Our community in Sunset Park came together to support one another this holiday season, and we are so grateful for it!
Celebrating Community & Resilience 2021
Our virtual Celebrating Community event was a huge success this year – and the good news is, if you missed it on Monday, you can still watch the event online!
If you would like to watch the video of our event,
- Click here, (or copy and paste this URL into your browser): https://cflcelebratingcommunity.convene.com/user-login
- Enter your name, email address, and Access Code CFLSPCELEBRATINGCOMMUNITY (case sensitive) and click ‘Sign In’
The video is under the “live event” tab – we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
At our event this year we had the first screening of a short documentary by cinematographer Nick Hartanto, featuring the children, families, and staff of the Center for Family Life. This beautiful documentary is part of the event video so if you would like to watch, head to the link above.
We had several honorees, and so much to celebrate at our event. This year we achieved a decades-long dream and became a fully independent not-for-profit organization, and we honored two outstanding individuals, Jessica Cohen from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Jason Schlessel from Norton Rose Fulbright, who made extraordinary contributions to our work at the Center for Family Life in this, our inaugural year.
We also honored the memory of Deborah Foley, a long-time supporter of the Center for Family Life who passed this time last year.
Deborah (Debbie) Foley, Vice President at Prudential Securities, was a member of the Center for Family Life Board from 1996 through 2007. Debbie was important to the development of the Center in so many ways, but especially as our partner in CFL’s Life Lines production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She was treasured by the Center’s founders Sister Mary Paul Janchill and Sister Geraldine Tobia and loved by all of her colleagues on the Board.
We remember Deb with deep affection and are grateful for the contribution that she made to our work in the early years of the Center
We are so grateful for everyone who made the work we do at Center for Family Life possible this year, and we are so happy to have the chance to celebrate and share that work with you. Thank you, for being with us through another remarkable year!
July: Covid-19 Cash Relief Distribution
This month, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park took another important step to directly combat the financial hardships experienced by so many community families throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Through cash relief distribution, we were able to distribute $100,000 to 100 of the most vulnerable local families in need. This is in addition to the more than $1,000,000 in cash relief distributed to families in 2020. The emergency relief funds, provided by the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, RFCUNY, and Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), were made possible with the help of our friends at TD Bank, who acted quickly to produce 200 cash cards that CFLSP distributed to qualifying families.
Due to the strain of pandemic-related illness and the loss of jobs and income, many Sunset Park community members have struggled to maintain their supply of food, clothing, and school materials.
“This community has been hit hard by the pandemic. They lost family members and jobs, continue to experience economic hardship, have limited access to benefits, and fear accessing services due to their immigration status,” explained Jean Bae from MOIA. “The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs is proud to partner with CFLSP on the NYC COVID-19 Immigrant Emergency Relief Program to provide emergency monetary relief to immigrant workers and their families who were…excluded from most federal and state relief programs. We thank CFLSP for their work with the Relief Program and for all the work they do for immigrant communities in NYC.”
Given the urgent need in the community, CFLSP co-directors Julia Jean-Francois and Julie Brockway turned to a local community institution, TD Bank, to get resources into the hands of neighborhood families. CFLSP also relied on TD Bank for similar help last year during the cash distribution to 800 neighborhood families. We are thrilled to have the consistent support of our local TD Bank in distributing funds to the most disadvantaged members of our community. Vice President and Store Manager of TD Bank in Sunset Park, William Xie, noted,
“TD has been part of the fabric of the Brooklyn community for years. We are honored to again work with the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park to help distribute critical emergency relief funding to local families battling economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
CFLSP would like to thank the folks at TD Bank for going great distances to help us create this wonderful opportunity in Sunset Park, and acknowledge the vision, critical funding, and partnership from Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, RFCUNY, and MOIA. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to come together to support local families in our community!
June: Our neighborhood library in Sunset Park has been honored by the 2021 National American Institute of Architects (AIA) and American Library Association (ALA) as one of the winners of the Library Building Design Award
We are thrilled to announce that our interim neighborhood library in Sunset Park has been honored by the 2021 National American Institute of Architects (AIA) and American Library Association (ALA) as one of the winners of the Library Building Design Award – only one of five libraries selected in the United States! The temporary Sunset Park Library, nestled in the former Sunset Park courthouse on Fourth Avenue, was designed by Leroy Street Studio and decorated with exquisite work by Center for Family Life high school students!
High school students in CFL’s Life Lines Visual Arts Troupe partnered with the Leroy Street Studio in a collaborative process of art, design, and installation to devise a method of providing shade for library-goers on brighter days. The team constructed a unique cascade of paper mobiles that hang across the large, vaulted windows. The shapes, made bold when backlit by the sun, speak to themes of togetherness, vitality, and natural beauty.
The National American Institute of Architects (AIA), an organization to support quality architecture founded in 1857, focuses on cultivating and encouraging the creation of spaces that center community wellness and vibrancy. According to a statement from their organization, the award acknowledges those libraries that embody “design achievement, including a sense of place, purpose, ecology, environmental sustainability and of history.”
Despite its status as an interim library, the space is a glowing achievement in Sunset Park. Shawn Watts, a partner at Leroy Street Studio, expressed that the studio is “honored to have played a part in creating this vibrant community hub and thrilled to see how the work of the students from the Center for Family Life elevated the space.”
The interim Sunset Park Library fulfills a variety of needs with versatile arrangements of space and equipment that serve our diverse community. Leroy Street Studio ensured that the voices of the Sunset Park community, BPL staff, and elected officials were heard in imagining the space. A spokesperson for Brooklyn Public Library noted that the library design, with the window installation “comprised of screens and sculptural mobiles, made in collaboration with students from the Center for Family Life…truly reflects the community it serves, making this award even more special.”
May: Center for Family Life in Sunset Park (CFLSP) has established itself as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization!
We couldn’t be happier to share this amazing moment with all of the friends and neighbors who have joined us over many years, and who are now the core support of the independent CFLSP!
While we now have a new corporate identity, we will continue to operate at all of the same sites located throughout the community under the leadership of Julie Stein Brockway and Julia Jean-Francois, Co-Executive Directors. For the past 20 years, Julie and Julia have co-led the Center—a comprehensive, family support organization that provides school-based programming, employment services, counseling, case management, and small business development opportunities.
In 2020, we provided 18,090 individuals and 12,353 families with critical services, and continued to serve as an anchor in the community through the pandemic. Many of our programs operated remotely, and we maintained critical in-person services, including childcare for the children of front-line workers at a NYC Department of Education Regional Enrichment Center, five-day-a-week food and cash relief distribution through our food pantry, and youth development activities at nine neighborhood public schools, all provided while observing proper safety and social distancing precautions.
