[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 124 (Thursday, September 26, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1658]]
            IN RECOGNITION OF NEW ALTERNATIVES FOR CHILDREN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 25, 2002

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to 
New Alternatives for Children (NAC), on the occasion of the 
foundation's 20th Anniversary.
  Founded in 1982, New Alternatives for Children is the New York City 
area's only child-welfare agency devoted exclusively to children with 
severe disabilities and chronic illnesses. NAC was founded in 1982 to 
find homes for disabled “broader babies”—children who 
were residing in hospitals long after they were medically ready for 
discharge, because their biological families were unable to care for 
them.
  Since 1982, NAC has moved hundreds of children out of the hospital 
and into safe, loving, and permanent family homes—through foster 
care, adoption, or extensive work with biological families to enable 
them to care for their children.
  NAC consistently receives the highest rankings for foster care 
services and has reduced the average length of stay from foster-care 
placement to adoption to half as long as the New York City average. In 
addition, children who are reunified with their birth families average 
one year and three months in foster care at NAC, as opposed to the 
citywide average of four years.
  NAC's tremendous efforts to help children with disabilities and 
chronic illnesses to meet their full potential has given these children 
an opportunity to lead healthy fulfilling lives. NAC not only provides 
innovative foster care, adoption, and prevention services, but offers 
on-site medical and mental health care, which is an invaluable service 
to families who might otherwise have great difficulty navigating among 
the many services they require.
  Further, NAC provides support groups for the siblings of children 
with disabilities, mentoring, art therapy, and recreational services, 
including summer camp opportunities, and considerable help in making 
sure that families' homes are able to meet the requirements of children 
with disabilities.
  NAC is providing our community with an immensely important service by 
preventing the institutionalization of disabled or chronically ill 
children.
  NAC opens a world of opportunities and possibilities for medically 
fragile children and assists the entire family in reaching their 
potential as productive members of society.
  NAC has strongly held onto the belief that all children have the 
right to grow up in a loving and safe family setting, and NAC has made 
this possible for hundreds of children. Within the community, NAC has 
provided comprehensive services to meet the physical, social, 
educational, recreational, and health care needs of these children so 
that they may have a smooth adjustment to living in the community.
  In recognition of New Alternatives for Children's outstanding 
contributions to the community and their commitment to the quality of 
life of chronically ill and disabled children. I ask that my colleagues 
join me in saluting NAC on their 20th Anniversary.

                          ____________________