Graham Windham

As Americans holed up last Saturday with family, doing puzzles or chatting online, teens in one New York City-area group home filed out of their bedrooms two at a time. Staff caring for the young people had been alerted Friday night that one of their colleagues tested positive for coronavirus, and a professional cleaning service had arrived to fumigate.

A foundation-funded advocacy push to provide full-time life coaches to New York City foster youth has secured an initial investment in next year’s budget, City Hall sources have confirmed to The Imprint.

Lakisha had an idea: “Why don’t they give us a handbook?” Lindsay added: “Yeah, why am I finding out about my rights here? Now?” Both were parents with children in foster care who had joined a weekly writing group I ran at a child welfare services agency called Graham Windham.

Dozens of human services agencies and foundations in New York City are asking Mayor Bill de Blasio for a $50 million boost to the budget for foster care next year. The funding would go toward full-time life coaches and tutors for current and former foster youth from middle school through age 26, a model that nonprofit foster care agencies say has shown promise for teens in their care.

On a recent Tuesday in New York City’s Hunts Point neighborhood, Emily Lopez directs a visitor to the “selfie chair,” a large plastic throne in this new family center’s sunny atrium, perfect for impromptu Instagramming.