Last year I described some of the new initiatives of the FAR Fund. This year I want to describe the multi-year projects supported by the FAR Fund in each of the domains in which the FAR Fund operates.  We believe that it is important to identify projects that reflect the core values of the Fund and support them until they have had sufficient time to maximize their impact and become self-sustaining.  It is also important to formally evaluate the impact of these programs.

Autistic Spectrum

The FAR Fund is one of the few foundations in New York that focuses on improving systems and expanding services for people on the autistic spectrum. One of our primary interests is supporting programs that use a developmental approach to assist people. Toward that end, the FAR Fund supports a three-year evaluation by Dr. Michelle Dunn of a very promising model, the Parent/Child Nursery for the treatment of high functioning children on the autistic spectrum, at the Jewish Community Center on the Palisades in New Jersey. The nursery is a multidisciplinary, psychodynamically-based treatment center that addresses the cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional needs of children and their parents. We are hopeful that the evaluation will document the efficacy of this program which can then be expanded and replicated to benefit many more children.

We have also supported a three-year collaboration with the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities to infuse an individualized approach called “person-centered planning” into three agencies that work with adults on the autistic spectrum. The initiative which includes Life’s WORC, Institute of Applied Human Dynamics and The Shield, with Job Path providing technical assistance, is being evaluated by Dr. Steve Holburn of the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities. Commissioner Broderick was encouraged by the interim evaluation and by her own contact with specific agencies that have changed their practices as a result of this initiative. Both OMRDD and the FAR Fund are enthusiastic about expanding the initiative into other agencies, through OMRDD-funded OPTS proposals and support from the FAR Fund.

Violence Against Youth

The Partnership for Family Supports and Justice is a collaboration of ten foundations and the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) that is testing a new approach to assisting families at risk of having a child placed into foster care. Parents in the Highbridge community are trained to identify families who are having difficulties and then refer them to services and legal assistance provided by the project. The project is being evaluated by Dr. Fred Wulczyn of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.

The FAR Fund has supported the initiative for four years. Based on the strength of the community collaboration, ACS is considering funding the project as one of a few sites to pilot test its new program for realignment of funding for child welfare services.

Another long-term project we support is the FAR Fund’s Fellowship program. This past year we helped Omowale Adewale, who has recently changed his name from Lawrence James, design the R.E.B.E.L. Program (Rallying, Educating, & Building Effective Leadership) which organizes and mobilizes young people to decrease the incidence of violence against youth. Participants of the program will study self-determination and leadership skills through a 14-week curriculum, where topics such as the importance of voting, the educational system and the lack of affordable housing are explored.  These weekly educational sessions will complement organizing and leadership trainings to offer youth a theoretical and practical hands-on approach to addressing various problems in their neighborhoods.  They will also expand their Alternative to Incarceration program to which judges in court can refer youth instead of remanding them to an upstate jail.  

In addition to supporting the design of the program, The FAR Fund also provided a grant to launch the R.E.B.E.L. program as part of the Grassroots Artists Movement (G.A.ME), an international nonprofit membership organization. Its mission is to use Hip Hop to work with young people to address various social and economic issues facing Black and Latino communities.  Through one of their programs, G.A.ME Healthcare Network, they have been able to provide free medical and dental care, and free or low-cost prescriptions for all G.A.ME members.

We are now planning to provide another fellowship in the summer of 2006 in the area of autism and bullying in the school system. Please see the FAR Fund Fellowship section of this annual report, and our website at FARFund.org to learn more about the fellowship program.

Homelessness

For the past three years the FAR Fund has supported several models of supportive housing to help formerly homeless individuals. Broadway Housing, Thorpe Family Residences, and Housing + Solutions are the models we have been or will be supporting. 

We have also supported efforts to bring about systemic reform as a way to improve the service system for formerly homeless families.  A grant to the Center for New York City Affairs produced a research and policy paper, “Spanning the Neighborhood: The bridge between housing and supports for families,” which documents the need for a broad spectrum of supportive services, including supportive housing for formerly homeless families. The report presents feasible strategies for preventing homelessness and family crises.

A series of grants to support the work of the Task Force on Housing and Services for Families helped them play an important role, along with many other agencies, in pressing City and State government to reach the New York/ New York III agreement providing for 9,000 additional units of supportive housing and to allow, for the first time, formerly homeless families to utilize these apartments.

As another example of successful system reform in this area, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) has increased its emphasis on and funding for aftercare services for formerly homeless families. This shift occurred after its successful experience with an aftercare program, Living Your Life (LYL), implemented at its L.I.F.E. Center, and funded by the FAR Fund. This program is staffed by formerly homeless individuals, enabling the experience of consumers to shape the program and help ensure that the assistance provided meets the needs of formerly homeless families.

Psychodynamic Services, Training and Research

The FAR Fund promotes the contributions of psychoanalytic theory and practice within the three funding domains described above.  One of our most ambitious projects is a five-year grant to the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at City College of New York. The grant, which is matched equally by the University, provides support for doctoral dissertations, special courses, and fellowships to work in clinical programs in the underserved, neighboring community of Harlem. The grant has infused new resources and energy into an outstanding program that had struggled with years of reduced public support. During the grant period, the program was identified by the college as one of its “Flagship Programs.” Approximately 350 people a year from across the country and the world apply for the 12 graduate openings in the program.

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The FAR Fund is supporting dozens of other programs throughout the city that improve the lives of individuals and that are beginning to change policies and programs for the individuals we seek to help. Successful system reform always takes much longer than anticipated. The FAR Fund is committed to investing the time and resources to continue the journey with the dedicated grantees with whom we have the privilege of collaborating.

David Tobis