Student Tutors from Stuyvesant High School and Bronx Science High School are working with both children and adults this winter at Barrier Free Living apartments, a complex in the Bronx offering permanent homes to survivors of domestic violence with disabilities.

The tutors meet weekly with elementary school kids, offering one on one work in areas like math and science. They also work with adults who are pursuing their high school equivalency test, known as the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC).

Community Capital Management recently announced that Barrier Free Living Apartments is the winner of its first annual impact awards for 2017 and will receive a $10,000 donation. CCM’s “Impact Awards 2017” featured five impactful bond stories during the year with participants voting for their favorite over the last month. The contest recognizes fixed income impact investments and their multiple positive environmental and social outcomes.

Barrier Free Living Apartments was designed and built for 50 families with a disabled head of household who is a victim or survivor of domestic violence and 70 studios primarily for individuals with disabilities who have been victims of intimate partner violence. The agency has an onsite team of social workers, occupational therapists, a nurse practitioner and child care specialists that address activities of daily living training, vocational support, assistance with navigating health and social support systems, child care, community building events, and more. Domestic violence is the number one issue of women with disabilities nationwide and Barrier Free Living is the largest provider in the nation of domestic violence intervention services for people with disabilities. The organization works with people with all types of disabilities including disabled veterans, survivors of domestic violence, homeless men, women, and children, helping them thrive in safe and supportive communities.

“We are often asked to share our favorite fixed income impact investment stories – whether with a particular theme such as affordable housing, the environment or gender lens, or in a particular geographic region,” said Jamie Horwitz, chief marketing officer at CCM “We launched this competition as a way to showcase some of the best investment stories of the year – those that have positively supported many of our seventeen impact themes – while also incorporating a philanthropic twist by donating $10,000 to the winner.”

Alyssa Greenspan, president and COO, added: “The other four nominees had equally impactful stories which included a green affordable housing development in Queens that had undergone substantial renovation after Hurricane Sandy, a sustainable urban design development in San Francisco, an affordable housing program for historically underserved communities in Oregon, and a day camp for children with cancer.  We are incredibly proud of our pioneering impact research that allows us to identify, record, and track the underlying environmental and social outcomes of every bond in our fixed income portfolios to be able to share these stories.  CCM’s Impact Awards will now be an annual contest to continue supporting the work that we do and the many wonderful organizations and properties that our investments help finance.”

“We are honored and thrilled to have won CCM’s first annual impact awards,” said Paul Feuerstein, President/CEO of Barrier Free Living.  “We strive for a world free from abuse and bias, where people with disabilities live in a supportive environment. CCM’s $10,000 donation will be used to further our vision for a barrier free world.”

As the new nurse on staff at Barrier Free Living Apartments, Dwayne Jordan brings expertise, a keen focus on wellness, and even some experience as a power lifter to the supportive housing complex.

BFL: What drew you to apply to Barrier Free Living?

Dwayne: I grew up in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Brooklyn (Brownsville) during the 90s. I first-hand saw and experienced what many residents of BFL have gone through. I made it a determination of mine at an early age that I would devote my life to helping to provide a way out or at least be a sanctuary for those experiencing hardships. When I read the success stories and saw the profiles of some of the staff on the BFL website, I knew I had found an organization where my talents and passion could really be put to use and appreciated.

BFL: Tell us a little bit about what you do at BFL Apartments in your role?

Dwayne: As the nurse my primary concern is the health and wellness of the tenants. Whether is be through education on nutrition and healthy lifestyles, medication management, or helping to gain access to medical services that would be otherwise hard to navigate alone.

BFL: What challenges do you foresee?

Dwayne: The number one challenge is gaining the trust of the residents. One tenant flat out told me, “You guys are like a revolving door”. I intend to be here for the foreseeable future, but getting the tenants to believe that will be another thing!

BFL: What drew you to nursing to begin with? What inspires you in this field?

Dwayne: I actually wanted to be a social worker when I was younger but my mother told me they didn’t make enough money (chuckles). Nursing was the next best thing! I think I stuck with nursing because I still get to function like a social worker with the only difference being that I can also provide medical care along with the emotional support. The ability to be an outlet for someone to talk to about anything concerning them while being able to also provide immediate relief in the form of medical care gives me life!

BFL: Are you from New York or if not where did you grow up?

Dwayne: I am from a West Indian heritage but grew up in Brooklyn most of my life. I also lived in Florida for a short period of time.

BFL: What do you like to do in your spare time?

Dwayne: In my spare time I enjoy playing instruments for different groups and churches I’m a part of, training for powerlifting competitions, working on my website/blog, and spending quality time with loved ones.

Barrier Free Living apartments is working with the 138th Street Community Garden to present its kids theatre camp finale show on the garden stage this August.

The show, the culmination of a 10-week theatre camp for kids living at the complex, will be put on by theatre professional David Drake.  BFL apartments offers  permanent housing for survivors of domestic violence and their families and has 91 kids living at the complex.

Read more about David Drake and the theatre camp here.

Students from the Bronx Academy of Letters stopped by Barrier Free Living’s Transitional Housing shelter this June to donate health products to the residents.

The students met with program director LeShan Gaulman (in photo above), to learn about the program which offers shelter to formerly homeless men  and women with disabilities. The students also plan to donate similar products to Barrier Free Living apartments, a complex for survivors of domestic violence with disabilities in the Bronx.

This profile is by Liam Chan Hodges, a summer intern in BFL’s Communication Department. His writing has appeared in Study Breaks and elsewhere. He is currently pursuing a government major at Franklin and Marshall college and will graduate in 2019.

David Drake is a man of many talents. He has gained success as a playwright, a stage director, an actor and an author. His most acclaimed piece The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, a show which he wrote and performed, received three awards, The Village Voice Obie Award, the Drama-Logue Award, and a Robbie Stevens Frontiers Magazine Award.

However his project this summer is of a slightly different nature. From July until August, David will be working with the children at Barrier Free Living (BFL) apartments in the Bronx on a summer theatre camp. Barrier Free Living apartments has 120 units of supportive housing for survivors of domestic violence with disabilities and their families, as well as veterans with disabilities. There are 91 kids living at the complex.

The ten-week camp will cover aspects of theatre craft and history, as well as honing in on the kids’ specific talents and interests. The camp will culminate with a show.

David is no stranger to the benefits that theatre can have on children. He was introduced to theatre at the age of nine when his mother, in an effort to cut down on babysitting costs, brought him along to a musical theatre class she was attending. The class final was performing in a musical called “The Most Happy Fella.” David ended up performing in the show, a show that would turn out to be the first of many.

“I was a natural show-off with a lot of energy, so singing and dancing and acting was a good fit. Plus I loved the camaraderie, and the goals of doing something together as a group, as a team. For a goofball nerd like me, it was a great alternative to playing sports,” says David (pictured below, and at top in a rehearsal).

There is little doubt that theatre has shaped almost every aspect of David’s life, both on and off the stage.

“It’s taught me so much about compassion and empathy for others,” the playwright explains. “Not only in the group sense of doing a show together, but also specifically in playing characters — you need to empathize with the character, understand and believe in their actions, in where they come from even if they’re very different from my own upbringing.”

It is this sort of experience that he hopes he will be able to impart upon the children of BFL apartments during this summer’s camp.

“Theatre performance for kids — or production, too: writing, choreographing, singing, creating sets and costumes — is a great tool for building trust and faith within a community,” says David.

In David’s experience, theatre is an activity that demands that those on stage be completely in the moment with one another.  At the same time they must be able to communicate a story that is not necessarily their own. This ability to understand another person’s struggles, to step inside their shoes, is a key skill when it comes to building healthy and supportive communities. The exact sort of communities that Barrier Free Living is working to create.

“In this way, doing theatre is an act of personal pride and honor, but also being a genuine act of service to the community,” David explains. “It’s a great energy exchange that connects people of all walks of life. The flow from the storytelling performers onstage to the audience — who WANT to receive the story — is incredibly powerful and healing. It’s the magic connection between the two entities that keeps me going.”

David has had many idols throughout his life, from old timey singer-dancer types like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, to writers like Tennessee Williams. However it’s his off stage idols, activists and politicians like Larry Kramer, Gloria Steinem, Barney Frank, and Barack Obama, that make us here at BFL the most excited to have David working with our kids, and perhaps it is his respect for these activists that explains why he was able to fit right in with our organization.

Barrier Free Living Apartments celebrated Mother’s Day with a ‘Glitter On’ luncheon celebration this May.

Tenants of the supportive housing program enjoyed lunch, music and gift bags were handed out. The BFL Occupational Therapy team worked with tenants and members of the tenant advisory committee to decorate and plan the community building event.

Now that she’s living in a safe home of her own, BFL Apartments’ resident Shanika can focus on her most important life goal: strengthening her relationship with her 14-year-old daughter.

A survivor of domestic violence, Shanika was living at a shelter in Brooklyn, working with her case manager to reclaim her life and find a permanent home back in 2014. In addition to healing from years of abuse and trauma, she was learning to understand and manage her life as a bi-polar person.

“It was challenging living in the shelter,” she says. “I am a very private person. At times I felt like I was spiraling. My case worker helped me focus on my goals.”

In 2015, Shanika learned about the soon-to-open Barrier Free Living apartment complex in the Bronx and felt it was going to be the next right step for her.

“It was new. I was so excited, thinking I’d love to live in a building like this,” Shanika says. “I was like wow! When I saw the front desk security I felt good, to know safety is important here. Even when you don’t think you need it, that is when you need it most.”

Shanika moved into her new home at BFL Apartments in 2015. Since then she has joined the BFL Apartments’ tenants advisory committee and plans to work with the garden club this summer, which is led by tenants. She also wants to work in real estate and is preparing this spring to take the licensing exam.

“I work with the psychiatric nurse here to feel my feelings and I use art therapy. I wrote an article for the tenant community newsletter about mental health and that’s coming out soon,” says Shanika. “And now my main goal is to really work on my relationship with my daughter. That’s what matters most.”

By Christine Brink

For the first time in a long time, Cherita Barbuto, who suffers from bipolar disorder, counts herself among the lucky ones.

For years, she was homeless, bouncing between jail, shelters and the streets. Now she’s living in a modest Bronx apartment (*Barrier Free Living Apartments), part of a city, state, federal and privately financed program called supportive housing, designed to help get the mentally ill into homes of their own.

These are more than places to live: Counselors check on residents and staff help ease the transition.

But for the mentally ill long-term homeless, there is far greater demand for supportive housing than there are places to live. Barbuto, 56, remembers the day she received a call from a social worker in June 2015 telling her an apartment was waiting for her, a decade after she first entered the city’s homeless system.

“I just started crying,” Barbuto recalled. “She said, ‘Are you crying Ms. Barbuto?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I’ve been waiting for a long time for this.’”

Only one in six eligible applicants obtains supportive housing in New York City, according to several supportive housing experts and homeless advocates.

“There’s a lot of competition for the few units of available supportive housing that exists,” said Cynthia Stuart, chief operating officer at the Supportive Housing Network of New York, a coalition representing private nonprofit supportive housing agencies.
“It’s musical chairs with very few chairs.”

Read more stories. 

*Added by BFL. 

The Pajama Program donated over 50 pairs of pajamas to the kids living at Barrier Free Living’s domestic violence programs this winter.

The Pajama Program sets a goal for “every child to feel the love and comfort that lets them escape into peaceful sleep, and to awaken empowered with the energy and resilience that can change every one of their days for the better. We accomplish this with the rather magical gifts of pajamas and books, ordinary objects that transform bedtime into a ritual of love, warmth, imagination and fun.”

The child care department at Barrier Free Living Apartments, which provides homes to survivors of domestic violence and their families, held a PJ Day, to celebrate the donation. In photo above: Sheliz Mendez, BFL Apartments child care.