I recently received the video below that I wanted to share with you. The exemplary  New York Center For Children, located in Manhattan’s upper east side, www.newyorkcenterforchildren.org,  is one of my favorite organizations  focused exclusively on the important work of saving children from the trauma of abuse.

I first learned of them from Hedge Funds Care/Help For Children  www.HFC.org board member Joel Press in 2001. Joel’s daughter was doing an internship at The Center, and the stories she brought home of the work they did, caused Joel to call me and suggest that HFC consider them for a grant. We did, and they have received support from HFC for many of the years since.

I must say that the better I got to know the staff of The Center and witness their results, the more impressed I became. So much so that both performances of my 11/16/15 2015 cabaret show, “Rob’s Big Birthday Celebration – Frank & Billie & Me” www.crowdrise.com/robsbigbirthdaycelebration, were dedicated solely to raising funds for NYCC.

It is where the police or other authorities refer a child they have identified as having experienced abuse, along with a non-offending parent or relative. The NYCC’s highly trained staff of physicians, psychologists and social workers examine the child to obtain physical evidence, and conduct forensic interviews with the child to determine what happened, all necessary in order for the police to protect the child and be authorized to make an arrest. One that is achieved and the child is in safe hands, The Center provides ongoing therepy to child and family to mitigate the trauma. What follows is a video about NYCC.

The conundrum of it all is funding! That is so because in spite of the tremendous work they do, for reasons that effect all work in the field of preventing and treating child abuse, raising funding to increase the number of children they are able to see, or even sustain current levels, is continually challenging and  difficult. The reason is that while most funding for childhood issues of every kind comes from the parents of children afflicted with those issues, for a number of reasons, some obvious and some not, in the case of child abuse, there is no “parental constituency!” It is a subject that will be explored further.

However, it is what makes the work of Hedge Funds Care/Help For Children, www.hfc.org  and the organizations that receive HFC grants including and exemplified by NYCC, so very important, and the work I will again be supporting in my 11/22/16 & 12/6/16 cabaret show, “Grateful For…”

www.crowdrise.com/gratefulfor.

 

New York Center for Children

New York Center for Children