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March is National Social Work Month—and we’re celebrating by profiling some of the amazing social workers at the Isaacs Center and our strategic partner, Goddard Riverside.

Jeanne Lowe is the clinical director for our Education and Workforce Development program at the Isaacs Center. She grew up in Philadelphia and was inspired to get into social work by a therapist she had in high school. But she realized she wanted to go into community work, not one-on-one therapy, when she did a month-long program in college with a nonprofit agency on the island of Jamaica. “We were doing whatever they needed us to do. We dug a ditch, we helped at the local clinic, we hung out with kids,” she recalled. “So I ended up applying for a role with that nonprofit after graduating and spent 9 months there.

Lowe says she likes working with young people because “They teach you things every day.” And she says the Isaacs Center is a great place to do it: “Honestly this has been the best nonprofit I’ve ever worked for. It’s a very healthy place where everyone is supported. Even when there’s some struggles we work to come back together and that’s all you can ask for.” 

Ruben Argueta is part of our social work team for Older Adults at the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center (LSNC). When Ruben was 11, he moved to the United States from Honduras; he is a DACA recipient. He attended school in Brooklyn and got accepted to CUNY Lehman College, where he earned a Bachelors of Psychology and is currently pursuing his Masters of Social Work. At first, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do straight out of college, but he knew he wanted to find work that served his community: “Unbeknownst to me, I feel that social work is the field that I was always meant to be in.”  

Argueta’s work involves helping seniors navigate the benefits and resources available for them so they may live richer and more fulfilling lives. “My job goes beyond helping individuals obtain benefits, I believe I am making a significant impact by upholding the dignity of my clients and treating them with respect,” he said.   

“Like Goddard’s mission statement states, we want to create possibilities where people are able to make dignified choices for themselves and their families,” he added. “This is why I enjoy what I do so much—I know that I’m making the world a better place, and I love it.”  

Kimberly Amarante works as a case manager and family mentor at our Resource Center in Harlem. Amarante grew up in the Bronx but for a portion of her life lived in the Dominican Republic. She obtained a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from SUNY Oneonta but decided to pursue social work after college: “I felt that my community needed someone like me that was empathetic, compassionate, and willing to help no matter the circumstances.” 

The Resource Center offers support with a wide variety of issues, from getting food stamps and disability benefits, to help with housing and legal problems. “Each individual comes to me with their own histories and struggles, and it’s all about being a listening ear,” she said. Amarante enjoys the challenges social work brings: “I thought I would be doing the same thing every day, assisting the clients the same way, but it ranges based on the case.”  

Author? Actor? Model? Beacon After School alum Aiden Taylor has done it all—and he’s still in middle school. 

Taylor attended our Beacon program for first- through fifth-graders at PS 198. “Me and my best friend, we were in Beacon since we were little kids,” he said during a recent interview at the Isaacs Center. “I did a lot of writing there.  During homework time I would sit and write about my day. It’s crazy how it all added up to me writing a book.” 

Two books, actually—with a third on the way.  

Taylor was inspired to write the first book during the early part of the COVID pandemic. “I was just bored one day and looking on social media at how I could, like, make an impact on the community,” he recalled. He liked the suggestion of writing a book. “My mom said to write down three topics and one was self-love, so I just took it from there.” 

That book is called ME AND MY AFRO. It begins: “Hi, my name is Aiden and I have a really BIG Afro.” In colorful drawings, it shows Aiden and his Afro going everywhere: the park, the beach, the museum, the library, the basketball court. It ends with Aiden explaining why he loves his signature style.  

ME AND MY AFRO took off. “I didn’t think it would be that big, but three months later it became a trend,” Taylor recalled. He was invited to speak at schools and even got profiled in People Magazine. So he wrote a sequel. 

In ME AND MY AFRO: When I Grow Up, Taylor imagines all the careers he could have one day—veterinarian, construction worker, bus driver, teacher. “I want kids to start thinking about their future now,” he told CBS New York. Both books are published by Lightswitch Learning.

These days Aiden is working on a third book—a cookbook with his grandmother—while building his resume as an actor and model. He’s already appeared on an H&M billboard in Times Square, in West Side Story on Broadway, and in a video ad for Montblanc pens with Spike Lee.  

He’s done a lot, and he wants other young people to know they can too. Asked what message he wants to convey to his peers, he says: “Any dream you want to accomplish, you can accomplish it. You just have to put your mind to it and put hard work into what you want to do.” 

Older Adult Center members packed the dining room on the last Friday of the Lunar New Year for a festive presentation by social work student Vincent Cheng. Cheng described Lunar New Year traditions such as doing a deep clean of one’s house, gathering with family, wearing and using the color red, and exchanging gifts. Clinical Manager for Aging Services Gloria Gong pitched in, translating his English into Mandarin.

Everyone who attended the talk got a traditional red gift envelope with a decorative tassel and a red hand-held fan.

Afterward, the celebration continued with Chinese food for all: Chicken with broccoli, veggie lo mein, rice and dumplings. Fresh fruits and vegetables were also available to take home.

Member Betty Lou Shin said she learned a lot about the holiday—and Chinese food. “I’ve never tried a dumpling before,” she said. “I liked it very much.”

Older Adult Center Director Jemma Marens noted that Asians are a growing population in nearby East Harlem: “We always make an effort to celebrate the holidays that our community does, and to learn about each other’s cultures.”

She added that the Lunar New Year gathering was the last event the Older Adult Center held in 2020 before COVID shut down in-person programs. Now that members are once again able to gather, learn and celebrate together, she said, “It feels like we’ve come full circle.”

Interested in our Culinary Arts program? Check your eligibility and get information here.

Chanelly Mena knows how to cook a steak. Her father, who cooked at a popular chain restaurant, used to bring home t-bones to make for the family. 

But the ones she’s cooking today are special, because they’re her final project as a student in our Culinary Arts program. Each student will present two identical plates of food for their classmates and instructors to taste.  

“I wanted to do it in a restaurant way,” she says. “Most people sear it first but I wanted to lock in the flavor, so I put it in the oven with butter and herbs and then seared it.” 

The meat has emerged from the pan looking robust and savory. It is perfectly medium-rare. Mena slices it and carefully spoons a red wine sauce over it. Alongside the meat, she arranges fondant potatoes and bacon-wrapped roasted asparagus. 

Mena is calm, but around her the kitchen is buzzing. At the other end of the long steel chef’s table, a student’s assistant has combined the onions for a veggie stir-fry with the rest of the ingredients—but they need to be separated out and fried first. Another student is carefully rolling up a cream-filled Japanese Roll Cake—a high-stakes endeavor, since the thin slab of cake is prone to tearing or breaking. Program Director Angie Marin and Chef Instructor Kim Pistone flit from station to station offering suggestions and encouragement. 

Tensions are running high, but there’s no running or shouting. Part of becoming a chef is learning to move in a disciplined way in high-pressure situations where dangers abound—from razor-sharp knives to pots of boiling stock. So far these students are passing with flying colors. 

Mena is the first to finish. While she settles down to eat one plate of her food, the other plate is getting rapturous praise from students and instructors alike. 

“The asparagus kept its color,” says Pistone, forking up a bite of meat. “The potatoes and the steak? Perfecto, my friend.” 

The students meet here in a professional kitchen for seven weeks to learn everything from knife techniques to emulsification to food safety. Then they’re placed in paid internships and get support to find full-time, living wage jobs.  

“Each year, we recruit, train, and place 50 students to launch culinary careers,” says Marin. “We’re very proud to see them succeed.” 

Some of the students in this cohort have already been hired. But Mena’s more interested in starting a business. She’s added catering to her list of possible endeavors, along with hair, nails and makeup. Mena is reluctant to be tied down to one thing. But she’s excited about the skills she’s learned, and she does like the intensity of professional cooking: “When you’re in the kitchen you don’t think about anything else—just what you’re doing.” 

It was midday, and the Art Room at the Isaacs Center was buzzing. Older Adult Center members sat on one side of a long table draped in hot pink, and on the other side, college students in hot-pink shirts were giving them manicures. 

The conversations flowed in English and Spanish as the young women gently cleaned, shaped, buffed and painted nails. And while getting a makeover is nice, Rachel Doyle Boyens, the Founder and CEO of GlamourGals Foundation, said the personal connection is just as important.  

“The makeup is a tool for conversation: If you have nothing else to say, what color would you like your nails painted? What color blush would you like?” she explained. “It always starts a little quiet, but then you get this incredible energy in the room.” 

Manicures also involve gentle and safe physical contact—something that’s been harder to come by since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Doyle launched GlamourGals Foundation in 2000 when she was still a junior in high school. She wanted to pay tribute to her late grandmother, and she decided makeovers would be a way to do something fun for older adults in nursing homes and senior centers. 

“I thought, how great would you feel if someone took the time to make you look and feel beautiful and take a picture with you and spend some time to make you feel special? GlamourGals was born out of that idea.” 

It seemed to be working—as our Older Adult Center members admired each other’s nails, praised their color choices, and posed for photos.  

“Our members have fun talking to the volunteers,” said Older Adult Center Director Jemma Marens. “And they definitely enjoy a little pampering!” 

Get an updated flu or COVID shot, check your blood pressure, or take a rapid HIV test at our Community Health Event at the Isaacs Center on Monday, December 19!

The event will go from 1 to 4 PM and is cosponsored by East Ward Baptist Church, Ryan Health and the Isaacs Center.

They snuggled them. They tossed them in the air. They even wore them on their heads. The children in our Beacon After School at PS 198 found many creative ways to express their excitement about the long-eared stuffed bunny toys they received as a gift from Singapore Airlines. 

They had made thank-you cards for the visiting airline representatives, but a third-grader named Emma took things a step further. She went to the front of the auditorium to thank them in person. She had already named her bunny. 

“Bun Bun likes to eat carrots,” she explained. “Bun Bun also like to hop around, and Bun Bun likes to annoy Noah”—she threw a sassy glance at a nearby friend. 

It was all pretty normal kid behavior—and Beacon Director Maribel Mejia was glad to see it. After all the disruptions imposed by the COVID pandemic, she said, young people have been struggling to get the hang of group interactions again. 

“When we returned, a lot of staff saw that it was a lot harder for kids to share with each other and do activities together.  Communication skills had fallen off,” she said. The staff has been focusing on social-emotional learning activities to help bolster those abilities: “We give them the chance to share how they feel and share their ideas.”  

At our second Beacon, located at MS 224, Director Tamar Joseph said his staff noticed the same rustiness around socialization at first. “They’re getting back into the groove of things. Now they’re understanding the teamwork—it’s not just ‘my way or the highway,’” he laughs. 

Beacons are a uniquely New York City phenomenon. Launched by Mayor David Dinkins in 1991, they turn unused school space into miniature community centers during afternoons, evenings and weekends. There are now 91 Beacons throughout the five boroughs.  

All Beacons offer an After School program. These serve as a foundational support system for families, giving children a safe and enriching place to spend the afternoons while enabling their parents to work. Our Beacon 2 After School at MS 224 serves elementary, middle and high schoolers, while Beacon 1 hosts first-through fifth-graders.  

When After School is over, the Beacons go on to serve adults with fitness and other activities. In the evenings and on weekends, both Isaacs Center Beacons offer basketball, soccer, yoga and dance (at Beacon 1 it’s specifically African Dance). In addition, Beacon 1 has Karate while Beacon 2 offers Boxercise. These programs are open to the community. Click here to see schedules for both Beacons.