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WHAT’S INSIDE ACS Staff Open Their Hearts and Their Homes Flipbook PDF
WHAT’S INSIDE It was one of life’s great ironies. Antoinette Nelson,who spent 11 years unable to conceive a child, was w
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Summer 2007 Edition
WHAT’S INSIDE Commissioner’s Message
ACS Staff Open Their Hearts and Their Homes
Recognition for Child Protection Staff Investigative Consultants On the Case New Appointments at ACS A Voice for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth in Foster Care Inaugural Class in Leadership Academy Winners Chosen in Slogan Contest Classy Cubicles Employee Recognition Day at ACS
Left to right: ACS employee Patricia Goodson with daughters Sophie and Tara.
Madge Allen (left), who trained foster parents and Diane Denis, who works in Head Start, celebrate 40 years of service at Children’s Services. For a list of other honorees and an additional photo, see page 8.
Investigative Consultants Frank Pascarelli and Donna Malkentzos join Child Protection Specialist Quiana Davis during their training course at the James Satterwhite Academy. For more on the work of the Investigative Consultants, see page 3.
It was one of life’s great ironies. of us. For more information about becoming Antoinette Nelson, who spent 11 years a foster parent, please go to the Web site, unable to conceive a child, was working in www.nyc.gov\acs or call 212-676-WISH. Adoption Services at ACS. Surrounded Now Director of Adoption Services, by children in need, inspired by the Nelson’s two sons are ages 16 and 17. families who opened up their homes to “They are both them, Nelson young men of came to feel that “I just kept thinking, ‘who God, who have adoption was the involved in path that she was will be able to help them stayed their community,” meant to take. if I don’t?,’” says Deans. she said. In his So, in 1990, college application Nelson became essay, Christopher a foster parent to telling about wrote about his childhood, Christopher. “I just thought I had something to offer a child,” Nelson said. how he “persevered, in spite of all the ‘drama,’” and bringing his proud mother Exactly one year after bringing close to tears. In April, Christopher was Christopher into her life, Nelson gave birth to a little boy named Adrian. When honored by the National Council of Negro Women for Outstanding Christopher’s adoption came through, he was seven years old; Adrian was right Achievement in community service. Adrian is a member of Gospel for Teens there at his side, and so excited by the as well as an accomplished dancer. prospect of adoption that he wanted to Though Adrian will miss his big brother be included, too. So, the Family Court judge improvised a written document for when he heads off to Morehouse College Adrian, and Nelson “adopted” him as well. in Atlanta this fall, he “can’t wait to get Christopher’s room.” The ACS Update this issue is profiling Patricia Goodson has been with ACS for Nelson and several other Children’s 18 years, first as a protective diagnostic Services employees who are foster and caseworker in the Bronx, and now as a adoptive parents as a tribute to all these supervisor (Sup I) in Child Care who staffers who have opened their hearts and responds to high priority complaints. homes to children through fostering and (continued on page 6) adopting – and as an inspiration to the rest
COMMISSIONER’S MESSAGE What makes the difference between a merely good child welfare system – one that provides children and families with just the basics – and a child welfare system that is wholeheartedly committed to helping each child and family? The difference is in the people, the child welfare professionals who treat every child, parent, caregiver and provider with respect and empathy. I am prouder than I can say that Children’s Services is the second type of system because so many of you give above and beyond what is asked of you every day, despite the extra work, and in the face of all the changes underway. Rarely a week goes by that I don’t hear from someone telling me how grateful they are for the attention they received from an ACS employee. Here are a few examples: “I wrote you a few weeks ago about the negative problems that I have had dealing with the foster care system in New York,” said Helen, a Bronx grandmother, in a hand-written note. “But I now need to let you know that one person at ACS has been very dedicated in helping me. Ms. Lisa Jones has really bent over backwards in helping me in every way she could… I know my grandchildren were not her only case, but she made me feel that they were!” Jones, a Child Protective Specialist Supervisor and mother of two who has worked at ACS for 10 years, says she remembers crying during her first removal. “After a while, I realized that somebody has to do this job because there are a lot of kids who are treated poorly. You’ve got to be strong about it because kids depend on you. I try to build trust.”
“…if I can help you, I will do what I have to do.” Barbara DeMayo, Coordinator of Special Projects for New York City Family Court, wrote Assistant Commissioner Dodd Terry to compliment the work of Ronni Fuchs, of the Office of Youth Development, for enthusiastically going borough to borough showing a PBS video on aging out to court personnel and social workers all around the city. DeMayo also singled out Fuchs’s OYD co-workers, Ronnell Walker-Jackson and Kim Dennis, for their hard work during Teen Day events in Queens. WalkerJackson, a15-year ACS veteran, believes, “I can really make a difference in trying to get youth and families together. People are out there, isolated, feeling lost, and if I can help you, I will do what I have to do.” Says Dennis: “Adolescents are genuine, and they’re able to share what it is that they need. They are our future and it’s important to help them.” “Please be assured that I do not do this often,” wrote Sister Paulette Pollina, Principal of St. Therese of Lisieux School in Brooklyn, in a letter praising Child Protective Specialist Vincent Tillett. “Unfortunately, there have been many times that our school has had to report an instant of abuse, but once that is done, we, the school, hear little or nothing from the child’s worker. Not so with Mr. Tillett.” Asked why he took the time to make weekly follow-up calls to the school, Tillet, an 8-year ACS veteran, whose wife recently gave birth to their third child, says, “That’s just what I do.” When what you “just do” is the very best you know how – whether it’s keeping in touch with a concerned principal or a worried grandmother, or making sure teens are getting the best possible help – that’s what creates a child welfare system of excellence. When I hear these stories – and these are just a few of them – I know without a doubt that we are headed in the right direction. I thank you all. You make me very proud. Sincerely, John B. Mattingly Commissioner
HONORING THE FRONTLINE More than 70 child protection specialists and supervisors have received the Commissioner’s Child Advocacy Award over the past year at the weekly Childstat sessions. All honorees were selected by their supervisors for their dedication and commitment in their work on the front lines to keep the city’s children safe. In the last Update, we listed the first 17 winners through Oct. 31, 2007. Here is a list of CPS staff honored through May 31, 2007: Lutonja Aiken Gail Steward Banton Patricia Barnwell Suzanne Bellocchio Marie Branch Marcus Bryant Alecia Boucher Ronnesia Campbell Alison Chauvet Marcus Conyers Barbara Daniely Tammy Dumay
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Michael Dunbar Michelle Feurtada-Laing Racquel Fraser-Martinez Pamella Floy Vanessa Harris Ikim Green Janice Hogg Bernadette Jean-Louis Magdalena Leszko Tanya Jones Keisha Kirby Joan Lyn
Felicia Miller Tracey Mitchell Laura Murillo Yejide Ojo Gloria Parris Ronald Phillip Contessa Pou Shiliza Ramdyal Rolando Ramirez Bibi Ramkishun Priscilla Ray Carmen Reyes
Charles Rios, Jr. Paula Romero David Roper Quiana Ross Debbie Samuel Guerline Sainte Jazmin Salmeron-Trani Claritza Santos Natasha Simon Taurishia Simmons Ravindra Singh Carmen Smith
Tanzania Stone Kim Sykes Toni Taylor Vincent Tillett Tiffany Turnbull Tracy Wellman Vanessa Williams Chamell Wilson
(Left to Right): Child Protection Manager Camelia Pierre with honoree Racquel Fraser-Martinez, both from the Bronx, with Commissioner Mattingly.
Investigative Consultants Working Hand-in-Hand with CPS Staff As a 20-year detective in the NYPD with several years in the Special Victims Unit, Donna Wright has “seen everything, investigated everything.” In her former life, however, she was “usually too late,” Wright says. “When cases came to me, the homicides, some of them concerning children, had already been committed.” Now, as one of 20 Investigative Consultants who have been on the job at ACS since February, Wright, who works out of a Brooklyn field office, is helping to prevent those tragedies before they occur. The Investigative Consultant program (IC), created as one of the many changes following the death of Nixzmary Brown in January, 2006, has brought experienced law enforcement investigators into Children’s Services field offices to help advise child protective specialists (CPS) on their cases. The ICs started just like any other CPS professional, training side by side with new CPS workers at the James Satterwhite Training Academy, taking classes and studying for tests.
as many different workers as possible, as a resource for whatever their investigative need may be. Let’s say a CPS needs to find someone who’s in jail. She goes to her IC, who says, ‘I’ll show you the Web site and how you do this, and next time you’ll know how to check this for yourself,’” says Morley. ICs can go out with CPS workers on difficult cases and consult with them on what to do when they hit a roadblock. “I go out with a CPS or assist on an interview in the office about once a week,” says Matt Fraher, an IC in northern Queens. “I was trained by the NYPD and the State Police in their child abuse and sex crimes seminars, where I learned specific interview
wouldn’t even look into. And that’s not to mention the connections he has with the various precincts, which, along with his ability to do criminal background checks, gets us whatever information we might need to move our cases forward.” In one case, a worker had gone out looking for a mother several times without finding her. Lisa McClean, the IC at the Union Hall field office in Queens, who has 20 years experience investigating child abuse, sex abuse, and domestic violence, went out to the apartment and rang several different doorbells to gain access to the building. Then she listened at the door. She rang the phone, and still no reply. Her gut instinct told her that someone was home but trying to avoid ACS, so she persistently knocked on the door until she got a man to open up. Inside, there was no mom to be found, but McClean spotted an interior door and found the mother hiding there, and was able to convince her to cooperate.
The ICs are bringing to the field a combination of pragmatic experience in accessing databases and helping to conduct interviews, as well as Children’s Services Investigative Consultants and staff: longstanding contacts in law Back row, left-right: Daniel Toohey, Frank Pascarelli, Matthew Fraher, Felix Vigo, Richard Van Houten, Steven Dorn (dark glasses), Marcella enforcement. But they also bring Makebish (partially hidden), Donna Wright and Claude Kellman something less tangible – streetMiddle row, standing left-right: Edward Gavin, Donna Malkentzos, smarts. “My experience as a Susan Fox, Special Advisor Susan Morley, Lisa McClean, Basil Nonis, Vito Oliva, Kathryn Roda, Christopher Potenza and Alfred Murphy former hostage negotiator has Kneeling, front row, left-right: Administrative Assistant Pearline Holdip, been invaluable to me as an IC,” George Flores and Francisco Acevedo says Wright, “When a father has a threatening demeanor and is “The learning, on both sides, expressing anger, I can draw on what I’ve and interrogation techniques. With that began right there,” says Sue Morley, Senior training, and 20 years on the streets, I know done before and keep the peace. I can talk Advisor for Investigations and herself a 20-year veteran of the NYPD and former what to look for in body language, how to him down because I’ve done that kind of Deputy Inspector/ Commanding Officer of tell when a person’s lying, or if they’re thing before.” the Special Victims Division. “When the ICs hiding something. I see my role here as a were participating in the role plays of how Last week, right after receiving her business teacher. I’m trying to communicate and to interview people or what you might face share the information and experience it took cards, Wright walked through the office when you actually go out to a location, the handing them out and making friends. “I said, me 20 years to build.” CPS staff started immediately learning ‘I’m Donna, remember me, I’m here to help.’” from them.” Gerald Spence, a CPS worker and the “Recently, I had a chitchat with the Instant Response Team Coordinator for Currently, almost every field office has at Comissioner and the ICs, all twenty of them,” Queens, works closely with Matt Fraher. least one IC, and their roles are multiMorley says. “All of them are enthused. “He just dashed out on one of our cases a faceted. “The IC can be a bridge to the law They were retired and came back to a job minute ago, ” Spence said. “His experience enforcement community when the CPS is as a detective has been a big, big plus. where they’re finding they can really be of having difficulty obtaining information from Working with clients, he’ll give us little help. You can see it in their faces; they detectives, DAs, or Corrections,” Morley insights here or there that we normally have a new lease on life.” says. “Ideally, we want the IC available to 3
APPOINTMENT BULLETIN Commissioner Mattingly and Executive Deputy Commissioner Zeinab Chahine have made a number of high-level appointments this past year. Please welcome them to our ACS family.
Leslie Abbey joins Children’s Services as Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Initiative, designed to provide intensive family-based services for youth involved in the juvenile justice system either in lieu of placement or as the provision of after-care for youth returning early from private placement in the custody of OCFS. Abbey comes to ACS from the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division, where she has worked as a staff law guardian and as a staff attorney in the bureau’s Special Litigation and Law Reform Unit.
Lisa O’Connor is the Assistant Commissioner for Program Analysis and Development within the Division of Policy and Planning’s Office of Policy Development and Program Planning. O’Connor will oversee the Program Development, Contract Management and Program Analysis and Reporting units. She will be responsible for strategic planning and the interrelated work of these three units to support, plan and advance the analysis and development of Children’s Services programs in the foster care and preventive services systems. O’Connor comes to Children’s Services from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University where she
was a Research Associate. Angeles Silver Pai joins Children’s Services as Chief of Staff to the Commissioner, after holding the same position at the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) since 2001. Pai previously worked at ACS as Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner of Policy and Planning. Susan Sampogna is the Director of the Office of Safety First, created by ACS for mandated reporters such as employees of City agencies, nonprofit providers, etc., to address ongoing safety concerns related to open child protective investigations. As Director of the Office of Safety First, Sampogna reports to Executive Deputy Commissioner Zeinab Chahine. Sampogna joins ACS from Catholic Guardian Society, where she oversaw the social service functions of the congregate care programs. The Office has received an average of more than 300 calls each month from mandated reporters.
PHOTO CREDIT: SPENCER TUCKER
Elizabeth Leatherman is the Assistant Commissioner of Placement and Pre-Placement in the Division of Child Protection. Leatherman manages day-today operations at the Office of Placement
(OPA), which is responsible for the placement of approximately 7,000 children into the foster care system annually. Leatherman comes to Children’s Services from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where she was responsible for providing technical assistance to Public Child Welfare Agencies.
As Children’s Services honored its most recent class of Child Protection Specialists from the James Satterwhite Academy this year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined in celebrating the 250 graduates on February 27, 2007. Pictured with the Mayor are the borough directors, now newly appointed Assistant Commissioners. They are (left-right) Assistant Commissioner Bertina Capuano of the Bronx, Associate Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, Deputy Commissioner Jan Flory, Assistant Commissioner Marie Philippeaux of Brooklyn, Mayor Bloomberg, Assistant Commissioner Rafael Ortiz, Jr. of Manhattan, Assistant Commissioner Lori Levine of Queens, Assistant Commissioner Jacqueline McKnight of the Office of Special Investigation and Acting Borough Director Bonnie Lowell of Staten Island. Missing from this photo is Assistant Commissioner Joycelyn Jean-Philippe of Emergency Children’s Services. 4
Rudy Estrada: A Voice for LGBTQ Youth In his prior job as an advocate and attorney, Rudy Estrada had a mission: to make LGBTQ youth (young people who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning) a priority for state and local child welfare agencies across the country. As the newest member of Children’s Services Office of Youth Development (OYD), and the first ever LGBT Coordinator for ACS, Estrada will have the opportunity to make that happen from the ground up in New York City. “A disproportionate number of young people in the system identify as LGBTQ, and most of them experience bias, hostility, and worse, because of their sexual identities,” Estrada says.
Estrada’s goal is not to insist that caseworkers single these young people out. “A caseworker shouldn’t feel as if she’s failed if a struggling youth does not ‘come out’ to her,” he says. “That’s not the point.” Rather, Estrada wants to enhance and expand the programs that train and educate everyone who comes in contact with these young people, whose average age is just 13. That includes not only doing trainings for
In fact, 33% of gay youth and 34% of lesbians report suffering physical violence from family members as a result of their sexual orientation. “Because LGBT Coordinator Rudy Estrada strategizes with a homophobia and hostility are community leader. pervasive and accepted, the system has a unique charge,” Estrada says. “Our job is to protect and new caseworkers and in-service workshops support young people who have been for those who are more experienced, but rejected by their families and then also reaching out to birth parents, foster rejected by their caretakers, children who families, and adoptive families. Last month, have never received the kind of support Estrada did a training at a family court in they desperately need. They aren’t safe at Brooklyn as part of his effort to “address all home, in foster care, in group care, at court personnel – judges, lawyers, social school, or in their communities, and they workers, everyone who works in that are at increased risk for dropping out of system with our kids.” He’s battling the school, getting pregnant, or working in the notion that group homes are the best and sex industry, as well as for drug addiction only haven for these young people, and that and imprisonment.” these children are hard to place. And, he’s
making sure that the excellent nondiscrimination policies already on the books are strictly enforced, while working to expand them as needed. Before joining ACS earlier this year, Estrada was a staff attorney for three years at the New York headquarters of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the largest and oldest national legal organization committed to achieving civil rights for LGBTQs and those with HIV and AIDS. He has spoken and published nationwide, and instituted a groundbreaking series of “listening forums,” where he traveled the country meeting with caregivers and young people to talk about the issues they were facing. Estrada also has worked in Chicago and Milwaukee as a courtappointed attorney for youth who have suffered from abuse. A native of Wisconsin, Estrada has a bachelor’s and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and is in love with his new city, and his new job. “What I want people to know is that I’m the ultimate resource,” he says. “They can contact me by phone, though I have a BlackBerry so I’m always available by e-mail. People are already doing this, with questions that have run the gamut from, ‘How can I find a peer support group?’ to ‘Where are there good placements for girls who are lesbian?’ Questions can be very specific or more general, but they are all welcome.” You can reach Rudy Estrada at: [email protected] or at: 212- 361-1198.
Inaugural Class in Leadership Academy The first class of the ACS Leadership Academy for Child Safety is currently underway. The Leadership Academy is a new professional development opportunity designed specifically for key managers and leaders in Children’s Services field offices. The Academy will provide managers with the tools, knowledge, skills, and opportunities to continue their development as leaders at ACS. It will also offer opportunities for managers to reflect on the challenges everyone faces at Children’s Services and to discuss with leaders throughout ACS how to strengthen the work of the agency. The initial class of 30 was open to child protection managers and deputy directors from the Division of Child Protection. In July 2007, there will be a call for applications for the next session.
CPM’s in the first class of the Leadership Academy: (left-right) Marjorie Kirkpatrick, Mary Richardson, Elizabeth Lamadieu (partially hidden) and Nana Darkwa.
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ACS Staff Hear the Call and Open Their Homes (continued from front page)
“Having removed a good number of children from their homes, I always questioned why I wasn’t bringing any into my own home, although I have two children of my own,” she says. Last year, with her youngest child, Tara, away at college, Goodson said, “Why not?” On January 21, 2004, she became a first time foster mother to Sophie, a 17-year-old, and it’s been a perfect match. “Sophie told me once that she thinks I lost her in the hospital when she was born,” Goodson chuckles. “Maybe I did, because she is definitely my child.” Now a 20-year-old student at SUNY Albany, Sophie is about to be officially adopted into the Goodson family. But she’s already been a family member for a long, long time. When Goodson told her son, Ryan, 25, about the adoption plans, he said, “I thought we already did that.” Phyllis Evans Having reared three grown children who now have children of their own, Phyllis Evans, Office Manager with Family Support Services, thought her days of daily cooking had ended. But that was before January 2007, when she welcomed 14-year-old Jermaine and 11-year-old Ashley into her Harlem home. “I live for children, and I just sensed a need,” said Evans, who’s been at ACS for 15 years. She relished being able to give Jermaine and Ashley their own bedrooms for the first time in their lives. Ashley painted her room lavender and pink, while Jermaine’s is awash in blue, the walls covered with posters of his sports heroes. The spacious apartment, now alive with the soundtrack from “Dreamgirls” every night, is close to the children’s Harlem school (previously, they’d been commuting from another foster home in Brooklyn), and they’ve both joined youth ministries at St. Luke’s Baptist Church. “My children and grandchildren are just as excited as I am to have Ashley and Jermaine as part of our family,” says Evans. Sharon Bellinger “In my house, I just needed children. They keep you young and make you feel better,” says Sharon Bellinger, a clerk in the Queens
Left to right: Clifford Bellinger Sr., ACS employee Sharon Bellinger, Paris (18), Christopher (16), Clifford Jr. (13), Joshua (14) and in front, Precious (9).
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Children’s Services employee and foster mom Sybil Deans with “Jo-Jo.”
office of Family Court Legal Services (FCLS). Bellinger and her husband are adoptive parents to 18-year-old Paris, who’s hoping to go to Princeton; 16-year-old Cory, whose given name is Clifford Jr.; 14-year-old Joshua, an eighth-grader on the National Honor Roll; and 9-year-old Precious, born a 1 lb., 14 oz. preemie, who now weighs 63 pounds. “My love of kids was instilled in me by my grandmother, who always watched the children in my neighborhood while their mothers worked,” says Bellinger, who says she may still take in one or two more children who need a place they can call home. Diana Cortez In 1998, Diana Cortez, who works at the Office of Case Management, took in the three children of a relative who was having difficulties. Recently divorced and living by herself, Cortez found herself suddenly a new mom of three, ages 12, 8, and 5. Though “they were family,” Cortez says the event was “life changing. I was prepared for them physically to move in – I had the space – but emotionally, it was difficult at first.” But things turned out just great. David, now 21, a sophomore at the College of Staten Island plans to be a writer; Edwin, 17, graduated from the Bronx High School of Law and Finance in June 2007; and 14-year-old Christina is a freshman at the High School of Performance and Stagecraft in the Bronx. Meanwhile, Christina has been wanting a little sister and begging her mother to adopt again. When a co-worker mentioned he was having trouble placing two very young children who had already been in multiple foster homes, Cortez agreed to meet them. It was love at first sight for Shawn, 6, and Aaliyah, 5, whom Cortez brought into her home in August, 2005 and officially adopted in January, 2007. Is it a coincidence that they look exactly like the other members of Cortez’s family, or was their adoption predestined? It certainly feels like this was meant to be.
Sybil Deans After working at the Children’s Center, Sybil Deans, a single mother of three older children, began thinking that she needed to be ready to help if a child from her neighborhood came into the Center needing a home. “I just kept thinking, ‘who will be able to help them if I don’t?’” says Deans. When six-week-old Joanna arrived at the Center, everyone agreed she looked like Deans, who immediately asked that the infant be placed with her. Life hasn’t been the same since. “She’s a happy baby. She smiles, she dances, she claps,” says the joyous new foster mom. Her three daughters have embraced their new baby sister. They’ve nicknamed the baby “Jo-Jo” and are hoping to eventually adopt her. Joan Siegel When she was six, Joan Siegel, Director of Cross System Child Planning, had a friend who’d been adopted as an infant; Siegel made up her mind then and there to become an adoptive parent one day. As a single woman living in Manhattan and an 11-year-employee of ACS, it took until last year for Siegel to feel as if the time was right. “I felt financially secure and I felt that I was ready,” Siegel says. “Every child should have a parent.” As a participant in a matching conference, lending her expertise to the question of why certain youth do not get placed quickly, Siegel learned of teenage Kathy, who was living in a residential treatment
Christopher Nelson (left) receives an Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Council of Negro Women, Brooklyn Section.
center. When they met, the two clicked instantly. “Something about her reminded me of myself at that same age,” says Siegel. “She loves poetry, she’s very creative, and she has a dry sense of humor.” Kathy now makes weekend visits to Siegel’s apartment, but the plan is for her to move in completely at the end of the school year. Though there are plans for independent living after she turns 18, Kathy knows that she is welcome to reside with Siegel for as long as she wants. The location of that home, however, may soon change. Siegel is now looking for a larger apartment with the goal of fostering another child, maybe more.
CLASSY CUBICLES How can you not stop and gawk at Cathy Anderson’s cubicle, located on the fourth floor at 150 William Street? Anderson, a Principal Administrative Associate in the Division of Family Permanency Services, changes décor several times a year, and we checked out her space during Black History Month. “I’m an artist and I work with fabric outside work,” said the 20-year ACS veteran. “I like decorating and while I’m here, it makes me feel more like I’m at home.” Anderson says she buys new decorations and materials to completely change the décor and to highlight themes like Women’s History month in March and Music Month in June. Do you have an interesting workspace? Let us know via email to [email protected]. Cathy Anderson surrounded by colorful designs at work.
WINNERS CHOSEN IN SLOGAN CONTEST both Gita Thadhani, Mental Health Policy Coordinator, Office of Clinical Policy, and Antwuan Walker, Employment Initiative Coordinator, Office of Youth Development • Be the Hero of a Child’s Story. Become a Foster or Adoptive Parent. Submitted by Dean Chisholm, Operations Manager, Office of the General Counsel All four winners dined with the Commissioner and Alexandra Lowe, Special Advisor in Family Permanency Services, who spearheaded the contest. Twenty other Children’s Services staffers submitted slogans which made it into the finalist category. They enjoyed a celebratory lunch in the Commissioner’s conference room. The other finalists were:
Dining with the Commissioner, standing: Dean Chisholm and Gitanjali "Gita" Thadhani; sitting, left-right: Antwuan Walker, Commissioner Mattingly, Michele Weinstat and Alexandra Lowe.
If the emails you now receive from staff throughout ACS contain a slogan or tagline promoting foster and adoptive parenting, many of your colleagues are to thank for this positive promotion on behalf of children in our care. Choosing from more than 250 creative and thoughtful entries, Commissioner Mattingly and a committee of adoptive/foster parents at Children’s Services narrowed the field to three top tag lines designed to encourage people to become foster or adoptive parents. The winners joined the Commissioner for lunch, which took place April 11 at Les Halles Bistro. The three winning taglines are: • Give the Gift of Family. Become a Foster or Adoptive Parent. Submitted by Michele Weinstat, Associate General Counsel • There’s No Place Like Your Home. Call 311 to Become a Foster or Adoptive Parent. Submitted independently by
Colleen Britton
Josh Maryles
Jim Cipollone
Jenny Nakas
Diane Coombs-Lee
Jorge Pastor
Donette Hendricks
Evelyn Rodriguez
Tamara Dreisinger
Hector Seda
Ekanem Ekpo
Joan Siegel
Tasha Ganthier
Robert Sisko
Lisa Goldman
Lenore Smith
Dorien Gottlieb
Natashae Stewart
Lisa Jones Again, thanks to everyone who gave this slogan their thoughtful attention and to all of you who are out there spreading the word about our need for good, strong foster and adoptive families. Call 212-676-WISH, if you’re interested in becoming a foster/adoptive parent. 7
ACS Employees Honored for 25 Years of Service Children’s Services is fortunate to have many employees who have given a quarter-century of their lives or more in dedication to the agency. On May 11, 2007, ACS honored 84 employees for their longtime service to Children’s Services, and its predecessor agencies. The following staff members of ACS’s family received recognition: Children’s Services employees with 25 or more years employment at the agency gather on Employee Recognition Day.
25 Years Diane Connolly Donna McClymont Edgar Vinces Odessa Collins Lamont Finley Deborah George Karen Green Angela Hugee Delone Lee Robert Rhodes, Jr. Patricia Rivers George Rose Joan Small Alan Stewart Lorna Torrence Phoenix Carmen Cruz Marie Fougere Nelida Jimenez
Olga Santos Monica Scott Daryle Brantley Clyde Roper Milagros Rosas-Marrero Arlene Fahie Melanie Levin Janice Haley Cheryl Howard Christina Peebles Judy Perry George Stewart Larry Thomas Jeffrey Wade Vernon Gibson Victoria Gibbons Janet Gottlieb Gary Krumm Daniel Friedman
Children’s Services Update NYC Administration for Children’s Services 150 William Street, NY, NY 10038
Children’s Services Update is published by the ACS Office of Communications Suggestions? Comments? Contact 212/341-0999, or visit our Web site: www.nyc.gov/acs
Charlotte Bailey Everett Wattley Kevin Dewitt 30 Years Minnie Dixon Floria Jones Ethelyn McCalla Ruth Collins Carolyn Fields Roy King Samuel Kosofsky Mary Ogarro Arthur Goldman Herman Margulies 35 Years Carolyn Brooks Norman Johnson
Earnestine Barnes Rose Green Carolyn Matthews Willa McKendrick Yolanda Rivera Mildred Denny Cynthia Grant Emma Scott Gregory Weir Tzvi Atik Ethel Brown Peter Harris Carrie Conyers-Marable John Evans Marvin German Valarie Gilbert Larry Johnson Josefina Torres Renee Dimolfetta
Anita Moore Maxine Tibbs Lynda Campbell Thomas Welsh 40 Years David Roper Glen Shane Madge Allen Joyce Waldon Diane Davis Bernice Jarrett Hollace Stillman Iris Morales Joan Weiss
Place stamp here