About Us

Over 200 Years

of Innovation and Support

Our Mission
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Our Mission

Life-Altering Support Fueled by Collaboration

Graham provides life-changing tools and resources for children, young adults, and families who face some of the most difficult obstacles caused by poverty, racial injustice, and lack of access to educational opportunities, living wage employment, quality healthcare, and affordable housing.

We collaborate with communities and strong partners to create and implement innovative strategies so everyone can lead healthy, joyful, and successful lives.

Our Vision

Community Alternatives to Harmful Systems
  • Develop alternatives to foster care that eliminate harm
  • In partnership with community, provide support for family wellbeing
  • Help youth and families lead healthy, prosperous lives
  • Advance our thriving One Graham culture

View our Vision 2029 plan.

What We Do

Comprehensive Support for Children, Young Adults, and Families

We provide innovative offerings, supports, and services designed in collaboration with the communities where we work. Our focus areas include family support, education and career coaching, academic and extracurricular enrichment, mental and behavioral health services, health care management, and foster care and adoption.

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Career, Education, and Parent Coaching

Proven Coaching Models

We provide long-term education and career coaching for young adults through our innovative Graham SLAM initiative, as well as career coaching for community members at O.U.R. Place Family Enrichment Center in Hunts Point. We also offer parent coaching.

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Community Centers: Bronx, Harlem, and Brooklyn

Enriching Community Connections

We collaborate with community members in neighborhoods facing obstacles such as historical disinvestment and structural racism to create environments where children and families thrive. Our community centers and school partnerships are teeming with opportunities for social connection and personal skill development.

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Family and Community Support

Supporting Families and Communities

We support families that are facing life challenges and need extra resources to provide for their children’s well-being. Our Family Support and Empowerment program and School-Based Early Support partnerships help families build connections to positive resources in their community.

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Health and Wellness Services

Healing Support for Families in Crisis

We provide children and families in crisis with space to heal and grow. Our services include family and individual evidence-based mental health therapy, behavioral health services, therapeutic supports, health care management, and connections to resources to help children and families live healthy lives. 

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Innovation and Incubation

A Leading Innovator

We listen, learn, develop, test, and implement data-driven initiatives that address the evolving needs of children, families, and communities. Our innovative initiatives, like Graham SLAM and Family Success, have been replicated across New York City and nationwide.

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Advocating for Alternatives to Harmful Systems

A Passionate Community Advocate

We engage in advocacy work to drive systemic change and reckon with the harm caused by the family regulation system. Our advocacy efforts include community leadership development and policy reform.

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Our Pillars

Pillars That Guide Our Work

Our pillars help us achieve our mission and guide our collaborative work with children, families, and communities. These core values shape everything we do, reflecting our commitment to respect, growth, thriving communities, and leadership.

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Light blue background with the word "RESPECT" in black text

Knowing that Black and Brown people face the worst systemic racism, we are committed to furthering anti-racist efforts centering on anti-Black racism. Progress on anti-Black racism is progress for all. We carry out intentional inclusiveness for all, in celebration of all races, genders, religions, beliefs, sexual orientations, identities, and ethnicities.

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We are committed to continuous self-reflection, self-care, and best practices that promote our growth. We accept that setbacks are part of growth and behavior change and take every opportunity to celebrate progress made by children, youth, families, and ourselves.

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Light green background with the word "THRIVE" in black text

We call for justice for the improvement of communities most harmed by structural oppression and we allow everyone to define their own needs, which may include safety, family, education, health, wellness, opportunity, and a healing environment.

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All of us – children, youth, families, foster parents, staff, and members of the communities we partner with – lead by our words and actions. We take ownership and are accountable for what we do, how we do it, and the results. We own our successes, acknowledge our mistakes, and follow through on our commitments.

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Our History

A Legacy Spanning

Over 200 Years

1806: The Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York

Isabella Graham, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, Joanna Bethune, and Sarah Hoffman found The Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York and start an orphanage in Greenwich Village. The mission of the organization is to care for children who have lost their parents, marking the beginning of Graham Windham’s legacy of service to children, youth, and families facing some of life’s most difficult obstacles.

A collage of the historical portraits depicting the women who initially founded Graham Windham.
1835: The Society for the Relief of Half-Orphan and Destitute Children

Mrs. William A. Tomlinson, Mrs. James Boorman, Mrs. Littlefield, and Mrs. Wheeler establish the Society for the Relief of Half-Orphan and Destitute Children. The organization aims to assist single parents or relatives unable to care for their children due to health issues or financial difficulties.

1902: OAS Moves to Hastings on Hudson

The Orphan Asylum Society moves from New York City to Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County. The new facility utilizes a new form of housing known as the “cottage system” with smaller, home-like residences supervised by house parents. The innovative cottage system acts as a model for many childcare institutions across the country. 

1929: The Graham Name

The Orphan Asylum Society is renamed the Graham School in honor of Isabella Graham and her commitment to the organization.

1946: The Windham Name

The Society for the Relief of Half-Orphan and Destitute Children moves to the Bronx. The organization is renamed the Windham Society for the Care of Boys after its previous location in Windham, New York.

Three children in professional attire smiling for a photo.
1949: Windham Children’s Services

The Windham Society for the Care of Boys merges with Protestant Children’s Services, Inc., becoming the first emergency foster care for babies and children. This organization is also the first to secure placement for African-American children.

After the merger, the organization changes its name to Windham Children’s Services and expands its services over the years, adding an adoption program and a daycare center.

1950: Graham Home for Children

The Graham School is renamed the Graham Home for Children. It becomes the first child welfare organization to care for children regardless of religious affiliation.

1967: The Greenburgh-Graham Union Free District

The New York State Legislature establishes the Greenburgh-Graham Union Free District, offering comprehensive elementary and secondary programs that culminate in a high school diploma for campus residents and other students.

1977: The Merger That Created Graham Windham

The Graham Home and Windham Children’s Services merge, forming Graham Windham. This merger allows the organization to better address the evolving needs of children and families, focusing on preventive services to keep families together and support those in crisis.

1980s:The New York Friends of Graham Windham

Volunteers in Westchester County come together to form the New York Friends of Graham Windham, known today as the Bronxville Friends. The Friends foster community and support the residential students attending the Graham School.

2006: Bicentennial Celebration

Graham Windham celebrates its 200th anniversary with a Bicentennial Ball, attended by notable figures including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush, George Pataki, and Senator Chuck Schumer. This milestone highlights Graham’s enduring commitment to supporting children and families.

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2011: Historical Archives & SBC

Graham Windham transfers its historical archives, spanning over two centuries, to the New York Historical Society. That same year, Graham introduces the Solution-Based Casework (SBC) model to NYC, which focuses on pragmatic solutions to difficult situations.

Old books, notebooks, and pieces of paper laid out on the ground.
2013: New Initiatives

Graham Windham launches the Family Success Initiative and the Forever Families program.

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2014: Graham SLAM

Graham Windham launches the innovative Graham SLAM initiative, which helps youth in foster care successfully transition to adulthood. The initiative provides comprehensive, long-term support to young adults in 8th grade through college or vocational school and onto a living-wage career path by age 26.

A smiling mother puts her arm around her son, who is also smiling and wearing a red graduation gown and cap.
2016: Honoring Eliza Hamilton’s Legacy

At a benefit at the Museum of Modern Art, Graham Windham honors key figures for their support of Eliza Hamilton’s legacy, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, his father Luis A. Miranda, Jr., Hamilton actors Phillipa Soo and Morgan Marcell, and the historian and biographer Ron Chernow.

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2018: O.U.R. Place Family Enrichment Center

The O.U.R. Place Family Enrichment Center opens in Hunts Point, the Bronx. O.U.R. Place is one of three centers included in a pilot project to provide support to families.

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2019: Fair Futures

Graham is instrumental in the creation of Fair Futures, a coalition of 100+ organizations and young adults that successfully advocates for expanding the SLAM model, along with a NY Foundling tutoring approach, to all young adults in foster care across NYC. The City ultimately invests $30M to reach over 3,000 young adults per year.

2020: Scholars of Service

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Graham’s staff are declared essential workers by New York City. The organization shifts resources to provide for the basic needs of community members. Workers deliver groceries, masks, and cleaning supplies directly to the homes of people who must remain quarantined. During the summer of 2020, Graham launches the Scholars of Service initiative, offering paid internship opportunities for young adults.

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2021: Kimberly Hardy Watson Named President & CEO

Kimberly Watson is named President and CEO-elect. Kimberly previously held the titles of COO and Vice President for Foster Care and Adoption at Graham. She is the first Black woman to lead Graham and one of few Black women at the helm of human services organizations in New York.

CEO and President of Graham Windham, Kimberly Watson, standing in a room in between two chairs.
2022: Parents Empowering Parents

ACS brings Parents Empowering Parents to scale across all 26 foster care organizations in NYC. This model, which pairs advocates with parents whose children are in foster care, is largely modeled after Graham’s Family Success Initiative.

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2024: The Reckoning

Graham co-hosts The Reckoning convenings alongside Good Shepherd Services, The New York Foundling, The New York City Narrowing the Front Door Work Group, and the Redlich Horwitz Foundation. This impactful series delves into the history of child welfare, the impact of family surveillance and separation, and ways to end harm and leads to similar conversations in NYC’s child welfare system.

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Our Leadership

The Leaders Behind Our Mission
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Edward Fabian

Chief Administrative Officer

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Daphne Halpern

Chief Development Officer

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Lavern Harry

Vice President for Preventive, Foster Care & Adoption

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Kristen Ragusa

Vice President for Youth Success

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Basil Webster

Chief Financial Officer

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Sharelle Bonilla

Associate Vice President for Family Treatment and Rehabilitation

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Nosa Omoruyi

Associate Vice President for Foster Home Life & Support Services

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Daleisha Robinson

Associate Vice President for Human Resources

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LaNeeka Ross

Associate Vice President for the Enhanced Family Foster Care Program

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Beata Vilar de Queiros

Associate Vice President for Behavioral Health Services

Kenneth Bryant, Co-Chair

Managing Partner

Sidereal Capital Group, LLC

Richard Rothman, Co-Chair

Senior Counsel

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP

John Sargent, Chair Emeritus

Retired Executive

Macmillan Publishing

Georgia Wall, Senior Vice Chair & Chair Emeritus

Attorney

Garrard Beeney, Senior Vice Chair

Partner

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

John Cecil, Senior Vice Chair

Founder

Eagle Knolls Capital

Jacqueline Arthur, Vice Chair

Global Head of Human Capital Management (HCM) and Corporate and Workplace Solutions (CWS)

Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Jennifer Mackesy, Vice Chair

Former Vice President

Lord & Taylor

Kate Swann, Vice Chair

Fractional COO

Max von Zuben, Vice Chair & Treasurer

Partner

Granger Management LLC

Henry Carnage, Assistant Treasurer

Retired Executive

IBM

Sally Durdan, Secretary

Retired Executive

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Heather McVeigh, Assistant Secretary

Coldwell Banker Warburg

Alexandra Ackerman

Clinical Assistant Professor

Department of Psychiatry New York University School of Medicine

Joshua Bank

Executive Vice President

Alloy Entertainment

June Dwyer

Senior Vice President

Head of Broker Management (Americas), AXA XL

William Gorin

Retired Partner

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Evan Grayer

Co-Founder

Simple Networks

Joan Haffenreffer

Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer for Enterprise Service & Public Affairs

Citi

Adam Hemlock

Partner

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP

Ju-Hon Kwek

Senior Partner

McKinsey & Co

Barbara Marcus

President and Publisher

Random House Children’s Books

Nicole Levin Mesard

Deputy Presiding Partner

Debevoise & Plimpton

Eyal Shemesh, M.D.

Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry Chief, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Health, Department of Pediatrics and Kravis Children’s Hospital

Mount Sinai Medical Center

India Sneed-Williams, Esq., MBA

Founder

IQEQ Law

Kelly Sullivan

Partner

Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

Nogie Udevbulu

Global Head of Research, Data & Analytics for ETF and Index Investments

BlackRock

Michael Ainslie

Suzanne Ainslie

Suzy Bales

Barbara Carr

Richard DeMartini

Robert Ferrari

James Gorman

Thomas H. Haines

John C. Hanson

Carmen Paolercio

Elizabeth Sargent

Harriet Savage

Diane Schlinkert

Leo Schlinkert

Richard Stewart

Sandra Trim-DaCosta

H. M. Baird Voorhis

Careers

Join The Team

With over 400 full-time employees supporting children, young adults, and families in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Harlem, at Graham, exciting career opportunities are always available. Learn what it’s like to work at Graham and browse open opportunities.

Careers

Our Partners

Together With Our Partners

We collaborate with community organizations throughout NYC that share our values in helping children, families, and communities thrive.

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Get Involved

Be Part of the Change

My Section

Your support helps us reach more children, families, and communities with life-altering resources. Explore ways to get involved with Graham. 

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