2015-03-09

I know that many of you came to foster care through "You’ve Gotta Believe" (YGB) and I’ve noticed that they seem to have an ability to recruit smart, social-justice minded people.  Here’s a letter they sent out (and is posted with their permission):

Subject: We Need Your Help

Dear YGB Parent(s)

Much as we do not like to impose upon you for anything because you have already done so much for our youth and we are grateful to you for that - we now need your help.  We are deeply concerned that it appears as though the Administration for Childrens Services (ACS)  plans to discontinue all funding forspecialized recruitment services for teens, which means that YGB will not be
funded by the city to do our critical work after 3/31.This is after our
having had a contract for over 13 years.
During that time we have licensed hundreds of homes and placed hundreds
of our older youth in permanent loving families such as yours.  We are the only agency solely focused on
working with older youth and on providing them with lifetime families, not
temporary foster homes that last only until the youth “age out.”

We are hoping that having the right people hear what a
difference You Gotta Believe! has made to your lives or to the lives of your
children, that this will make a difference to this decision.  We know there is nothing more powerful than
the testimony of parents and youth who have experienced the miracles created by
forming families with older youth.  We
want the Administration to know what they are considering stopping and how this
service does not exist outside of You Gotta Believe.

To that end, we have attached a list of some talking points which
you might wish to use.  We have also
included some questions which might spark some ideas for you to write
about.  We are not creating a form letter
because our families’ stories are too unique and special to be reduced to one
letter.  We really would like you to
write from your heart what a difference YGB has made and what losing our
services would mean to the youth still in care and to many caring families
wanting to plan for these youth.

We have also attached the most important contacts in order
with their contact information for ease of use whether you are calling or
sending emails or writing.  The choice is
yours.   This is coming to you so late because we were
hoping to avoid having to do this, but it now seems essential to our being able
to continue our work at the same level.

Thank you so much for your assistance with this.

Mary T. Keane

Sr. Family Permanency Advocate

Director of LGBT Services

[And here’s their attachments:]

Contact
List for Advocacy

Please
send your remarks to as many of the following as you can.  We truly hope that your voices will make a
difference to the decisions being made.

Note:
When emailing an elected official address use the salutation Honorable or their
elected position before their name, example provided below:

Dear Mayor DeBlasio or Dear Honorable DeBlasio:

Order of Elected or Commissioners to Contact:

ACS – Office of the Commissioner

Email (an online form): http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mailacs.html

Email: Commissioner.Carrion@acs.nyc.gov

Phone: 212-341-0900

Office of the Public Advocate:

Telephone Hotline: (212) 669-7250

Email: GetHelp@pubadvocate.nyc.gov

Address:  1 Centre Street, 15 Floor North.  New York,
NY 10007

Walk-in Office
Hours:  Monday-Friday from
9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Fax: (212) 669-4701

Mayor Bill de Blasio

You may contact Mayor de Blasio by mail, phone,
or submitting a webform message.

Mail: City Hall
New York, NY 10007

PHONE          311 or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC

WEBFORM: HTTP://WWW.NYC.GOV/HTML/STATIC/PAGES/OFFICEOFTHEMAYOR/CONTACT.SHTML

It is critical that you also contact the NYC
Council Speaker Viverito, Chair of the General Welfare Committee Stephen Levin
and all members of the General Welfare Committee. All contact information is
provided below including pertinent staff information.

Council Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito

mviverito@council.nyc.gov

District Office Address

Manhattan

105 East 116th Street New York, NY 10029

Bronx

214 St. Ann’s Ave      Bronx, NY 10454

District Office Phone

Manhattan: 212-828-9800      Bronx:
347-297-4922              Legislative Office Phone         212-788-7210

Also email all other members of the NYC General
Welfare Committee. The GW committee  has direct oversight for ACS.
Councilman Stephen Levin is the chair, please email him and his scheduler and
press person. So they all receive it. Very important. They are below:

Councilman Stephen Levin

Chair of NYC Council
General Welfare Committee

slevin@council.nyc.gov

Also email his scheduler and press person too

Scheduler, Kevin Carroll, at kcarroll@council.nyc.gov

Spokesperson Matt Ojala, at mojala@council.nyc.gov

District Office Address

410 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217

District Office Phone  718-875-5200

Legislative Office Phone         212-788-7348

Other Members of the NYC Council Committee
include Councilmembers Palma, Cabrera, Wills, Richards, Gibson, Johnson,
Menchaca and Torres. Their contact information is below.

Councilwoman Annabel Palma

apalma@council.nyc.gov

Mariela Salazar, Chief
of Staff, msalazar@council.nyc.gov, (718) 792-1140 x. 307

District Office Address

1041 Castle Hill Avenue Bronx, New York 10472

District Office Phone  718-792-1140

Legislative Office Phone         212-788-6853

Councilman Fernando
Cabrera

fcabrera@council.nyc.gov

District Office Address

107 East Burnside Ave Bronx, NY 10453

District Office Phone  347-590-2874

Legislative Office Phone         212-788-7074

Councilman Ruben Wills

rwills@council.nyc.gov or use this form

District Office Address

95-26 Sutphin Blvd Jamaica, NY 11435

District Office Phone  718-206-2068

Legislative Office Phone         212-788-6850

Councilman Donovan
Richards

drichards@council.nyc.gov

Chief of Staff: Puarcha
Edwards  pedwards@council.nyc.gov

Deputy Chief of Staff:
Jerrell Burney  jburney@council.nyc.gov

District Office Address

(Rockaway Office) 1931 Mott Avenue, Suite 410
Far Rockaway, NY 11691 (Laurelton Office) 234-26A Merrick Blvd. Laurelton, NY
11422

District Office Phone  (Rockaway) 718-471-7014 (Laurelton) 718-527-4356

District Office Fax      (Rockaway) 718-327-4794 (Laurelton) 718-527-4402

Legislative Office Phone         212-788-7216

Councilmember Vanessa
Gibson

VGibson@council.nyc.gov

District Office
Address

1377 Jerome Avenue
Bronx, New 10452

District Office Phone  718-588-7500

Legislative Office
Phone         212-788-6856

Councilmember Corey
Johnson

District3@council.nyc.gov

District Office
Address

224 West 30th St
(Suite 1206) New York, NY 10001

District Office Phone  (212) 564-7757

Legislative Office
Phone         (212) 788-6979

Councilmember Carlos
Manchea

info38@council.nyc.gov

Lee Wellington, Chief of
Staff, lwellington@council.nyc.gov

District Office
Address

4417 4th Avenue,
Ground Floor        Brooklyn, NY 11220

District Office Phone  718-439-9012

Legislative Office
Phone         212-788-7372

Councilmember Ritchie Torres

rtorres@nyccouncil.ny.gov

Chief Of Staff, Sindri
McDonald  - SMcDonald@council.nyc.gov

Deputy Chief of Staff,
Juan Antigua - JAntigua@council.nyc.gov

District Office
Address

573 East Fordham Road         (Entrance on Hoffman Street)             Bronx, NY 10458

District Office Phone  718-842-8100

Legislative Office
Phone         212-788-6966

BORO PRESIDENTS

Manhattan BP Gail Brewer:

Manhattan Borough
President Gale A. Brewer

1 Centre Street, 19th Floor

New York, NY 10007

Email: gbrewer@manhattanbp.nyc.gov

Phone: 212-669-8300             Fax: 212-669-4305

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz                        718-286-3000             katz@queensbp.org

Brooklyn Borough President:             Eric
L Adams

(718) 802-3700       askeric@brooklynbp.nyc.gov

Senior
Advisor

Ingrid
P Lewis-Martin

(718) 802-3700

iplewis-martin@brooklynbp.nyc.gov

Bronx BP:  Ruben Diaz Jr.

Office of the Bronx Borough President

851 Grand Concourse, 3rd Floor        Bronx,
New York 10451

General email inquiries should be sent to: webmail@bronxbp.nyc.gov

Phone: Constituent Services: (718) 590-3554

Executive Office: (718) 590-3557

5.
Staten
Island: James S. Oddo

718-816-2000

http://www.statenislandusa.com/contact.html

Show more