Center Blog

Following news today that California’s Prop 8 has been ruled unconstitutional, the Center issued this reaction:

The Center is thrilled to hear that loving committed same-sex couples in California are one step closer to having the same opportunity for marriage equality that we enjoy here in New York.

Our Center Families team works hard every day to support more than a thousand LGBT people a year in the tri-state area who use our services to build, grow and strengthen their families.

We send a heartfelt congratulations to all those who helped make today’s Prop 8 ruling a reality and send best wishes to all LGBT families in California as they move towards gaining equality under the law.

Learn more about our Center Families Program here, and like us on facebook here.

LGBT parents won’t want to miss this upcoming event on November 16 at 7 PM.

The William Alanson White Institute Parent Center presents:

Sex and the LGBT Parent

• How does creating a family impact on LGBT couple life?
• How do we keep emotional and sexual connection alive with children in the picture?
• How can LGBT parents best use their childhood experiences of sexuality to inform their children’s development?
• How will a changing social landscape make the lives of our children different from our own?

WELCOMING COMMENTS:

Jacqueline Ferraro, D.M.H., Associate Director, The Parent Center

PANEL:

Moderator – Deborah Glazer, Ph.D. is the co editor of Gay and Lesbian Parenting. She is a psychologist/ psychoanalyst in private practice in Manhattan.

Suzanne Iasenza, Ph.D. - “Keeping Emotional and Sexual Connection Alive”

When baby makes three, LGBT couples often experience challenges to maintaining emotional closeness and sexual connection. Unconscious, interpersonal, and practical forces often burden expression of passion and play. Suzanne Iasenza, Ph.D. is on the faculties of the Institute for Contempoarary Psychotherapy (ICP) and Adelphi University’s Postgraduate Program in Psychoanalysis. She is co-editor of Lesbians and Psychoanalysis (1995) and Lesbians, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis (2005).

Scott J. Goldsmith, M.D. - “Letting Our Children Fly Carry-On: The Emotional Baggage of LGBT Parenting and its Role in Children’s Lives”

Wednesday, November 16, 2011
7:00pm to 9:00pm
Pre-registration: $25 per person/ $30 at the door

William Alanson White Institute
20 West 74th Street
New York, NY 10023

To register contact Diane Amato at d.amato@wawhite.org or (212) 873-0725 Ext. 20

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is pleased to announce the appointment of George Fesser, LMSW, as the new Director of Center Families. George is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Social Work and specializes in work with LGBT families and immigrants. Before taking this new position George worked for four years as the Center’s Coordinator of Substance Abuse Prevention & Immigration Services where he was responsible for coordinating and providing direct support services to LGBT immigrants from over 50 countries.

George also created the Center’s LGBT Immigrant Social Action Group which helps LGBT immigrants learn more about the laws that affect them and how they can use their stories to promote change in a system that does not recognize the unique needs of the LGBT immigrant population.  

Prior to joining the Center, George worked at several well-known agencies in the NYC area, including: Street Work, a program of Safe Horizon, Montefiore Medical Center, The Hispanic AIDS Forum and AID FOR AIDS.  In his 15 years of experience in working with LGBT immigrants he has successfully assisted over 300 LGBT immigrants through the arduous process of asylum application, by providing culturally sensitive emotional support services.

As Director of Center Families, George will be responsible for organizing education and support services for prospective parents and families in the LGBTQ community, as well as overseeing the groundbreaking LGBTQ Foster Care Project. In its almost 20-year history, Center Families has helped thousands of LGBT people who are and would like to be parents, worked to keep together families when they are struggling with their child’s sexual orientation, assisted family-serving agencies such as foster care agencies and educational institutions in meeting the needs of LGBT families and provided opportunities for families to meet safely with one another for socialization, education, community building and empowerment.

This year marks the first anniversary of the Center’s LGBTQ Foster Care Project, a Center Families program that works to ensure New York City based foster care agencies have the tools and resources they need to treat LGBTQ children in foster care with dignity and respect, and to create an affirming and inclusive environment for LGBTQ identified birth, foster, and adoptive parents. As part of this effort, the project has formed a partnership with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, “to provide foster care agencies with the information, training and resources needed to offer safe, high-quality and sensitive services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.” Under the new policy, “participating foster care agencies will have demonstrated efforts towards LGBTQ inclusiveness and cultural competency as outlined in ACS Best Practice and Quality Assurance Standards.” Those standards are based almost entirely on the guidelines, procedures, and best-practice recommendations from Center Families’ LGBTQ Foster Care Project.

The LGBTQ Cultural Competency Benchmarks include “ensuring that all youth, staff and parents receive notice of the ACS Non-Discrimination Policy, actively recruit potential gay affirming foster care and adoptive parents from the LGBT community and identify a staff person to serve as the LGBTQ contact person within the agency.”

Earlier this year, The Foster Care Project marked its pilot year with an orientation and recognition ceremony at the Administration for Children’s Services, where it honored five agencies for their work towards creating an affirming and inclusive environment for the LGBTQ Community. The agencies included: Harlem Dowling, Leake & Watts, Episcopal Social Services, SCO Family of Services and Abbot House. The Foster Care Project also recently welcomed three new agencies as LGBTQ inclusive, including: Mercy First, Children’s Aid Society and Little Flower.

And this week Center Families learned that Commissioner for the New York City Administration for Children’s Services John B. Mattingly, is honoring LGBTQ Foster Care Project Program Coordinator Tracey Little, with the Commissioner’s Child Advocacy Award. Little will receive the award at an April 28 ceremony at ACS. In a letter announcing the honor, the Commissioner said:

“In recognition of April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, the New York City Administration for Children’s Services is pleased to take this opportunity to honor you with the Commissioner’s Child Advocacy Award for your outstanding contribution to keeping children safe and strengthening families.

“As part of our mission, ACS investigates reports of child abuse and neglect, provides safe homes for children in foster care and works to rehabilitate youth involved in the juvenile justice system.  We rely on skilled, caring individuals and organizations, like yourself, to achieve these goals.  Your dedication and compassion have made a difference in the lives of countless children and young people—not only this month but on every single day of the year.  We thank you for your contributions to this critical work.”

Congratulations to Center Families’ LGBTQ Foster Care Project for its positive impact on the key agency that looks out for the well-being of New York City’s children! Because of these efforts, a growing number of agencies throughout the city now have the vital resources they need to protect LGBTQ children and families!

In April, Center Families will embark on The Parenting Journey, a 12-week education and support group designed to help parents and prospective parents answer these questions by exploring how their past and present experiences influence their parenting styles today. Developed by a team of family systems therapists and counselors at the Family Center, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, The Parenting Journey was designed to ensure a safe and nurturing space for members to explore their own parenting voyage.

Every week, through the traditional family ritual of dinner, we examine what it means to be a nurtured and nurturing parent. The program’s emphasis is on the parent as a person, and what they are feeling, thinking and choosing to do, rather than on the child or the parent-child disciplinary relationship.

Through our own personal stories we begin to link the emotional experiences of our past with our cognitive understanding of ourselves as parents today.  We examine the attitudes and behaviors that enhance good parenting, such as respect, supporting and helping each other, having a compassionate ear, and being curious.

The program is based on the notion that parenthood is a fluid, on-going process that begins in childhood.  Effective child-rearing does not happen only once, nor is it steady. Rather it is a lifetime endeavor that, much like any job, has its ups and down, and successes and failures.

Who is The Parenting Journey for?

• The Parent Journey at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is for LGBTQ parents and prospective parents seeking community and support.
• It is for LGBTQ parents and prospective parents whose upbringing may not have provided them with the emotional sustenance they needed to be good parents.
• It is for LGBTQ parents and prospective parents who are willing to examine the essential relationships in their lives and their impact on parenting.

How can I sign-up for The Parenting Journey?

To take part, please email centerfamilies@gaycenter.org or call Jessica at (212) 620-7310 x 228. There is a $20 suggestion donation per session.

We welcome you to explore your own personal Parenting Journey with us,

In Peace and Solidarity,

Shanequa Anderson, LMSW, MPA, CASAC & Jessica García
Parenting Journey Co-Facilitators

Testimonial from past Parenting Journey participant:

The Parent Journey has taught me the preciousness of a mother’s role in her child’s life and looking behind the facade.  -Joy