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RHF Announces Year End Grants

Achieving Equity and Justice for New York Families

The Redlich Horwitz Foundation invests in transformative strategies that ensure children and families in every community across New York have what they need to thrive together.

There is a growing consensus that it is time to reexamine and reimagine our approach to child and family well-being.

While New York has made progress in reducing family separation and the number of children in the foster system, the reliance on invasive and often unnecessary investigations by Child Protective Services (CPS) continues.

The hidden harms associated with monitoring families and removing children from their homes have lasting consequences. It is possible to prioritize child safety while preserving family integrity and minimizing trauma. However, New York’s current child welfare policies and mandatory reporting laws fail to meet these goals, resulting in excessive, inappropriate, and costly interventions.

RHF supports initiatives to build well-resourced communities that help low-income New Yorkers navigate economic and other challenges without facing unjustified and stressful system involvement. Proposed changes to shrink the scope and scale of the child welfare system would also enable CPS to focus on the small percentage of children who are in imminent danger.

Child Welfare in NYS

RHF Announces Year-End Grants

RHF recently distributed 27 grants totaling $4,745,540 to 28 partners working to preserve families and uplift communities across New York.

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Our
Strategies

Mobilize Mobilize Movement and
Power Building Support Support Youth Who
Experience the
Foster System Influence Influence Policy and
Advocacy Action
for Change Reimagine Reimagine Community
Response for
Child and Family
Wellbeing

Trust in Community.
Invest in Families.

RHF champions the voices of system-impacted youth and families to encourage shared power and decision-making leading to concrete solutions that uphold parental rights, expand community resources, and keep children with their families.

Our grantmaking prioritizes four strategies and goals to drive change and maximize impact. Through collaborations with other foundations, we are expanding philanthropic support for grassroots organizations and coalitions working to build the family justice movement, particularly in communities disproportionately impacted by child welfare investigations.

Strategies

Partner Highlights

Mobilize

VOCAL-NY

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VOCAL-NY organizes community-based and statewide efforts to strengthen the family justice movement. The Rochester Chapter is launching a new empowerment program, She’s So VOCAL, which connects system-impacted Black women to political education and leadership development opportunities enabling them to advocate for changes to mandatory reporting and other harmful policies that trigger unnecessary and intrusive CPS investigations.

Influence

Family Justice Law Center

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The Family Justice Law Center uses affirmative litigation to seek justice for families mistreated by the child welfare system. FJLC recently spearheaded a class-action lawsuit leading to a landmark decision by the appellate division of the NYS Supreme Court ending a longstanding child welfare practice that amounts to “double abuse” for survivors of domestic violence.

Influence

Narrowing the Front Door (NTFD)

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The NTFD Work Group leads a diverse, cross-sector coalition committed to eliminating destructive impacts of the child welfare system in NYC. The group is seeking to establish a community-led Accountability Council on Child Welfare.

The Council aims to highlight historical and ongoing systemic bias and harms, as they develop a roadmap and recommendations for reducing family surveillance and separation and improving family well-being citywide, including for those in the foster system.

Support

Fostering Youth Success Alliance

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FYSA advocates for policies and programs that ensure young people with experience in the child welfare system can thrive. FYSA recently secured $8.4 million in public funding to continue the Foster Youth College Success Initiative, which has provided financial, academic, and emotional support for foster care students in higher education programs across the state for more than a decade.

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