Hartley House All is Bright

Even in the midst of COVID, our future is bright. Although life in the house itself is much quieter than usual, our connections with our clients, foundations, corporate sponsors, and the architects of our renovation project continue to deepen. It has been an extraordinarily productive and exciting fall, despite our weighty challenges.

We are regularly engaged with our new partners at CHDC and Hudson Guild, and both those alliances continue to grow stronger: practically, legally, and programmatically!

During COVID, our priorities for our senior clients have been to make sure that they remain physically safe, fed, housed, and emotionally supported. 

When the pandemic began, we established wellness check-in calls for every client twice a week, helped them keep track of their doctors’ appointments, and encouraged them to interact with their doctors remotely whenever possible. Throughout we have consistently stressed the importance of minimizing exposure, social distancing, and wearing a mask. 

Staff members have been helping clients apply for food stamps and farmers' market vouchers, referring them to NYC Food Assistance, giving them lists of local food pantries, and distributing prepared-meal donations. 

Staying housed means staying on top of one’s finances. Our social workers help clients with lease renewals, Medicaid recertifications, credit card debt, eviction notices. Although most contact now takes place over the phone for safety reasons, one-on-one meetings at the house can be arranged when necessary—with strict safety precautions in place!

Combatting depression and anxiety is always a priority. For some of our clients, a reassuring conversation with a familiar person is all they need. For others, remote mental health services have been very beneficial. Helping our clients acquire and use technology to maintain contact with family and friends, or discover ways they can keep active—even indoors—can also be very effective in fighting isolation and despair. 

As our HOPE clients know, we are only a phone call away.

Even with our After School on hold, we send our Hartley House families an activity plan every week! These are put together by Shelby Hood, our Program Coordinator, and Grace Lee, our Creative Arts Consultant.

Each week has a different theme, ranging from Food/Nutrition to Halloween. Other themes have included Dental Health, Family Trees, and Community Helpers. 

Shelby focuses on STEM exercises and activities: word searches, calendars, writing prompts, links to stories children can listen to on YouTube, math exercises. She also refers parents to free homework-help websites and other useful on-line resources to help our parents cope with the challenges of remote learning.

Grace includes creative projects that can be made at home with inexpensive materials: pumpkin decorations constructed out of strips of colored paper, watercolors enhanced with soap bubbles, mask-making.

Until our kids can return to After School, our hope is that these packets will not only bolster their learning skills but also provide a much-needed break from the screen and a constant reminder that Hartley House is thinking of them and their families—even when we cannot see them!

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After our top-to-bottom renovation, Hartley House will once again literally be a home: this time, for some of our city's most vulnerable residents: 22 formerly homeless LGBTQ senior citizens!  Supports for these clients will include case managers, a live-in superintendent, and a 24/7 receptionist. 

As for the building itself, Hartley House will be compliant with the American Disabilities Act for the first time in its history, with an elevator, ramps, and wheelchair-accessible bathrooms. Meanwhile, other parts of the house will be historically restored—including our wonderful gym! 

Hartley House programming will take place in these five restored spaces, as well as on two floors of the carriage house and in our beautiful courtyard!

Our wonderful Yesenia Zuniga is leaving her position as Hartley House's Interim Executive Director because she has accepted a senior position at Hudson Guild, but she will remain the head of Hartley House's HOPE program! 

We are immensely excited about this development—for Yesenia herself, but also because this newly-created joint role is one of the most vivid and tangible examples of the programmatic vision we share with this new partner! 

Ken Jockers, the Executive Director of Hudson Guild, and Mia Muratore, our steadfast and multitalented Deputy Director, will assume Yesenia’s former duties on 46th Street.

COVID has made life in 2020 very tough for us on 46th Street. The disease claimed three of our highly vulnerable senior clients, and those losses have been painful for those who worked closely with them. Our Hartley House family have lost relatives as well.

The disease's impact on our financial bottom line has been severe. Revenue from programming and event-space rentals has vanished, and we had to forego our sustaining in-person fundraising events in both the spring and fall.

At the same time, our responsibilities to the community have not diminished along with our funding—especially for our elderly clients. We must continue to be a resource for the neighborhood, even in these distanced times, and to help those we serve meet all kinds of challenges, from coping with hunger and isolation to mastering math and finding creative outlets in cramped apartments as winter closes in.

As you have in the past, we hope that you will give generously between now and the end of the year to help us make up for these critical losses.