Greetings!
HFH is splashing into summer with HFH Summer Camps. This July, HFH Summer Camps will be welcoming back campers for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recruitment Events painted a picture of Camp Wakonda for parents and children alike, getting them jazzed for the full camp experience. HFH staff volunteers, from HR to Afterschool and Recreation staff, took a road trip to Camp to plant the seeds for a beautiful summer. With the help of New York State Parks, the Village Community School, and long-time collaborator Old Navy, campers will have the opportunity to experience renovated cabins and bathrooms with all the items necessary for Camp fun. Our Early Childhood Education Centers sent their 3-K and Pre-K learners off to Pre-K and kindergarten in the annual "Moving Up Ceremonies," and Allie's Place Early Childhood Education Center is now open to Allie's Place residents and the community. In our most recent Staff Spotlights, we applaud and appreciate the dedication of our wonderful HFH staff members across numerous sites and departments. Catch up on the latest from our HFH Research and Policy team. In Afterschool and Recreation programming, students have explored different methods of artistic expression while furthering their reading comprehension and self reflection skills. Students enrolled in Allie's Place Center for Culinary Education & Employment job-training courses try their hand at baking. In our next newsletter, be sure to look out for updates and photos from HFH Summer Camps, Summer Day Camp, and an array of other activities that will be hosted at HFH sites for families living at the shelters and in the surrounding communities.
|
|
HFH Summer Camps Gear Up for a Fun-filled Summer |
|
The incredible HFH Summer Camps team has been working tirelessly to ensure that Summer 2022 is the best yet. Earlier this month, a group of HFH staff volunteers traveled to Camp Wakonda to plant a beautiful garden with a variety of herbs, vegetables, and flowers. The Camps Team held informational (and fun!) Camp Recruitment Events, allowing families to learn more about Camp while enjoying an arts and crafts activity.
HFH collaborators and donors have pitched in once again. In March, the New York State Parks team generously added new roofs to cabins, renovated the bathrooms, constructed a deck for the director's cabin, and updated the laundry room. The Village Community School hosted yet another successful donation drive, providing HFH campers with camp essentials from swimsuits to summer journals. Old Navy held a T-shirt drive and donated various clothing items in anticipation of the 2022 HFH Summer Camps season.
Summer 2022 will be a transformative return to normalcy, providing children and staff with the opportunity to experience Camp once again. This summer also marks HFH's first ever Family Camp session, where parents and children can enjoy the magic of Camp together.
|
|
Early Childhood Education: Reflections and New Beginnings |
|
Our Early Childhood Education Centers celebrated the accomplishments of this year's 3-K and Pre-K classes with heartwarming Moving Up & Graduation Ceremonies. In their time with HFH, these students have had the opportunity to learn, grow, and play in a supportive and fun environment. Our ECEC students have built a strong foundation for a lifetime of learning through their dedicated teachers and collaborators that have supplemented their learning and play from gymnastics with New York Tumble Bus to color theory exploration with the National Enrichment Group.
|
|
Allie's Place Early Childhood Education Center is now open to Allie's Place residents and members of the surrounding community. With 3-K and Pre-K programs, our youngest learners will have a brand-new space to experience supervised playtime, yoga, soccer, music classes, and much more.
|
|
Spotlights on HFH's Dedicated and Incredible Staff |
|
At HFH, we are extremely lucky to have a team of dedicated and compassionate staff members. This season, we highlighted three of our staff who go above and beyond in their work with HFH.
Charima Thompson, who worked her way up from Safety Aide at Prospect to Housing Specialist at Allie's Place, has used her roles to "give back to others experiencing similar hardships that she faced in the past." Hilda Figueroa, a housekeeper at Saratoga for nearly three decades, is well known for her "hard work, friendliness, and meticulous attention to detail." Carlos Santos is an Accounting Manager at HFH Central Office who takes his job to heart because of the "opportunity to guide a new generation of accountants."
|
|
HFH Research and Policy Team Publishes Timeline Poster and Prepares to Host Webinar |
|
On August 9, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm EDT, HFH and ICPH will host a free webinar—“Creating a Community of Care: Co-Sheltering Families and Their Pets." Enrich your experience of the Beyond Housing magazine by joining speakers from URI to learn about their innovative People and Animals Living Safely (PALS) program and ways providers can begin incorporating pets into their services for homeless families. Register now.
|
|
NYC Family Homelessness, From Koch to DeBlasio
The HFH policy team created a poster of a timeline detailing the homelessness policies of the past five mayoralties correlated with the number of homeless families in NYC from 1981 to 2021. To view and download the timeline, visit bit.ly/ICPH_Timeline, or If you would like a hard copy of the 18 X 24-inch poster, please email INFO@ICPHusa.org. Available while supplies last.
|
|
Afterschool & Recreation Dives into the "Art" of Learning |
|
Recent Afterschool & Recreation programming has given students the space to express themselves through various artistic mediums and learn more about the importance and power of the arts.
Scripts written by Saratoga students were performed at the annual Writopia Worldwide Plays Festival. For the "Saratoga Sillies Project," Saratoga team members created clay figures based on various students, who then used the figures to create a story based on their own experiences with homelessness. Also at Saratoga, a group of students celebrated National Poetry Month with the creation of a booklet of poems based around the theme "I Am Who I Am."
Allie's Place held a Book Fair, allowing students to choose from a variety of books including the Harry Potter series, dictionaries, and cookbooks donated by Allie’s Place Center for Culinary Education & Employment. At Prospect, students honed their reading comprehension skills and celebrated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a reading of Dear Juno by Soyung Pak. To ensure personalized programming for students, parents and staff at Allie's Place gathered for a Parent Workshop, where they brainstormed programming ideas together.
|
|
Baking at Allie's Place Center for Culinary Education & Employment |
|
Students at Allie's Place Center for Culinary Education & Employment have the opportunity to learn a diverse range of culinary skills, including a recent baking session. The Center is currently enrolling HFH residents—as well as residents from the broader Soundview community—in these job-training courses. To learn more or apply, visit: HFHnyc.org/culinary. |
|
|
|
As always, our work wouldn't be possible without the staff, partners, volunteers, and supporters who ensure that Homes for the Homeless can continue to provide support for over 725 children and their families.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
