Association to Benefit Children

Association to Benefit Children (ABC) is dedicated to bringing joy and warmth to disadvantaged children and their families through compassionate, sustainable, comprehensive and integrated services, designed to permanently break the cycles of abuse, neglect, sickness and homelessness. ABC's humane and innovative programs include early educational advocacy, housing assistance, mental health services, family support and preservation, crisis intervention, therapeutic out-of-school and summer day camp programs, youth leadership development and mentoring.

ABC's vision is for all children to have a healthy, safe life full of joy, learning, and love in a n

Goal One: ABC programs support the whole child: ABC will continue to pursue opportunities to strengthen its current portfolio of early childhood programs in response to shifting community need.

Goal Two: ABC staff is devoted to the organization’s mission and vision: ABC will sustain a team of individuals who join its mission to serve children who are vulnerable living in New York City.

Goal Three: Systems and institutions serving vulnerable children understand and respond humanely to children’s social/emotional health.

ABC consistently invests in leadership development for staff across the organization in a variety of positions. In the past year, senior staff have received external leadership training from leading universities and all staff have received a variety of trainings relevant to their individual roles.

Last year, despite school closures and city-wide disruption, we delivered all our essential services either in-person or virtually, and we started new disaster response programs to alleviate the enormous burden of the pandemic on our families. As we enter a second year of restrictions due to COVID-19, we have developed and employed innovative and resourceful solutions to ensure all client needs are met. All our programs are operating in-person with a hybrid model, whereby most children and families are attending in person with heightened safety precautions, and those who are not ready to return can receive services remotely. Distribution and delivery of food, infant supplies, and, most crucially, hope, was at the center of our disaster relief efforts. Last year, we distributed over 250,000 meals to the people who needed them most. In our effort to be responsive to every emerging crisis, we have worked with individual families to provide them with funds to solve personal emergencies ranging from providing phone cards and internet to assisting with funeral costs. When our regular early childhood education programming was operating virtually last spring, the Graham School at Echo Park provided emergency childcare for first responders and other essential health workers. We were open 11 hours a day and had over 70 different children enrolled with an average attendance of 25 in the last three months of the program. Two of our teams, the Children’s Mobile Crisis Team (CMCT) and preventive services, were also working on the front line travelling to homes, shelters, and wherever a crisis was unfolding to provide essential treatment and support. ABC’s CMCT continues to respond 24/7 to children with severe mental health crises whenever and wherever they are. While our preventive services team has provided in-person support to families at high risk of domestic violence and child morbidity and mortality who have been especially vulnerable throughout the pandemic.