Congratulations to Knock Knock Give a Sock and its founder, Adina Lichtman, winners of the third NextGen Innovation Award!

Knock Knock Give a Sock (KKGS) aims to humanize homelessness "one sock at a time" by turning transactions of sock donations into meaningful interactions where neighbors can get to know one another.

Adina founded KKGS while an undergrad at NYU in 2016 with two goals in mind: to collect and distribute socks and to help housed neighbors and unhoused neighbors get to know each other.

She works with corporations all over the US and Canada to run sock drives in partnership with shelters in their local communities, then coordinates "get to know your neighbor" events where the people who donated the socks can get to know their neighbors living at the shelter.

To date, KKGS has distributed more than a million pairs of socks and hosted 75 "get to know your neighbor" events. The organization also hires New Yorkers living in shelters to distribute socks around the city through their job program.

The organization envisions a world where individuals of all socio-economic backgrounds share, listen, and ultimately know their neighbors, leading to stronger communities.

When the pandemic hit, the "get to know your neighbor" events had to be suspended, but Adina found a new way to help different communities get to know each other and share their stories: she wrote and published two children's books!

The books are available for purchase now and aim to humanize homelessness for those living in homes and teach children that everyone can make a difference regardless of where they live.

Adina plans to use the $5,000 award to pay for the book illustrations. We are very proud to play a role in this endeavor.

"The NextGen Innovation Award was launched to help young professionals bring their creative ideas around homelessness to fruition,” explained NCS CEO Ann Shalof. "Knock Knock Give a Sock and Ms. Lichtman are exactly the kind of winners we envisioned, and we are excited to help support the book project. We share their goal of destigmatizing homelessness by helping neighbors get to better know each other."

“With the NCS award, we will finally be able to achieve our mission of humanizing homelessness during a time when we can't bring our neighbors together,” Adina shared. “This award allows us to share our neighbors’ stories through these impactful books! I am honored to have been chosen by NCS for this award, and can't wait to see the impact that these books will have on children changing the world.”

Congratulations to Adina and everyone at Knock Knock Give a Sock!

A year and a half ago New York City shut down and more than 600,000 New Yorkers lost their jobs. We want to celebrate three tenants at our Upper East Side NCS Residence who, despite the obstacles we all faced, continued working through the pandemic.

S is in his 80s and has worked at an Upper East Side animal hospital for more than ten years. He cleans the cages and walks the dogs that are there for grooming appointments or are boarding for a few days. Prior to the pandemic he worked full time, but with fewer New Yorkers bringing their pets regularly for grooming, his hours were reduced to two days a week. He has no interest in retiring any time soon but said that he does now prefer his new part-time schedule.

Donna began working at Old Navy in 2019 (you can read her story in the January 2021 Newsletter) but was furloughed when the pandemic began and stores closed. She was anxious to get back to work and get out of her apartment, where she was feeling isolated and depressed. Thankfully, stores reopened last summer. Not only did Donna return to work at Old Navy, she was promoted and transferred to the UES store!

When Corinthian was hired as a custodian at a family shelter in the Bronx in 2018, working full-time gave him a sense of responsibility. The job became even more important to him last year as he took pride in being an essential worker and loved being able to go out and safely interact with others.

“I get up every single morning and have somewhere to be,” he shared last year when most people were staying in their homes. “It’s a good feeling to go outside and to be needed somewhere. It feels good to clean, to do the right thing, and to get paid for it.”

Throughout the pandemic, Monique Phillips, the Program Manager at the NCS Residence has guided these three clients, along with the others, to remain vigilant and to always wear their masks, wash their hands and socially distance when possible.

“At the NCS residence 67% of the tenants are vaccinated and so it’s become more of a struggle to get them to wear masks in the building,” she shared. “I try to remind them that they need to be mindful and respectful of their fellow residents and that they can still get COVID even after being vaccinated. I impress upon them the importance of doing this, not only in the Residence, but also while out, whether they’re socializing or at work.”

Congratulations to S, Donna, and Corinthian for working through the pandemic and thank you to Monique and the rest of the staff at the Residence for keeping the clients safe.

This summer, you donated more than $2,000 to the Futures Fund! THANK YOU! The Futures Fund helps NCS’ young adult residents overcome obstacles blocking their path toward education, employment, and independent housing, and it is doing just that thanks to your support!

The official fundraiser is over, but it's never too late to help our clients reach their goals. You can support the Futures Fund today (or any time) at www.ncsinc.org/futures-fund.