The latest from Ms. Foundation for Women ... New York Law School ... NYC contracts

legal team from New York Law School has journeyed upstate to help asylum-seekers through the immigration system, about 300 of whom are currently being held in a facility near Albany. Many presented themselves at legal ports of entry but nonetheless ended up in custody. The odds are stacked against them, considering the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, especially since many of those detained at the facility do not speak English.

Read an in-depth account of the team’s mission to help the asylum-seekers and the difficulties they’ve faced.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has awarded a new contract to Quality Services for the Autism Community. The $551,000 contract will fund “mental retardation services for children and adults,” according to the City Record. The department also awarded a $1.1 million contract to Staten Island Behavioral Network to find mental health services for adults. Korean American Senior Citizens Society of Greater New York received $100,000 in discretionary funds to deliver senior services on behalf of the Department for the Aging, according to the City Record.

The Richard S. Shineman Foundation has awarded $390,000 in grants to 12 nonprofits in central New York. Projects promoting health, child welfare, parks, and capital campaigns all got into the action. Central New York Arts Center received $110,000 – the largest grant awarded – to renovate a building in downtown Fulton as a new community center, Business Journal News Network reports. Read more here.

The Ms. Foundation for Women has a new strategic plan and aims to invest $25 million in organizations led by and for women of color. The plan will determine both advocacy efforts and grant-making over the next five years, according to an Aug. 7 press release. The time has come for bold action, according to Teresa Younger, President of the foundation.

“We are a political force to be reckoned with, and in 2018, we delivered unprecedented electoral wins in Alabama, Georgia, and New York,” she said in the press release. “Yet we are sorely underrepresented in philanthropic investment, with only 2 percent of that spending going to women and girls of color.”

Send your press releases, photos, and word of your latest happenings to reporter Zach Williams at zwilliams@nynmedia.com.