On Friday, January 22, executives and guests of Inwood House visited the New York Stock Exchange to commemorate our 180th birthday. In honor of the occasion, Executive Director Linda Lausell Bryant, MSW rang the NYSE Closing Bell joined by 17-year old Inwood House resident Meagan Triolo and her two-year old daughter, Mayreny, as well as teens from our Teen Choice program, Inwood House Trustees, and Corporate Advisory Board members including representatives from Abadi & Co., Cisco Systems, Dover Corporation, Mayer Brown LLP, Mogavero Lee & Co., and Morrison and Foerster.

The NYSE bell ringings are among the most widely watched daily news events, viewed by millions of people around the world. The event was broadcast live on CNBC and Fox Business News. To see Linda Lausell Bryant, Meagan and her daughter Mayreny, our teens, and supporters of Inwood House as they rang the Closing Bell, please visit this link: http://www.nyse.com/events/Cal_1259061213272.html

 

We're pleased to share this inspirational story, featured on NBC's website "the Grio," about an Inwood House teen who is taking charge of her life.

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Organization Aids Pregnant Teens with No Place to Go
By Kumasi Aaron

Stephanie Romero and her infant daughter Serenity are all smiles today, but just a year ago, things were drastically different.

"I was living with a foster mother and it was my third foster home since I was put back in care so it was tough," said 18-year-old Romero.

Stephanie's foster mother could no longer support her, then Stephanie found out she was pregnant. "I had no idea what I was going to do, I kept thinking I have to find a job, I'm going to have to buy myself food clothes bottles I had no idea. I was so scared because I was on my own."

But she wasn't on her own for long. Stephanie found Inwood House, an organization that has provided teen mothers in New York City with counseling, health and parenting classes since 1830. Stephanie moved into Inwood's residency house, and received around the clock care until her daughter was born.

Each year nearly 200 teens who have been in foster care, homeless or in the juvenile justice system call Inwood House home, finding a safe haven when they have no where else to turn.

With nearly 8,500 teen births a year in New York City, programs like the Inwood House are in high demand, so teens are interviewed to identify those most in need. According to the national campaign to prevent teen pregnancy, 70% of teen mothers never complete high school and 80% rely on public assistance. So Inwood House takes a holistic approach, providing study groups, job training, and personal development groups, in addition to maternal care.

"Many of our young people are coming from backgrounds where they've had histories of family violence there's been poverty in their family there's been abuse, so they may not have had the best start in life, but that doesn't have to limit how far they can go," said Linda Bryant, Inwood House Executive Director.

And Stephanie's planning to go far. She's starts college next spring, and is looking forward to what's ahead.

To view the full video, please click here.

Linda Lausell Bryant on New York 1

click to open in a new window (28:40 min).

Grand Opening of the Teen Family Learning Center

On Friday, May 8th, Inwood House celebrated an important milestone in our 179 year history: the Grand Opening of the Teen Family Learning Center. Unique in all of New York City, the Center provides residential care for up to 32 homeless pregnant teens or pregnant teens in foster care, while also providing comprehensive family support services to parenting teens.

The day kicked off with a morning press conference and ribbon cutting ceremony attended by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Assembly Member Micah Kellner, City Council Member Jessica Lappin, City Council Member David Weprin, Commissioner Gladys Carrion, Commissioner Jeanne Mullgrav, other key supporters, and Senior Staff. During a midday Open House, volunteers and community partners joined us for lunch, cake, and the uplifting presentation of “vision boards” by current and past Inwood House residents.

Finally, we celebrated this momentous success during a sunset cocktail party on our sixth floor terrace with Board Members, Corporate Advisory Board Members, and other friends of Inwood House. As we begin this new chapter in our history, we are grateful for the generosity, dedication, and collaboration of all our partners who made our vision come true.

If you haven’t already seen the new space and would like to, please contact Jessica Baxter at 646-895-8064 or jbaxter@inwoodhouse.com to arrange a tour.

Now open, Inwood House's Teen Family Learning Center is designed to provide a more therapeutic environment that is configured to support a variety intensive services for our formerly homeless clients and youth from foster care.

Capable of housing up to 32 pregnant teens at a time, the three residence floors have been reconfigured to provide space for increased group and individual mental health counseling. In addition, the second floor contains a new outdoor terrace area that will provide the residence its first outdoor space for girls to exercise, read, relax, and socialize together and with family members without having to leave the building.

With exciting features such as dedicated classroom space, a high-tech computer lab, child care space, and a teaching kitchen, the new Family Learning Center provides a broader, deepercontinuum of care for our pregnant and parenting teens and their children. The co-location of parenting and educational programs and the Maternity Residence facilitates ready access to multiple services for our clients, and allows them to develop key relationships with staff members prior to delivery. After having their babies, our young families will be able to come back and use the Family Learning Center to take advantage of our innovative education and life-skills development programming.

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Volunteers Plant Trees and Flowers
on Teen Family Learning Center Terraces

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On Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 five volunteers from the Kappa Sigma chapter of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority and the Inwood Knitters knitting club planted trees and flowers at the Inwood House Teen Family Learning Center. The volunteers worked as a team to plant geraniums, arborvitae, and boxwoods in urns on the second and sixth floor terraces of the center. This beautification of the versatile outdoor space will be enjoyed by clients, staff, and volunteers alike. Inwood House thanks its committed volunteers for lending their green thumbs to this project!

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On Saturday, April 4, 2009, eleven members of the New York (Kappa Sigma) chapter of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority held a baby shower for nine pregnant and parenting Inwood House teens at the 82nd Street Family Learning Center.

Although festive in spirit--clients played games to get acquianted with sorority members, received gift baskets, and took part in a raffle of a new infant car seat--the event had a strong asset building focus. The girls participated in a question and answer session with a registered nurse, received instruction on how to properly use a car seat, and received information about scholarship opportunities through Sigma Gamma Rho.

The festive event marked the sorority's return to the 82nd street location, where they had held similar events in years past. Following the event, sorors received a tour of the renovated facilities.

Founded by seven educators at Butler University in 1922, Sigma Gamma Rho is an international sorority committed to progress, service, and youth development. Inwood House thanks the Kappa Sigma chapter for its committment to empowering our youth through education and positive role modeling.

On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, ten teens from Inwood House's Youth for REAL (Responsibility, Excellence, Achievement and Leadership) program joined six volunteers from Bloomberg for a guided tour of the exhibit, "Chagall and the Art of the Russian Jewish Theater 1919-1949," at the Jewish Museum. This event was organized by Bloomberg as part of their Best of Bloomberg (BOB) Program in which employees give back to the community and the charitable organizations that the company supports.

The interactive tour involved discussion of dramatic elements and themes in Russian Jewish theater, providing educational and cultural enrichment to our young people. Bloomberg volunteers created a cross-cultural dialogue with our youth by explaining the historical significance of different symbols in the artwork.

Inwood House thanks Bloomberg and the Jewish Museum for hosting this enriching and educational event.

Bloomberg is a leading financial information services, news and media company. Bloomberg provides real-time news, financial and market data, pricing, trading, news and communications tools in a single integrated package to customers around the world through the BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL® service and media services.

 

On December 16th, 2008, Linda Lausell Bryant and Kathleen Clarke of Inwood House were invited by the Women’s Bond Club on New York to join in the ringing of the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The Women’s Bond Club also hosted a holiday party that night, featuring Inwood House as their charitable giving organization, and collected maternity clothes, baby clothes, and educational toys for children ages 0-3 years old. Approximately 200 Women's Bond Club members contributed to Inwood House's holiday gift drive at the event.

Inwood House thanks the Women's Bond Club for their generosity, and their long-standing charitable service to New York City. It is an honor for us to be invited to ring the bell, as many people and organizations are never given this opportunity. May it be a sign of good fortune for the future of Inwood House, as well as encouragement and inspiration for everyone’s hard work.