Welcome to our interactive 2024 Impact Report. For a PDF version of the report, view HERE or download HERE. If you would like to receive a hard copy, please email Contact@HFHnyc.org to request a copy while supplies last.

2024 was a year of both meaningful stability and forward momentum for HFH. We saw more families successfully move out of shelter and into permanent housing, a testament to the hard work of our many onsite programs and dedicated staff.

As our team grew to over 470 employees, we invested in professional development and focused on retaining our staff—resulting in a notable increase in the average length of staff tenure across HFH. This year also marked the expansion of signature programs, including the launch of a new hospitality course at Allie’s Place Center for Culinary Education & Employment and the continued growth of HFH Summer Camps.

Behind the scenes, we focused on operational efficiency and using data more intentionally to inform decisions. Rather than spreading ourselves thin, we chose to strengthen our foundation, measure our impact, and reinforce the systems that guide our mission.

— John Greenwood, Executive Director

At HFH, our impact is driven by the dedication of our staff—those who work directly with residents and those who keep everything running behind the scenes. Within these pages, you’ll hear some of their stories firsthand, along with the voices of the people and families we serve.

HFH Staff Spotlights celebrate employees who consistently go above and beyond in their roles. Nominated by supervisors or colleagues, these individuals exemplify a strong work ethic, team spirit, and excellence within HFH. For more on their inspiring stories, visit the “What’s New” section of the HFH website.

Family Services is at the heart of our mission—providing the hands-on, holistic care that helps residents rebuild their lives. But because the work is deeply personal and often confidential, it doesn’t always show up in photos or headlines. It happens in quiet conversations, behind office doors, and in moments of crisis or breakthrough. This crucial work is often unseen, but its impact is immeasurable.

The teams at each shelter work closely with residents to address a wide range of challenges, always focused on building trust and fostering connections. They work with individuals to navigate the complexities of housing, employment, and health care, offering guidance during the most difficult times. Whether it’s guiding someone to stable housing, meaningful employment, or essential services, the team is there every step of the way. They build relationships with landlords, assist with job readiness, and provide a steady hand when support matters most.

These roles are demanding, but the team shows up every day with persistence and compassion—helping residents move forward with security, progress, and a sense of possibility.

Allie’s Place Center for Culinary Education & Employment offers free job-training—to HFH shelter residents and to the surrounding community—in Culinary Essentials, Pastry Arts, and expanded this year to include a Hospitality course, giving students even more career pathways, along with advanced workshops (like learning how to cook healthy meals for the family), employment assistance, and a network that continues to offer resources for up to a year after graduation.

In the 2024 HFH Summer Camps season, campers enjoyed outdoor activities like basketball, frisbee, and canoeing, took part in community service, and explored arts, sports, and nature. New this year was an outdoor adventure challenge, where campers learned foundational skills like setting up tents and navigating obstacle courses through teamwork. Traditions like making s’mores, celebrating holidays, and the end-of-camp Carnival—featuring games, face painting, and sweet treats—made for an unforgettable summer.

Afterschool & Recreation provides children, ages 5-16, with homework help, enrichment programs in STEAM, sports, and leadership, plus field trips and activities tailored to their interests—all within a setting where students feel a sense of belonging and pride in their program.

Highlights of the year include field trips to see the Radio City Rockettes—which included a backstage tour—and a tour of JFK airport; Lego robotics and visits from critters and creatures like owls, snakes, chinchillas, and a bearded dragon; Teen Nights at Allie’s Place, where youth enjoyed outdoor movie screenings just for the teens; an engaging production of the Evolution of Hip-Hop at Saratoga; and an action-packed Field Day at Prospect filled with team spirit and games like tug of war.

Recreation at Clinton, Island, and Williamsbridge offers families a welcoming place to connect and participate in activities for the entire family. From carnivals and back-to-school events to photography and cooking classes, they spend time outside their rooms and engage with one another and other families.

The Early Childhood Education Centers are staffed by NYC Department of Education-certified teachers and create a nurturing environment for Pre-K and 3-K children—both in the shelter and from the surrounding neighborhood. Each day includes engaging activities like the Question of the Day, feelings check-ins, social play, family-style meals, circle time, outdoor play, structured activities, and individualized attention, all designed to foster emotional, social, and physical development. The kids had an action-packed time with special visits from the National Enrichment Group, who got them stretching and stirring with yoga and cooking lessons; Super Soccer Stars brought the energy with fun-filled soccer sessions; and Bilingual Birdies turned up the music and movement while teaching them Spanish.

While the frontline programs provide direct services to families, none of this would be possible without the passionate teams working behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. Human Resources recruits, onboards, and enables HFH employees to thrive in their roles. Drivers work with Administration to maintain seamless coordination across shelters, transporting kids on field trips, residents to appointments, and essential items—including donations—between sites and the central office. The Safety department ensures residents and employees are secure across the boroughs. 

The Buildings department oversees the daily operations and supports maintenance personnel at our six shelter sites across New York City and HFH Summer Camps in Harriman State Park, providing families and kids with a clean, functional, and safe place to call home (and camp!). The Finance department handles budgeting, accounting, and purchasing, making sure that resources are allocated effectively to facilitate programs and services. 

These teams, and many others working behind the scenes, play a vital role in our mission—creating the foundation that allows frontline staff to provide life-changing services to families. 2024’s inside look showcases the Finance and Buildings departments, and we look forward to featuring more departments in 2025.

Leonard N. Stern
Founder & Chair Emeritus

David Webb
Chair

(212) 529-5252
HFHnyc.org
Contact@HFHnyc.org
GetInvolved@HFHnyc.org

   @HFH_NYC
   HFHNYC
   HFHNYC
   HFHNYC

Harris Barer
Paige Bartels
Steven Cohen
Richard Finkelstein
Shelly Friedman
Susanne C. Hurowitz

Peter K. Jenik
Michael Kalmus
Luke Nasta
Ralph da Costa
Nunez, PhD
Andrea Stern
Dane Wesley

We are grateful to all those who make supplementary services and activities possible through volunteering, grants, and in-kind and monetary donations each year. Thank you to our HFH Board of Directors for their leadership and sound stewardship of financial resources ensuring that we can provide continuity of operations, programming, and services to New York City families. To donate overall or to a specific program, please email GetInvolved@HFHnyc.org.

Welcome to our interactive 2023 Impact Report. For a PDF version of the report, view HERE or download HERE. For video highlights, scroll to the bottom of this page or view on our homepage. If you would like to receive a hard copy, please email Contact@HFHnyc.org to request a copy while supplies last.

An expecting mom. A single father with a toddler. Two parents and two kids. A grandparent with a teenager. These are the diverse faces of the families who walk through the doors of our HFH family residences. Creating individualized service plans to help each of them move from where they are when they first join us to where they want to be when they leave is at the heart of what we do.

Maintaining health and safety for residents and staff was our main focus at the height of the pandemic. Shelter activity was limited by social distancing. Families remained in their units while staff connected with families by phone. The critical face-to-face time where trusted relationships are nurtured between client and case worker suffered. Family services operations knew that post-COVID they needed to re-engage clients to overcome barriers to in-person interactions that had developed. Through conversations with administrators, family service team members, clients, and the help of HFH’s in-house policy unit, we addressed the issue, creating new guidance and training for staff and concentrating on engaging clients in becoming active participants in their own outcomes.

Starting in 2021, the agency increased our focus on face-to-face client engagement, and by 2023 we had a 98% increase in case management services. This engagement resulted in more move outs, more clients seeking community-based services, higher employment rates, and enrollment for children’s activities increased.

This cross-divisional collaboration ultimately made the biggest difference in the lives of the children, and their families.

Top Three Reasons for homelessness
Discord, Overcrowding, and Domestic Violence

According to a recent report by the Economic Roundtable, “The Work Behind Work,” the most common reason people experiencing homelessness give for losing their housing is unemployment or lack of income. HFH focuses on employability through Allie’s Place Center for Culinary Education & Employment, which provides free, hands-on job training for adults from any HFH Family Residence, as well as members of the local community. Whether you are currently experiencing homelessness, unemployed, under-employed, or want to gain skills to climb farther up the culinary career ladder, the Center is a crucial resource. In 2023, 132 people graduated from the program with 40% employed since completion of the program. The Center also added a Pastry Arts training track and began developing a Hospitality program to give graduates exposure to “front-of-the-house” skills like beverage service, hosting, and more.

At Saratoga Family Residence, Family Works trains enrolled adult members on-site for jobs in safety (security) and housekeeping and maintenance. According to Saratoga Administrator Mike Fahy, “It is a good program to get clients ready for jobs, for those who have no work experience. They get on their feet, have success with a job, have a reference and something substantive on their resume.” He sees this as a critical way to assist certain residents in their plan to exit shelter. Twenty-six participants graduated the program in 2023 with 46% employed or in the process of obtaining a job and 76% who moved out of the shelter.

Every HFH family residence runs programs for children. Some have on-site Early Childhood Education Centers, where children from the site and the community learn together in NYC DOE 3-k and pre-k classes. Other sites operate on-site daycare or afterschool programs available for youngsters while their parents are working or attending important appointments. Highlights in 2023 included field trips, partnerships, and artist-in-residence programs featuring collaborations from teaching artists in the fields of creative writing, music, dance and movement, and a host of other genres. These activities expose children to art, culture, and physical activities outside the classroom—and shelter. They visited the Museum of Natural History and the Ice Cream Museum, participated in an interactive workshop on making videos at a professional studio, and literally jumped at the chance to get active at Sky Zone. Animals—like a chinchilla from Peru and a bearded dragon—made visits to their classrooms along with soccer, stepping, and science series.

Nearly 100 children, some attending more than one session, were once again transported to the world of Camp Wakonda for HFH Summer Camps 2023, our second season open after being closed during the pandemic. Days were filled rotating through activities—from playing sports to learning about the solar system at the exploration station. Kids took a field trip to the Twin Lakes Regional Nature Museum, and embarked on nature hikes where they reflected on the sights and sounds of nature, including frogs and toads to all types of bugs and critters. The campsite is outfitted with an arts space including a raised stage, perfect for drama, music, and choreographed dances that the kids practice for their much-anticipated camper and counselor talent night.

The lake and water activities steal the show with some campers brushing up on their swimming skills while others swam their first strokes guided by skilled instructors. Campers also added canoeing to their repertoire, filled up on healthy foods and the occasional sweet treats, learned arts and crafts techniques, and viewed the stars amid the night sky free of city lights and tall buildings. Of course, there were campfires and lots of s’mores. There’s plenty of time for summer reading and journaling, especially before bed, as well as pajama parties in the cabins campers share with their new friends and counselors. Time and again when asked about the best part of camp, spending time with friends tops the list.

Counselors hail from all over the world—ranging from Poland and Hungary to New Zealand and Colombia—giving kids a glimpse into other languages and cultures. Children also delighted in an old-fashioned camp tradition, Camp Carnival. At the end of each session, campers are able to relive these memories with yearbook-style memory books that recap their experiences. Photos capture day one’s excitement and apprehension on the bus ride to camp to day sevens’s reluctant good-byes to their new friends and beloved counselors.

Leonard N. Stern
Founder & Chair Emeritus

David Webb
Chair

(212) 529-5252
HFHnyc.org
Contact@HFHnyc.org
GetInvolved@HFHnyc.org

   @HFH_NYC
   HFHNYC
   HFHNYC
   @HFH_nyc

Harris Barer
Helaine Barnett
Paige Bartels
Steven Cohen
Richard Finkelstein
Shelly Friedman
Susanne C. Hurowitz

Peter K. Jenik
Michael Kalmus
Luke Nasta
Ralph da Costa
Nunez, PhD
Andrea Stern
Dane Wesley

We are grateful to all those who make supplementary services and activities possible through volunteering, grants, and in-kind and monetary donations each year. Thank you to our HFH Board of Directors for their leadership and sound stewardship of financial resources ensuring that we can provide continuity of operations, programming, and services to New York City families. To donate overall or to a specific program, please email GetInvolved@HFHnyc.org.