FY 2008 Accomplishments

Over the past year, despite a steadily growing demand for our services, emerging needs and funding challenges, Union Settlement continued to provide vital ongoing services as well as launch several new programs, including a volunteer initiative for our seniors, a new middle school robotics team, a filmmaking project for our Adult Education participants, and a vibrant circus arts program for our elementary school students. We are very proud to report the following accomplishments from the past year, all of which were possible thanks to our generous supporters.

Agencywide Initiatives

•    Union Settlement continues to work to reduce minority health disparities in East Harlem through our role in a federally funded community-based research project with partners Mount Sinai Medical Center and North General Hospital.  This past year, the research team undertook a healthy lifestyles intervention focused on community residents with pre-diabetes. After six months, the control group had lost an average of two pounds while the intervention group lost 12 pounds (four percent of their body weight) through dietary changes such as eliminating soda, eating healthy snacks and reading food labels.  The project was just renewed for five more years and the team also secured a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, also focused on diabetes.
•    We served as one of the not-for-profit partners in Opportunity NYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new privately funded anti-poverty program, which provides cash incentives to families for achieving various education, health or employment milestones.  To date, Union Settlement and five other community partners have recruited, enrolled and provided orientations for more than 950 families.  We consistently led the pack, reaching all our milestones ahead of our partners and even garnering 200 new members for the Union Settlement Federal Credit Union in the process.  We will be providing information and service referrals to participating families for the next two to three years.
•    Union Settlement once again provided a wide range of activities for the East Harlem community, including our annual Ethnic Festival, Day of the Dead Celebration and our seasonal Farmers’ Market, which provides affordable, fresh produce to thousands of East Harlem residents every Thursday from July to early November.

Adult Education
•    In FY 2008, Union Settlement provided more than 1,250 Adult Education students with English, basic literacy, GED preparation, computer and citizenship classes, meeting or surpassing all government-mandated outcomes.
•    We also have continued our targeted effort to improve the literacy levels and provide support services for East Harlem’s newest population of functionally illiterate immigrants from West Africa and various Arab-speaking nations.  Our two-year-old New Populations Initiative engaged 36 students in Elementary Literacy/ English-as-a-Second-Language (ESOL) classes and one-on-one support services.  By year’s end, nearly 90% of these students were able to express themselves with Basic English vocabulary and 96% were able to fill out basic application forms.  Also by year’s end, 97% were helping their children with their homework.  Thanks to this effort, we also recruited an additional 124 African, Arabic and Bengali students for our other ESOL, GED in French and English and citizenship classes, expanding our reach to 160 students.
•    We brought world-renowned authors such as poets Paul Muldoon and Brenda Shaughnessy and playwrights Carol Mack and Susan Yankowitz to Union Settlement to discuss their work with English language learners in our Writing Through Reading Program.  Almost 500 ESOL and GED students (up 25% from last year) participated in the program, taking classes, attending readings and producing their own creative writing.
•    Union Settlement started a student film collective, El Barrio CineSett, which completed We Are El Barrio, an original documentary about East Harlem and the impact of gentrification.  Thanks to assistance from the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, our students have access to a new mini-media center, which enabled them to learn the basics of filmmaking and editing.  More than 25 students and teachers are participating. We Are El Barrio was a featured selection at the Autumn Cinema Festival in East Harlem, with additional documentaries underway.

Childcare
•    In FY 2008, Union Settlement provided early childhood education programming to more than 500 East Harlem children.
•    Utilizing funding from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, we conducted asthma tracking and training activities in childcare/Head Start facilities throughout East and Central Harlem to combat high rates of pediatric asthma.  Since the program began, we have set up tracking systems at 41 centers, assisting staff in developing asthma plans to address care coordination for the children they serve who have been diagnosed with asthma.  We have enrolled 2,700 children and more than 500 staff members and parents have received asthma awareness training.
•    Through our Family Childcare Network, we are continuing to train qualified neighborhood residents to set up their own home-based childcare centers, alleviating East Harlem’s childcare shortage and fostering financial self-sufficiency for the new providers.  Currently, 51 providers take care of 136 children; another 112 children are managed through our in-home food program.
•    In FY2008 we put into place an arts education curriculum at our Leggett Memorial Daycare Center and Head Start Center.  Each week, a professional artist from Studio in a School, the nonprofit arts education agency, provides arts instruction to 65 children. The goal is to help build our children’s creative thinking, developmental and language skills through a new curriculum that will introduce them to collage, paint, clay and puppetry.  The artist also trains our staff to implement the new curriculum and make it an integral part of our children’s educational experience.

HIV Care Network
•    For more than 15 years, Union Settlement served as lead agency for the East Harlem HIV Care Network, one of 16 such consortia throughout the state.  In fall 2007, the State Department of Health AIDS Institute restructured the current system, including switching to boroughwide coverage in Manhattan. Union Settlement successfully competed in the grant process and, as of April 1, 2008, took the reins as the lead agency of the new Manhattan HIV Care Network.
•    We also organized and led the Fifth Annual Northern Manhattan HIV-AIDS Profile Conference, filling the New York Academy of Medicine auditorium with more than 220 attendees. The 2008 event focused on addressing HIV/AIDS prevention and access to care among young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual individuals.  Held in conjunction with Sisterlink, Iris House, Latino Commission on AIDS, Harlem United, and Gay Men of African Descent, with support from State Senator José M. Serrano, the event featured keynote speaker Reverend Gail Jones. Other special guests included City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito and Borough President Scott Stringer.

Home Care
•    Union Settlement Home Care, a separately-incorporated entity, provided care for an average of 297 elderly or disabled clients each day last year. Our attendants provide basic health care and companionship and assistance with daily activities, such as cooking, cleaning and shopping, helping clients citywide avoid institutional care.
•    One of our home care attendants, Expeditia Baptista, was honored with a Home Care Attendant of the Year award by the Home Care Council of New York City. Ms. Baptista has been with our agency for 28 years and is much beloved among her clients.
Mental Health
•    Union Settlement provided mental health services to about 500 clients last year, approximately a quarter of whom were age 12 and under
•    We completed a successful second year of our Senior Center Mental Health Program, which brings bilingual social workers directly to our senior centers to conduct group and individual counseling designed to help our members deal with issues related to aging, depression, anxiety, bereavement and death/dying.  Since launching in February 2006, we have provided services for more than 200 seniors, with more than 60 currently receiving individual services on a regular basis.  The program also included a series of 20 Wellness Workshops, and we trained our frontline Senior Services staff to recognize signs of mental health problems to make mental health referrals.

Senior Services
•    Last year Union Settlement continued to offer our much-loved and sorely needed Dinner Project, which provides a supplemental sandwich to our over 325 Meals on Wheels clients, many of whom were subsisting on one meal a day.  A recent supplement to the program is our Pantry Project, which provides our clients with supplemental pantry and prepared food items in their daily delivery.  In a September 2008 survey, 95% of clients reported feeling “less hungry” thanks to these extra items—up from 91% last year.  In addition, 95% reported “eating better” and “feeling healthier” thanks to the sandwiches. Several clients reported the project’s positive effects on their diabetes, weight and high blood pressure.
•    The New York City Department for the Aging awarded us a contract to become East Harlem’s provider of transportation services for seniors.  After five years of running our highly popular, privately funded Senior Trip Program, we are now offering a full-scale transportation program, providing approximately seven to eight trips every weekday.  East Harlem seniors are now able to count on us for an array of solo trips to such places as the pharmacy, the bank or the Social Security office, and festive group excursions, including a Yankees game, the Whitney Museum of American Art, City Island and South Street Seaport. 
•    We also launched our new Seniors United to Serve Volunteer Program. Thanks to private support, we have a new Volunteer Coordinator who is transforming our senior volunteer activities into a comprehensive program. Since starting in early 2008, we now have more than 140 volunteers providing over 5,000 hours of service each month.  Across our five centers,   these volunteers are packing meals and sandwiches, setting tables for lunch, planning trips and parties, refreshing center bathrooms, calling bingo numbers, assisting in arts & crafts activities and visiting or calling homebound clients.
Settlement College Readiness Program
•    Our Settlement College Readiness Program helped more than 300 low-income, predominantly minority students graduate from high school last year.  Our graduating students received acceptances from such schools as Barnard College, University of Pennsylvania, Howard University, Carnegie Mellon, Emory College, St. John’s University, Penn State and various City University of New York campuses.  We also conducted eight campus visits to Wesleyan University, the University of Connecticut, the State University of New York at New Delhi and Oneonta, Delaware State University, Temple University, Princeton University and a weeklong stay at Drew University.
•    Our summer enrichment programs served nearly 50 students, including 15 students who participated in our Summer Writing & Theater Program, developing writing and communication skills, studying drama and interning at sites including the Amsterdam News, the Cherry Lane Theatre and the Rod Rogers Dance Company.  Thirty-two students (up from 22 the previous year) participated in our Science and Technology Entry Program hosted by City College’s Grove School of Engineering, studying pre-calculus and biology, conducting lab experiments, attending college workshops, meeting guest speakers in the science, medicine and technology fields and interning at sites such as the New York Hall of Science, Metropolitan Hospital and Marymount Manhattan College.
•    More than 60 students enrolled in our SAT prep courses, increasing scores by an average of 100 points.

Youth at Union
•    Our Bridges Middle School College Preparation Program continues to provide rigorous academic programming to struggling East Harlem students from ages 11 to 15.  In our third program year, we served 72 students, with 92% average daily attendance in school.  Ninety-three percent demonstrated increased awareness of the college admissions process and college options. Seventy-two percent have enrolled in a college prep program.  Nearly 70% improved their academic performance. Students also visited the campuses of Rutgers University, Drew University and Princeton University.
•    Throughout the 2007–2008 school year, 10 students from our Bridges Program learned the fundamentals of robotics and designing, building and programming their own robot inventions.  In December, our team placed second in a pre-qualifying tournament.  Our talented young engineers came home with seven awards. The team went on to take an impressive third place in a citywide tournament, the First Lego League Citywide Championship.
•    Last year we engaged the 5-12 year olds in our Rising Stars Program in an exciting new fitness and wilderness education program.  Each semester, 15 participants took part in a Concrete Safaris Explorers Program, undertaking physical training and exhilarating hikes at Bear Mountain, Mount Greylock and Mount Washington.  Participants also took part in a service-learning project, designing and installing a garden at Washington Houses Community Center, building a rainwater retention system and implementing a composting program.  Our participants were the first youngsters to build a compost bin on New York City Housing Authority property.  By semester’s end, all participants’ grades improved as well as their diets and fitness levels.
•    We also provided services to 277 undercredited young people at Cascades High School, a transfer school in Lower Manhattan.  Our Department of Education-contracted Reaching for Tomorrow Program provides a comprehensive program of internships, job skills workshops, college exploration and career readiness.  In our second year, we provided attendance tutoring and Regents Exam prep to more than 160 youth, job readiness workshops to 269 youth and college advisement to 193 youth.  Nearly 75 students engaged in internships.  One hundred and thirty-five students applied to college and 65 were accepted, including to Hunter College, John Jay College, Lehman College, Queens College, the State University of New York at Stony Brook and St. John’s University.
•    Our Union Works employment and education achievement program provided services to 90 teens, including placing them in summer and/or part-time employment and career-building internships.  Last summer, 98% of participants were employed, with 54% securing jobs with the support, advocacy and referral of the Union Works Counselor.  The remaining 44% secured jobs on their own thanks to our job and work readiness curriculum.  Eighty-eight percent of the high school seniors we served last year graduated on time, and those who graduated, 56% are now enrolled in a college or university.  Given that the program only serves students with one or more educational deficits, these results are particularly heartening.

Union Settlement Federal Credit Union
•    The separately-incorporated Union Settlement Federal Credit Union (USFCU) provided more than $1.5 million in personal, business, home and educational loans to its members in FY2008, helping more than 300 low-income community residents take steps toward achieving their dreams of opening or expanding an East Harlem business, purchasing their own home or attending college.
•    USFCU also prepared over 4,000 tax returns for East Harlem’s struggling residents⎯48% more than last year and an astounding 361% increase from just three years ago.  Made possible through our collaboration with the Volunteers in Tax Assistance Program, the services brought combined refunds totaling more than $4 million for the people in East Harlem and an estimated $810,800 in taxpayer savings.  Through our Adult Education Program’s collaboration with Community Tax Aid, an additional 286 area residents received assistance with their returns, twice as many as last year.
•    USFCU launched quarterly English and Spanish financial literacy classes in conjunction with Credit Where Credit Is Due.  Upon completion of the course, members receive a 1% rate discount on existing or future loans.  Sessions focus on helping members understand credit, establish financial goals, develop and follow a monthly budget and increase savings.
•    USFCU expanded its membership to approximately 4,500 members, up more than 300 members from the previous year, thanks to active outreach efforts such as our function as a recruiter for Opportunity NYC, and through the free tax preparation service we offer area residents, thanks to our partnership with the Volunteers in Tax Assistance (VITA) Program, which resulted in 128 new members this year.