Inwood House

Inwood House

In December 2005, Linda Lausell Bryant joined Inwood House's 175 year tradition of leadership and vision as Executive Director. A Cum Laude graduate of Pace University, Ms. Lausell Bryant has a Masters Degree in Social Work from Hunter College, and has completed coursework toward a Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work at New York University. Ms. Lausell Bryant came to Inwood House after serving as Associate Commissioner for the New York City Administration for Children’s Services where she was responsible for directing New York City’s efforts to strengthen child welfare practice for adolescents with the goal of improving their educational, social, economic and health outcomes. The published author of a number of scholarly works, Ms. Lausell Bryant is well versed on the pressures of poverty, especially the impact of violence on young people in their homes, schools and communities. Her early work included serving as Mediation Director for the Children’s Aid Society Parent-Teen Mediation Program, which focused on strengthening families to avoid conflicts and prevent foster care placement. As founding Director of the Victim Services School Mediation and Violence Prevention Services program, Ms. Lausell Bryant developed, implemented and secured funding for programs operating in more than 40 New York City middle and high schools aimed at helping youth build the personal skills they need to deter gang, relationship and family violence. Here she developed an intimate understanding of the power of school-based programming in helping youth connect fulfillment of their aspirations to responsible behavior. Ms. Lausell Bryant has also been on the forefront of the after-school programming movement which is transforming out of school time into an opportunity for educational enrichment and personal development. She was an early and effective advocate for public-private funding partnerships aimed at improving our national capacity for educating our youth. As Deputy Executive Director of the Partnership for After School Education (PASE), Ms. Lausell Bryant designed and established an after-school training institute for all levels of staff from more than 1,200 New York City youth service organizations. Ms. Lausell Bryant continues to promote Inwood House’s values as advocates for adolescents and the role that adolescent sexual development plays in the healthy development of youth. Under her leadership, Inwood House is poised to play an even more dynamic role in helping our young people become a positive force for their families and communities.

HISTORY

Inwood House was established as a Residence in 1830 to help delinquent girls in New York City rebuild their lives. Many were immigrants without families and were sexually exploited. Inwood House provided them a safe home and supportive community, education and employable skills. Today the Residence cares for homeless, pregnant teens in foster care, and Inwood House is internationally recognized as a leader and innovator in youth development, teen pregnancy prevention, and family support serving nearly 5,000 young people in New York City and New Jersey.

Innovation, advocacy, and education have always been hallmarks of Inwood House’s work: In the early 1800’s the founders were vocal advocates for their young women and fundraising efforts underscored the connection between poverty and delinquency. They won Court approval for girls to be referred to Inwood House, rather than be sent to the penitentiary, and provided foster family homes for homeless pregnant girls. In the early 1900’s, Inwood House was one of the first to conduct community outreach education to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, institute scientific evaluation of services, provide on-going family support services to unwed mothers, and helped found the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies. Inwood House accepted young women of all races and religions, defying the customary segregation of social service delivery.

To enable very young mothers to keep their babies, Inwood House raised private funds in the 1940’s to provide Mother/Baby foster family homes and created the first City-sponsored program in the 1960’s. In 1947, Columbia University published Out of Wedlock, which captured the agency’s advanced use of therapeutic counseling and ongoing casework, and the Residents’ subsequent success in achieving self-sufficiency and avoiding repeat out-of-wedlock births. Today, Inwood House provides the most comprehensive array of services in New York City for pregnant and parenting teens in foster care and plays a pivotal role in the lives of our teen parents as they transition from foster care to life on their own. Our continuum of care for pregnant and parenting teens in foster care earned Inwood House a $1.3 million national demonstration grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2000.

With the explosion of teen births in the 1970’s, Inwood House raised private funds to establish Teen Choice, the first comprehensive school-based sexuality education and counseling program in New York City, and the first to include boys. Teen Choice was on the forefront of the AIDS epidemic and now operates in 11 New York City schools, has been replicated in New Jersey, and earned a five-year national demonstration grant in 1995. Teen Choice has been honored with the Outstanding Achievement Award by the National Organization of Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting, and Prevention and chosen as a model program by the Child Welfare League of America and the National Research Council. Since the program’s inception, Inwood House has raised more than $10 million to support Teen Choice – more than 85% in private funding, and has helped nearly 100,000 teens safely navigate the challenges of adolescence.

Inwood House was one of the first to recognize the young unwed father as a potential resource for the family and launched the 1990’s with Fathers Count, a program to help them take on their share of parental responsibilities. We expanded our community-based services to the South Bronx with Teen Family Services, which links teen mothers to vital services such as health care, child care, educational and job opportunities. We initiated Boys to Men, our South Bronx intervention program to keep boys safe from the streets, focused on school and planning for future.

In 2000, Inwood House was chosen by the After School Corporation and the Department of Education to establish a Renaissance After School Program in the Bronx: Youth for REAL (Responsibility, Excellence, Achievement and Leadership). Youth for REAL provides educational enrichment, fitness and wellness activities and community problem-solving projects after the school day for 450 elementary and middle school students.

In 2004, Inwood House was one of four New York City agencies selected by the New York City Department of Education to provide specialized support services for pregnant students to empower them to continue their educations and achieve academic success. Inwood House was awarded a contract to serve students at the Martha Neilson School in the Bronx, a community that is already home to Inwood House Teen Family Services, Teen Choice, Boys to Men and Young Fathers programs.

In 2005, Inwood House expanded our Maternity Residence services to pregnant teens who are not in foster care. With funding from the Robin Hood Foundation, Inwood House will be addressing a critical unmet need in New York City by providing supportive 24-hour care, support and guidance, including pre-natal care, education, parenting and life skills training for girls who would otherwise be unable to access such care.

The Inwood House Research Group informs youth development, teen pregnancy prevention, and family support policy and programs throughout the United States and abroad, and our executive and senior staff and young people take leading roles in local and national coalitions aimed at improving the child welfare system and ending child and family poverty.

Inwood House is now poised to play an even more expansive role in helping our youth become a positive force for their families and communities and has launched the Campaign for Inwood House – an $8 million capacity- building effort to secure the resources we need to further enhance our programs, complete a major facility renovation of our Maternity Residence, conduct critical program evaluations and research, and strengthen our endowment. Through this Campaign, we will open the door to a new era of hope and opportunity for all of our young people.

THE CAMPAIGN FOR INWOOD HOUSE

Inwood House is prepared to play an even more expansive and dynamic role in helping our youth become a positive force for their families, friends, and communties. With a clear vision for our future, the Board of Trustees has launched The Campaign for Inwood House, a 3-year $8 million capacity-building effort to secure the resources we need to:

Enhance our youth development, teen pregnancy prevention, and family support programs
Renovate our Maternity Residence on East 82nd Street
Expand our research and policy development initiatives, and
Strengten our endowment and reserve funds

Inwood House is utilizing the Capital Campaign as a strategic opportunity to broaden the agency's support base. Our Board of Trustees has made impressive inroads in bringing in new private foundations and individual givers and is expanding the role of the corporate community through a recently formed Corporate Advisory Board. Our Board of Trustees has already raised more than $1 million towards the Campaign and is committed to reaching its $8 million goal.

For more information on how to support The Campaign for Inwood House please contact Kathleen Cooney Clarke at 212-861-4325 ext. 223 or kclarkcooney@inwoodhouse.com

Officers:

Gerald Pape President

Linda Genereux Vice President

Ghillaine A. Reid, Esq . Secretary

Barbara Krasne Treasurer

Andrea S. Christensen, Esq. At-Large Member

Linda Lausell Bryant Executive Director

Trustees:

Barbara Abadi

Nick Adamo

E. Sherrell Andrews, Esq.

Edna Berk Kuhn, Esq.

Melanie Davis

Katrina S. Dudley

Jennifer Riegel Elmlinger

Cynthia Hoffmann

Tamara Kreinin

Kristin C. Lemkau

Rami Musallam

Margaret Raabe

Jennifer H. Rearden, Esq.

Helenmarie Rodgers

Stefanie Shelley

Karen Williams

Trustees Emeritae:

Abigail M. Alling

Josephine B. Bush

Virginia Slaughter Loeb

Caroline C. Williamson

Nick Adamo, Segment Vice President: U.S. Provider, Cisco Systems, Inc. *

Robert Annuziata, Chairman & CEO: ATEF, Inc.

Stephanie Avakian, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr

Mary Byron, Managing Director: Goldman Sachs

Robert Cagnazzi, CEO, BlueWater Communications Group, LLC

Robert Conway, Partner: Conway, Del Genio Gries & Co. LLC

L. Robert DellaSalle, Managing Director, Merril Lynch

Joseph De Simone, Partner, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, LLP

Robert Dunn, Senior Partner: IBSG, Financial Services, Cisco Systems, Inc.

David Dusek, Senior Managing Director, Studley

Leonard J. Elmore, Senior Counsel, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, LLP

Patrick Finn, Vice President, Vertical Sales, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Robert Healy, First Vice President, Merrill Lynch

Igor Klener, Director of Verizon Operations: Cisco Systems, Inc.

Sanna Lindberg, President of US Operations, H&M

Jamie Levitt, Partner: Morrison & Foerster LLP

Monique Miller, Director, Caxton Associates

Doreen Mogavero, President & CEO, Mogavero, Lee & Co.

Eileen Murray, Head of Global Operations and Technology, Morgan Stanley

Rami Musallam, Chairman & CEO: Thrupoint Inc *

JP Rosato, CEO, CS Technology

William C. Steere, III, Executive Vice President, Ruder Finn

GT Sweeney, Independent Consultant

Edward Tillinghast III, Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, LLP

Andrew Wozniak, Client Director, Time Warner Operations, Cisco Systems, Inc.

*Inwood House Trustee

Child Welfare League of America
Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies
Family Support America
Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (founding member)
Hispanic Federation
Human Services Council
Mother/Baby Consortium of New York City
National Organization of Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting, and Prevention
Neighborhood Families Coalition
Non-Profit Coordinating Council of New York City