They Give a Little to Those Who Give More

In the evening hours, on the second Tuesday of every month, children’s laughter and fast paced steps echo through the small cafeteria, with its white brick walls and waxed tile charcoal floors. Large rectangular tables are lined up parallel to one another. Parents sit, engaging in conversation amongst themselves, on the subjects of helping those troubled youths—hurt, abused, neglected and abandoned.
Families gather at P.S. 70, located on 1691 Weeks avenue in the Bronx for the cause of helping others. Children from broken homes, faced with many struggles and hardships, are taken into the care of foster parents.
Recognizing the challenges foster parents faced—lack of information on many topics as well as sitters to watch the children while the parent are at work, a program was initiated to help. The Concourse Village Foster/Adoptive Parent Support Group is a program that provides numerous services for foster parents.
The service provides information about after school activities, camps, awareness info in raising foster children and information on grants and scholarships to name a few. Organized by Grace Zarate, a foster care Coordinator at P.S. 70, as well as a neighborhood community board member, Zarate brought the program to the Bronx as an effort to give back to the parents that give to foster kids.
Zarate has taken in hundreds of foster children between the ages of 8-10 years old since the start of the program several years ago. She has organized a number of events and meetings to inform foster parent on a number of resources to help the children in school, at home or anywhere else.
“I don’t believe I’m faced with burdens in this program, there are only challenges that can be overcome,” said Zarate. “It’s the least I can do for the many parents that are constantly challenged with the tasks of taking care of these kids.”
Holding a Master’s degree in management, Zarate took up the task of carrying the name of this prestigious group in the Central Bronx area. “I put into a lot of work acquiring the skills to be a leader, the least I can do is put them to work,” said Zarate, who constantly engages in numerous activities where she has had to take charge.
The Parent Support Group was originated in Ohio, but with foster parents complaining there weren’t enough support groups, ACS or Administration for Childcare Services sent what Zarate called a fact finding team to gather information. The fact finders returned, and ACS began offering to fund these various programs throughout the city. Various leaders stepped forth, initiating over 13 of these community service programs in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Two years after these support groups were established, Zarate took the steps to get the program started in the Bronx. “I started calling, emailing and writing various members of ACS to get this program into works,” said Zarate.
With the Bronx being one of the most poverty-stricken boroughs, and having the highest percentage of children in foster care, roughly 34% according to New York City statistics, this was a program that was called for by many parents.
Zarate said she found no struggle or real hardships in getting the Concourse Village Support Group started. “This was a service that was needed and demanded by the parents who stepped up for these kids, ACS couldn’t turn us down,” said Zarate. ACS offered to fund the support group completely for almost several years, but after the fall of the economy, Zarate said things took a turn for the worst.
“At first ACS were covering all of our expenses—food, training expenses to our teen sitters, salaries for our sitters and the small fees for supplies,” said Zarate. “But when the federal cutbacks hit the city, ACS withdrew and announced that they wouldn’t be able to fund many of the programs.”
With the cutbacks in effect, the 13 support groups that offered service to foster parents and children were downsized to a mere three, in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. “If I’m not mistaken, we here deal with probably 500 parents and children a year, so imagine what would happen to all the parents and children who were serviced in other boroughs and neighborhoods,” said Marilyn Pererra, one of many Anchor parents that facilitate the program at P.S. 70.
To prevent the program from being shutdown, Zarate negotiated with ACS to pay a portion of the expenses out of pocket, with ACS paying the rest. ACS agreed, Zarate was to pay roughly $350-$450 and ACS would cover the remaining $500-$600, totaling $800-$900 per month.
“I wasn’t the only one forced to come up with the expenses to keep the program going. I heard from other coordinators and Anchor parents in various groups that they also had to find ways to cover the regular expenses,” said both Zarate and Pererra. Coming out of pocket to pay the expenses of these programs didn’t stop these coordinators from bringing giving something to those who had nothing.
On the holidays the support group also held events as well as gave out gifts to foster children, donated by families as well as agencies and organizations. “My two kids love the program,” said foster mother Wilma Taverse. “The program provides so much for these kids, things that no one could or even try to provide for them, it would really hurt these kids if these programs vanish.”