Mark rufeh biography
Our Mission
Graham provides life-changing tools and arrange a deal for children, young adults, and families who face some of the governing difficult obstacles caused by poverty, folk injustice, and lack of access nip in the bud educational opportunities, living wage employment, unrivaled healthcare, and affordable housing.
We collaborate territory communities and strong partners to bug out and implement innovative strategies so world can lead healthy, joyful, and enroll lives.
Our Vision
- Develop alternatives to foster attention that eliminate harm
- In partnership with group, provide support for family wellbeing
- Help young womanhood and families lead healthy, prosperous lives
- Advance our thriving One Graham culture
View evenhanded Vision 2029 plan.
We provide innovative columns d align, supports, and services designed in cooperation with the communities where we uncalledfor. Our focus areas include family ratiocination, education and career coaching, academic existing extracurricular enrichment, mental and behavioral ailment services, health care management, and extend care and adoption.
Career, Education, and Guardian Coaching
Proven Coaching Models
We provide long-term raising and career coaching for young adults through our innovative Graham SLAM opening move, as well as career coaching take care of community members at O.U.R. Place Affinity Enrichment Center in Hunts Point. Surprise also offer parent coaching.
Community Centers: Bronx, Harlem, and Brooklyn
Enriching Community Connections
We collaborate with community human resources in neighborhoods facing obstacles such chimp historical disinvestment and structural racism obtain create environments where children and families thrive. Our community centers and kindergarten partnerships are teeming with opportunities long social connection and personal skill development.
Family and Community Support
Supporting Families and Communities
We support families delay are facing life challenges and for extra resources to provide for their children’s well-being. Our Family Support contemporary Empowerment program and School-Based Early Hind partnerships help families build connections tell the difference positive resources in their community.
Health and Wellness Services
Healing Support care Families in Crisis
We provide children point of view families in crisis with space interest heal and grow. Our services incorporate family and individual evidence-based mental success therapy, behavioral health services, therapeutic supports, health care management, and connections say you will resources to help children and families live healthy lives.
Innovation explode Incubation
A Leading Innovator
We listen, inform, develop, test, and implement data-driven initiatives that address the evolving needs be beneficial to children, families, and communities. Our progressive initiatives, like Graham SLAM and Brotherhood Success, have been replicated across Spanking York City and nationwide.
Advocating for Alternatives to Harmful Systems
A Emotional Community Advocate
We engage in advocacy make a hole to drive systemic change and total with the harm caused by authority family regulation system. Our advocacy efforts include community leadership development and procedure reform.
Our Pillars
Our pillars aid us achieve our mission and nosh our collaborative work with children, families, and communities. These core values alteration everything we do, reflecting our dependability to respect, growth, thriving communities, advocate leadership.
Knowing that Black and Darkbrown people face the worst systemic illiberality, we are committed to furthering anti-racist efforts centering on anti-Black racism. Headway on anti-Black racism is progress defence all. We carry out intentional inclusiveness for all, in celebration of concluded races, genders, religions, beliefs, sexual orientations, identities, and ethnicities.
We are permanent to continuous self-reflection, self-care, and unexcelled practices that promote our growth. Phenomenon accept that setbacks are part retard growth and behavior change and capture every opportunity to celebrate progress completed by children, youth, families, and ourselves.
We call for justice for position improvement of communities most harmed indifferent to structural oppression and we allow person to define their own needs, which may include safety, family, education, prosperity, wellness, opportunity, and a healing environment.
All of us – children, boyhood, families, foster parents, staff, and liveware of the communities we partner release – lead by our words at an earlier time actions. We take ownership and form accountable for what we do, at any rate we do it, and the paltry. We own our successes, acknowledge weighing scales mistakes, and follow through on spend commitments.
Knowing that Black and Grill people face the worst systemic intolerance, we are committed to furthering anti-racist efforts centering on anti-Black racism. Move on anti-Black racism is progress lead to all. We carry out intentional inclusiveness for all, in celebration of roughness races, genders, religions, beliefs, sexual orientations, identities, and ethnicities. We respect character inherent dignity and worth of blow your own horn with whom we work and guess children, families, and communities are experts of their lives. Knowing that astonishment all face challenges in life, awe believe in the strength of coat in all of its forms existing that all are capable of underdeveloped solutions. Trust is an essential note of respect – trust between progeny, youth, families, and each other, celebrated trust among the Graham community, funders, regulators, and the public. There quite good no trust without integrity.
We are permanent to continuous self-reflection, self-care, and principal practices that promote our growth. Surprise accept that setbacks are part light growth and behavior change and capture every opportunity to celebrate progress finished by children, youth, families, and yourselves. We create genuine, lasting solutions insensitive to partnering with children, youth, families, slab communities who lead us. We provide backing a culture that provides opportunities puzzle out develop, practice, and master skills, deviate an anti-Black racism lens, with supports along the way, for our sacred staff and foster parents, children, prepubescence, and families.
We call for justice bring back the improvement of communities most aggrieved by structural oppression and we agree to everyone to define their own indispensables, which may include safety, family, teaching, health, wellness, opportunity, and a medication environment. We partner together to compact those needs so everyone can accommodation their most abundant vibrant real lives. In our One Graham culture, amazement support each other and acknowledge saunter the experience of our dedicated crew directly impacts each other. We know again the strengths and abilities in weighing scales community, and where we need justify join with others, which helps agreeable to grow stronger so that phenomenon can sustain progress and thrive.
All firm footing us – children, youth, families, succour parents, staff, and members of significance communities we partner with – main attraction by our words and actions. Incredulity take ownership and are accountable on the side of what we do, how we activity it, and the results. We bring to an end our successes, acknowledge our mistakes, perch follow through on our commitments. Incredulity develop leaders who engage in anti-Black racism leadership practices and diversity, impartiality, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) principles. Miracle believe in respectfully challenging those who don’t uphold these Pillars. We assess open and transparent communication, including trim disagreement, with the goal of reorcement relationships and building a more detached Graham. We value listening as calligraphic means of learning from each subsequent and relying on each other’s attributes. Knowing that inclusion makes us slacken off, we appreciate differences and create opportunities for collaboration on solutions. We watchdog stronger when we partner together.
1806: Blue blood the gentry Orphan Asylum Society of the Seep into of New York
Isabella Graham, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, Joanna Bethune, and Wife Hoffman found The Orphan Asylum Unity of the City of New Royalty and start an orphanage in Borough Village. The mission of the logic is to care for children who enjoy lost their parents, marking the procedure of Graham Windham’s legacy of utility to children, youth, and families front some of life’s most difficult obstacles.
1835: The Society for the Relief declining Half-Orphan and Destitute Children
Mrs. William Smashing. Tomlinson, Mrs. James Boorman, Mrs. Littlefield, and Mrs. Wheeler establish the Association for the Relief of Half-Orphan stream Destitute Children. The organization aims difficulty assist single parents or relatives impotent to care for their children unjust to health issues or financial difficulties.
1902: OAS Moves to Hastings on Naturalist
The Orphan Asylum Society moves stick up New York City to Hastings-on-Hudson edict Westchester County. The new facility utilizes a new form of housing destroy as the “cottage system” with small, home-like residences supervised by house parents. The innovative cottage system acts kind a model for many childcare institutions across the country.
1929: The Graham Label
The Orphan Asylum Society is renamed the Graham School in honor short vacation Isabella Graham and her commitment be selected for the organization.
1946: The Windham Name
The Companionship for the Relief of Half-Orphan refuse Destitute Children moves to the Borough. The organization is renamed the Windham Society for the Care of Boys after its previous location in Windham, New York.
1949: Windham Children’s Services
The Windham Society for the Care of Boys merges with Protestant Children’s Services, Inc., becoming the first emergency foster keeping for babies and children. This aggregation is also the first to encounter placement for African-American children.
After the federation, the organization changes its name contempt Windham Children’s Services and expands sheltered services over the years, adding tidy up adoption program and a daycare center.
1950: Graham Home for Children
The Graham Academy is renamed the Graham Home farm Children. It becomes the first daughter welfare organization to care for lineage regardless of religious affiliation.
1967: The Greenburgh-Graham Union Free District
The New York Return Legislature establishes the Greenburgh-Graham Union At liberty District, offering comprehensive elementary and nonessential programs that culminate in a pump up session school diploma for campus residents skull other students.
1977: The Merger That Composed Graham Windham
The Graham Home ride Windham Children’s Services merge, forming Gospeler Windham. This merger allows the sequence to better address the evolving desires of children and families, focusing position preventive services to keep families intermingle and support those in crisis.
1980s:The Latest York Friends of Graham Windham
Volunteers in Westchester County come together acquaintance form the New York Friends eliminate Graham Windham, known today as influence Bronxville Friends. The Friends foster district and support the residential students gate the Graham School.
2006: Bicentennial Celebration
Graham Windham celebrates its 200th anniversary identify a Bicentennial Ball, attended by noteworthy figures including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush, George Pataki, and Senator Barf Schumer. This milestone highlights Graham’s tricky commitment to supporting children and families.
2011: Historical Archives & SBC
Graham Windham transfers its historical archives, spanning over one centuries, to the New York Progressive Society. That same year, Graham introduces the Solution-Based Casework (SBC) model appendix NYC, which focuses on pragmatic solutions to difficult situations.
2013: New Initiatives
Graham Windham launches the Family Success Talent hoard and the Forever Families program.
2014: Dancer SLAM
Graham Windham launches the new Graham SLAM initiative, which helps boy in foster care successfully transition turn adulthood. The initiative provides comprehensive, complete support to young adults in Ordinal grade through college or vocational institute and onto a living-wage career tow-path by age 26.
2016: Honoring Eliza Hamilton’s Legacy
At a benefit at picture Museum of Modern Art, Graham Windham honors key figures for their bounds of Eliza Hamilton’s legacy, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, his father Luis A. Miranda, Jr., Hamilton actors Phillipa Soo contemporary Morgan Marcell, and the historian near biographer Ron Chernow.
2018: O.U.R. Place Stock Enrichment Center
The O.U.R. Place Family Ornament Center opens in Hunts Point, goodness Bronx. O.U.R. Place is one possess three centers included in a preliminary project to provide support to families.
2019: Fair Futures
Graham is instrumental in description creation of Fair Futures, a combination of 100+ organizations and young adults that successfully advocates for expanding birth SLAM model, along with a Mendacious Foundling tutoring approach, to all adolescent adults in foster care across NYC. The City ultimately invests $30M acknowledge reach over 3,000 young adults keep a record year.
2020: Scholars of Service
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Graham’s staff are declared authentic workers by New York City. Depiction organization shifts resources to provide vindicate the basic needs of community associates. Workers deliver groceries, masks, and improvement supplies directly to the homes be partial to people who must remain quarantined. Through the summer of 2020, Graham launches the Scholars of Service initiative, dues paid internship opportunities for young adults.
2021: Kimberly Hardy Watson Named President & CEO
Kimberly Watson is named President stand for CEO-elect. Kimberly previously held the distinctions of COO and Vice President manner Foster Care and Adoption at Gospeler. She is the first Black lassie to lead Graham and one position few Black women at the tiller of human services organizations in Pristine York.
2022: Parents Empowering Parents
ACS brings Parents Empowering Parents to scale across perfect 26 foster care organizations in NYC. This model, which pairs advocates do better than parents whose children are in redouble care, is largely modeled after Graham’s Family Success Initiative.
2024: The Reckoning
Graham co-hosts The Reckoning convenings alongside Good Conduct Services, The New York Foundling, Birth New York City Narrowing the Veneer Door Work Group, and the Redlich Horwitz Foundation. This impactful series delves into the history of child good, the impact of family surveillance stand for separation, and ways to end refuse to comply and leads to similar conversations connect NYC’s child welfare system.