Inwood House Staff Meeting

It was a pleasure attending the staff meeting at my new job with Inwood House. We met last Friday at the Bronx site up on 148th Street and Courtland Avenue. This is a section of the Bronx I never knew as a child and young adult, but when I got off the subway I saw several buses heading to destinations I did recognize. It gave me a wave of nostalgia to see buses going to Fordham Road, Kingsbridge Road, and the Grand Concourse, my old stomping grounds.

The staff meeting itself was an upbeat experience. I came out of it feeling much more like a member of a family, even though I didn't get a chance to chat with that many people before we began. We got a quiz on the history of Inwood House, and I learned some fascinating and relevant facts from that quiz.

Our Executive Director, Linda Lausell Bryant, led the meeting. She reported some positive and some disturbing news. I'll start with the disturbing news so I can return to the positive stuff last. First, the Department of Education closed all four of the schools for pregnant teens this past June. While those schools were reflective of an unfortunate attitude toward pregnant teens and were not demonstrating high standards or expectations for the young women in attendance, it surely doesn't help to simply close the schools and insist that these teenagers go back to their home schools. Although it is not permitted on paper, guidance counselors often push these girls out of their schools or don't want to accept them back in. So it's a serious problem and Inwood House is engaged in a long battle to address this issue, perhaps by bringing back the "P schools" but with higher standards and expectations and with the kind of back up services needed by pregnant and parenting teens.

Another problem is that ACS has taken the position that all children should be with a loving family and therefore they are downsizing all forms of residential care. But for some of these kids that loving family just doesn't exist, and if the residences are closed down, a lot of kids will be left to fall through the cracks.

On the positive side we have Christine Quinn as an ally and we have good relationships with all the potential candidates for Mayor other than one, and that person will be approached soon also. Also Governor Spitzer has recognized that the "abstinence only" programs are not supported by evidence, and has turned back the federal money for these programs but is still making the matching state money available to agencies working on teen pregnancy prevention. Kudos to Governor Spitzer!

Some of the goals for Inwood House's future are to strengthen our ability to affect public policy and to help the youth we serve to not only finish high school successfully but also go on to get a higher education, since the evidence shows that it is difficult to earn a middle class wage without a college education. We're also moving to offer more support for young families, which face a lot of negative attitudes, and to help teen parents to provide early childhood education for their children, in order to give the next generation a better chance to pull out of poverty.

Ms. Bryant has a dynamic vision for helping the youth of NYC achieve their dreams and become independent and healthy adults. I'm excited to be part of this effort!

We had a section of the meeting known as "shout outs" where staff members gave appreciation and praise to various other staff. I got up and thanked the staff as a whole for creating the feeling of an extended family that I was getting at this meeting, and the development department in particular for welcoming me and giving me the opportunity to learn so much about Inwood House and the clients we serve in just my first month.

Inwood House's website is at www.inwoodhouse.com. I'll be writing updates on our work from time to time.