Community Corner
NY Life Grants $500k to St. John’s University’s Child HELP Partnership to Serve Bereaved Children
The New York Life Foundation today announced a two-year $500,000 grant to St. John’s University’s Child HELP Partnership in Flushing, Queens to increase the quality of childhood bereavement services and serve a greater number of bereaved children. This is the third grant provided to St. John’s University’s Child HELP Partnership from the New York Life Foundation, which funded a bereavement services needs assessment in New York City in 2011.
In addition to receiving a portion of the grant directly, the Partnership will distribute funding to three additional New York City organizations identified through the findings of its bereavement services needs assessment, including the Family Center of Brooklyn, NY; the Center for Court Innovation, Child and Adolescent Witness Support Program in the Bronx; A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Foundation, in Manhattan; and St. John’s University’s Child HELP Partnership in Queens.
“This is an innovative, groundbreaking initiative that will help the field tremendously,” said Dr. Elissa Brown, founder and executive director of St. John’s Child HELP Partnership and research director of the grant. “It is our hope that this project will help build the sector and, more importantly, improve programs for grieving children and their families.”
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“The grant provides a unique opportunity to better understand when and what services are most helpful for grieving children to improve their long-term outcome. With ten children newly bereaved by the death of a parent or sibling every day in New York City, there is a tremendous need to increase awareness of both the value and availability of services,” said Dr. Robin Goodman, who serves as clinical director of the grant.
“The providers have already made impressive progress and will help serve hundreds of children who are currently not receiving any support to cope with their loss,” said Marlyn Torres, corporate vice president, New York Life Foundation.