Current Programs

All empowerinG  |  all unique  |  all exciting!

The Asian Initiative 

We are developing a unique program that facilitates the entrance of Asian students to local high schools, private schools, summer camps, tours and eventually college and career placement. The uniqueness derives from our emphasizing the need for adequate support networks that are local in nature and offer individualized assistance for each student to combat the chronic problems of language difficulty, weak subject area performance, isolation and segregation that afflicts many of our new students. We also develop and oversee lines of regular communication between students, their birth families, host families and the schools they attend. We see ourselves as part of a larger family seeking the best for all of our members.

The Morningside Cultural Trail

We have been, for the past few years, facilitating the development of The Morningside Cultural Trail. This is a trail that is unique in our world today a trail that has aspects of art and architecture, history and culture, science and nature, recreation and fitness and that you can go on for a quarter mile or eight miles. It has been an exciting outgrowth of the creative synergy between nearly twenty partners including two major Universities, the City of Syracuse, the City School District, Onondaga County, the Boy Scouts, a local cemetery and several community groups.

The Nottingham Connection

After the successful facilitation with the Nottingham Alumni to successfully restore the  traditional “Wall of Fame” we have been assisting the alumni in their mission to “reinvent” the role and importance of high school alumni groups and to serve as a model nationally. Several alumni from the group have been responsible for major fund raising efforts over the past few years, including restoring the “Wall of Fame” effort, “The Bulldog Walk Fund Raiser,” raising several thousands of dollars for a major landscaping effort and $30,000 dollars raised by one class (’61), in a few months, to supply iPads for the use of underprivileged students with a good college potential. It is efforts like this and their focus on being an active partner to the students, family, community and school that is driving their mission.

Past Programs

All achieved timely results  |  all were empowering    

  many were first and unique!  

Education

Student Interns with Local, State and Federal Government elected representatives

We developed and coordinated a one of a kind Internship program for Urban and suburban High School students., placing students in the offices of the Mayor of Syracuse, NY State Assemblyman Magnarelli,  State Senator Valesky and U.S. Senator Schumer.  The Interns served as semester long office staff and received credit for keeping a journal and writing a paper. The program was a complete joy for all and was totally unique in bringing Secondary Students into a role previously reserved for undergraduate and graduate college students. Unexpected benefits included High School students who developed and matured beyond anyone’s expectation simply because they were working side by side with college interns and adult professionals.

Family Development at a Middle School  

As Consultants with the Syracuse City School District’s “Community of Caring” program at Lincoln Middle School, we developed:                                                                                                                               

• A successful chronically tardy program that dramatically increased attendance by getting input and involving the families
• Increased parent involvement in the AVID program
• Developed “The Family Representatives,” a unique program that created an active parent/family group with thirty five parents who surveyed the staff, students and families and represented the families with the development of important programming, fundraisers and celebrations.

Family, Staff, Student and Community development at an Elementary School

As Consultants with Ed Smith Elementary School we:

• Developed a Family Representatives group similar to the one at Lincoln Middle School
• Conducted a Leadership Conference with 100+ students, staff, families and community members setting goals for the school community and creating programs to accomplish them.

Family student Development at a Junior High School

As Consultants with Levy Middle School we:

• Developed a Family Representatives group that served as a focus for family input as the school changed from a Middle School to a K-8
• Constructed and conducted a meeting at which family members, students, staff and the community were able to communicate face to face with The Superintendent of Schools, The Teacher Association President and Board of Education members. At a meeting that was highly charged we were able to maintain a consistent respectful tone and the participants were able to express their concerns and get their questions answered. Uniquely this was the only time that the Union president and Superintendent appeared jointly and freely discussed their view points in public.

Family representatives at a K-8 school

As Consultants with Huntington K-8 school, we developed a Family Representatives group that facilitated the creation of family reps in individual classrooms, ran fundraisers and conducted informational meetings.

Anti-Bullying facilitator at the High school level

We facilitated an anti-bullying program at Nottingham HS which included representatives from all the City of Syracuse SE quadrant schools; the Westcott neighborhood leadership Roundtable, the Nottingham Gay Straight Alliance; Syracuse University and the Nottingham PTSO.

Family, staff, alumni, student and Community development

We facilitated a Leadership Conference at Nottingham High School that used input from the stakeholders to focus on tackling some of the problems facing a large urban High School and improving programs that were already flourishing. The Conference resulted in, among other things: an adult / student project to improve bathrooms, a project that offered free SAT preparation, a project that worked on addressing the problems facing slow learners with the regents exams, a series of coffee houses with entertainment offered at various community locations by the performing arts students, staff and community members, and a parent/family involvement project that put on a highly successful multi-cultural dinner and advocated for a new form of “PTSO” that would combine the strengths of all the stake holder groups working together. 

“FACES of Nottingham”

This was the new organization developed at the recommendation of the parent/family involvement project at the Conference noted immediately above. We worked with ten members of the Nottingham community to develop an organization that would include members from and the strengths of the five major stakeholder groups: the families, alumni, community members, educators and students (hence F.A.C.E.S.). This took a PTSO with three active members on the board and replaced it with seventeen active board members from all five groups. Within a year the organization incorporated and went non-profit. It maintains its own web site and facebook page, and has grown many new programs including a 12 step Landscaping project being done at very low cost with members of the community.

Assistant administrator at an urban elementary school

Working with the Syracuse Northeast Community Center and Dr. Weeks Elementary School, we served provided an Assistant Administrator for the After School program serving over 400 students with approximately forty staff members. Working with families, students and staff we took a challenged program at a troubled inner city school. After surveying the problems and after conducting a Leadership Conference we used the results to develop a partnership with all the groups. Discipline improved dramatically, classes developed exciting programming and we ended the year with a first time ever evening showcase celebrating our successes in front of over four hundred family and community members.

Wall of Fame

We were asked by the Nottingham Connection (representing Nottingham High School Alumni) , to help facilitate the traditional “Wall of Fame” effort. This request was made because this annual celebration and fund raiser had fallen on hard times and, as a result, had to be, for the first time ever, cancelled. This presented a real problem as the “Wall of Fame” is a one of a kind jewel among the schools in CNY winning the respect of everyone in the Nottingham Community and the admiration of all of our surrounding communities. It is also the major fund raiser for the nonprofit organization “Faces of Nottingham” which supports the school, staff, students and community. We agreed and over a six month period we worked with the alumni and, with the support of the community group “FACES of Nottingham” and Principal David Maynard, reinvigorated the “Wall of Fame.” We had a successful celebration in October 2015, honoring six prominent citizens with permanent memorials and raising significant funds for the “Faces of Nottingham.”

Government and Agencies

“Syracuse-A Caring City” Coordinator

We served as the consultant/coordinators for the Mayor’s office for the “Syracuse-A Caring Community” effort funded by the City of Syracuse. In this I was tasked with creating a program that would put the City government  in a partnership  with the Syracuse City School District’s “Community of Caring” program. That year the mayor was honored as Mayor of the Year by Eunice Kennedy Shiver’s “Community of Caring “at their national Convention for his efforts.

Parent Education for Non-Custodial Parents

Retained by “The Parent Success Initiative,” a State program that developed a consortium of Human Service Agencies headed by the local division of the N.Y. State B.O.C.E.S., This group was charged with developing a program for non-custodial parents that would help them with training as parents, job development and search, legal help and other supportive services. We were hired to author a parenting curriculum and conduct classes in “Successful Parenting.”  The classes were highly successful largely due to the inclusion of our clients in the development and growth of a necessarily, diverse curriculum. This program of client focus and input resulted in the creation of the “Family Advisory Council”; a committee of program clients, who acted as a resource for the PSI group.

Fatherhood Alliance

A charter member of the Fatherhood Alliance, an organization formed to focus all CNY service organizations on helping create opportunities for successful parenting by men. We were part of the team that developed a community wide focus on the needs of fathers and an area-wide Conference to help bring this Community focus to the effort.

GED/Literacy programming

At the request of the Executive Director of the Westcott Community Center we researched, developed and administrated a GED/Literacy program that has developed into one of the best producing GED sites in the Syracuse City School District. The Director agreed on the philosophy “No one slips between the cracks.” Following that ideal we researched other GED programs, met with the instructor who, year after year, has the best results in CNY with GED instruction. Using his input and our observations, we developed a program that stressed individual instruction, the use of trained volunteer tutors and a “case worker” approach to maintain the students focus on, and confidence in, their efforts.

Free Family Therapy Program

Realizing the emotional needs of the clients of the GED, parenting and job readiness programs, we developed a Free Family Therapy program with Syracuse University’s Goldberg Center at the Westcott Community Center. We took the needs of our impoverished clients combined it with the needs of SU graduate students for monitored counseling experienceand developed a unique and worthwhile program. As one client put it “I’ve learned how to talk nice to my girl friend.”

Refugee and Immigrant program

We worked with Literacy Volunteers, the Westcott Community Center and teachers at Syracuse City School’s Nottingham High School to develop a “tutoring/partner” program linking members of the large refugee and immigrant community’s students with the student members of the Nottingham Honor Society. Using Literacy Volunteers program of “each one/teach one” we prepared the Honor Society students to not only assist the refugees and immigrants with their studies but also to become friends and help them adjust to the new community.