Our Voice

Join the Sustain Our Sanctuary Campaign

Our organization is a vital partner with government in providing services in the community; government relies on our expertise in creating and delivering programs, and we in turn rely on government contracts for many of the services we offer. Through this partnership, government obligations are met and our mission is moved forward.

In fact, New York City outsources almost all human services to nonprofits, investing about $4 billion annually in programs that serve 1.5 million New Yorkers each year Continue reading

When It Comes to Criminal Justice Reform, Why Aren’t We Mentioning Mothers?

With all the recent press surrounding criminal justice issues—including President Obama’s record number of sentence commutations and his substantial piece in Harvard Law Review about the need to replace a policy of ongoing punishment with a policy of second chances—where is the mention of incarcerated mothers? Barriers that prevent women from raising their children from prison and upon their release are having a profound impact on many communities and the nation as a whole; removing them should be at the top of any criminal justice agenda. Yet the issue receives nary a mention. Continue reading

Robert Cizma Heads Up New Child Center Program Area

Staff Spotlight:  Robert Cizma, Vice President of Health Homes and Integrated Care


Robert Cizma

“My philosophy has always been ‘it takes a village.’  We want to help families so they get to the point where they don’t need us.  In other words, we want to be that village.”

Robert Cizma is all about comprehensive services and wraparound treatment, having had the opportunities over his 30-year+ career to view client needs at every level.  His extensive experience in behavioral health services, as a line worker on up to his current position as Vice President of Health Homes and Integrated Care for The Child Center of NY, has provided him with a unique perspective. The new position, initiated with Robert’s hiring, creates a fifth program area for the agency.

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Obama’s Speech Was a Call to Support Social Impact Organizations

Obama FarewellPeople can’t stop talking about President Obama’s farewell address, which sure is saying something, because presidential farewells are typically regarded as snoozers. (President George W. Bush’s staff reportedly had to beg networks to air his.) There’s no question that part of the reason why Obama’s remarks were water cooler-caliber was because they were uncommonly eloquent (which they were), or because we’re having end-of-term nostalgia (which many people undoubtedly are), or because his tone was so strikingly dissimilar to the tone taken by his successor the next day. But I think the reason the speech resonated with so many people was because of its spot-on emphasis: Continue reading

Statement of Child Center CEO Traci Donnelly on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Enhanced Middle Class Child Care Credit Proposal

4workers_300x300“Last week, Governor Cuomo announced a new Enhanced Middle Class Child Care Tax Credit that will help more than 200,000 middle class families make their child care more affordable. For many of the nearly 22,000 children and families The Child Center of NY serves per year, limited access to low-cost programs can force parents to choose between providing safe, quality child care arrangements and work. Under the Governor’s proposal, middle class families earning between $50,000 and $150,000 would see their benefit double, on average from $169 to $376. Continue reading

A Message from Child Center CEO on the 2016 Presidential Election

election-dayMy son Drew came with me to vote on election morning with a sense of excitement and hope. The next morning he had so many questions about the outcome of the election. I shared the following perspective with him.

The truth is that we haven’t come as far as we think we have. Although we are facilitators of change, it appears that it is not as much, nor as systematic, as we may have hoped. There are still great divisions in our country, based more on race, background, and other such factors than we would ever have liked to admit.
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Child Center CEO Publishes Op-Ed in Crain’s NY Business

Government Shortchanges Nonprofits, Quashing Innovation

Traci croppedWhile recent coverage of the Clinton Foundation has focused on whether donors got special treatment, one thing that keeps being repeated as a saving grace is the foundation’s reputation for low administrative costs. “Overhead” is indeed a dirty word in the nonprofit world. This supposedly self-evident truth is why governments at every level have increasingly resorted to underfunding its contracts with social-impact organizations.

I’m making the heretical suggestion that, far from making charities more effective, efficient, and worthy, this practice is causing them to stagnate.

Read the full article in Crain’s NY Business.


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