United Community Consulting worker-owners doing outreach for Promise NYC

Mayor Adams Rolls out “Promise NYC” to Provide Childcare Assistance to Low-Income Families with Undocumented Children for First Time Ever

by Family and Community SupportNews and Events

On December 14th, Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of Promise NYC, a groundbreaking program that provides childcare assistance to low-income families who because of their immigration status, do not qualify for federally funded subsidized childcare. Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, along with sister agencies La Colmena in Staten Island, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation in the Bronx and Manhattan, and the Chinese-American Planning Council in Queens were contracted by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to help eligible families to enroll in childcare programs and then to pay childcare providers for the children’s care. This program represents a historic step towards recognizing and supporting immigrant communities and highlights the need to care for all New York City children regardless of immigration status.

Not having access to affordable childcare places an immense burden on parents who are seeking employment to support their families. This program will not only allow parents to work by providing them with dependable and safe childcare, but it will also place their children in developmentally stimulating environments. Promise NYC gives parents and their children an opportunity that could better their futures.

United Community Consulting worker-owners doing outreach for Promise NYC
United Community Consulting worker-owners doing outreach for Promise NYC

Center for Family Life is helping families in Brooklyn to sign up for Promise NYC with the help of United Community Consulting (UCC), a newly formed immigrant worker-owned cooperative business. Zenayda Bonilla, worker-owner in UCC states how when Promise NYC launched, UCC “quickly started to schedule visits with local organizations, schools, shelters [and] churches” to get the word out. Over the past several weeks, UCC has conducted numerous outreach efforts to help families determine if they are eligible for daycare support, including virtual and in-person events at the Coalición Mexicana, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Sunset Prep, PS 516, GLO Hotel, Saint Michael’s Church, PS 109, Win Shelter, Stockholm Family Shelter, and many more! Bonilla states that UCC worker-owners, “as immigrant mothers, know and understand the challenges of accessing affordable childcare [and] the confusion of not knowing how to navigate the system.” She states that UCC is doing everything possible to make the enrollment process easy for families and hopes that ACS continues to fund this incredibly valuable program in the coming year.

UCC doing outreach at the Coalición Mexicana
UCC doing outreach at the Coalición Mexicana

UCC has received very positive feedback from those who are enrolling in the program and participants have enthusiastically shared the many ways that Promise NYC gives them greater opportunities such as the ability to work or attend ESOL classes.

“We live in a shelter and the space is small. My children need to do different things and this will help my children to socialize with other children who speak English. That way it will be easier for them to learn the language.”

“This is a great opportunity for me because I want to work and I have no one to leave my son with, I have no family or friends. It’s only been two months since we arrived in New York.”

“I want to take English classes but I don’t have the money to pay for daycare for my daughter, so leaving her in a safe place gives me the opportunity to prepare for later finding a job.”

-Quotes from Promise NYC program participants

UCC worker-owners speaking at an event at Our Lady of Perpetual Help
UCC worker-owners speaking at an event at Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Our goal is to enroll 185 children in daycare programs, distributing over 2.5 million dollars in childcare subsidies to Brooklyn children. While Center for Family Life in Sunset Park is assisting those in Brooklyn, our partners are serving families in all other NYC boroughs.

Center for Family Life in Sunset Park Promise NYC intake staff
Center for Family Life in Sunset Park Promise NYC intake staff

We are incredibly grateful to be a part of such a monumental program that seeks to break down barriers that prevent families from accessing critically needed childcare. Carrie Stewart, CFLSP Co-Director of Family Counseling states how childcare “is a universal need for all families, and we are excited to provide this essential service to immigrant families throughout Brooklyn.” While funding for this program is time limited, we are hopeful that the success of Promise NYC will be a catalyst for the city to fund similar programs in the future.

Study Circle participants at the library preparing proposals to share with official electors

September: Thriving Families Safer Children

by News and Events

Thriving Families Safer Children is a project designed to promote solidarity between community members and to build their capacity to use available community level data to support advocacy and to demand the dismantling of unjust social policies.

This project engages Community Study Circles comprised of diverse groups of Sunset Park residents. These groups, which meet weekly, engage a popular education methodology and are facilitated by community member Zenayda Bonilla, who serves as the Peer Advocate. Participants in Study Circles begin with an exploration of their own migration and settlement stories. In this way, Study Circles become a safe and welcoming place for community members where they can be introduced to and become conversant in publicly available data. The group uses the data to identify the ways that immigrant and BIPOC residents are disparately impacted by economic and social challenges. Specific attention is given to data on economic and social factors which result in disproportionate involvement in the child welfare system. Attention is paid to interpreting data on child welfare investigations and child removals with a goal of uncovering “the story” that data can tell us about human experience.

Participants consider how racial disparities contribute to the involvement of the child welfare system and how to promote a more equitable future
Participants consider how racial disparities contribute to the involvement of the child welfare system and how to promote a more equitable future

Participants in these groups look at data on socioeconomic status of members within their neighborhood alongside comparative data showing the socioeconomic status of people in adjacent communities. They also review data on the number of people living in poverty, relying on public assistance, receiving Medicaid, as well as the level of education reached by members of their communities. This data is personal to those reviewing it as it represents their own and their neighbors’ situations and experiences.

 

 

Participants consider data on poverty, unemployment, and those experiencing rent burden to understand how these challenges connect to broader issues
Participants consider data on poverty, unemployment, and those experiencing rent burden to understand how these challenges connect to broader issues

Participants share what they learn with others in their neighborhood and present their observations and proposals for positive change to elected officials and advocacy groups in New York City. Further, Study Circles give those impacted the most by the child welfare system the resources and understanding necessary to challenge the system’s policies. Zenayda Bonilla and Julia Jean-Francois have discussed the problems associated with the current child welfare system in their recently published article “Reflections on our Work in Community- Troubling the Frame,” which is part of the Summer 2022 edition of the journal Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly. Julia Jean-Francois has also written about this issue in her chapter, “Community Based Organizations and Public Child Welfare Authorities: The Challenge of Partnerships,” in the recently published book Leadership Reflections: How to Create and Sustain Reforms in Children and Family Services.

Zenayda Bonilla
Zenayda Bonilla

In their article in the Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly Bonilla and Jean-Francois write about reform efforts in the child welfare system in New York City and how these have impacted Black and Brown communities. They bring attention to the long history of community surveillance and family separation and investigate the current and historical conditions which perpetuate disproportionate participation in the child welfare system. They suggest that the solution to this is to support community driven advocacy that focuses on the wellbeing of communities as a whole. To read more about this, click the link here.

Cover of Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly Summer 2022 Edition
Cover of Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly Summer 2022 Edition

Thriving Families Safer Children supports community members to dismantle barriers that perpetuate inequity in their neighborhoods through data driven advocacy that is framed and carried out by the community itself and that can promote a just and inclusive New York City. 

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