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NEW YORK, NY — Graham Windham, one of the oldest and most innovative child caring and family service organizations in the United States, has named Kimberly “Kym” Hardy Watson as its new President & CEO, the organization announced today.
Ms. Watson has over three decades of experience working directly with New York families, most recently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Graham Windham. Today’s announcement marks a historic moment in the institution’s 215-year history as an African American woman takes the helm for the first time. Ms. Watson will start as President in March, and as CEO later this year with a bold vision for expanding Graham’s presence in local communities and working with other leaders in NYC to create an inclusive, unbiased approach to helping families keep their children safe, dismantling racism in the child welfare system.”

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, schools across the nation were forced to reconfigure established modes of education. The choices of New York City’s public schools—the largest school district in the nation—reverberate throughout the lives of over one million students; the effects of these decisions most severely impact traditionally disadvantaged communities.
Graham Windham, a nonprofit that assists children and families, has also stepped in to alleviate the disproportionate challenges that West Harlem students are facing. Based in the Manhattanville Community Center, Graham Windham’s West Harlem after-school program has partnered with the Department of Education through the DOE’s new Learning Bridges program.

NEWS12 THE BRONX – O.U.R. Place Family Enrichment Center is providing a supportive place for families to connect. The center provides community and youth activities as well as health, financial and housing workshops. Its goal is to reduce child welfare involvement by supporting and working with Bronx residents to provide resources and services based on the needs of the community. The center is also part of the city’s Children for Administrative Services. It has been serving the Longwood and Hunts Point neighborhoods since 2017. The community says the center has served as a valuable resource during the height of the coronavirus pandemic by distributing food and other supplies.

THE HILL – In America, child poverty is a chronic problem. Nearly 11 million children in America are poor. That’s 1 in 7 kids. The majority of these children are Black and brown. The grip of poverty is unrelenting — and the more families grow closer to the brink of crisis, the more likely their children are to come into contact with the foster care system like my siblings and I. I’ve seen it in both my personal and professional life — poverty is too often conflated with neglect. If families simply had the financial means to care for their children how they want to, we could circumvent thousands of families entering the child welfare system.

Greg Berman, NYNMEDIA -Graham Windham is one of the oldest social service agencies in New York City, dating back to its founding in 1806 by a group of women that included Eliza Hamilton, the widow of Alexander Hamilton. The agency made history again just a few weeks ago when it announced that Kym Hardy Watson would be its new president and CEO. Kym is the first woman of color to lead Graham Windham in the agency’s 215-year history.

Kay Dervishi, NYNMEDIA -New York City’s recently passed budget includes increased funding for a mentorship program for foster youth, with $20 million allocated for this fiscal year and $12 million to continue funding it in subsequent years.
The Fair Futures initiative, which provides life coaches to support foster youth, launched in 2019 with $10 million in funding. The program was nearly dropped last year as a result of budget constraints brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic before being allocated $2.7 million in the budget, though the city Administration for Children’s Services managed to find about $9 million to keep it afloat.

HARPER’S BAZAAR -Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan paid a visit to the central Harlem elementary school for an outdoor reading event where Meghan read from her debut children’s book, The Bench. The Sussexes were joined by New York City Public Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter for the visit, meant to highlight the school’s initiatives and to promote early literacy in young students.

Kym Hardy Watson, the first Black woman to helm Graham Windham in its 215-year history, shares her journey.

SOUTH BRONX TOMORROW -Funded by the city Administration for Children’s Services and the Graham Windham nonprofit, O.U.R. Place is an ACS “family enrichment center,” part of a program that began rolling out in the Bronx and Brooklyn in 2017.
This summer, nine more enrichment centers are slated to open across the city. In the coming years, plans call for creating another 21 centers.