Rise is working with child welfare agencies to operationalize these recommendations. This work began at Graham Windham, when participants in the writing group decided to share their suggestions in a letter to the agency’s leadership. To their surprise, both Rise and the agency took their ideas seriously and their words led to change. Now, four years later, Graham has a parent handbook. Its waiting room walls are covered in the informational posters and handouts, developed by Rise parent leaders, that explain parents’ rights and roles in visits. A parent advocate reviews both of these tools one-on-one with parents soon after their children are placed in foster care. These changes have contributed to the agency achieving top reunification outcomes in New York City.

Jess Dannhauser, President and CEO of Graham Windham, and Pilar Laurancuent, Director of the Graham SLAM coaching program at Graham Windham, talk about the Fair Futures campaign to secure $50 million in funding for a coaching program for youth who age out of foster care at 21. Joining them is Selwyn Bernardez, a former youth in foster care and participant in the Graham SLAM program, to talk about his experience in the system.

“The many young people and organizations that make up the Fair Futures Coalition are thrilled,” said Jess Dannhauser, President and CEO of the human services nonprofit Graham Windham, in an email to the Chronicle on behalf of the Fair Futures campaign. “We are very grateful to the City Council for its tireless advocacy and to the de Blasio Administration for including this investment in the budget. New York City is leading the way nationally. It is also sending a clear message to young people in or transitioning from foster care that the City believes in them and their futures.”

“It’s all of our jobs at Graham to build a culture where families are respected, heard and spoken to compassionately and honestly.” Dannhauser says his agency has been able to hire and retain advocates because it is an organizational priority. Since creating its Family Success Initiative in 2014, Graham has grown from a single parent advocate to four full-time “Family Coaches” who are life-experienced in facing the child welfare system. ACS funding through its contracts would enable the program to grow.

Two inspiring young people from Graham Windham who identify as LGBTQ talk about how their Graham SLAM coaches changed – and even saved – their lives.

Eliza Hamilton poured her energy into founding a free school and an orphanage in New York to help children in need.

“It’s extraordinary,” said Jess Dannhauser, the CEO of Graham Windham, a foster care agency and member of the coalition that pushed for the city to fund Fair Futures program. “It’s a miracle, after the budget was finalized.” The surprising reversal caps months of frantic advocacy to save the program, which supporters say is a lifeline for young people transitioning out of foster care into adult life.

Plans to close the 214-year-old program, which was formerly the Eliza Hamilton orphanage featured in the live-action play “Hamilton,” has been in the works for about a year, but the pandemic sped up the plans, CEO Jess Dannhauser said.
“This decision comes as a result of a combination of good public policy to serve more children in families and near home, not-so-good public policy that has devalued the extraordinary staff that do this work, financial challenges and a strategic decision on our part to focus more of our efforts on community-based help to families,” Dannhauser said.

Eliza Hamilton’s orphanage is expanding in Downtown Brooklyn. The family services agency Graham Windham has signed a 6,000-square-foot lease at 25 Chapel St., brokerage Transwestern Real Estate Services announced Monday.
…[The] new Downtown Brooklyn location will focus on providing critical preventative services. The office layout will have workspaces that meet social distancing requirements and a technology infrastructure to allow people to work remotely.

New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services is launching a pilot program to expand the use of parent advocates who have experience dealing with the foster care system and can support mentor parents whose children are currently in foster care.
The “Parents Supporting Parents” initiative will be launched at two nonprofits, Graham Windham and Rising Ground, which will each include parent advocates in their foster care case planning teams. Parent advocates will be able to help parents understand how family court works, to provide emotional support and other practical support throughout the process. Rise, an advocacy organization which focuses on supporting parents involved with the child welfare system, will provide training and coaching to advocates as well.