Good morning, Chair Lee and members of the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and
Addiction. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Shakima Hill, and I am the Program Director for Emerson-Davis Family Residence at the Institute for Community Living, or ICL.
ICL is one of the city’s largest providers of housing and behavioral health services for children, adults, and families. We serve 13,000 people annually through our 140 programs across all five boroughs—including clinics, shelters, residences, and community-based programs.
People get better with ICL because our whole health approach addresses all aspects of well-being and reduces health disparities.
First, thank you to the New York City Council for your commitment to human service workers. The COLA is greatly appreciated.
I’m here today to talk about the city’s mental health crisis, particularly among mothers and families, and viable solutions for supporting them to stay together.
We are grateful for the City Council’s commitment to addressing maternal health disparities. But one group of mothers is being left behind.
Mothers with significant mental health challenges who do not have the necessary support they need are often separated from their children. This has a particular impact on communities of color, who are disproportionally represented in New York’s child welfare system.
Parents with serious mental health challenges often face obstacles in rebuilding their lives because of navigating the temporary housing and foster care system.
By supporting mothers struggling with serious mental health challenges, we can keep families together. That’s the goal of the Institute of Community Living’s Emerson-Davis Family Residence, a one-of-a-kind residence for single parents seeking to regain custody of their children or at a high risk of losing custody. I have been with this program for nearly a decade – and I can tell you that it works.
ICL’s Emerson provides families with a safe and supportive environment that gives them an opportunity to build the essential skills to stay together and move to more permanent housing.
When I started at Emerson over nine years ago, a mother had not been with her child for several months. Through the support at ICL Emerson, the child was permanently returned to his mother’s care, and they eventually moved to supportive housing. The son is now entering junior high school, and they are thriving. Because of Emerson, the family was able to reunite and stay united.
But we had to close Emerson because the building that houses the program is in disrepair. We are close to having all the financing to renovate it, but we need the council’s support to get it over the finish line. We are asking for 1.5 million dollars in capital funding from the City Council for this vital program, along with funding from the Borough President.
Mothers with serious mental health challenges deserve to raise their children. And more than that, keeping mothers and children together has been proven crucial for improving a child’s development and improved outcomes later in life.
Thank you.
