Hearts to Homes Partners with New Alternatives for Children

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Hearts to Homes is pleased to announce a partnership with New Alternatives for Children. NAC’s mission is to provide innovative, high quality services in support of birth, foster, and adoptive families caring primarily for medically complex children. NAC’s services enable children to remain in or to be returned to their families whenever possible or to be adopted by loving families. By supporting families NAC prevents lengthy stays in foster care, hospitals, or other institutions. NAC builds on family strengths, provides opportunities, and assists all family members in reaching for and achieving their potential. We welcome this wonderful organization as the 16th partner agency in our Hearts to Homes family!

Hearts to Homes Partners with Martin de Porres Youth & Family Services

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Hearts to Homes is pleased to announce a partnership with Martin de Porres Youth & Family Services.  Founded in 1974, Martin de Porres has adopted a Lasallian culture of care, the foundational elements of which focus on “touching hearts, instilling hope and transforming lives.” They do this by placing the highest emphasis on the building and nurturing of supportive positive relationships with their youth and families. We look forward to being able to assist young adults from Martin de Porres who are aging out of foster care and in need of essential household furnishings and furniture. We welcome this wonderful organization as the 15th partner agency in our Hearts to Homes family!  

Sheltering Arms joins Hearts to Homes’ Foster Agency Family

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Hearts to Homes is pleased to announce a partnership with Sheltering Arms Children & Family Services.  Sheltering Arms’ goal is to foster a society where every child and family they serve will have the opportunity to succeed and thrive. They seek to address the effects of social inequity in the most challenged communities in New York City, a challenge that Hearts to Homes’ core program was created to address for youth in foster care.  Sheltering Arms’ innovative programs and compassionate services measurably enhance the education, well-being, and development of children, their families, and communities. They have maintained an unwavering commitment to our mission for nearly 200 years. We look forward to being able to assist young adults from Sheltering Arms who are aging out of foster care and in need of essential household furnishings and furniture. We welcome them to our Hearts to Homes family!  

Hearts to Homes Featured in Catholic Guardian Services Annual Report

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Hearts to Homes thanks Catholic Guardian Services for writing about our work in their annual report! We value the great working relationship between our organizations that allows us to support their young adults who are aging out of foster care. The article highlights Jeremiah Perez-Torres, a member of Hearts to Homes board of directors and one of the first referrals from Catholic Guardian to Hearts to Homes in 2017.

Hearts to Homes partners with some of the finest child welfare agencies in New York City and Westchester County to assist young adults who are aging out of their foster care programs. For more information about Catholic Guardian’s extremely important work, please read their Annual Report.

St. Dominic’s Family Services Partners with Hearts to Homes to Assist Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

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Hearts to Homes is pleased to welcome Saint Dominics Family Services   as our thirteenth foster care agency partner! Saint Dominic’s empowers children, adults, and families facing challenges to thrive in their communities by addressing their needs with compassion, dignity, and care.  Their vision, to enable those they serve to achieve their highest potential and live the most independent, stable and fulfilling lives possible, aligns perfectly with Hearts to Homes.

We look forward to providing essential furnishings for St. Dominic’s young adults as they leave foster care to embark on independent lives.

Learn how to become a Foster Parent at Saint Dominic’s Family Services

MDRT Foundation Awards $4,000 Grant!

We are pleased to announce that the MDRT Foundation has awarded a $4,000 grant to Hearts to Homes.

Through its global grants programs, the MDRT Foundation is committed to building stronger families and communities around the globe. This year, the MDRT Foundation will award over $1.5 million in MDRT member-endorsed grants to more than 250 charitable organizations worldwide.

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SCO Family of Services Partners with Hearts to Homes to Assist Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

(Glen Cove, NY) SCO Family of Services, a leading provider of essential human services in communities throughout New York City and Long Island, has partnered with Hearts to Homes, a nonprofit that assists young adults who have aged out of foster care in their transition to independent living. Hearts to Homes provides household furnishings and furniture, alleviating some of the stress associated with the initial transition. 

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Talented and Treasured

Our thanks for the treasure, time, and talents of these three original Hearts to Homes board members who have finished their term. All three joined Hearts to Homes from the start, and their efforts on behalf of foster youth helped us expand to support youth at eleven agencies.  Our mission would not have had this growth without their amazing leadership!

From top, left: Laurie Wilson has written our quarterly newsletters for the past few years. Without her help, we would not have been able to share with you all of our good news! Her vision for how to communicate our mission has helped grow our team of donors in the past three years.

Jeanne Marconi was instrumental in helping us to provide the signature red, H2H cozy blankets that so frequently are featured in our social media photos. If you scroll our social media, you’ll see this beautiful gift provided to every recipient. Our young adults love them! Her work in pediatrics helped guide many board decisions.

Paul McLaughlin helped create the wildly popular Open Hearts event at Oceana Restaurant to benefit Hearts to Homes. The concept for our largest fundraiser ever was Paul’s idea and accomplished with Paul efforts. In addition, specialty drinks in December and May helped spread the word of our mission and raised critical funds.  Supporting youth in the transition to independence was something Paul took to heart.

Meet Our New Board Members!

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 Clockwise from top left: Nicole Grogan, Debbra Stolarik, Cookie Humphrey, Ameena Makhdoomi and Todd Wood

Hearts to Homes is pleased to welcome, and introduce to our donors, four new members and one returning member to our Board of Directors. Each of these individuals brings a commitment to philanthropy and to our mission to help foster youth make a smoother transition from care to independence. We look forward to working with them as we plan for future growth, enabling Hearts to Homes to provide services to more foster youth in New York City and Westchester County.

Nicole Grogan is Managing Director and Head of National Accounts at DWS, a global asset management organization. Nicole has over twenty-five years of experience in financial services, received her Bachelor of Science at Villanova University and her MBA at Fordham University. Her interest in supporting Hearts to Homes is rooted in a firm belief that all children and young adults deserve an opportunity to build an independent life for themselves, where they can achieve their personal goals, and lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Cookie Humphrey is the owner and publisher of Compulsive magazine, a celebrity publicist and worked as a HR consultant in the Middle East and Asia. Cookie has served on the boards of Women In Motion, Rising Star Music Awards and The Bronx Hip Hop Museum. She holds a B.S. in human services from Springfield College a M.S. in HRD from the University of Bridgeport and is completing her PhD in psychology. As a former foster child, and youth advocate, Cookie knows the importance of young people aging out of the system.

Ameena Makhdoomi is an alumna of Hobart and William Smith Colleges the Ethel Walker School and has three years of marketing experience in the wine industry. Since 2019, Ameena has served on our Junior Committee, helping to share our mission with a younger demographic. Her election to the Board was a direct result of the enthusiasm that she has shown for developing creative marketing strategies. She has taken on the responsibility of helping Hearts to Homes with social media strategy.⁠

Debbra Stolarik is Counsel for Deloitte LLP and has served in a similar role for child-focused organizations including Sesame Workshop and Scholastic Inc. She was a founding member and previously served a one-year term on our Board. Prior to her work with Hearts to Homes, Debbra served for nearly a decade on the Board of Advisors for Mercy Center, the BAFTA scholarship committee, and the Boards of the American Constitution Society’s New York Chapter and Friends of the Nyacks. She resides in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Todd Wood is a partner with Sustainability Partners. He is a senior member of the investor relations and business development group. Prior to Sustainability Partners, Todd worked at J.P. Morgan, Hambrecht & Quist, Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn and Tudor Pickering and Holt where he held various roles in sales, trading and business development. His volunteer activities include coaching youth football for the Riverside (Greenwich) Gators, on point squash (Charleston, SC). He is a graduate of Boston College where he captained the football team under head coach Tom Coughlin.