It’s been a spirited and busy Pride month at JCCA, and as June draws to a close we’re taking a moment to look back on everything it held. First, our LEAP division held a Pride event for young people in JCCA's Foster Home Services programs, featuring karaoke, raffles,...
On the occasion of her retirement we spoke to beloved Pleasantville Cottage Campus veteran Liticia McKnight about her career and the inspiration behind it. What led you to working with youth and to JCCA? I’ve been in the field pretty much my whole career. Right away I...
By Danielle Capra, LCSW April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The commercial sexual exploitation of children, or CSEC, is one form of child sexual abuse that is often misunderstood. CSEC refers to crimes where individuals buy, trade, or sell sexual acts with...
We’ve all been there––adulting is hard. Managing finances, applying for college, finding a promising job or a new apartment––and taking care of your heart and mind along the way. It’s….a lot. With Fair Futures, foster youth don’t have to do it all alone. Fair Futures...
For many of us, the holidays are time to connect and catch up with loved ones. Natasha, a JCCA client coming home from her first semester at SUNY Oswego, has many new experiences to share with her family and friends this season—and she’s also sharing them with us. In...
As JCCA staff settle into our new Bronx office, we reflect on what brought us to the borough in the first place Around the turn of the millenium, NYC ACS directed child welfare agencies to install program offices within the communities they served. For decades, most...
Youth on the Pleasantville campus are gaining marketable job skills thanks to a partnership with 4th Ave Market, the largest Black-owned online hair and beauty supply store. The course participants spend an hour and half each Wednesday learning digital marketing from...
On the gorgeous spring evening of May 11th, JCCA volunteers, staff, and residents arrived on the lawn of the Edenwald Administration Building to find a spacious canopy erected on the grass and barbeque smoke wafting from the grill. The scene had the look and the...
On a cloudy Wednesday in May, JCCA’s residential staff met on our beautiful, 160-acre Pleasantville campus for the first in-person Staff Appreciation Day since the COVID-19 pandemic began. After grabbing lunch orders from two food trucks parked outside, the staff...
As March is Women’s History Month, we are highlighting two pioneering women from JCCA’s past—Mary Boretz and Julia Goldman—who made significant contributions to child welfare. Mary Boretz As a child in the early 20th century, Mary Boretz had first-hand...