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