Masthead

FEBRUARY 2013

In This Issue:
Celebrating a Book Launch
Grant for Gym Renovations
Tour Our Campus- Virtually!


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Restoring Sanctuary

Now Available! 

 

Oxford University Press has just released Restoring Sanctuary, co-written by ANDRUS COO Brian Farragher and Dr. Sandra Bloom of Drexel University. The third volume of three addressing trauma-informed systems of care for vulnerable populations, Restoring Sanctuary offers new hope for the future to organizations committed to delivering transformative services.   

 

To order, click here.  

 

Drawing upon decades of experience in human service organizations, Bloom and Farragher open Chapter One with a challenge to readers to apply their imaginations. We use the word "Sanctuary" to describe a place where injured people - and that includes all of us in some way or another - are able to heal through the supportive care of others. Sanctuaryis a place where our tendencies toward violence and vengeance have been subdued, where individual and collective powers are used to bring about a better life and a better world. Sanctuary is a place of joy and creative innovation, of sympathy and solace, and of transformation. The book explores the concept that organizations are living systems that react to stress and pain and success much like individuals. Understanding the impact of trauma and loss on the people within the system as well as the system itself promotes a truly trauma-informed system of care.

 

"Sandy and I are very pleased to be presenting this new volume," said Brian Farragher.  "We are committed to finding creative ways to promote the dialogue about trauma-informed treatment and the Sanctuary model of care.  Organizational stress is a huge obstacle to effective care for children and families.  We like to think of this book as a user-friendly guide that offers a practical approach to organizational change and a hopeful message that growth and change is possible for all of us."

 

Restoring Sanctuary chronicles the revolutionary changes in our mental health and human service delivery systems in recent years as the traditional social compact has frayed. Fiscal precariousness, service constraints and complex social problems have induced stress and powerlessness in systems committed to providing care. The first volume in the trilogy, Creating Sanctuary, documented the evolution of The Sanctuary Model's therapeutic approach as an antidote to the personal and social trauma that clients bring to child welfare agencies, psychiatric hospitals, and residential facilities. Volume two, Destroying Sanctuary details the destructive role of organizational trauma in the nation's systems of care. Restoring Sanctuary is a manual for organizational change that addresses the deep roots of toxic stress and illustrates how to transform a dysfunctional human service system into a safe, secure, trauma informed environment of healing and hope.

 

Book Party 
February 28 
To celebrate the release of the book, ANDRUS will be hosting a community conversation, "Creating Safety in an Unsafe World", on Thursday, February 28 at 5:30pm at the Citicorp Center in New York City. Panelists include the co-authors Sandra Bloom and Brian Farragher along with Susan Dreyfus, CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families. To view the invitation, click here.  
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Support
McGee Hall Renovations


ANDRUS is thrilled that The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has announced a grant of $62,000 to ANDRUS in support of the renovation of the McGee Hall gymnasium, completed this past December. The grant concludes a three year campaign to raise funds to renovate the building, expand capacity for use and incorporate options for adaptive physical education.

 

"We are very grateful for the Weinberg Foundation's support of this project," said ANDRUS CEO Nancy Woodruff Ment. "They understand the significance of this facility in the lives of our children and their grant is a vote of confidence in our work. With the foundation's support and the help of our other donors, we have been able to make important improvements in a facility that plays a vital role in the life of our campus."

 

The 6,000 square foot gym is the largest indoor meeting space on ANDRUS' 107-acre campus. The gym is currently used for indoor sports, school assemblies, large meetings, conferences, concerts and the annual graduation ceremony for the Orchard School, ANDRUS' K-9 special education program. The renovations include new bleachers, beams, flooring, upgraded lighting and a new AC/heating system.

 

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. The Foundation's sole purpose is to assist disadvantaged and vulnerable populations through operating, program, and capital grants to direct service organizations primarily located in Maryland, Hawaii, northeastern Pennsylvania, Israel, and the Former Soviet Union.  

Take a Virtual Tour of CAMPUS

Wondering what our 107 acre main campus has to offer? Want a glimpse inside our classrooms and residential cottages? We have posted a new virtual tour on our website! Click here to check it out.

About ANDRUS

ANDRUS provides support and treatment for 2,500 children and their families throughout Westchester suffering from emotional illness and trauma. The agency offers prevention, assessment, educational, treatment and research programs that help children and families achieve healthy, stable lives.  ANDRUS has grown from its origins as an orphanage into a premier non-profit mental health, social service and special education provider and resource for Westchester.