Approached by a loan seller, Theodora Roach agreed to what turned out to be a balloon loan. Later, she got help through a government program and the Neediest Cases Fund.

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund recently featured this Children’s Aid story, written by Jennifer Mascia, about Theodora Roach and how she received help after unknowingly entering into a balloon loan. Below is an excerpt from the original article:

Theodora Roach’s subprime journey started with a knock at the door.

In 2004, the Fidelity Group sent sales representatives to her block in Flatlands, Brooklyn, where, in 1997, she and a cousin had bought a three-bedroom home for $169,000. The sales agents were offering a refinancing and loan package they said could lower her mortgage payments.

Ms. Roach had already borrowed $25,000 against the equity in her home — first to finish the basement, then to help cover her payments because her cousin, a correction officer, disappeared, along with her half of the $1,500-a-month mortgage.

Behind on her first mortgage, and to avoid a lien on the home, which she shared with her mother and adult daughter, Ms. Roach, 58, accepted the offer.

It turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life.

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To learn how you can make a difference for this family and many others, please link over to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund or contact:

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
230 West 41st Street
Suite 1300
New York, NY 10036
(800) 381-0075

Photo courtesy of Raymond McCrea Jones for The New York Times

Tags: Children, children's aid new york, neediest cases

After struggling in high school, Nazaury Delgado, 19, was accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology on a full scholarship (click for more photos)

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund recently featured this Children’s Aid story, written by Jennifer Lee, about Nazaury Delgado’s struggle to change from likely high school drop-out to college student. Below is an excerpt from the original article:

In March Nazaury Delgado shyly showed his iPod Touch to an art teacher, flicking his finger across the images he had created with Photoshop on his home computer.

The teacher, Cornelius Van Wright, asked if he could print them out. After he had looked at them again, Mr. Van Wright hurriedly summoned the rest of the teachers at the Fred Dolan Art Academy, a Saturday arts program that works with at-risk teenagers in the Bronx.

“We couldn’t believe it,” said Neil Waldman, an illustrator who founded the arts program, and who was stunned by the carefully manipulated overlays of faces and colorful textures. “I almost fell on my face. The work was so remarkable.”

For years, Mr. Delgado, then a high school senior, had been considered a solid, if unremarkable, artist in the program — though one who had benefited from its discipline. At 11, he had found his father dying of a drug overdose in the bedroom. He fell in with the wrong circle of friends, had run-ins with the police and straddled the line of failing classes. He suffers from a learning disability that makes reading difficult.

But in his junior year, he had asked Mr. Waldman, “Is it too late for me?”

It wasn’t. If he focused on his art and schoolwork, he was told, he could graduate from high school and perhaps go to a community college.

“I decided to become a different person, change my attitude,” said Mr. Delgado, now 19.

But as the teachers looked at the images, they realized that Mr. Delgado should be applying to the top art schools in the nation. With just one week before the last round of applications were due at many schools, he and his teachers scrambled to get the full slate of requirements done: a self-portrait, a three-dimensional model, a logo and an artistic interpretation of the quotation “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

And they also included a portfolio of his computer-manipulated pieces. While the art academy assignments had left him uninspired, the flexibility of Photoshop empowered Mr. Delgado. Often working through the night, he transformed humdrum photos taken with a budget camera into gripping, rippling portraits using transparencies, overlays and gradients.

“There are some people who have an innate ability to create spectacle, something innate that you can’t teach,” Mr. Waldman said.

The news came in June: Mr. Delgado had been accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology on a full scholarship.

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To learn how you can make a difference for this family and many others, please link over to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund or contact:

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
230 West 41st Street
Suite 1300
New York, NY 10036
(800) 381-0075

Photo courtesy of Michelle V. Agins for The New York Times

Tags: Children, children's aid new york, neediest cases

Moses McRae and Jazmyn Benjamin, both 15, were at Madison Square Garden, where workers, officials and athletes served as interview subjects and mentors to the students.

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund recently featured this Children’s Aid story, written by Vincent M. Mallozzi, about Moses McRae and Jazmyn Benjamin and their recent opportunity to interview workers, officials and athletes at Madison Square Garden. Below is an excerpt from the original article.

Last month at Madison Square Garden, Moses McRae, 15, conducted an interview with Danilo Gallinari of the Knicks:

“Who do you think are the toughest opponents in the league?” Moses asked Mr. Gallinari, a 6-foot-10-inch forward, shortly before a game against the Atlanta Hawks.

“There are many tough opponents,” Mr. Gallinari said. “But I would have to say that Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are two of the toughest.”

Moses, a sophomore at the High School for Environmental Studies in Manhattan, is studying television production — but not in high school. He is one of 10 children from low-income communities who are taking part in Hope Leadership Academy, which is run by the Children’s Aid Society, one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

“My interview strategy was to memorize as many questions as possible and to write some key words down on paper to help me remember questions I might have forgotten to ask,” Moses said after the interview, which he conducted along with Jessica Gooden, 15, a student at Frederick Douglass Academy II in Harlem, where she lives.

Since 2007, Hope Leadership Academy has worked with the Garden of Dreams Foundation to form the MSG Classroom program, which teaches children about jobs in television, including announcing, producing, directing and creating graphics.

The students use Madison Square Garden as their laboratory, and Garden employees and officials, as well as athletes — from the Knicks, the Rangers, the Liberty, MSG Entertainment and the music channel Fuse — serve as interview subjects and mentors.

“This has been an extremely successful partnership,” said Michael Roberts, assistant division director for adolescent services at the Children’s Aid Society. “This is a very unique program, because it is not just about giving something to a child to help out in an immediate crisis, but these are real-world skills these children are learning, skills that will help them find jobs in the future.”

Read full article…

To learn how you can make a difference, please link over to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund or contact:

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
230 West 41st Street
Suite 1300
New York, NY 10036
(800) 381-0075

Photo courtesy of Earl Wilson for The New York Times

Tags: Children, children's aid new york, neediest cases

I was honored to attend the 25^th Anniversary Celebration of Dr. Michael Carrera’s Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program. It was held on September 30, 2009 at the Harvard Club of New York City and attended by family, friends, industry colleagues, program graduates and supporters.

Dr. Carrera started his work in the field back in the 1960’s when discussion of teen sexual activity and health was taboo.   Dr. Carrera continues to break new ground – over the past 25 years he has created a program that gives teens the tools they need to succeed on so many levels including pregnancy prevention. And he’s brought parents into the conversation with teens – a small miracle in itself.   One of the most quoted lines in all his APPP materials is that we don’t prevent teen pregnancy – they do.

As a testament to his work, Gara LaMarche from The Atlantic Philanthropies spoke about Dr. Carrera’s work over his career and his perseverance, “he’s been able to show…through political ups and downs and different administrations – some which were hostile and some of which have been supportive – how important this work is, and how effective it is.”

Casper Lassiter, a graduate of the program and who now works with teens as director of our Dunlevy Milbank Center, spoke about his initial experience with the program as a 14-year-old.  “The first meeting, it was so passionate, he was so genuine – you can’t fool teenagers, they see right through you, and all we saw was that you cared about us, you loved us and you wanted us to succeed.”  And succeed they did – hats off to Dr. Carrera!

Kathy de Meij, Associate Director of Development, Director of Marketing & Special Events

Tags: Children, children's aid new york, neediest cases

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund has recently featured this Children’s Aid story about Carmen Cruz, a native of Cuba, and how she received help replacing her original citizenship papers.  Below is an excerpt from the original article.

Carmen Cruz with Christian, 7, the son of a friend. The native of Cuba received help replacing her original citizenship papers.

It took all of three hours for Carmen Cruz to decide to leave her homeland behind in exchange for a new life in the United States.

It was June 1991, and Mrs. Cruz was visiting her daughter and granddaughter in New York, on her first trip out of her native Cuba. Her daughter had fled during the Mariel boatlift in 1980, and a decade later devoted a year’s efforts and extra earnings toward persuading the Cuban government to let her mother leave the country for a visit. To prepare, Mrs. Cruz, who had never flown before, took puddle-jumper flights between cities in Cuba, squeezing her eyes shut during every takeoff and landing, whispering to herself, “I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”

New York City’s bustle amazed her — “I loved the freedom,” she said.

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To learn how you can make a difference for this family and many others, please link over to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund or contact:

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
230 West 41st Street
Suite 1300
New York, NY 10036
(800) 381-0075

Photo courtesy of Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Tags: Children, children's aid new york, neediest cases