Community leaders directly affected by family regulation system will manage process to award grants from pioneering Youth and Families Forward funding collaborative
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lauren Stewart
Turn Two
lauren@turn-two.co | 804.690.9966
Youth and Families Forward (YFF) today announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind funding opportunity for community-based, grassroots nonprofits working to support family integrity and justice without involving New York City’s child welfare system.
A participatory grantmaking committee composed of community leaders affected by the family regulation system will manage a process that will award organizations $50,000-$100,000 in annual funding over two years.
YFF is the only New York City-based funders’ collaborative focused solely on addressing the harms of the child welfare/family regulation system using a participatory grantmaking approach. Participatory grantmaking shifts decision-making power to those directly affected, rather than leaving it solely in the hands of funders.
“Too many families in our city are involved in the child welfare system who would be better served with other supports,” said Rashida Abuwala, a consultant for YFF and principal of New Tomorrow. “This issue disproportionately impacts families of color, negatively affects their trust in publicly funded services, and wastes public resources on investigations rather than on ensuring children and families are properly supported. We believe it is crucial to fund community-driven efforts so communities are supported in developing solutions to lead the change they seek.”
Such approaches are critically important for a city child welfare system marked by racial bias. A report by the NYC Family Policy Project found that 1 in 15 Black children in New York City were the subjects of welfare investigations in 2019, compared with 1 in 86 white children. Black children were also 10 times more likely to enter foster care compared with their white counterparts.
“Nearly all the time, decisions are made on behalf of marginalized communities without including their very valuable perspectives,” said Latroya Lovell, a researcher and educator who is a member of the participatory grantmaking committee. “This ends up reinforcing the same systems that hold these communities back. The people who have experienced these systems are well-positioned to provide real-time solutions for what is most needed.”
“Including the lived experiences of families and children impacted by the child welfare system in grantmaking is essential to ensure that our support is grounded in reality, addresses real needs, and empowers the communities we aim to serve in New York City,” said Nancy Fortunado, a member of the participatory grantmaking committee.
YFF is a collaborative grantmaking fund of seven foundations that have come together to help ensure the city’s young people and families can thrive, free from the fear of surveillance and separation.
The collaborative has committed $6 million since 2018 to support public-private partnerships, participatory grantmaking, and advocacy to ensure young people, families, and communities are well-resourced and supported.
“Youth and Families Forward is shaking up old notions of child welfare by championing the rights of families to stay together and avoid unnecessary (and often traumatic) government investigations,” said Eve Stotland, Youth & Families Forward co-chair and a senior program officer at The New York Community Trust, a funder of the YFF collaborative fund. “What’s even more exciting–and promising–is that a committee of women with personal and professional experience with the child welfare system will lead our grantmaking.”
Other recent YFF initiatives include Home Away from Home, which recruits and retains kinship caregivers, and Fair Futures, which matches young people in foster care with professional mentors to help them complete high school and post-secondary education, secure living-wage jobs, and access stable housing.
“Philanthropy has long sought to be responsive to community needs, but with the launch of this participatory grantmaking committee, YFF seeks to do more: by ceding decision-making authority to those who have personally experienced the failings and harm of the child welfare system, our foundation members are learning a tremendous amount from this committee about how to do impactful grantmaking in a radically different way,” said Sarah Chiles, Youth & Families Forward co-chair and senior advisor at The Redlich Horwitz Foundation.
This new funding opportunity reinforces YFF’s commitment to backing community organizations that empower children and families to have a voice in a system that often overlooks their needs and employs approaches that cause harm to the families it is meant to protect.
Information for Nonprofits
Organizations based in the five boroughs of New York City may submit letters of interest for this funding opportunity if they engage in:
- Movement-building, policy, and/or advocacy to work against the harms of the family regulation system.
- Direct cash assistance and/or the provision of concrete supports to support family integrity.
- Prenatal, maternal health, and/or early childhood supports.
- Culturally relevant mental health services and supports for children and families in support of family integrity.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis beginning Aug. 16 and will close automatically when either 50 submissions are collected or on Sept. 16–whichever comes first.
YFF’s Participatory Grant-making Committee will review all submissions. Funding decisions will be announced in December.
For more information, visit https://linktr.ee/YouthandFamilies.
About Youth and Families Forward
Youth and Families Forward is a collaborative grant-making fund that supports transformative initiatives to ensure New York City’s youth and families can thrive, free from the fear of surveillance and separation. Through strategic grants to community-based and system partners, it centers lived expertise to support advocacy, fund innovation, and champion youth and families.
The collaborative has committed $6 million since 2018 to support public-private partnerships, participatory grantmaking, and advocacy to support the well-being of New York’s children and families impacted by, or at risk of being impacted by, the foster system. Recent initiatives include Home Away from Home, which recruits and retains kinship caregivers, and Fair Futures, which supports young people who have experienced foster care.
YFF’s partners include the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, Ira W. DeCamp Foundation, Pinkerton Foundation, Redlich Horwitz Foundation, and The New York Community Trust.