February Edition 2007 - New York Nonprofit Press

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4 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz February 07EDITORIALA New TeamTakes the FieldThe Spitzer administration is taking shapeand members of the nonprofit community arelooking on with a combination of excitement andthe same old ever-present anxiety. Enthusiasmover the Governor’s first round of selections totop positions is real and widespread. Advocatesand agency executives who have been around fora while recognize the makings of a team with experience,vision and talent.In this issue, we offer only the most superficialintroduction at the new administration. Welook forward to following their future progressand accomplishments in greater detailIn the meantime, we offer them our congratulationsand best wishes on a long and successfultime in office.For Late Breaking News & the Latest Job ListingsSubscribe to the NYNP E-Newsletter contactpublisher@nynp.biz.Corrections and Clarifications: Problems at PSCHLast month’s article “Problems at PSCH” has prompted responses from two organizations who believe that clarifications and/or correctionsare appropriate.Trooper Foods has requested that we correct our statement that the company was “headed by Frank Fauci” and has taken issue with otheraspects of our article. Trooper’s letter and our response, including our acknowledgement of this error, are presented in full below.Our article also included mention of a prior food purchasing and bid-rigging scandal at Odyssey House involving Mr. Fauci. While we notedthat these events occurred between 1993 and 1998, we did not give Odyssey House an opportunity to comment on that case or the steps whichthe agency has taken since then to strengthen its administrative and financial controls. We regret that oversight. NYNP never intended to implythat these events should tarnish Odyssey House’s reputation a decade later. For Odyssey House’s full comments see their letter below.Trooper Foods RespondsDear Sir:I am responding to the article inyour January 2006 issue in which Ifeel my company, Trooper Foods, wasslandered. I find it hard to understandhow an article with such obvious misinformationcan be published on yourpaper. You have been victimized bypeople who have their own agendausing the Nonprofit Press as their vehicle.In response, I wish to make thefollowing points clear.First, I, Anthony Demarinis, ownTrooper Foods. Frank Fauci is not anowner nor does he have any equity positionat Trooper Foods.Second, I wish to emphasize thatTrooper Foods was not involved in theOdyssey House scandal. Trooper wasfounded in 2000, many years after thisscandal occurred.Trooper Foods has NEVER beeninvestigated, questioned, or contactedby any government agency. We havethe finest reputation in the food industryin respect to quality, service,Letters to the Editorpricing and INTEGRITY.PSCH is a house account ofTrooper Foods. We supply PSCH withexcellent quality and service at competitivepricing. Any time you wish tocontact any managers at any one of thehomes that we supply, we invite youto do so. We will even supply you thenames and numbers.I completely disagree with JeromeGoldchain’s claims regarding our pricingand services. I also disagree withMr. Goldchain’s interpretations of ameeting held in 2003 to discuss foodservice and payments due from PSCHto Trooper Foods. I attended thismeeting with my employee Mark Marrero.Mr. Marrero never acknowledgedproblems with our service or “askedfor…forgiveness,” as alleged in yourarticle.Trooper Foods is only one of severalfood vendors serving PSCH anddid not deserve to be singled out inyour article. Trooper Foods stands onits merits.Sincerely,Mr. Anthony DemarinisPresident/OwnerTrooper FoodsEditor’s Response:In our article, NYNP referred toTrooper Foods as being “headed by FrankFauci” which, based upon your letter, wasinaccurate. You have indicated to us thatMr. Fauci is a salesman for Trooper Foodswho handled the PSCH account. We acknowledgethis error and accept yourstatement that you, Anthony Demarinis,are the owner of Trooper Foods. We mustnote, however, that prior to publication, wemade repeated efforts to contact Mr. Fauciby telephone and fax at your main office.Neither he nor anyone else from TrooperFoods responded to our calls.We also agree that Trooper Foods wasnot involved in the Odyssey House scandal.NYNP never represented that Trooperwas involved at Odyssey House.Odyssey House RespondsDear Editor:The Boards of Trustees, officers, andstaff of Odyssey House couldn’t agreemore with your front page story “TheName Game (Jan. 07), that a non-profit’smost valued asset is its good name. Wewere, therefore, troubled that our goodname was repeatedly mentioned in yournews report “Problems at PSCH”, andagain in your editorial, on allegations ofquestionable practices at that non-profit.While we understand it is informativeto tell readers that the allegedly questionablepractices were conducted by thesame individual who was imprisoned forbid-rigging at Odyssey House ten yearsago, we feel your repeated citing of OdysseyHouse without also attempting tobring readers up-to-date on our servicesand management procedures, lacked balanceand editorial clarity.During that difficult period ten yearsago, we were grateful that our governmentsupporters stood by us, in particularthe New York State Office of Alcoholismand Substance Abuse Services (OASAS).Working closely with OASAS, and othergovernment officials, we establishedstringent bidding, auditing, and accountingprocedures that include both externalauditors and board oversight.We are pleased to report that this actionby board members and senior staff hasmore than paid off in allowing us to growand strengthen the agency.Today Odyssey House delivers vitalservices to needy New Yorkers on behalfof several government agencies and privatefoundations. With their financial supportwe provide a wide range of services toadults, seniors, women with children, andteens who have substance abuse, mentalhealth, and medical problems. We also offerremedial education and job training services.We provide housing for the homelessand community-based outpatient services.Our list of state, city and federal governmentpartners includes: OASAS; NewYork State Office of Mental Health; NewYork State and New York City Departmentsof Health; New York City HIV/AIDS Services Administration, Departmentof Homeless Services, Human ResourcesAdministration, and the New YorkCity Board of Education; the federal SubstanceAbuse and Mental Health ServicesAdministration, and Medicaid. Our privatepartners include the: Fan Fox and LeslieR. Samuels Foundation; Milton RosenbackFoundation; Elizabeth and Barets O.Benjamin Charitable Foundation; Danieland Florence Guggenheim Foundation andothers.Not only have we retained, but wehave increased our number of partners – atestament to the quality of our programs– many of which were pioneered at OdysseyHouse.Odyssey House counts on our goodname to continue to gain the financial supportwe need to continue our mission tohelp the 1,000 men, women, and childrenwho each day turn to us in their struggle toovercome substance abuse, mental health,and medical problems.Sincerely,George RosenfeldChairman, Odyssey House and OdysseyFoundation Boards of TrusteesPeter Provet, Ph.D.President and CEO, Odyssey House andOdyssey Foundation
February 07 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz 5POINT OF VIEWBuilding for the FutureOf Early Childhood EducationIn the past two years, politicians inNew York have embraced pre-school educationas a platform issue. As part of his bidfor re-election in 2005, Mayor Bloombergpromised that he would expand New YorkCity’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK)program to serve all three- and four-yearolds in the city. This past summer, EliotSpitzer’s gubernatorial campaign ran commercialstouting the need for “Pre-K forAll Kids.” Unlike Governor Pataki, Spitzerpledged to resolve the inequities posed bythe State school funding formula, an ongoingbattle for years. While the AppellateCourt’s most recentruling regarding theamount of money theCity is owed is substantiallyless thanprevious judgments,there is new politicalwill to see that NewYork City finally receivesits fair share ofeducation funding toensure that childrenreceive their constitutionalright to a soundbasic education.Also acknowledgingthe critical importanceof early learningin the past year, theNew York State Boardof Regents and MayorBloomberg have determinedthat a “soundbasic education” beginsin pre-kindergarten.Recently, the Mayor’s Commission onEconomic Opportunity went a step further,recognizing that many families with youngchildren have early education and child careneeds that go unmet despite the numerousservices options in our city. Thus low-incomechildren are unable to access enrichingearly childhood experiences needed toensure school readiness and lay the foundationfor life-long learning; and unmet childcare needs threaten the ability of parents tomaintain stable employment. Implementedproperly, the expansion of UPK can bea backbone upon which a comprehensivequality early childhood education and caresystem rests, meeting the needs of youngchildren and their working parents.Despite a plethora of services, NewYork City’s early education system is fragmented,uncoordinated, and insufficient.The City’s current dizzying array of partialrevenue streams for early childhood programs,including UPK, Head Start, childcare subsidies, welfare-to-work vouchers,and parent payment, violate the basic tenetof early childhood education: they do notplay together well or share resources. Astrategic expansion of UPK with new statemoney provides a unique opportunity forthe City to create an integrated, high qualitysystem that better utilizes new public andprivate investments.To provide a developmentally appropriateeducation to every three- and four-yearold, as well as quality care to younger childrenwith working parents, the City mustbuild upon existing early childhood capacity;otherwise there is no chance of meetingthe Mayor’s admirable goal. This meansassessing the strengths and weakness of theentire system, not just the small universeof UPK programs. It means providing newprograms in both community-based organizationsas well as schools, and enablingprograms to seamlessly blend money fromall funding streams to offer full-day, fullyearearly childhoodservices.Not only mustthe City makechanges in how programoperations arefunded, it needs totreat early childhoodprograms andspaces as valuableinfrastructure inthe same way that itdoes public schoolsand housing. Thereare over 200,000three- and four-yearolds in the City. Ifwe do not create newhigh quality spacesfor early childhoodprograms, we willnot be able to meetthe goal of providingpreschool to all,let alone accommodatingyounger children. Constructingand financing these spaces will need to be ajoint effort between the City, schools, earlychildhood education providers, real estatedevelopers, and community developmentcorporations. There is no need to reinventthe wheel. As with housing development,there are creative ways to spread out andshare costs between the public and privatesectors. Some of the expense of developingnew facilities could be defrayed by colocatingthem with other related services,such as housing developments, clinics, andcommunity centers. In conjunction with theMayor’s housing plan for thousands of newaffordable residential units, it is relativelyeasy to put child care centers on the groundfloor of apartment buildings. Incentivescan also be given to private developers toencourage them to include quality, affordablespace for early childhood programs intheir myriad real estate projects. It is foolhardynot to think ahead and include earlychildhood facilities while major constructionprojects are being planned throughoutthe city.In addition, the City should create adedicated early childhood facilities fundto support the development and ongoingmaintenance of quality early childhoodspaces. The Fund would serve as amechanism to leverage City capital with“The City needsto treatearly childhoodprograms and spacesas valuableinfrastructure”private investments to complete moreprojects supporting the full range ofearly childhood education services.The new capital funds from the lawsuitcan be used as part of the capitalpool. The City could then reallocateother capital that is currently used forchild care facilities, making the poolgo further and building a broadlysustainable fund that acknowledgesthe interconnection between preschooland “child care.” A pooledfund will attract other investmentsby banks and foundations, makingpublic investments go much further.The Fund would also offer trainingand technical assistance support toearly childhood providers to ensurethat the money was used efficiently and ina timely fashion.The City cannot afford to think in siloswhen it comes to serving children and families.The Mayor’s office needs to recognizethe importance of collaboration, andsend a clear message regarding the valueof a full range of programs for children. Itis not enough to commit to early childhoodeducation on paper. This is a legacy in themaking, and without strong leadership andguidance from above, bureaucratic turfwars may squander this amazing chance todevelop an early childhood system that willbe the best in the nation.Suzanne ReismanSuzanne Reisman is an expert in childcare facilities finance and development inNew York City. She created and directed theNew York Child Care Seed Fund at the LowIncome Investment, and oversaw the investmentof $1.5 million for the development ofover 2,600 child care spaces over four years.Prior to her work with LIIF, Suzanne wasthe program officer for child care at The EnterpriseFoundation. She also served as thechairperson of Executive Committee of theNational Children’s Facilities Network in2006, and on the Executive Committee forthree years. Suzanne has a Masters in PublicAdministration from Columbia University.ad·vo·ca·cy 'ad-v&-k&-sE n. the act of pleadingor arguing in favor of something, such as acause, idea, or policy; active support.An Advocacy Fund may be created as a new granting source for New YorkCity not-for-profits taking on breakthrough advocacy challenges. Priority willbe given to direct service agencies. A decision on whether to actually createthe fund will be made in the future, based on the interest expressed by notfor-profits.Advocacy tactics generally involve community organization, public awarenessand government policy/legislation efforts. The proposed Advocacy Fundwill not support specific legislation but rather a broad goal, leaving the notfor-profitgroup to choose its tactic.In an effort to create a most responsive grant making process, the AdvocacyFund is seeking information from the readers of the New York NonprofitPress.REQUEST FOR RESPONSE:Does your not-for-profit have an advocacy challenge that it would seek fundingfor? Advocacy efforts are essential to create breakthroughs in the social andhealth service fields by getting attention for a problem that isn’t well known,elevating important standards, bringing help to far greater numbers.If so, please send a description of not more than two pages--explaining why thisadvocacy challenge is important and how it would be addressed--to the AdvocacyFund, c/o The New York Nonprofit Press, POB 338 Chatham, NY 12037.
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