Learn more about our history and mission in this great interview with Luis A. Miranda, Jr. founding partner at MirRam Group and Jeffrey Seller, producer of Hamilton: An American Musical via The Charlie Rose Show.
Watch this first look at Sharing Our Stories: The Eliza Project, a 10 minute Short Documentary about the inception, purpose and hopeful legacy of The Eliza Project, co-founded by Philippa Soo (original ‘Eliza Hamilton,’ Hamilton) and Morgan Marcell. Featuring Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Lin-Manuel Miranda and our students.
The portrait, which hung at the Graham School in New York since the early 1900s, is the first artifact related to Eliza Hamilton in the D.C. museum’s collection. “The connection between Eliza Hamilton and the musical Hamilton shows philanthropy’s collaborative power and the American ideals of participation, resourcefulness and shared responsibility that continue to shape a distinctive form of giving in our nation,” said John Gray, the Elizabeth MacMillan director of the National Museum of American History. A video of the discussion about the connection between Eliza Hamilton’s and the Hamilton cast’s philanthropic efforts with Graham via The Eliza Project is available in here.
Commissioner David A. Hansell was joined by Graham Windham CEO Jess Dannhauser, ACS and provider agency staff and community leaders for the launch of Graham’s “O.U.R. Place,” the first of three innovative Family Enrichment Centers in NYC to provide families and communities with comprehensive services. Named by community members O.U.R. (Organizing to be United + Resilient) Place is located in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx and is managed by Graham. The New York Times got a preview of O.U.R. Place a few weeks ago and it was prominently featured here.
“Our space is your space. When someone walks in, we greet them. We’re not taking notes, we’re not asking a lot of personal questions or judging you,” says Lopez, director of this novel support program operated by the family and youth services nonprofit Graham Windham, which has contracted with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to help stem the tide of child abuse referrals.
“Here at Graham Windham, a youth development and family organization located in New York City, we rely heavily on data and ways to elicit information from our participants and staff and use the information to improve practices and change our systems. As a result, we are evolving to meet the needs of the populations we serve.”
“We can no longer accept poor life outcomes for youth in foster care. And, we don’t have to,” said Jess Dannhauser, president of Graham Windham, a child welfare provider in the city, in the statement released this morning. “These type of academic, career and social supports are commonplace for most NYC kids whose families have access to these resources but are still not the norm for most young people leaving foster care in NYC.”
“With more than 25,000 young people in foster care in New York City, it is more important to provide a pathway to success to these children starting at a young age. The Graham SLAM program provides the support, the mentorship and the life coaching necessary for these young people to achieve their goals in life and to provide access to opportunities that they would otherwise never know about.”
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.