National Book Award-winning author Andrew Solomon will speak at Rise’s annual benefit on October 19. Here he discusses his work, his own story and his connection to Rise.
Q: What do you see as the common theme across your work?
A: The theme that interests me the most is resilience: How do people achieve resilience? How do they manage to go through difficult circumstances and come out OK?
I’ve written on a broad range of subjects.With my book The … Read More
Last fall, after the tragic death of Zymere Perkins, a child whose family was repeatedly investigated by the NYC child welfare system, many news outlets advanced a familiar narrative of monstrous parents and failing caseworkers — and suggested that investigators had become too hesitant about removing children from their homes.
But recent reporting has captured the opposite reality–that child welfare investigations and removals are a constant, terrifying presence in the lives of poor parents.
Now Jezebel is publishing a five-part series drawn from Rise to … Read More
Please join Rise in celebrating parent voice in child welfare on Oct. 19 from 6:30-8:30pm at the New York Public Library.
Rise is thrilled to welcome National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon as our guest speaker. Andrew has called himself “a student of adversity” who studies how we forge meaning and build identity. In The Noonday Demon, he examined depression. In Far From the Tree, he explored how parents cope with serious challenges, particularly by seeking out peers … Read More
On Friday, the New York Times published a story highlighting the impact of ACS’s heightened scrutiny of parents in NYC’s poorest neighborhoods, the increased number of children now being removed from home, and the struggle families face repairing the damage when children enter foster care unnecessarily.
In the first quarter of 2017, requests for removals were up 40% over the same time last year, the Times reported. Many children are returned within days or weeks; nationwide, nearly 10% of children are removed from home for 30 days … Read More
Rise Senior Parent Leader Jeanette Vega and Child Welfare Organizing Project Program Director Joyce McMillan have been appointed to the new Foster Care Interagency Task Force created by a City Council bill passed in November 2016 to address the needs of children in foster care.
The 21-member task force task will focus on developing recommendations for improving services for children in foster care and outcomes for those aging out of the system. It includes leadership of … Read More
