ARTICLE TAG

You Gotta Believe

3/26/2020

Shut in At Home, Foster and Adoptive Parents Look Online for Support

With coronavirus exploding in the world around them, millions of parents are discovering just how difficult long days and nights holed up indoors with kids can be. For New York foster and adoptive parents, like Martha Hornthal, their children’s first week of distance learning has sometimes felt not just isolating and wearying – but bordering on the impossible.

Pat O'Brien foster adoptive parent new york affcny

2/18/2020

Q&A: Pat O’Brien on Leaving a Place He Founded, Suing The State, and What Comes Next for New York Foster Parents

An innovator in the field of adoption has taken the reins at one of the largest advocacy groups for foster and adoptive parents in New York. The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York (AFFCNY) announced Pat O’Brien as executive director in December.

2/13/2020

NFL’s Ty Montgomery, ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Star Santino Fontana Celebrate Pioneering Foster Youth Nonprofit

New York Jets running back Ty Montgomery, TV actor Santino Fontana from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and a host of Broadway’s biggest stars lit up the stage last Thursday at Voices for the Voiceless, a musical benefit celebrating the 25th anniversary of nonprofit You Gotta Believe.

12/2/2019

Can Trained, Paid Peer Support Help New York City Keep Foster Parents?

When Roxanne Williams became a foster parent four years ago, she started in the deep end of the parenting pool. New York City child welfare workers brought her a boy with limited English on a Friday afternoon and left after confirming her home was safe, leaving Williams to muddle through their first days together on her own.

8/15/2019

Prominent New York Foster and Adoptive Parent Advocate Steps Down

The executive director of the largest and most politically engaged foster and adoptive parent organization in New York announced he’s leaving after four and a half years in the role. “I am writing to share with you that I am winding down my work at the Coalition and will be pursuing my commitment to families and children in another capacity,” wrote Richard Heyl de Ortiz of the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York (AFFCNY), in a Tuesday e-mail addressed to colleagues and friends.

7/20/2017

NYC Foster Care Agency You Gotta Believe Says Farewell to Director Susan Grundberg

For the past four years, Susan Grundberg has worked to help foster youth find permanent families and parents while leading the non-profit organization You Gotta Believe (YGB). “When I began, it was a daunting prospect to take the helm … but together with our partners, we have accomplished so much,” wrote Grundberg in a newsletter.

    9/18/2016

    Broadway Benefit Concert Celebrates Hope for Foster Youth

    The Al Hirschfeld Theatre stage lit up last Monday night with celebrities and guests gathering to support New York City’s foster children at the 2nd-annual Voices for the Voiceless: Stars for Foster Kids benefit concert.

    9/2/2016

    Upcoming NYC Concert to Raise Funds for Older Foster Youth

    This year’s Voices for the Voiceless: Stars for Foster Kids benefit concert will be held on Monday, September 12th at 7 p.m. at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York City.

    7/27/2016

    NYC Foster Youth Nonprofit Turns Funding Crisis into Opportunity

    Celebrities Tina Fey and Jane Krakowski walked the paparazzi-lined red carpet. Lights flashed. Hundreds of well-dressed attendees filled the auditorium. Voices for the Voiceless: Stars For Foster Kids, a 2015 Broadway event created to raise money for the foster youth organization You Gotta Believe, was a star-studded success, light years away from the financial turmoil that had rocked the storied New York City nonprofit only a few months earlier.