Page 25 - NYC Imagine Awards Journal

Leadership Excellence

Gretchen Buchenholz, Executive Director Gisele Castro, Executive Director
Association to Benefit Children exalt
419 East 86 ST, New York, NY, 10028 17 Battery Place Ste 307, New York, NY, 10004
th
(212) 845-3821 | www.a-b-c.org (347) 621-6100 | www.exaltyouth.org
Gretchen Buchenholz, one of the country’s leading child advocates, has served as the executive exalt elevates expectations of personal success for court-involved youth ages 15-19 by combining
director of the Association to Benefit Children (ABC) since she co-founded the organization in a rigorous curriculum with highly structured paid internships focusing on three core pillars:
1986. ABC serves vulnerable children and families with programming concentrated in East 1) criminal justice avoidance; 2) academic progression; and 3) employability. exalt students face
Harlem and the South Bronx, serving the “whole child” from cradle to adulthood. Its wide-ranging significant barriers, such as living in poor neighborhoods with high incarceration rates, foster
programs include early childhood education for at-risk infants, toddlers, and preschoolers; care involvement, histories of truancy and/or poor school performance, and no employment
year-round youth development; mental health treatment and crisis intervention; abuse and experience or network to provide access to career development opportunities. Our model is
neglect prevention; comprehensive family support, including support for expecting parents; and designed to inspire youth at a critical crossroads. Our goals are two-fold: to reduce recidivism
permanent supportive housing. ABC develops and implements innovative, research-based, and and cultivate our youths’ desire for change and love of learning. exalt intervenes at a pivotal
replicable models that seek to break the cycles of poverty. time to support youth academically, reduce further legal involvement, and integrate them into
the economic mainstream.
Gretchen has guided ABC with an unflinching commitment to serve the most vulnerable
children, who are the most likely to miss out on the services they need. Her work over the past Under the leadership of CEO Gisele Castro, the organization successfully completed an
four decades has changed state and federal policies to better protect children, as well as establish ambitious three-year scaling plan in FY22 that included moving exalt to its first headquarters,
replicable and scalable models. Gretchen is a leader in the truest sense. She inspires everyone further expanding the physical space at 17 Battery Place, quadrupling the number of youth
she meets with the same passion that she has for the lives, hopes, and dreams of vulnerable served, tripling the number of staff, and growing the organization’s budget and infrastructure, to
children and their families. She has been advocating for change for over forty years, but her successfully transition exalt to its midlife cycle. Leading exalt has come with the responsibility
enthusiasm for her work is stronger than ever. to lean into innovation and anticipate challenges, enabling exalt to be solution-oriented. Gisele
is committed to creating thriving conditions for young people and scaling exalt to meet the
demands of this century in New York City and beyond.

Adam Green, Founder & Executive Director Linda Beigel Schulman, Founder
Rocking the Boat Scott J. Beigel Memorial Fund
812 Edgewater Road, Bronx, NY 10474 8 Hart Place, Dix Hills, NY 11746
(718) 466-5799 | www.rockingtheboat.org (631) 796-0440 | www.sjbmf.org
In 1998, Adam Green led the building of a wooden boat as an afterschool project with the I established the Scott J. Beigel Memorial Fund on February 16, 2018, two days after my son
teenagers who lived a southwest Bronx settlement house, and never stopped. Rocking the Boat Scott was murdered in the Parkland High School massacre. After Scott’s murder, I had a
is a Youth Development organization delivering its underserved community transformative choice to mourn Scott’s death or celebrate his life. I choose the latter.
educational programming. Situated on the Bronx River estuary, Rocking the Boat leads year- The mission of SJBMF is to send at-risk, underserved children touched by gun violence to
round activities rooted in access, enjoyment, and conservation of this neighborhood river. summer sleep-away camp, giving them a positive path. This is a combination of Scott's love
In the organization’s model, wooden boatbuilding, sailing, and environmental research and of camp with his love for children. These children would never experience camp if not for the
restoration are powerful tools for education, empowerment, and long-term engagement. The Fund.
impact of Rocking the Boat’s programs follows participants from introductory programs for
middle school students, through an intensive high school afterschool program, to ongoing I committed myself to changing children’s lives through summer sleep-away camp. Many of
college and alumni support. our children come from Domestic Violence Shelters, Homeless Shelters, or Single Parent
Homes. These campers’ lives are changed by experiencing summer sleep-away camp and going
Benefitting from his unique perspective as Rocking the Boat’s founder, Adam is wholly dedicated forward they can help better their community.
to and protective of the organization’s mission. Rocking the Boat participants develop pride, Giving children the opportunity to attend summer sleep-away camp allows them to be off
purpose, and possibility by learning the unique and lifelong skills behind building and rowing the streets, be carefree, learn and be far away from gang activity. This is what I call “Pre-
wooden boats, sailing, and restoring the Bronx River. We create community, teach through Habilitation”. We want to reach these impressionable and vulnerable children before they
transformative experiences, and make nature available to everyone, inspiring young people to become involved with guns and gangs.
determine their own future against a backdrop of systemic inequity. The program has evolved
and gained breadth over its 25-year history, yet its mission has remained constant. Our mission is to prevent children from being caught up in the Criminal Justice System because
they see no positive alternative. In camp they learn to trust, feel safe and secure while feeling
a sense of community and responsibility with children of different ethnicities, religions, and
cultures. Children are our future. SJBMF will send these children back each year to reinforce
this message.
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