Here's a crash course in the 125-year history of Henry Street Settlement

Legal Services of the Hudson Valley is expanding its ability to help victims of crime. About $6.5 million in new funding over five years will come through the federal Victims of Crime Acts, via the state Office of Victim Services. This will enable the nonprofit to not only help domestic violence survivors but also victims of human trafficking, elder abuse, and other crimes, according to an Oct. 15 press release. The programming will include services in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, Sullivan and Rockland counties. A total of $16 million in grants was allocated throughout the state, according to a press release from the Governor’s Office.

What’s the state of foster care in New York state? A new analysis from The Chronicle of Social Change has all the numbers. Here are a few takeaways:

• The total number of youth in care this year is 16,494 – a significant reduction from 2012, when 23,924 were in care.
• Nearly twice as many foster youth were living with relatives in 2016 (7,144) as in 2012 (3,999).
• Youth aged 13 years or older made up a slightly higher percentage of youth in care in 2016 (41 percent) compared to four years before (40 percent).
• The number of youth in care went down across all race and ethnicities except among Asian-american youth, where there was a slight increase from 219 in 2012 to 237 four years later.

A new exhibit at Henry Street Settlement tells the story of how the nonprofit got started 125 years ago. It focuses on the work of Lillian Wald, a nurse who was instrumental in mobilizing a “family” of nurses to tend to the needs of the impoverished immigrants who lived on the Lower East Side. The exhibit is free and open to the public, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at 265 Henry Street. An online version of the exhibit is available here. Here’s a six-minute crash course:

There’s a new welcome center outside Rikers Island to connect formerly incarcerated people with services. The Mass Bail Out Welcome Center officially opened on Oct. 6 in Elmhurst, Queens, with a ribbon cutting attended by Borough President Melinda Katz, City Councilman Jumaane Williams, City Councilman Costa Constantinides, and representatives from nonprofits such as 696 Build Queensbridge, Rock Safe Streets, Fathers Alive In The Hood, and others, reports The Brooklyn Eagle. The center is part of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights foundation’s effort to bail out as many women and teens from Rikers Island as possible. Read more about it here.

A new report finds that a majority of LGBTQ people in philanthropy are still in the closet. The report was funded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and examined 36 foundations. Overall, gay, lesbian, and bisexual people made up 16.2 percent of the staff and boards at these organizations. Transgender and other gender non-conforming people were an additional 2 percent of those surveyed by researchers, who also found that distributions of both populations were about twice as high at organizations that had a social justice focus compared to those that did not.

Read the study below: