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Advocacy Archives
January 12, 2007 -- Advocacy Report - January 2007
The Advocacy Department met with Assistant Dean Robert Reilly of the new Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice and Dispute Resolution. Among the many goals of this new center is the desire to work with social service agencies, providers, and the city to develop a working model of support for families living in the shelter system. They are also aiming to address social policy problems prevalent to urban settings and disproportionately affecting the poor. We expressed our interest in working with them in the future once their center is fully up and running, and they have committed to visiting our new site in the Spring. The United Nations invited Covenant House New York to participate in their World AIDS Day Commemorative Program. The Brooklyn EAGLE, Shanda Owens, sat on the program’s panel and represented Covenant House as the only youth speaker of the program. She gave a touching speech about how AIDS affected the life of a family member, and the impact it had on her own life. She also participated in the Question and Answer portion of the program. The Advocacy team attended a forum at the Center for New York City Affairs at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy. The forum titled “Governing Change: Policy, Politics, and the Spitzer Administration” addressed several issues the new Spitzer administration will have to tackle as it takes office this month, and gave several different suggestions on what can be done concerning these issues. The forum specifically focused on affordable housing, health care and Medicaid, government reform, and public education. Several representatives from Covenant House New York attended the New York City Association of Homeless and Street Involved Youth Organization’s meeting where Councilman Lew Fidler discussed the City’s upcoming plan to conduct a homeless youth street count. The meeting brought together a number of organizations that will be involved in the planning and implementation of the count. Following the meeting, we participated in a press conference held on the steps of City Hall by City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Councilman Fidler once again calling attention to the problem of youth homelessness in New York City, and announcing the plans for a citywide count. The Director of Advocacy, along with the Deputy Director of Community Programs and Montalbano Initiatives Inc. met with Councilman Leroy G. Comrie, Jr. of Queens and his staff. Councilman Comrie has requested Covenant House to take the lead in a project he is undertaking with Hillcrest High School and other local churches and social service organizations in the area of the Queens Resource Center. The project is to address the after school needs of the students at the high school, and provide a continuum of services to prevent the youth from loitering in the neighborhood. The Advocacy Department is also currently working on scheduling other meetings with elected officials including Council Members Diana Reyna of Brooklyn, Helen Foster of the Bronx, Michael McMahon of Staten Island, as well as Assembly Member John Lavelle, and Senate Member Thomas Duane.
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