Prior to joining Inwood House, Ms. Lausell Bryant served as Associate Commissioner for the New York City Administration for Children’s Services’ Office of Youth Development. Ms. Lausell Bryant has also been on the forefront of the after-school programming movement which has transformed out of school time into an opportunity for educational enrichment and personal development. As Deputy Executive Director of the Partnership for After School Education, Ms. Lausell Bryant designed and established an after-school training institute for all levels of staff from more than 1,200 New York City youth service organizations. Her early work included serving as Mediation Director for the Children’s Aid Society Parent-Teen Mediation Program. As founding Director of the Victim Services School Mediation and Violence Prevention Services program, Ms. Lausell Bryant developed, implemented and secured funding for programs operating in more than 100 targeted New York City middle and high schools to help youth deter gang, relationship and family violence.

Ms. Lausell Bryant devoted her dissertation to identifying factors that can propel foster care youth to succeed in higher education.

Connected

Inwood House has transformed the lives of New York City’s most vulnerable and disconnected young people by reaching them at many critical junctures, where decisions – made in haste, ignorance or despair – can undermine a young life. Inwood House has been there to offer community, hope and the skills to make a fresh start.

1830: A new beginning for delinquent & sexually exploited young women.
In response to the rampant spread of prostitution in New York City, a group of philanthropists and reformers established The Magdalen Benevolent Society, later re-named Inwood House.  Their mandate was to provide sexually exploited young women a means of establishing a more meaningful life.

Founding members of the Society had served young prostitutes at the Female Penitentiary of Bellevue as “Sabbath School” teachers. The inmates were largely immigrant orphans, runaways from abusive homes, and unwed pregnant girls turned out by family or employers. Their young lives were marked by habitual incarceration, punitive treatment, and persistent poverty.

Society members offered the girls an alternative: a Residence where they were met with optimism for their futures, referred to as “family” and provided guidance, education, and employable skills.

The Society’s first outreach post and Residence was located at 45 Orange Street, in the notorious “Five Points” slum. The district, populated by new immigrants and emancipated slaves, claimed the city’s highest incidences of disease, infant and child mortality, unemployment, prostitution, and violent crime. There were twelve brothels on Orange Street alone.

1831- 1833: A Call to Action and Expansion.
The Society’s first Annual Report contained a study of the population they served, which determined the number of “fallen women” in the city to be at least ten thousand. Entitled “The Magdalen Report,” the publication was a call to action and caused a furor in the city, fervid denouncement in Tammany Hall and death threats upon the organization’s leaders.

Undaunted, within two years, the all-female Board set up a new, larger Residence on 88th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. Orange Street remained an outreach center and temporary Residence. The Society leadership petitioned the Courts and won direct referrals of girls from the Penitentiary. The Board appealed for employment for these women who, the Board contended, were the subject of class prejudice and needed additional help in finding sustainable and suitable employment.

Effective

1849 – 1870: Advocates for Family and Social Justice
In 1849 the first babies are born at the Residence and maternal health care services were integrated into programs. The Society encouraged the girls to keep their babies, believing it best for mother and child. This fit another long-term policy to restore, whenever possible, the young women with their kin.

In 1855, the Society had 57 girls in care and reported that of the 1,000 girls it had assisted in 25 years, 200 had been restored to family, 200 were respectably employed, 17 were married and 27 had died. Advocacy was as important as ever. With immigration peaking, record numbers of girls were swept into prison for “vagrancy.” The Society voiced strong opposition and appealed to the City’s women for financial aid.

1904 - 1915: An Unmet Need: Preparing Young Single Mothers for Independent Life
To provide a more therapeutic environment to a greater number of girls, in 1904 the Society moved to bucolic Inwood, in northern Manhattan. The facility housed 110 girls, and positioned the agency to serve increasing numbers of mothers and infants.

Employment for young women in New York at the beginning of the 20th Century was limited. For single mothers, some as young as 15 or 16, work was almost non-existent. These young mothers were especially vulnerable to prostitution and abandonment of their children. In 1910 the Society expanded services with a Nursery for on-going post-delivery support, parenting and domestic training, and improved educational and vocational skills. Power laundry machines were installed and professional seamstresses were hired to teach the girls new workplace skills.

After long negotiations, in 1911 the New York Public School System agreed to provide a certified teacher to the Residence. A full curriculum was considered essential to provide the girls new opportunities for long-term success.

New psychological testing and case analysis methods were embraced for improving the girls’ mental health. Mary Paddon, a professional social worker, and Dr. Helen Montague, head of Psychiatric Services for the Children’s Court, were hired in 1915 to shape the agency’s services. To further increase the agency’s professional capacity, partnerships were formed with the City’s leading social service institutions, including the Bureau of Social Hygiene, which provided sexuality education to adolescents and young adults.

Innovative

1917-1922: Inwood House in the Community
To create privacy for their young women and a secular identity, in 1917 the Society changed its name to Inwood House. Inwood House mobilized to move back to the heart of Manhattan to better prepare the girls to live and work in a community.

In 1922 Inwood House moved to 228 West 15th Street, and created a Residence and service hub for girls aged 16-21, providing psychological testing, assessments, planning and counseling, and a medical clinic. Girls were then placed in one of several Inwood House Residences geared to their specific needs.

1923: Leading the Crusade Against Syphilis
With venereal disease rampant, Inwood House became New York City’s only agency to take in unwed mothers with syphilis, and opened the City’s first gonorrhea and syphilis clinic. It continued this work until 1943 when penicillin was discovered.

1941: Foster Family Care for Young Pregnant Teens
With foundation grant funding, Inwood House launched a foster family care program for young pregnant teens. This expanded the agency’s capacity and offered a model of family life for the girls.

1947-1952: Informing Best Practice
Two Inwood House studies outline the benefits of its therapeutic model and use of progressive social service techniques: Out of Wedlock and a follow-up study of Inwood House mothers showed that only 15% had second out of wedlock births, and a large majority went on to “marriage, children and happy family and community engagement.”

1952: Adoption and Foster Care Needs Soar with Baby Boom
Inwood House met the dramatically increased need for adoptive homes, tripled since WWII, and launched a public campaign to recruit additional foster families.

1964: New Facility and Access to Premier Medical Care
Inwood House purchases 320 East 82nd Street, offering expanded Residential and activity space. New York Hospital agreed to accept all Inwood House residents and pay weekly clinic visits. A transportation hub offered access work and cultural experiences.

1968: Creating Foster Family Care for Mother and Child
Inwood House launched New York City’s first Mother/Child Foster Care program in response to the dramatic increase in young teens becoming pregnant and keeping their babies.

Leaders

1973: Support of Roe v. Wade
Inwood House goes on record in support of the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade. The agency lost financial support, but its intensive medical and mental health services remained critical to the growing numbers of teens choosing to keep their babies.

1978: Call for Prevention Services
At the request of the NYC Board of Education, Inwood House launched Teen Choice, offering teens sexuality education and counseling inside schools. Its mental health approach includes discussions on sex, birth control, gender roles, parenting, socio-economic pressures and family problems. Teen Choice was on the forefront of the AIDS epidemic.

1980-1986: Sound Transition from Foster Care
Inwood House expanded Family Support programming on-going case management, family planning, educational and vocational guidance, Family Day Care, mentoring, parenting skills training and a scholarship fund.

1991: Commitment to the South Bronx & Fathers
The Inwood House Teen Family Services Center opened in the South Bronx, a community with the City’s highest rates of teen pregnancy and death due to AIDS. Fathers Count was launched to assist young fathers.

1995-1999: Data Supports Teen Choice & Replication
Teen Choice is awarded a $1.3 million national demonstration grant by the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services. A four-year study of Teen Choice confirmed it’s suitability for replication and showed the need to engage boys at an especially early age. Inwood House partnered with the Atlantic County Government to replicate Teen Choice in area schools serving urban, suburban and rural youth. The area has one of NJ’s highest teen birth rates.

2000-2005: Data Supports Residential Care Model
The Inwood House Continuum of Care for pregnant and parenting teens was awarded a $1.2 million national demonstration grant by the U.S. Dept. of H&HS. A four-year study showed Residential Care is an effective model for delivering high dosage of services resulting in positive outcomes for teen mothers and their babies.

2005: Reaching Homeless Teens
Inwood House expanded Residence and Family Support Services to New York City’s growing number of pregnant teens that are homeless.

2009: Teen Family Learning Center
2010- More than 8,000 babies are born to NYC adolescents annually – 90% are unintended. To address this urgent problem, in November 2010, Inwood House convened the Citywide Dialogue on Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Intervention drawing 200 government and nonprofit stakeholders. The effort identified service gaps and barriers for teens and will create a New York City blueprint for action that will integrate public and private resources to fully support our youth.

Inwood House created a state-of-the-art Center at 320 East 82nd Street, providing residential care for pregnant teens and expanded learning space for ongoing parenting, employment and education programming. The Center also serves as a training institute for New York City’s schools of social work, early childhood education, and public health.