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“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.

New initiatives to serve over 13,000 young New Yorkers with employment, training, and education support in the face of economic downturn
Newly released Disconnected Youth Task Force report provides a long-term strategy to keep them on a path towards economic and career success

At a virtual rally on January 22, advocates and city lawmakers called on de Blasio to provide $20 million in baseline funding to keep the program going.
“If it’s not baselined this year, the city could leave thousands of young people high and dry without support,” said youth advocate Ericka Francois. “Having the support of an adult sticking behind you and connecting you to the resources you need can change lives.”