Human services nonprofits take aim at the New York City Charter Revision Commission
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New York State is committing $10 million more to expand addictions services. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Jan. 8 that the money will fund capital improvements to expand addiction treatment services, according to a press release. The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services will administer the funds, which will be distributed through a Request for Applications process. A total of 40 new beds will be funded though the new funding.
"Addiction is a scourge on our society that has devastated communities and families across the entire state," Cuomo said. "These expanded services demonstrate our ongoing commitment to support all New Yorkers who are looking to get on the road to recovery and build on our nation-leading efforts to end this epidemic once and for all."
A upcoming event will examine how a state-run, single-payer healthcare system would work in New York. The Empire Center for Public Policy is organizing the half-day conference, which will take place in Albany on Jan. 22. Speakers at the event include state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, Bea Grause, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, Sean Doolan, general counsel at the state Conference of BCBS Plans and Bill Hammond, health policy director at the Empire Center for Public Policy. More information is available here.
Mary Haviland, executive director of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault has something to say about a spike in reported rapes and sexual assaults in the city. This spike runs counter to the broader crime trends in the city, which has seen crimes reach record lows repeatedly in recent years. Haviland came on The Brian Lehrer Show on Jan. 8 to discuss why these trends have not held up for rapes and sexual assaults a year after the #MeToo movement began. Listen here.
“I think women are fed up,” Haviland said on the program. “I think things that were accepted 30 years ago when I went to college are no longer acceptable ... This generation, more power to them, is not putting up with that kind of behavior.”
There are new co-chairs of the board at the NYC Employment and Training Coalition. Julie Shapiro, executive director at The Door, will join Kelly Richardson, managing director of Newark and New York at Per Scholas, in those roles, according to a Jan. 8 press release. They will succeed Phil Weinberg, president of STRIVE, who concluded a three-year term.
“Today marks an important day in NYCETC’s evolution as the leading voice for New York City’s workforce development community,” Joey Ortiz, executive director of NYCETC said in the press release. “Julie and Kelly are two of the city’s most accomplished leaders in our field at two of the city’s premier institutions. Under their leadership, NYCETC is better positioned than ever to achieve our shared goal of economic inclusion and equitable futures, regardless of socioeconomic status or cultural background, for every New Yorker.”
God’s Love We Deliver is entering the grocery business. That will hold true at least for one day since Whole Foods Market locations in Westchester county will cut the nonprofit in on 5 percent of net sales on Thursday, Jan. 10. It is all party of the supermarket chains January Community Giving Day initiative, which benefit charities through 490 Whole Foods locations nationwide, Patch reported.
Dozens of organizations have signed onto an effort led by the Human Services Council to make New York City agencies stick to a standard schedule for nonprofit contracts. A Dec. 19 letter to the city Charter Review Commission seeks to mandate – in what is the equivalent of a city’s constitution – requirements that agencies adhere to a standardized time frame to review and approve contracts.
“New York City’s procurement process is notoriously slow, bureaucratic, and Opaque,” reads the letter. “Vendors often wait months, or in some cases more than a year, for the contracts they have been awarded to be registered. During this time they have little visibility into the status of their contract and no way of knowing which city agency is reviewing their contract and how long that review might take.”