Brooklyn Child and Family Services

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Leadership And Governance

Staffing
Our team and family support services and aftercare program staff collaborate to provide the best possible services for our families. Program staff includes our center’s Housing Specialist, Marie Northover (MPA NYU), Family Services Coordinator, Linda Perez (BA Hunter), and Program Director, Katya Rattray (MBA U of Miami), Shelter Director Vanessa Boucher (BA Rutgers) all of whom have extensive experience in working with the population of homeless families. In addition, our Day Care Director, Joan Lasley-Grant (BA Medgar-Evers), assists our families with their day care needs both at our center and during their transition to their own apartments. These staff members are employed full time and dedicate a portion of their time to the family support services and aftercare program. We have also brought on a part time aftercare specialist, Tiffany Neal, to assist our families in their transition to permanent housing by dedicating her focus to home visits and community referrals. As the main goals of the center is permanent housing placements for our residents, these staff members’ previously established relationships with our young women, particularly around issues regarding securing permanent housing, greatly aid in their work providing follow-up care once they have moved out.

The talented and committed management team at BCAFS has extensive experience in dealing with the needs of at-risk populations and strongly believes in using an asset-based community development model. We strive to work with participants and the community at-large to build on our collective strength, experience and resources. We stress the importance for staff and program participants to engage in goal setting, and participatory and reflective evaluation. We make every effort to incorporate mutual respect and learning into our programs and policies. We also strongly believe in bringing people together in order to define and make change, and we are actively working to strengthen our collaborations within the community in order to bring fresh assets to our programs. Our philosophy fosters an environment of learning and continuous staff improvement by offering professional development training and tuition reimbursement in order to encourage the ongoing development of workplace skills.

Board of Governors
Our Board of Directors is comprised of an Advisory Board and eight active members some of whom live in the communities we serve. The Board of Directors meets quarterly and plays an important role in shaping policy and supporting new initiatives. Our Policy Council also supports our organization and is comprised of program participants and other community members organized to enhance services, program policies, and special initiatives. The Board, staff and participants work closely together to promote an atmosphere of mutual support and continuous program improvement.

Staff and Community
BCAFS has extensive experience providing young parent education and family support services to our community. We partner with parents and community service organizations to provide comprehensive, individualized family strengthening programming. Staff offer our families interactive child development activities, crisis intervention, short-term counseling, case management, independent living skills, prenatal and health education, referrals, and advocacy. Our specialized workshops address topics that are relevant to the community residents’ lives such as: career and educational resources, goal setting, health education, nutrition, advocacy, budgeting, domestic violence, and parenting skills. Recent successes include parents obtaining employment, returning to school, obtaining general education diplomas (GED), acquiring public entitlements, housing, increasing their knowledge of childhood education, nutrition, health, and improving their parenting skills.

Our staff, many of whom are from the community we serve, is comprised of 80 full-time staff, 23 part-time staff, and over 200 volunteers. These dedicated individuals partner closely with families and neighborhood services to provide a holistic, comprehensive model of service delivery. Our unique model draws on the strengths, expertise and resources of the surrounding neighborhood we serve. Many of our staff are intimately familiar with the area’s needs and resources. Staff members are well grounded in the realities of the community and understand that BCAFS addresses a fundamental need to support and strengthen children and families. We also rely on our volunteer corps, which includes parents of the children in our daycare, community members, and senior citizens. Our volunteers provide valuable guidance in terms of policies and program design and have become integral elements of our program activities.