NYN Media Buzz: Oct. 13, 2017

The Children’s Village will be hosting a Sleep Out for Teen Homelessness on Saturday, Oct. 14, in Dobbs Ferry to raise awareness of the fact that there are approximately 1,400 homeless teens in Westchester County each night. A team of volunteers, staff, and formerly homeless teens will help share this and other staggering statistics during the Ferry Festa, an annual street festival that draws upwards of 15,000 people each year. A planned 25 to 30 individuals will spend the night outdoors on the grounds of Zion Episcopal Church in solidarity with teens who find themselves homeless. A key feature of the event will take place at 9pm, when members of the community will gather on the church grounds with formerly homeless youth to learn more about the causes of teen homelessness, the perils faced by homeless teens, and what can be done to alleviate the situation. The program is open to the public.

Wednesday, Oct. 18 will be one year to the day since Deborah Danner was shot and killed in her Bronx apartment by a member of the NYPD while she was experiencing a mental crisis. In the year that has passed, nothing has changed in the way the police respond to New Yorkers in crisis, and additional lives have been lost. >In honor of Danner, and for the thousands of New Yorkers who live with mental health concerns, Community Access is hosting a press conference on 10/18 at City Hall at noon to call on the City to do better by these individuals and their families. Family members of those who have lost their lives in the past year (Dwayne Jeune, Ariel Galarza, and James Owens) will be speaking at the event. 

GRANTS AND FUNDING:

The New York State Health Foundation has selected seven hospitals across the State for grant awards totaling nearly $900,000 to help them adopt or spread OpenNotes and spur patient engagement. OpenNotes is national movement that gives patients and their caregivers access to the clinical notes written by health care providers. When patients have access to their own health information, they become equal partners with providers in managing their own care and are better able to develop stronger relationships with their health care team--all of which results in improved patient care and experience. Learn more about the grant recipients and their projects.