Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
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Lenox Hill Neighborhood House (the “Neighborhood House”) is a 113 year-old settlement house providing community-based social, educational and legal services to 20,000 people in need every year on the East Side of Manhattan, New York, United States.
The Neighborhood House is the oldest and largest social services organization on the Upper East Side with eight departments (Youth and Family Services, Older Adult Services, Homeless and Housing Services, Homecare (through their affiliate The Caring Neighbor), Legal Advocacy & Organizing, Visual and Performing Arts, Adult Education and Fitness & Recreation), more than 20 different programs, 210 staff and over 500 regular volunteers. Their mission is to help those in need who live, work, or go to school on Manhattan’s East Side and to improve the quality of life for all individuals and families in their community. They define need broadly to include economic, social, emotional, and physical need, but give priority to those in economic need.
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[edit] Foundation
The Neighborhood House was founded in 1894 as a free kindergarten for the children of immigrants living and working on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. As the community has grown and diversified over the last 113 years, so has the Neighborhood House. It has long been a center of community activism and leadership addressing such issues as affordable housing, poor working conditions, health care, hunger, childcare, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, juvenile delinquency, crime prevention, and long-term care for older adults. In addition to creating New York City's first tenants' rights group, the Neighborhood House helped organize New York City's first "Meals on Wheels" program, first government-funded social adult day care program, and helped create a continuum of care for homeless people in New York City. The Neighborhood House was recently profiled as “Agency of the Month” by the New York Nonprofit Press. [1]
[edit] Programs
[edit] Youth & Family Services (YAFS)
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s YAFS Program offers approximately 400 low-income families each year a comprehensive educational experience where children learn, grow and develop in a nurturing environment. Their year-round program ensures that children can attend the Neighborhood House from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., five days a week, 12 months a year. From their enrollment at age three in the full-day Early Childhood Center, to the After School and Summer Day Camp Programs, children age three to thirteen are offered a seamless, developmentally appropriate curriculum designed to instill, support and stimulate a love of learning and to provide insight and understanding about the world in which they live. Services include counseling and other mental health supports, parent workshops and support groups, social service interventions for families, health services, civil legal services, visual and performing arts in the newly renovated art room and auditorium, swimming instruction in their pool, playtime in their gymnasium and outdoor playroof and classes in their computer lab. All children eat freshly prepared meals directed by their Manager of Food Services, and they supervise transportation for the After School youngsters each day from their neighborhood schools.
The After School Program serves 70 children ages 5 to 12, operating from 3:00pm to 6:00pm, Monday through Friday, and all day on school holidays. During the summer months, the program transforms into a day camp. The mission of the After School Program is to give young people the tools to strengthen their academic, social and emotional development and to improve their performance in school. The After School Program operates on a 10-12 week tri-semester format throughout the academic year (i.e., fall session, winter session and spring intensive). Their curriculum provides academic remediation, support and enhancement to better enable children to develop and provides literacy and numeracy education; visual and performing arts education; recreational instruction and activities (including fitness and aquatics), and life skills’ workshops. All children receive a nutritious dinner every evening prepared by the Food Services staff.
[edit] Older Adult Services
The Neighborhood House’s Older Adult Services Department serves more than 10,000 senior citizens throughout New York City each year. The majority of these older adults are low-income individuals on fixed incomes. The programs currently include two filled-to-capacity senior centers (i.e., with a combined membership of over 7,000), seven-day-a-week transportation services, support for family caregivers and their frail elderly loved ones through Project STAR, financial and case management services through Project SCOPE, social day care for physically and cognitively frail elders through the HEP and CARE Programs, legal advocacy, visual and performing arts, outings to cultural events, and computer education.
[edit] Homeless and Housing Services
The Neighborhood House's Homeless Services Department serves approximately 2,000 homeless men and women each year. The Department’s programs include: a Homeless Outreach Project; a 100-bed women’s shelter serving women age 45 and over who are mentally ill; a supportive housing residence with apartments for 54 formerly homeless adults who are mentally ill; a transitional housing program which prepares homeless individuals for permanent housing; a Homeless Outreach Project for people living on the streets and in other public places, with special services for older adults suffering from undiagnosed mental illness; and the East Side Homeless Network, a collaboration with two other New York City non-profits, which coordinates services from outreach to transitional housing to employment for homeless men and women.
[edit] Legal Advocacy and Organizing Department
The Legal Advocacy and Organizing Department provides direct legal assistance and representation to hundreds of Neighborhood House clients in multiple legal areas including housing, family law, government benefits and health insurance and integrates civil legal representation and education into the continuum of services and care for all clients in need. This integration of general legal services into social service and educational programs is the first of its kind in a New York City community-based, multi-service organization. The Legal Department utilizes a model multidisciplinary approach with lawyers, social workers, educators and advocates working together to meet the diverse legal and social service needs of clients. The Department consists of four attorneys and four non-attorney advocates. The Department also works with several pro bono attorneys (including members of the Neighborhood House's Board of Directors) and law school interns.
[edit] Visual & Performing Arts
The Visual and Performing Arts Department integrates arts instruction (visual art, creative movement, music, and drama) and performance into many of the Neighborhood House’s programs and increases participation in and access to the arts for all the varied populations that the House serves. They also present art performances and more to the public through the Community Theatre.
[edit] Adult Education
The Adult Education Department offers English for Speakers of Other Languages classes and computer training. The Neighborhood House’s Computer Learning Center serves approximately 800 individuals each year including low-income, underemployed individuals and welfare recipients who want to improve their skills or re-enter the work force.
[edit] Other programs
The Neighborhood House operates a Fitness Center with state-of-the-art equipment and an indoor heated swimming pool. Swimming instruction is part of the curriculum for all pre-school and school-age children. Special fitness activities are offered to seniors.
The Caring Neighbor (TCN) was founded in 1981 as the home care affiliate of the Neighborhood House. TCN provides home care services, including assistance with bathing, grooming, dressing, walking, light housekeeping, shopping, and cooking, to approximately 350 low-income, frail, elderly and low-income disabled individuals in the New York City communities of the Upper and Lower East Side and Roosevelt Island. TCN employs more than 700 homecare attendants.
[edit] Affiliations
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is a member of United Neighborhood Houses of New York City [1], the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York City, the Supportive Housing Network of New York City, the Day Care Council of New York City, the Council on Homeless Services and Policies of New York City, the Human Services Council of New York City, the Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies and the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.
