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.
* * *
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
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.
Take a Virtual Tour of Inwood House's
Newly Renovated 82nd Street Maternity Residence
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.
Volunteers Plant Trees and
Flowers
on Teen Family Learning Center Terraces
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!

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.
Inwood House
and Bloomberg Trip to the Jewish Museum

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.
Inwood House
and the Women's Bond Club Ring Closing Bell at the NYSE

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.