The HFH community helped make this Halloween a real treat! A huge thank you to the partners and donors who brought costumes, activities, and goodies to our family residences, giving kids and families plenty of ways to have a scary good time.

Special thanks to St. Francis Prep, Village Community School, Navillus Inc., Cassandra Bette Events, and Joya Lohoud for helping fill this year’s costume selection with creative, cool choices for different ages and interests. Having options meant kids could choose characters they loved and find something they were excited to wear alongside their friends. Those choices made a difference, whether they were stepping onto a costume runway, heading out to trick-or-treat, or arriving at a celebration ready to show off their look.

Here’s how the Halloween spirit took shape across our residences:

Allie’s Place Afterschool dressed to impress, spooky style! Kids spent the afternoon in costume, posing with the Halloween décor and bringing their festive looks to the playground. A spooky movie with popcorn added some big-screen thrills, while their annual Halloween party kept the celebration going.

At Clinton, creativity was brewing at a Halloween Carnival hosted with Cardinal Partners and Knock Knock Give a Sock. Families painted pumpkins, made slime, decorated photo frames, and created superhero masks and capes. Face painting and a hacky sack game added to the excitement, with pizza, beverages, and candy keeping the crowd fueled. A special thank-you to the MLB Flagship Store for providing Halloween goodie bags for Clinton’s kids!

Prospect Afterschool brought the pumpkin patch indoors, transforming the room with hay bales and pumpkins ready for picking. Kids posed for pictures, romped in the hay, and searched for the perfect gourd to decorate. On Halloween, their bash featured dancing, food, and treats with personality: Cotton Cloud NYC whipped up impressive, made-to-order cotton candy characters!

The little ones in Saratoga Early Ed took their Halloween looks on tour, trick-or-treating around the building and collecting candy along the way. A costume runway walk gave each child a moment in the spotlight. They also put their creativity to work making Play-Doh spiders with pipe cleaner legs and googly eyes.

Saratoga Afterschool families carved out time for a pumpkin celebration of their own. Mr. Ryan started with a carving demonstration before families selected their pumpkins and got to work. With parents helping their children create jack-o’-lanterns, the pumpkins soon had personalities of their own. Dancing, snacks, and cookie decorating rounded out the gathering.

At Williamsbridge, Halloween fun shared the spotlight with October birthdays. Families celebrated with a festive photo opportunity, pumpkin painting, and other Halloween crafts, bringing birthday wishes and spooky creations together in one cheerful gathering.

Bronx Arena Students Continue Culinary Training at Allie’s Place

The Culinary Center at Allie’s Place recently welcomed a new cohort of students from Bronx Arena High School (BAHS) in Soundview for a weeklong Culinary Essentials course, continuing a partnership that provides students with opportunities to explore culinary training in a professional environment.

Bronx Arena is a transfer school supporting under-credited students as they re-engage with their education. Through their collaboration with the Culinary Center, students can earn academic credit toward graduation while building practical skills and exploring potential career paths.

Throughout the week, the group worked with the Center’s chef instructors on foundational techniques, kitchen safety, and organization. During “Knife Skills and Soup” day with Chef and Director of Culinary Education Gregorio, students practiced knife techniques and prepared creamy tomato soup. On “Cookies and Batters” day with Assistant Chef Almira, they made an assortment of sweets, including pumpkin crème brûlée, apple cider iced oatmeal cookies, coconut macaroons, and several other cookie varieties. Students also practiced their barista skills with Lead Chef Instructor Jayda before putting their training into practice at a pop-up café-bistro on the final day.

At the pop-up, guests could order the students’ baked treats at the café counter along with made-to-order coffee drinks, including vanilla, mocha, and brown sugar cinnamon lattes, available hot or iced. The bistro menu featured the creamy tomato soup prepared earlier in the week, served with a roll.

Students rotated between café and kitchen roles, taking orders, preparing drinks, serving customers, and assembling bistro orders. Working together in a fast-paced setting gave them practical experience with customer service, teamwork, and coordinating orders.

“The feedback from our students and our school community has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Ethan Knecht, Assistant Principal at BAHS. “Every day when students returned to Bronx Arena from Allie’s Place, the energy was palpable.”

For BAHS student Dennis, who has always enjoyed cooking, the course offered an opportunity to build on that interest.

“I thought the opportunity would be fun,” he said. “I could be getting experience in something I already like to do, earning a credit, and expanding on that.”

Anna, who cooks for 10 people at home, also appreciated the practical experience.

“We’ve learned things that are good to know, especially if you want to do anything culinary in the future, or if you have a big family and have to cook,” she said.

She expressed interest in returning for the Center’s 60-hour culinary training program and hoped the week would demonstrate her reliability and readiness to continue learning.

Another student, Joelynn, wanted to improve her ability to follow recipes and measure ingredients while learning techniques such as how to properly hold a knife. Interested in potentially pursuing early childhood education, she noted that the organizational skills she was learning could also help her in another field.

Similarly, one student Dayanelly valued learning how to prepare her workstation before cooking.

“Especially for baking, we had everything portioned out. We had to measure everything and weigh it,” she said. “That gave me a better idea of how to set up before cooking.”

Ethan noted that the partnership helps students explore their interests and make informed decisions about their futures.

“Some of our students will go on to culinary school to run their own kitchens, while others may decide this field isn’t for them—and both outcomes are equally valuable,” he said.

He shared that a student from last spring’s cohort used his certificate to secure a kitchen job and now plans to work at the employer’s sister restaurant upstate while attending college. A student in the most recent cohort also expressed an interest in returning after graduation, telling Ethan, “I asked Chef Gregorio about coming back … and making a career out of this opportunity … I’m really proud of myself for taking this opportunity, and so are my parents.”

“That is exactly the post-secondary launch pad we aim to build,” Ethan said.

The Culinary Center at Allie’s Place recently welcomed a new cohort of students from Bronx Arena High School (BAHS) in Soundview for a weeklong Culinary Essentials course, continuing a partnership that provides students with opportunities to explore culinary training in a professional environment.

Bronx Arena is a transfer school supporting under-credited students as they re-engage with their education. Through their collaboration with the Culinary Center, students can earn academic credit toward graduation while building practical skills and exploring potential career paths.

Throughout the week, the group worked with the Center’s chef instructors on foundational techniques, kitchen safety, and organization. During “Knife Skills and Soup” day with Chef and Director of Culinary Education Gregorio, students practiced knife techniques and prepared creamy tomato soup. On “Cookies and Batters” day with Assistant Chef Almira, they made an assortment of sweets, including pumpkin crème brûlée, apple cider iced oatmeal cookies, coconut macaroons, and several other cookie varieties. Students also practiced their barista skills with Lead Chef Instructor Jayda before putting their training into practice at a pop-up café-bistro on the final day.

At the pop-up, guests could order the students’ baked treats at the café counter along with made-to-order coffee drinks, including vanilla, mocha, and brown sugar cinnamon lattes, available hot or iced. The bistro menu featured the creamy tomato soup prepared earlier in the week, served with a roll.

Students rotated between café and kitchen roles, taking orders, preparing drinks, serving customers, and assembling bistro orders. Working together in a fast-paced setting gave them practical experience with customer service, teamwork, and coordinating orders.

“The feedback from our students and our school community has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Ethan Knecht, Assistant Principal at BAHS. “Every day when students returned to Bronx Arena from Allie’s Place, the energy was palpable.”

For BAHS student Dennis, who has always enjoyed cooking, the course offered an opportunity to build on that interest.

“I thought the opportunity would be fun,” he said. “I could be getting experience in something I already like to do, earning a credit, and expanding on that.”

Anna, who cooks for 10 people at home, also appreciated the practical experience.

“We’ve learned things that are good to know, especially if you want to do anything culinary in the future, or if you have a big family and have to cook,” she said.

She expressed interest in returning for the Center’s 60-hour culinary training program and hoped the week would demonstrate her reliability and readiness to continue learning.

Another student, Joelynn, wanted to improve her ability to follow recipes and measure ingredients while learning techniques such as how to properly hold a knife. Interested in potentially pursuing early childhood education, she noted that the organizational skills she was learning could also help her in another field.

Similarly, one student Dayanelly valued learning how to prepare her workstation before cooking.

“Especially for baking, we had everything portioned out. We had to measure everything and weigh it,” she said. “That gave me a better idea of how to set up before cooking.”

Ethan noted that the partnership helps students explore their interests and make informed decisions about their futures.

“Some of our students will go on to culinary school to run their own kitchens, while others may decide this field isn’t for them—and both outcomes are equally valuable,” he said.

He shared that a student from last spring’s cohort used his certificate to secure a kitchen job and now plans to work at the employer’s sister restaurant upstate while attending college. A student in the most recent cohort also expressed an interest in returning after graduation, telling Ethan, “I asked Chef Gregorio about coming back … and making a career out of this opportunity … I’m really proud of myself for taking this opportunity, and so are my parents.”

“That is exactly the post-secondary launch pad we aim to build,” Ethan said.

With the autumn chill in the air, we’re looking back at warmer days and a summer full of learning, exploration, and adventure at HFH Summer Day Camps.

From swimming lessons and museum visits to music, art, sports, and themed celebrations, kids at Allie’s Place, Prospect, and Saratoga Family Residences enjoyed a wide range of activities throughout the summer. Each week brought new opportunities for day campers to discover interests, develop skills, build friendships, and explore new places.

Camp days began with Morning Rally, where everyone came together for movement, songs, and announcements before heading into the day’s activities. Throughout the week, campers rotated through arts and crafts, dance, sports, outdoor recreation, and group games led by camp staff and activity specialists.

Whether painting with friends, practicing new dance moves, or competing in a lively game of musical chairs, the kids had plenty of opportunities to stay active, get creative, and spend time together.

“I like when we go to the park, and do lots of arts and crafts,” one camper shared.

Weekly themes brought an extra layer of creativity to camp activities. During Spy Week, campers at Prospect put their detective skills to the test, crawling and climbing through a maze of yarn “laser beams” and learning how to identify different fingerprint patterns by examining their own prints.

The summer also included some out-of-season celebrations! For Christmas in July, Prospect campers welcomed a special visit from Santa, created holiday art, and received presents under the tree. At Saratoga, campers celebrated with hot cocoa, cookie decorating, a festive pizza party, and gifts. A few weeks later, Saratoga’s Summerween celebration brought costumes and trick-or-treating through the building, with staff members joining in on the festivities.

Community partners also brought new experiences directly to camp. Through weekly Afro-Latin percussion classes with Belongó at Allie’s Place and Prospect, the kids learned about traditional instruments and their origins while exploring music and rhythms from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and beyond.

Other special visits included STEM experiments with Drizzle Weather, dance classes with DMF Youth, and theater activities with TADA! Youth Theater. During Superhero Week, NYPD Community Affairs officers visited Allie’s Place and Prospect, answering campers’ questions about their work and introducing them to youth programs and opportunities within the department.

One of the summer’s most anticipated activities was swimming. Each week, campers at Allie’s Place and Prospect attended lessons at Goldfish Swim School, while Saratoga campers visited Saf-T-Swim.

For some, it was their first time learning to swim. Others had the opportunity to strengthen their existing skills. Lessons emphasized water safety, swimming techniques, and building confidence in the water, with free swim afterward giving everyone time to enjoy the pool with their friends.

Jaydeliz, one of the campers, shared some of the skills she learned and her favorite parts of the summer:

“Swimming has been fun, we have been learning a lot of skills. We learned how to do a backstroke and freestyle. Also drumming class. Overall, the trips have been really good.”

Beyond the pool, field trips took campers to destinations throughout New York City and beyond. The kids explored wildlife and habitats at the Bronx and Queens Zoos, learned about history and science at the Intrepid Museum, and took on climbing courses and outdoor challenges at TreEscape Adventure Park.

Campers also experienced theater through TADA!, explored the outdoors with Urban Park Rangers, and enjoyed opportunities to discover new places and activities outside of their everyday surroundings.

For Za’liah, a camper at Allie’s Place, the trip to the TADA! theater was especially memorable.

“It was a new experience for me. I never went to a play before. I liked how they were acting and how the play went. It was cool … it was amazing. I want to act more. I want to be an actress.”

HFH Summer Day Camps brought together familiar summer favorites and opportunities to try something new. Whether learning to swim, discovering a new interest, or spending an afternoon outdoors with friends, campers had a summer filled with opportunities to learn, play, explore, and grow.

“She learned every department and what every worker does within the department,” said Sherien Shady, Director of Family Services at Island Family Residence. “They feel like she’s the go-to person.”

Since joining HFH as an Administrative Assistant in August 2023, Christina Ruocco has become just that. Whether she is preparing daily reports, organizing intake packages for new families, answering phones, or managing the emergency food and clothing pantries, Christina helps keep things organized and pitches in wherever she is needed.

Prior to joining HFH, Christina worked as a paralegal and was a stay-at-home mom to raise her two children. As her children got older, she decided she wanted to go back to work. Although Christina describes herself as working “behind the scenes,” her impact is felt throughout the building. Melissa Halloran, Assistant Administrator at Island Family Residence, says Christina’s organization and attention to detail have made her someone staff can rely on.

“She is able to keep track of everything and remembers every client who is here now or has been here in the past,” Melissa said. “If somebody is coming into the building, she will recognize them immediately—and know their family members and room number. Her daily reports are consistently on point, and we rely on that every day.”

Christina has also built strong relationships with families and says getting to know the families has become one of the parts of her role she enjoys most. Melissa describes her as “compassionate and very positive”—qualities that come through in her interactions with residents and their kids.

“Because she has this welcoming demeanor, all the clients and their kids love to share their good news with her,” Sherien said. “It’s always, ‘Christina, I got the apartment,’ or ‘My kids went to pre-K.’ She has this connection with them. She cares.”

That connection with families is also reflected in the care Christina puts into making Island Family Residence feel welcoming. She decorates for holidays and seasons and helped transform the family engagement and recreation space, setting up furniture and choosing and installing wall decals.

“I’m very proud of the recreation space,” Christina said. “During the holidays, I always decorate here. I want our facility to look the best it can.”

For Christina, seeing how families respond makes the effort worthwhile.

“I love seeing the residents when I decorate, and they like how it looks,” she said. “It makes them feel like they’re at home, and that’s what we want them to feel, at least for the time being.”

Lori Bowen, Administrator of Island Family Residence, has seen the difference those details make throughout the facility.

“It just looks nice,” she said. “She makes sure it feels homey. It’s the little touches.”

Her thoughtfulness extends beyond the physical space. Melissa pointed to the emergency food pantry, which Christina helps organize, and baskets prepared for parents welcoming a new baby as examples.

“She takes the time to make sure the food we order is food she thinks the residents will actually eat,” Melissa said. When preparing baby baskets, “she takes the time to make the basket specific and personal. I think the residents really appreciate that.”

For Christina, the people she works with and the environment at Island Family Residence continue to motivate her each day.

“The environment, the staff—we get along well,” she said. “It’s a great place to work.”

Outside of work, Christina enjoys shopping, cooking, and baking.

"I want to learn how to raise him better, because it's a lot." 

For one mother at Saratoga Family Residence, a new program arriving at the residence could offer some of that guidance—both for her and her young son. 

Through a new partnership with HFH, Forestdale, a New York City organization that works to strengthen families and help children thrive, is offering its Strong Mothers program directly to Saratoga families.  

Strong Mothers works with parents and young children together, offering parenting education and behavioral health care, along with individualized help navigating needs related to health care, housing, education, and more. 

For expecting mothers, Forestdale can also provide doula matching for prenatal and postpartum care. Parents can learn about child safety, parent-child bonding, breastfeeding, and other aspects of caring for a young child. 

Licensed clinicians are also available to support families navigating domestic violence, trauma, and other experiences that can place strain on family relationships. 

Families participating in the program can also request practical necessities through Forestdale, including diapers, formula, clothing, backpacks, and school supplies. 

"Partnerships with trusted, local community organizations like Forestdale so important. They can begin working with families while they are at Saratoga, build that trust over time, and continue to be there for them as they move forward in the community," said John Greenwood, Executive Director of HFH. 

Saratoga families recently got their first introduction to Strong Mothers during an afternoon filled with food, children's activities, raffles, and giveaways. But beyond the festivities, the event gave residents a chance to meet the Forestdale staff and learn what the program could offer them. 

"Having Forestdale here at Saratoga gives families the opportunity to participate in programming right where they live," said David Morris, Administrator at Saratoga Family Residence. "Making it easier for parents to connect with Forestdale staff and take part in the program is a real benefit for our families." 

The afternoon also gave parents and children a chance to spend time together with other families at the residence.  

"This event was a lot of fun for both the kids and the moms. We were able to socialize, which is really good for everyone," said one expecting mother. "It's important to have an event like this because it shows people you can come out of your everyday routine and just enjoy life for a day. I feel like that's what we've done here today." 

Another mother, who hopes to participate in Strong Mothers with her son, appreciated the opportunity for families to come together. 

"It's nice to see moms mingling, and their kids mingling," she said. "It's like a big, giant barbecue." 

For families at Saratoga, that afternoon was an introduction—not only to a new program, but to another source of support as they raise their children and work toward their goals. 

"At Forestdale, we are proud of the families we serve and believe deeply in parents' ability to succeed," said Lorraine Stephens, LMSW, Executive Director at Forestdale. "We know that all families can benefit from support, encouragement, and practical tools, and that when parents have what they need, children and whole families thrive. That is why we are thrilled to bring our Strong Mothers parenting program and wrap-around support to the families at Saratoga."