Our Relationships
NYC Children’s Services (ACS): In recent years CWOP has undertaken several joint projects in collaboration with ACS, and has also actively participated in and promoted ACS’s Community Partnership Project. At present, this relationship feels somewhat tenuous, with ACS showing little real depth of commitment, or willingness to attach resources, to partnership with parents. We met with the Commissioner in late July 2010, and are working to restore our partnership by jointly seeking private funding for a modest expansion of our Child Safety Conference work.
The Bridge Builders / Highbridge Community Partnership: An original Bridge Builders partner, CWOP is entering our eighth year of service in Highbridge. CWOP’s effectiveness in engaging and training local parents for staff roles in the Bridge Builders has been a key to the project’s success. At this time, the project is struggling financially, while attempting to incorporate as an independent entity.
The Center for Family Representation (CFR): CWOP’s Child Safety Conference work in CD 11 is a subcontract with CFR, funded by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. Parents seen in CSC’s, and attending our Support Groups are frequently referred to CFR for legal services. CFR often conducts joint parents’ rights trainings with CWOP, and helped develop our “Survival Guide to the NYC Child Welfare System.” CWOP also partners with the Bronx Defenders and the Brooklyn Family Defense Project to provide parents’ rights training. http://www.cfrny.org/
Human Services Consortium of East Harlem: CWOP is a long time member of the Consortium. The Consortium is the lead agency for the ACS East Harlem Community Partnership Project, and CWOP subcontracts with them to provide Community Representative services in East Harlem.
Hunter College School of Social Work: Hunter has placed MSW interns with CWOP for ten years. CWOP parents do frequent guest presentations to social work classes, and have worked with the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections at Hunter to produce “Digital Stories.” The Center is also proposing an independent study of our CD 11 Child Safety Conference work to ACS.
http://www.nrcpfc.org/digital_stories/parent/index.htm
Mount Sinai School of Medicine / Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: CWOP is working with Geetha Gopalan, a post-doctoral fellow, to develop and fund a Multi-Family Group for East Harlem parents with children recently returned home from foster care.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW): We have partnered with NAPW on several occasions to present in conferences on addiction, pregnancy, and motherhood; and have also served as amicus on several NAPW lawsuits protecting the reproductive rights of women in recovery. http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/
New York State Office of Children and Family Services: OCFS has become a key partner under the leadership of Commissioner Gladys Carrion, who has given CWOP Quality Enhancement funds to develop our Parent Leadership Curriculum, issued Informational Bulletins encouraging the use of Parent Advocates and citing CWOP as a model, and promulgated new regulations allowing Parent Advocates’ contacts with families to count toward foster care agencies’ contractual requirements.
Fund for Social Change Parent Advocate Initiative (PAI): PAI is a time-limited, multi-funder, multi-agency collaboration intended to promote the use of Parent Advocates in foster care agencies. CWOP has been funded through PAI both to train Parent Advocates, and to administer a citywide Parent Advocate Network.
People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond: CWOP staff and parents have participated in a variety of Undoing Racism workshops and activities, including ongoing membership in a Child Welfare Antiracist Collective. http://www.pisab.org/
Youth Communication (Represent and Rise): CWOP shares office space with Rise. CWOP parents are active Rise writers and Editorial Board members. CWOP is currently partnering with Represent to develop and seek funding for a peer-led support group for older youth in foster care using college as a route to self-sufficiency. http://www.risemagazine.org/
