isaacscenter

Three Goddard Riverside and Isaacs Center senior staff members won statewide recognition in the waning days of 2024, capping a busy year of awards.

Roderick L. Jones, our president, was named to the PoliticsNY and amNewYork Nonprofit Power Players list along with executives at organizations such as Robin Hood, Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC, and Food Bank for New York City.

Asked his favorite thing about his job, he wrote: “The thing I love most about working in the nonprofit sector is helping people to see their possibilities and achieve their goals.”

VP for Innovation and Justice Susan Matloff-Nieves was named to the Responsible 100 list by City and State Magazine. This list recognizes “civic-minded leaders who selflessly serve New York.”

“I get to work across the entire organization to promote learning and leadership,” she wrote in her profile. “The joy of the work is supporting growth and learning, elevating unheard voices and working with some of the most dedicated and kindhearted people in New York City.”

Earlier in the fall, Director of Advocacy and Organizing Larry Wood was honored with the Legacy Builder Award at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development 50th anniversary gala. Wood has worked for Goddard for more than 30 years as an organizer on housing and other issues; he is an expert on Single Room Occupancy housing. Recalling what attracted him to the work, he said, “Every night I could go home and say: I know one less person is homeless this week.”   

It’s been a big year in awards for our thought leaders. In January, Wayne Tyre, who directs our Resource Center, was named to the 50 over 50 list. Later in the spring, Community Arts Director Manon Manavit was honored in the Above and Beyond Women list. In the summer, Rod Jones was recognized as a Nonprofit Trailblazer. All three awards are from City and State.

A new school year has arrived, and the Isaacs Center helped ensure that the children of the community were ready. At our annual Backpack Giveaway, staff and volunteers distributed 240 backpacks to students ranging from kindergarten to middle school.

Students and families were given a ticket and directed to tables separated by grade level. Every student had a choice of bag color, but every backpack came with a little extra depending on their age. Inside, they were packed with school supplies based on grade, from colorful crayons for early grade-school to binders and composition books for the older kids.

And then came the books and the snacks. Along with the backpacks, every table had an array of children’s books donated by the publishers. Students and families were encouraged to take as many books as they wanted, before being given an Italian ice and popcorn on their way out.

Summer might be over, but these students were able to welcome the school year with a smile.

“The best thing for me about this event,” said Eric Wyche, program director of the Jack August Afterschool Program at the Isaacs Center, “is the excitement and joy in the faces of our young people when they pick the bag of their choice and select a book that sparks their curiosity. It also gives me great pleasure to have an opportunity to speak with families and hear how excited their children are to go back to school, while expressing their gratitude for the support from our organization.”

To find out more about the afterschool and other youth program opportunities, click here.

Getting into college can be a challenge —and for low-income students of color and first-generation students it’s even harder. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found only 20 percent of first-generation students completed college, compared to 82 percent of those who had two parents with bachelors degrees.

This summer, as they have for years, the Isaacs Center and the Goddard Riverside Options Center awarded modest scholarships to make the fight for higher education more equitable.

Students, parents, and staff gathered to award students their scholarships and celebrate their college journeys. Thirty-nine students from the Options Center and the Isaacs Center received scholarships to help pay for books, travel and other necessities.

“I am very grateful for this scholarship because I am a first gen student,” said Valerie Ramirez-Salgado, recipient of the Bridging the Gap Scholarship. “It is very difficult to pay for college …and it’s going to help me and my family.” Ramirez-Salgado has been a student at Options since her junior year and is now plans to attend Fordham University to pursue a degree in economics and psychology. 

“I feel amazing, very happy, like I’ve been given a second chance,” said Brianly Urena, recipient of the Henry and Lucy Moses Award. Urena plans to use her scholarship to pursue a 2-part program for her master’s in science with the goal of eventually becoming an RN. She’s a graduate of our Certified Nursing Assistant program who got her certification in January 2024 before deciding to upskill by continuing her education.

Goddard Riverside and Isaacs Center President Roderick L. Jones began his remarks by thanking the donors.

“For our young people this is a life changing opportunity,” he said. “I grew up in public housing in Brooklyn and I remember when I got a scholarship it made all the difference in the world.”

He encouraged the students to be bold in their pursuit of opportunity.

“All you need is for someone to crack the door open just a little bit. Walk through it with courage because you have every right like everybody else to participate in society,” he exhorted them. “Your life has a purpose and this is the beginning of it.”

The room sparkled with balloons and shiny streamers. Some guests lined up for drinks while others filled the dance floor. Hit tunes boomed from the sound system while servers plied the crowd with trays of chicken tenders. 

It was Senior Prom time at the Older Adult Center, and the mood was festive.  

For those who attended their prom many years ago, it was a time to reminisce. For others who’d never been, it was a chance to experience it for the first time.  

“I didn’t get to go to my high school prom. I couldn’t afford it,” said center member Aurea Garcia, who was taking a brief break from the dance floor. “I didn’t see what the big hoopla was about. Now I see!” 

The theme, chosen by a vote of the members, was the 80s. Classic pop tunes from the era rang out in English and Spanish.  

“We decided we wanted to make it a little fancy so we have a live DJ and hors d’ouevres and a mocktail bar,” said Kathy Edouard-Bell of the volunteer organization New York Cares, which assisted in planning the event and provided volunteers. 

New York Cares recruited a key age group to help: teenagers, who traditionally care the most about prom. “They’re putting together the food, serving the seniors, mingling with the seniors and experiencing a senior prom with them,” Edouard-Bell explained. “We thought that was a cool way to bring the two generations together.” 

Center member Ron gave the event high marks. “A-plus plus plus,” he said; “the staff worked very hard and the DJ knows what to play. It’s really nice.” 

It was 6 PM on a weekday, and the teenage members of our Health Professionals in Training program had already spent nearly two hours learning about emergency response and practicing CPR. They were tired and sweaty and it was time to go home—but when Dr. Joy Howell asked if they wanted to learn how to intubate a patient, they all said yes without hesitation. 

About a dozen young people watched intently as Howell tipped the patient’s chin back, then guided a tube with a tiny camera through the mouth and into the windpipe. “You want to see the tube go through those two white strings – those are the vocal cords,” Howell explained, pointing at monitor that showed the output of the camera. 

Then the students split up into groups to practice on patients of their own, working with Howell and three other doctors. But these weren’t human patients—they were the same medical simulators, or manikins, that Weill Cornell uses to train its providers. 

Health Professionals in Training is a partnership between our Beacon 2 After School Program and Weill Cornell. Dr. Howell, a pediatric critical care doctor and Assistant Dean for Diversity and Student Life at Weill Cornell Medicine, reached out to the Beacon to launch the program in 2021 as part of her department’s diversity work. The goal is to help students of color to see the healing professions as an option.  

“We want them to envision themselves in these careers so that if they choose to pursue it, they know they can,” she said. “They know it’s within reach.” 

This year in addition to visiting the Simulation Lab and its manikins, the students got to tour a high-tech ambulance for stroke victims. They got an in-depth look at the dermatology and asthma/immunology departments, and chatted with scientists in the laboratory working on cures for diseases like HIV and COVID. While the four providers who oversee the program are all physicians, Howell said, they make sure the students meet people in a variety of careers: “We involve nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, physician assistants, so they’re exposed to a range of health professionals.” 

In the summer the program hosts two Beacon students for a month-long paid internship, giving them a deeper level of exposure to the work.  

It’s not just the students who would benefit from a successful career in medicine, Howell points out; it’s critically important for patients. Multiple studies have shown that Black and Latino populations, in particular, have worse outcomes in the U.S. health system than white patients.  

“Whether you’re talking about adults, children, medical care, surgical care, every which way you cut it, there are differences in outcome based on race and ethnicity,” she explained. 

Studies show that patients of color do better when they have access to providers of color. With the help of Health Professionals in Training, more people may one day walk into an exam room and see a doctor who looks like them.  

It was 3 in the afternoon, and the young members of our new Jack August After School Program were grabbing a snack of soft pretzels and fruit juice before settling down to the afternoon’s activities. They’d just been walked over from their nearby schools by our After School staff. The room filled with chatter as they sat down at small tables covered with bright red tablecloths. 

The Jack August After School opened in April. It exclusively serves children who live in the Isaacs Houses and Holmes Towers—the public housing projects where the Isaacs Center is based. Program Director Eric Wyche said supporting their education is one of the goals of the program. 

“We help them with homework every day,” he explained. “I’ve gotten great feedback from the parents that some of the kids have improved in their homework. So that’s been great to feel that we’re contributing to their success in school.” 

Other activities combine learning with play. For example, the children have built bridges with popsicle sticks, using math to figure out how much strength is required to hold the bridge up. They observed the Solar Eclipse with staff and created their own solar system.  

Recently they took part in a community beautification project with resident gardener Mr. Leroy by planting flowers and adding vibrant colors and words of inspiration to the rock beds that surround the garden. 

“We also have a drama portion,” said Wyche. “We’ve had a teacher here twice a week teaching the kids different types of acting and they seem to enjoy it so much.” 

The program is named in memory of Jack August, a longtime Manhattan educator, and is generously supported by his family. 

”Jack August was an elementary school principal for several decades, serving his longest tenure at PS 108 in Spanish Harlem,” wrote August’s son-in-law Fred Bernstein in an email.  “Every morning he stood on the front steps of the school to greet students and teachers as they arrived. When, at PS 108 he became concerned that many of his young  students had had no breakfast, or an inadequate meal before coming to school in the morning, he persuaded the Board of Education to institute the City’s first free school breakfast program.” 

August, he added, was devoted to his job and loved to encounter his former students around the city.  

“He would have been delighted to hear of the afterschool program for young children being created at the Isaacs Center,” he wrote. 

Want to find out if you qualify for SNAP? Contact Samuel Gaedke at 646-946-0095 or sgaedke@isaacscenter.org. 

Applying for SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, can feel daunting. Samuel Gaedke makes it easy.  

“People tell me, ‘I don’t qualify. I’ve tried before.’  I talk to them for two or three minutes and I say, ‘I believe you’re qualified,’” he said.

“For me, when somebody gets the benefit, that’s the best part of the job. When I can call someone up and say, hey, you’ve been approved, in a way I feel like I won the lotto.” 

Gaedke runs our Nutrition Outreach and Education Program (NOEP), and it’s his job to make sure everyone who qualifies for SNAP in Manhattan can get it. The work takes him to community fairs and events across the borough, where he does quick screenings of three or four minutes—in English or Spanish—to find out if people are likely to be eligible.  

If he determines that they probably qualify, he helps them throughout the entire process, including solving any issues that may come up: “I’ll turn over any rock to seek a solution.” 

Why are people who qualify for SNAP not getting it? Gaedke says people often go through the application process once and then give up.  

“They may have applied years ago and they don’t realize that the income limits go up annually,” he explained. “Or they don’t know there are special eligibility rules for groups like older adults, people with disabilities, and people who have childcare costs.” People also think the application process is more complicated than it really is, he added, or that you need a lot of documentation (often you don’t). 

Angela Harmon is one of Gaedke’s happy customers. She had been between jobs for a while when someone handed her a NOEP flyer and she called to make an appointment. “Samuel immediately made me feel at ease,” she recalled. “I came into his office and it was like teamwork.” 

Having SNAP has been a huge relief, she said—especially when it comes to feeding her daughter. 

“She gets out of school and she’s hungry and that for me was the hardest part, when I didn’t have snacks for her. To be able to provide nutritious snacks and then we can eat dinner and be ready for the next day—knowing that I don’t have to worry about food—it’s been a game-changer.” 

SNAP can be used to buy a wide variety of groceries, as well as pretty much any food that isn’t hot: cold sandwiches at a bodega, for instance, or salads and sliced deli meats at the grocery store. You can use an Electronic Benefits Transfer card (EBT) to pay; it works like an ATM card.  

If you have questions about SNAP or would like to find out if you’re eligible, contact Samuel Gaedke at 646-946-0095 or sgaedke@isaacscenter.org.   

It was the first day of Spring, but apparently nobody had told the weather. The long, low contours of the Irish Hunger Memorial were acting as a wind tunnel, channeling freezing blasts of air off the Hudson River. Still, the little group of visitors from our Older Adult Center walked all around the site, lingering over the inscriptions and examining the landscape. 

“The soil, stones and native vegetation are from Ireland—and there’s a stone from every county,” Aurea Garcia told the group, reading from her phone. “That’s cool.” 

The excursion was one of four bus trips that run every week from the Older Adult Center—once a day from Monday through Thursday. Sometimes the outings go to museums and historical sites; on other days they head to affordable shopping destinations like Costco and Dollar Tree. The little white bus is wheelchair-accessible; it holds a maximum of twelve people and the only cost for passengers is a $2 suggested donation.  

Garcia has come on several trips, mostly to museums—including her favorite, the Cooper-Hewitt. “The groups are small and I like that because you can talk to people,” she said. “It’s a learning experience. You never stop learning.”  

After the Hunger Memorial the group headed to the Oculus, the flashy transportation center and high-end mall at the former World Trade Center site. The women admired the building’s architecture—its soaring white ribs are meant to be “symbolic of a hand releasing a dove”—and did a little window-shopping before getting back on the bus. 

“The biggest purpose of the bus trips is to provide opportunities for the older adults to go to places they otherwise wouldn’t,” said Older Adult Center Director Jemma Marens. The second-biggest, she explained, is shopping support—giving people a chance to get staples like food and clothing for less than they would spend in Manhattan. 

It’s all part of supporting aging with dignity, Marens said. 

“People should be able to treat themselves and enjoy themselves,” she said. “These trips allow older adults do that without breaking the bank.” 

“It’s all the things I’ve always cared about, but right in my own backyard.” 

Our new board chair at Goddard Riverside and the Isaacs Center has a wealth of experience with city and state issues. Marcia Bystryn says what drew her to get involved here is the chance to make a difference in her neighborhood.  

“I was walking around the Upper West Side, where I live, and I realized I was so little involved with my own community,” she said. “That really is the charm for me with Goddard.” 

Bystryn has served on the boards of the Natural Areas Conservancy and Our Energy Policy, and as vice chair of the Peconic Land Trust. She headed the New York League of Conservation Voters for nearly two decades before stepping down in 2018. She’s worked in government, too—as New York City’s Assistant Commissioner of Recycling in the first half of the 1990s. 

“I’m very into governance,” she said. “I’m really interested in how not-for-profits work and in playing a constructive role in their governance.” 

Bystryn joined the Goddard board back in 2015. She replaces lawyer Christopher Auguste, who served as long as term limits would allow, and who remains on the board. She set out  two main priorities as chair: making sure the ongoing merger of Goddard and the Isaacs Center concludes smoothly, and looking at whether our programs can and should change to reflect changing realities in the city. “Goddard has done so much since the beginning of Rod Jones’ tenure as president,”she said. “I’m really sort of focused on the big picture of where we’re going.” 

One thing Bystryn has confidence in is the abilities of the people she’ll be working with: “I am extremely impressed with the staff of Goddard. I’ve met such a range of talented people and hope to get to know them better. And the board too—this is a smart and committed board and it’s going to be fun working with them.”