Do you play #likeaNewYorker? Let us know how you live #likeaNewYorker, and take our quiz: bit.ly/rhnyer.
Do you eat pizza #likeaNewYorker? bit.ly/rhnyer
700,000 New Yorkers have Diabetes—almost a third don’t know they have it.
New data from the city Department Of Health indicates that diabetes rates have risen over the past 20 years. Specifically, since 1993 diabetes has increased among adult New Yorkers by 150 percent, from 4.2 percent of adults in 1993 to 10.5 percent in 2011.
The report also finds that diabetes disproportionately affects the city’s high-poverty communities, with the highest rates among Hispanic, black and South Asian New Yorkers.
Just last week, Robin Hood’s Board of Directors approved a grant to City Health Works! a start-up organization that is working to tackle the growing presence of diabetes and obesity in New York’s low-income communities. Incubated at Columbia Business School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University during 2012, City Health Works! is an innovative program that trains community health workers to implement an intensive lifestyle intervention for at risk individuals.
Their specific program has been shown to be effective in lowering weight and reducing the incidence of diabetes in adults through numerous studies. Robin Hood is particularly excited about this grant because we believe City Health Works! has the potential to address the current lack of scalable models that effectively address these health issues. Because of this, we are confident that our recent investment will have a large impact over time on our city’s health. Learn more about this exciting program here.
Doctors Venkman, Stanz and Spengler fought ghosts #likeaNewYorker. What do you do #likeaNewYorker? http://bit.ly/rhnyer
We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to share the story of our co-founder Paul Tudor Jones and the Robin Hood Foundation with a national audience on last night’s broadcast of 60 Minutes.
In case you missed it visit the links below to get an in-depth look at our approach to fighting poverty in New York City:
Jabali Sawicki on the Excellence Boys Charter School
Paul Tudor Jones on Venture Philanthropy
Paul Tudor Jones on Using Metrics
60 Minutes Overtime - Stories Behind the 12-12-12 Concert
On sunny days, New Yorkers can’t resist eating lunch is outside. How do you eat lunch “Like a New Yorker?”
Try our #LikeaNewYorker Quiz.
What do you do #likeaNewYorker?
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Take the quiz here: http://bit.ly/rhnyer
Last week, City Harvest hosted their 19th annual gala, An Evening of Practical Magic, at Cipriani 42nd Street. The event pays tribute to the efforts of those who have gone above and beyond to help City Harvest feed the 1.5 million New Yorkers who experience food insecurity. At the dinner, Robin Hood received The Harry & Misook Doolittle Heart of the City Award, which recognizes important partners who have performed exceptionally this past year to help City Harvest feed the more than one million New Yorkers who face hunger each year.
Since 2010, Robin Hood has partnered with City Harvest to deliver millions of pounds of food. And, with additional support from Robin Hood, City Harvest recently moved into a 45,000 sq. ft. food rescue facility in Long Island City allowing them to provide even more food for hungry New Yorkers. With its fleet of trucks and ample facility space, City Harvest was perfectly positioned to fill an important role on the front line of disaster relief following Hurricane Sandy. Their team quickly and efficiently helped providemeals to those who were impacted by the storm, while continuing to serve our neighbors who already depended on them.
Robin Hood is incredibly grateful for City Harvest’s thoughtful and lifesaving work. We were truly honored to receive this award and to partner with such a remarkable organization.
Last week, Robin Hood was honored to receive the “Anne Vanderbilt Award for Achievement” from one of our community partners, Partnership with Children at their annual benefit gala.
Partnership with Children’s mission is to initiate and support educational enrichment and the transformation of schools. They bring Masters-level social workers into underserved public schools to provide counseling and classroom interventions for students are at risk of academic failure and dropping out. Robin Hood began funding Partnership with Children for what it could do in the aftermath of September 11th. Since then, we’ve continued their funding because their special blend of social work, in-class work and therapy helps students thrive.
The award was accepted by Emary Aronson, Robin Hood’s Managing Director of Education and the Relief Fund, on the behalf of Robin Hood. Upon accepting Emary stated “At Robin Hood we always speak about the privilege of getting to do the work we do and the reason it is a privilege is because we can engage with organizations like Partnership with Children. We are personally honored to have worked with Partnership for the last 12 years and know that the children of our city are better for your being in their schools.”
The award is named for Anne Vanderbilt, who was one of the founders of “Big Sisters” in 1908, which evolved into Partnership with Children. Established in 2004, the award recognizes individuals who’ve made significant contributions to the education and well being of young people throughout New York City. Among those who have received the award in past years are representatives from Citigroup Inc., Bank of America, GE and Joel L. Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Schools. We are certainly in good company!
We thank Partnership for Children for this honor. And for the many children who you have helped but who cannot yet comprehend what you have done for them or do not have the vocabulary to express their gratitude, we say thank you from them as well.
Poor New Yorkers aren’t just food-deprived. Many are facing multiple other challenges that are negatively impacting their lives.
On Wednesday, we spent the morning at West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) and had the opportunity to get to know a few of our struggling neighbors. People like Ana, an aging grandmother who is caring for her son and his newborn infant, and Leta, a single mother who is helping her son pay his community college loans, but recently found herself unemployed due to a medical emergency. We also met Jessina, a 19 year-old high school graduate struggling to find a job and in desperate need of medical insurance to see a primary care doctor. And, many young parents who missed a rent payment and are now are evicted from their rent stabilized apartment.
WSCAH is not just providing individuals and families with healthy foods, they are attacking poverty by providing free legal, financial, medical and benefits counseling to help with these issues. They do this by partnering with other Robin Hood-funded organizations like Neighborhood Trust, Single Stop, the Children’s Aid Society and Urban Justice.
WSCAH boasts the city’s original, and, perhaps most successful, customer choice pantry with a strong integrated social services component. WSCAH screens all families for benefits before they pick up groceries at the pantry, an important intake routine that other pantries around the city are striving to replicate.
What brought these families into the church basement was food, but because of the smart and innovative partnerships, they leave with so much more.
