have ongoing presentations and community service projects. At Seabury Day Care Center, our preschoolers put on their Annual Black History Show. The Soundview Family Resource Center joins with the Soundview Community Partnership Program for a family-friendly Black History Month celebration in the Bronx.

Black History Month matters because it helps instill pride in our students, and demonstrates what hope is: the belief that the future will be better, and that they have to power to make it so. But the real lesson is that black history matters every day. It shouldn’t be ignored the rest of the year.

January is National Mentoring Month, so it is a good time to highlight how important it is for at-risk youth to establish close relationships with adults who are not their parents or guardians. At our 2017 Annual Award Gala, Wynter, a 15-year-old girl in our Family Preventive Services program, spoke about how mentors have help her improve her reading, try new things, and be the best she can be.

“At first, I thought going to mentoring was uncool, but my mom really wanted me to go. In the beginning, I was very shy with the mentors, but little by little, I opened up. Now, I LOVE going to mentoring. I never miss it. The mentors really helped me build my confidence. We do the mentoring as a group so you get to know everyone.

“One thing they have really helped me with is my academics—especially reading. Reading has always been a little tough for me, but the mentors helped me focus. They give me intense, personal attention that I don’t get in school. We sat down together and made a list of techniques—like read out loud, don’t skip the hard words, and don’t go too fast—so I could improve and understand everything. They put pressure on me in a good way and make me want to do it for myself. Thanks to mentoring, I’ve gone up three more reading levels. I know now that I will make it to level Z—where I am supposed to be—by the end of the year.

“My mentors are like another family to me. I am so grateful to have them in my life.”

Pictured above: Wynter with actor and comedian Chuck Nice at the 2017 Annual Gala Dinner.

Clara and her mom had a volatile relationship. During their first therapy session, Clara, 15, physically attacked her 34-year-old mother. But the therapist didn’t give up. She continued to engage them in Family Functional Therapy despite their fights, and kept showing them her commitment to make things better.

Gradually, both Clara and her mother opened up. They talked about the underlying issues and traumas that were fueling their conflict. Even though they accused each other of causing pain, they listened when the therapist pointed out where their pain overlapped. Clara and her mother agreed to try to fix their relationship. Here’s how:

The therapist was able to get them to work on communication skills such as negotiating with each other and validating each other’s feelings. In time, they began to feel they were heard and understood by one another. The therapist also introduced them to emotional regulation and coping skills to cool down when their arguments got hot. In time, the physical altercations during therapy sessions ceased.

But there was other work to do.

Clara was a heavy user of drugs and alcohol, and ran away from home for weeks at a time. She seldom attended school. Our educational advocate helped Clara enroll in a credit recovery school, where she was able to complete the coursework for eighth grade so she could begin high school. This was another major accomplishment.

Thanks to treatment, Clara no longer runs away and has stopped using drugs and alcohol. She shares that she finally felt she can be open with her mother, who finds she can express her concerns to Clara, yet still support her. There are still some physical and verbal fights at home, but for the most part, they use their communications skills to keep the peace.

Thanks to you, our 47 different programs created hope and opportunity for more than 12,000 people in 2017. We could not have done it without your support! Together, we accomplished so much in 2017, we look forward to taking on exciting new challenges in 2018. Here’s a sampling:

• In 2017, we expanded our pre-literacy Parent-Child Home Program to include more families living in shelters. We supported more than 600 families—a record number—in our Soundview Family Resource Center for families with children 5 and under.
• More Biondi High School students than ever before took Regents exams; 2 of our foster care teens were awarded full college scholarships; several received partial college scholarships; and our Community School 217 graduated 25% more students in 2017 than in 2016.
• Our new Bronx Family Mental Health Clinic is filling the borough’s void in Medicaid mental health services for children and youth 5 to 21. Our Health Home Care Management is making it easier for families to care for children with significant medical needs.
• The excellent reputation of our residential programs has spread beyond New York. Several out-of-state agencies are now referring individuals to us because we can provide the necessary support.
• We also have significantly expanded our supported employment program, which encourages and helps employers to hire more individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
• We launched a Fatherhood Initiative program, which gives dads the tool they need to build healthy, nurturing relationships with their children.
• And our Juvenile Justice Services continues to grow. We now offer a respite program for families of court-involved youth at risk of recidivism.

Looking ahead to 2018:

• We are adding more beds to our Passage of Hope program for unaccompanied minor migrants; 
• opening a new Bronx facility to support adults with disabilities;
• and developing a program to serve runaway homeless youth.

Our work is driven by our belief that all of us can thrive when we have hope and opportunity. Thanks to your heartfelt commitment to us, we will help even more people experience hope and opportunity in 2018. Happy New Year!

Ever wonder what it is like to successfully foster a child? Here’s a chance to find out. In an extensive interview with Sean Adams, a reporter with WCBS News Radio 880, Michelle Allen, a devoted Leake & Watts foster parent, talks about the challenges and joy that comes from giving children a haven while our foster care program simultaneously helps the children’s birth parents with parenting training and other supports they need so the children can return safely to their home.

Sean Adams found Michelle’s story so compelling that the radio station has dubbed her one of its “50 People to Know in New York,” a list of 50 exceptional New Yorkers they’ve compiled to mark their 50th year of broadcasting as a news station.

It’s the second honor Michelle has received this year. The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) recognized Michelle as an “Outstanding Foster Parent” during National Foster Care Month in May. A retired executive secretary from the Bronx, Michelle has been opening her heart and home to teenage girls, including teenage mothers with children for several years now. With Michelle, they learn how to trust again after living through trauma, instability, and broken promises.

In the radio interview, Michelle explains how she develops a bond with the girls. “I make my home as comfortable and welcoming as possible…They end up opening up to me because I have some stories of my own to tell,” she says.

The full interview is posted on the WCBS website along with a transcript of the shorter radio report that aired.

It Began with Her Granddaughters

Michelle tells her interesting story in the interview. She became part of Leake & Watts’s foster care program several years ago, when she took in her granddaughters. “It was an unfortunate situation in which they were left alone, and they were rescued by ACS and Leake & Watts. That’s what I call it,” she says. “They were saved.”

For two years, the girls lived with Michelle. Then the happy day came when their mother was able to welcome them home again. “Life was great,” says Michelle. Still, after a while, she sensed something she had never sensed before. “Prior to the girls coming to my house, I was alone then, but I didn’t feel lonely,” says Michelle, a single mom whose son is grown. ”But when [the girls] left me, suddenly, I felt so lonely.”

Michelle decided to open her home to other foster children. She chooses to work with high-need teenage girls. As anyone who has children in their teens knows, it is a difficult age. But Michelle is up to the challenge.

“It takes time, but in my home, it doesn’t take long at all. Immediately after coming into my home, we begin cooking together. I have all sorts of games. I have a fitness center in my home. I have a garden directly across the street…we pick cucumbers, tomatoes, and sunflowers.” The girls have a chance to plant their own flowers and vegetables.

The girls remain skittish for a while. “I can see they are happy, but they are still withdrawn,” Michelle says. “They’ve been moving from home to home, not knowing if this home is going to be a ‘keeper.’ They think, ’She’s being nice and in one month I’m going to be removed from her.” Her approach is to let them warm up to her. “I just try to be myself, show them as much loves as possible.”

Something else helps. Michelle always calls each girl “my daughter” when she introduces them to friends, family, and church members. “I look to see how they react to that, and they draw a little bit closer to me. I’ve had some wrap their arm right in mine, like, this is a good mom and I’m proud she is saying I’m her daughter,” she says.

Never Ask Why

One thing Michelle doesn’t do is ask the children why they are in foster care. “Some of the reasons they never, ever want to talk about again,” she says. “I just allow them to attach themselves to me, so they do. Once we become more comfortable with one another, without asking, they volunteer [to tell] the reason that brought them into foster care.”

Because family reunification is the goal, Michelle builds a relationship with the birth parents, and has lunch and dinner with them. She says it is important that when the girls leave her home that they have rebuilt their relationship with their families. She urges the children to have “a forgiving heart, whatever the circumstances. I say, ‘Don’t hold your parents at fault. It was at a time when they weren’t in their right minds themselves, or due to the situation, they were just not able to raise you properly.”

She also teaches the children, “Anything you want to do, you can accomplish. Do not be discouraged. Life will throw obstacles at you from all directions, 24/7. Stay focused and you can become whomever you want to be because you are talented girls,” she says. She helps them develop that talent by making school a priority—two of her daughters are currently in college. She also uses her business network to help them find summer jobs.

Michelle says that fostering children “is what I want to do the rest of my life.” For that, she is richly rewarded.

“It makes me feel rich, it makes me feel very important that I’m doing something good for someone other than myself or my immediate family members,” she says at the end of her interview. ”Giving, loving, sharing is the most gratifying thing in the world to me.”

If you would like to learn about fostering a child or attend one of our informational meetings, please visit leakeandwatts.org/program/foster-care-programs.