Lavanburg Foundation

The children in the photograph have taken part in an art therapy program at Hartley House's after-school program. The Lavanburg Foundation has provided Hartley House with grants for programs for elders, children and families.

Recent Grants

In recent years, the Lavanburg Foundation has awarded grants for a range of projects. Some of our grants have funded studies and publications. Others have supported personnel and programming in existing facilities. Still other grants have funded the renovation or construction of needed housing. The Foundation typically awards six to eight grants a year in the range of $20,000 to $40,000. From time to time, multi-year grants are awarded.

GRANT PROFILE: Citizens Housing and Planning Council (CHPC)

The Lavanburg Foundation has made annual grants for the general support of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council's work for more than 60 years. CHPC is involved in a wide range of projects aimed at improving urban environments. It promotes development that is consistent with modern urban sensibilities, and links the city's housing policies to its economic development goals. It also serves as a pro bono advisory and advocacy group offering its expertise to government, the media and to the public at large. CHPC depends entirely on private contributions, special fundraising events and member support for funding.

Lavanburg grants in recent years have supported the following projects:

• The Housing Conditions and Public Health project (1998) evaluated the effects of substandard housing conditions on the health and employment stability of poor adults in New York City. The analysis found evidence that residence in poorly maintained housing adversely and significantly affects the health of women, reducing their likelihood of holding jobs, or if they hold jobs, reducing their weeks and hours worked. The project resulted in a paper entitled "Housing, Health and Work," which was presented at several academic conferences and at meetings organized by the New York City Department of Health and was also accepted for publication in the journal Housing Policy Debate, published by the Fannie Mae Foundation.
• The Shared Housing project (1999), initiated and funded by the Lavanburg Foundation, was designed to evaluate various "shared housing" models. The resulting report, "Shared Housing in New York: A Qualitative Evaluation of Programs," concluded that shared housing is unlikely to play a major role in mitigating housing problems of the elderly, but that it does have potential as a niche program that works best when programs are tailored to the idiosyncrasies of particular constituencies. The report has been distributed to legislators, non-profit housing providers and organizations concerned with the health and well-being of seniors. It has also been posted on CHPC website for reference by researchers, policy makers and program administrators throughout the country.
• The Expiring Tax Credits project (2001) explored the limitations of the expiring Low Income Housing Tax Credits for for-profit and not-for-profit housing managers and for their tenants. The Lavanburg Foundation was the largest of seven underwriters of this on-going project. Other funders included Fannie Mae, Citicorp, Fleet Bank, and JP Morgan Chase.
• Lavanburg funds have enabled CHPC to publish citizen education pamphlets such as: How to Get Drug Enterprises Out of Housing, which addresses an urgent community issue and is now distributed nationally by LISC and other community development corporations; and What Every Landlord and Tenant Should Know, which provides important information to tenants as well as landlords in a convenient, understandable format and has completely sold out eight editions.

GRANT PROFILE: Bailey House

Bailey-Holt House is home to 44 adults with AIDS; it provides them with private rooms and baths, a full spectrum of on-site services, and three nutritious meals a day. All Bailey House client service programs offer case management, counseling, recreation, nutritional support, vocational/educational training and pastoral care.

Lavanburg grants have funded projects that have allowed Bailey House to offer increased comfort and safety to its residents. These projects also help to ensure the permanence of Bailey-Holt House as a resource for people with AIDS until there is a cure.

A $25,000 grant in 1996 made it possible, in combination with other funding, for Bailey House to:

• repair the badly leaking roof;
• renovate the kitchen and dining areas;
• install a chairlift that allowed access to the solarium and roof garden for residents who cannot use the stairs;
• install a new ventilation system;
• improve wall surfaces, lighting and flooring in hallway and common areas;
• make four resident rooms completely handicapped accessible; and
• install a new awning proclaiming "Bailey-Holt House."

An additional $75,000 grant supported another series of renovations that began in July 2000. These included numerous improvements that address resident life and safety concerns, such as:

• installation of an elevator, a new security system, fire stopping mechanisms in the basement and roof, new windows and new air conditioner ducts;
• replacement of the building facade;
• construction of a new rooftop greenhouse;
• installation of: wheelchair-accessible bathrooms in the administrative offices, a new air conditioning system, duct work in the kitchen and roof, new kitchen equipment, fire safety doors in resident rooms and electrical work to support increased power usage.

In 2005, the Lavanburg Foundation granted $25,000 for Bailey House to enhance their security system.

GRANT PROFILE: Henry Street Settlement

Each year, more than 100,000 New Yorkers participate in Henry Street programs, which include youth services to foster academic achievement and emotional well-being from day care through college; five transitional shelters with support services for homeless families and adults; an acclaimed mental health clinic that provides free and low-cost mental health services; an arts center; and homecare services and senior services for the elderly and homebound.

In 1993 the Lavanburg Foundation awarded Henry Street a $20,000 grant to hire a consultant for an innovative housing project that would allow women with AIDS to live with their children.

A $35,000 Lavanburg grant in 2002 supported a project for women with severe and persistent mental illness. This project provided permanent housing for these women, as well as support services to assist them in living as independently as possible.

GRANT PROFILE: Hartley House

Hartley House's mission is to provide as many services as possible under one roof for the children, youth, seniors and families of Manhatttan's Clinton community, formerly known as Hell's Kitchen. Open daily, Hartley House offers a variety of programs to more than 600 people of all ages. Programs include family day care; after school programs; Pied Piper day camp; evening sports programs; alternative high school; English classes for new immigrants; General Equivalency classes for adults; citizenship preparation classes; arts classes and programs for seniors on and off site. Hartley House also opens its facilities for meetings of community groups that work for neighborhood stability and improvements.

The Lavanburg Foundation made a grant of $45,000 over a period of four years beginning in 1993 to set up a social service unit consisting of two social service workers to look after the needs of the community's large immigrant population. They focused on case management and the real need for assistance in obtaining concrete services such as escort services for medical appointments. The social workers attended workshops on immigration issues and entitlements to help them advise their clients on these issues, which become more complex every day.

An additional two-year grant for a total of $40,000 was awarded to the Social Work Unit in 2001. Programs that have benefited from Lavanburg funds include Home Outreach Program for Elders (HOPE), Christmas Friendly Visiting Program for Elders, and art therapy programs for seniors, children and families.

In 2005, the Lavanburg Foundation awarded a two-year $50,000 grant to enable Harley House to continue its social work program.

GRANT PROFILE: Goddard Riverside Community Center

Goddard Riverside Community Center's programs — designed to serve everyone in the mixed income, ethnically diverse neighborhood that is Manhattan's West Side — serve more than 10,000 New Yorkers each year. They include permanent housing and neighborhood preservation; college and career counseling; services to the homeless; programs for older adults; community arts programming; and many resources for children and youth, including day care, Head Start, after school programs, summer day camp, school-based activities and teen programs. Today the agency is the owner and operator of 541 units of permanent housing with social services on-site in four separate buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side and in Harlem.

Over the last 15 years, the Lavanburg Foundation has been one of Goddard Riverside's partners in the development of permanent supported housing for formerly homeless men and women. The Foundation's grants, totaling $284,000 between 1988 and 2001, have played a major role in the development of Goddard Riverside's housing program.

The Lavanburg grants have assisted with the construction of 48 studio units on West 140th Street to house chronically mentally disabled, homeless men and women who have been "hard to reach" and resistant to services because of the extent and complications of their disabilities.

The most recent Lavanburg grant, awarded in 2003, was for $50,000 over two years and was used to create more units of affordable housing for mentally ill homeless men and women.