The nonprofit East Side House Settlement has provided social services to the poor for 125 years
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ENLARGE
The society photos one sees in the newspaper, filled with people having more fun than you or I, at least I, ever will, are typically redeemed by the good cause they’re celebrating—conquering a disease, supporting a favorite dance company, or saving an endangered species.
But putting aside my perhaps unjustifiably jaundiced attitude toward the charity circuit, I paid a visit last week to East Side House Settlement, the beneficiary of proceeds from the Winter Antiques Show and its opening-night gala. It runs at the Park Avenue Armory through Jan. 31.
As its name suggests, East Side House Settlement, a nonprofit social-service and educational organization marking its 125th anniversary this year, started on the Upper East Side when the area east of Third Avenue was a poor neighborhood. Its tenements were filled with immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
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ENLARGESensing that the need for its good work had diminished as the area grew increasingly wealthy, in the early 1960s East Side House moved to the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx. Its mission, however, remains much the same: to help people gain a foothold in society.
These days it accomplishes that through programs that support individuals and families from early childhood through old age. It serves 10,000 people a year in 28 locations in the South Bronx and surrounding communities—Head Start/day-care centers, schools and community centers for seniors.
The headquarters, next door to a mosque and within easy walking distance of the 6 train, is where the organization’s Youth and Adult Education Services Program is based. In its classrooms, college-age and even older students learn such basics as how to read.
“A lot come from families that are illiterate themselves,” said Daniel Diaz, the organization’s associate executive director. “I challenge you to walk this neighborhood and get a book. It’s very difficult to see literacy as a priority.”
“When they get to our place it’s usually because they’ve fallen through the cracks because of attendance issues,” explained Caitlin Dooley,the department director for adult education and workforce development. “Because they’re young parents, or supporting a parent.”
We visited one of the classrooms where Eric Thomas, the literacy instructor, was helping students grapple with the difference between a fact and an opinion.
“The Steelers are the greatest team in NFL history,” Mr. Thomas said, sharing what is ostensibly an opinion. He was inspired by the sight of Mr. Diaz, a New York Giants fan, standing in his doorway. “If I say, ‘This team has the most Super Bowl championships,’ ” again referring to the Steelers, that would be a fact.
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But deciphering the difference between fact and opinion is relatively simple compared with some of the obstacles the students face. Psychological support is often as important a component of East Side House’s portfolio as classroom instruction, and eventually, if all goes well, of college guidance counseling.
LeAnn Wright, a 25-year-old mother of two living in a shelter with her children, said she came to East Side House Settlement when she failed to get promoted at retail jobs because she didn’t have a high-school diploma, among other reasons.
“East Side House was my last resort,” she explained. “I wasn’t holding myself accountable for my actions.”
She recalled the time Mia Montanez, East Side’s college-retention adviser, called her at home after she’d been absent for several days. “I said, ‘I’m about to go swimming,’ and I’d turn the water on” at her faucet.
Her counselor wasn’t buying it. “If I was not there in 30 minutes it was a problem,” Ms. Wright recalled. “I got used to that kind of encouragement.”
Ms. Wright expects to graduate in Spring 2017 from CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College.
She also has a steady job. “She’s become a peer coach here,” Ms. Dooley boasted.