CFY Milestone: Serves 10,000th Family June 9th!

On June 9th, CFY served its 10,000th family since our launch. The family, Eduardo and Jonathan Berrios, attended the Saturday morning Family Learning Workshop at IS 219 in the Bronx to receive the half-day training required to take home their new computer-based home learning center. The milestone was additionally poignant because CFY began its program in the Bronx, serving 230 families there in 1999. Our achievements have been made possible through the generosity of people like you, our supporters, thank you!

Read more about the Berrios family in the Spotlight section below.

2007 Tech Leadership Awards

The Tech Leadership Awards on May 30th recognized four deserving award winners; all of whom honored CFY with their thoughtful and generous comments from the podium. The Family Learning Software Award was presented to ClueFinders by Riverdeep/Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology (see photo) ; Becky Blalock, of Atlanta-based Southern Company, received the CIO of the Year Award; NASDAQ’s Bruce Aust was presented with the Digital Leadership Award; and the first ever Social Entrepreneur Award was given to Craig Newmark—known world-wide as Craig from craigslist.

Almost $200,000 was raised through the event to support CFY’s programs and services. Gold Sponsors included: Bank of America, Covington & Burling, HBO, Newmark Knight Frank, Shearman & Sterling, The Thomson Corporation, and Time Warner Inc. Silver Sponsors were: Commerce Bank, Intel, Kelley Drye & Warren, MTV Networks, NASDAQ, Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP, and Southern Company. We are grateful to these corporate sponsors—as well as the many individuals who gave generous gifts and honored us with their presence.

CFY Expands Across America

New York - CFY’s New York City impact continues to grow. During the 06-07 school year, we served 2,089 families—89 more than our goal—via 16 schools throughout the city! The NYC office is now seeking an Executive Director—an individual who will help us build on our success and take us to new heights. Click here to learn more about the position.

Philadelphia - CFY served 423 families via three partner schools in Philadelphia, exceeding our goal of serving 400 families. And the Philadelphia staff continues to grow. Three full-time staff have been on board since the winter, and two additional staff members will begin their jobs in September. Read more about CFY-Philly personnel below.

THIRD CITY CHOSEN - Atlanta! - CFY selected Atlanta as our third expansion city and on May 5, 12 and 14 successfully demonstrated our program, providing 261 students and their families at the L.J. Price Middle School with computer-based home learning centers donated by Bell South (CFY once again exceeded an ambitious goal: 250!) We are also conducting an Executive Director search for this new office. Click here to see the complete job description.

CFY Affiliate Network

As part of our National Expansion plan, CFY has developed an Affiliate Network to help other organizations benefit from CFY’s knowledge and experience in improving the home learning environment of low-income school children. Launched in May 2007, the CFY Affiliate Network welcomed two new members last month: The Elizabeth House Family Life Center in Delaware and the Sarasota CSB TeXellence Program in Florida. The “spotlight product” for the Network is the CFY Educational Software Package designed by software experts and tested by students and education executives from around the country. Alina Klein, Project Manager of the TeXellence Program said, "CFY's software package gives our students the chance they need to get ahead in school. Without it, we would be distributing computers with minimal educational value." If you know of an organization that may be interested in joining the CFY Affiliate Network, please email Abby Lesnick at alesnick@cfy.org. To learn more about the Network, visit our website at www.cfy.org/participate-join.html

In the News

CFY appeared in a diverse list of media outlets during the past few months including: CIO Magazine, WNBC’s Today in New York, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Northeast Times in Philadelphia, NY1, Cablevision’s News 12 in the Bronx, Philadelphia Business Journal, and PC Magazine—just to name a few!

In partnership with Time Warner Cable, CFY also recently launched two Public Service Announcements, which are appearing on TWC channels including MTV, BET, Lifetime, TBS, Discovery, ESPN, etc. Click here to see the PSAs and learn more about how you can help CFY.

Donor Appreciation

Over the course of the next year CFY will require donations of more than 4,500 computers to convert to home learning centers and then provide to our families. The first corporate partner to make a commitment for 2007-08—with a donation of 600 computers—is Stroock Stroock & Lavan, a law firm headquartered in New York. Stroock is a 125 year-old firm with more than 750 employees based in NY, Los Angeles and Miami. Stroock offers clients integrated legal experience in transactions and financings, litigation and dispute resolution, corporate counseling, regulatory and tax issues. We appreciate Stroock’s commitment to fulfilling CFY’s mission of improving the home learning environment for children from low-income families—thank you!

CFY needs more than 4,500 computers! Is your company or organization interested in donating computers to CFY? CFY accepts donations of 30 or more complete computer systems (CPU and monitor) at a time. Donations to CFY, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law. To learn more, visit www.cfy.org/support-computers.html or contact Louis Edwards at ledwards@cfy.org.

CFY People

CFY-Philadelphia opened its doors in January and already has three full-time staff. Executive Director, Keisha Jordan manages day-to-day operations, with a focus on fundraising and building local visibility of CFY’s work. She came to us from BAEO, a national organization that mobilizes African American parents to demand better education for their children. Keisha is also the youngest person to ever serve as an Eisenhower Fellow. Medina Rashid, a former Assistant Principal from a local Philly school, is CFY-Philadelphia’s Program Manager. In this position she liaises with the Philadelphia school community and volunteer base, ensuring CFY is reaching its intended audiences and providing them with a quality program. And as Technology Manager for CFY-Philadelphia, Richard Gonzalez is responsible for its refurbishing operation, repair, and securing local equipment donations. Richard comes from the private sector and brings many years of tech experience.

In the National office, Kristina Silbajoris, CFY’s new Manager of Development Initiatives, manages fundraising, special event, and communications activities. Kristina has almost 10 years of development experience having worked at a variety of nonprofit organizations.

CFY congratulates Board member Richard Plepler on his promotion to the newly-created position of co-president at HBO. In this new position Mr. Plepler has responsibility for HBO's programming and corporate communications.

We are proud to congratulate CFY President and Co-Founder, Elisabeth Stock who received the “Excellence in Leadership Award" from the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce on Friday June 22nd.

On Monday, June 11, Darren Perry and Luis Hernandez, members of CFY’s Student Software Specialist Team (SSST) served on a panel at the Games for Change Annual Conference. They reported on their activities and described the impact that the SSST is having on their lives. Great job Darren and Luis!

At 11:15am on June 9, 2007 at IS 219 in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, Elisabeth Stock informed father and son, Eduardo and Jonathan Berrios, that they were CFY's 10,000th family served. It was an emotional moment for all. We had some great media attention too: Cablevision's News 12 in the Bronx captured the moment on camera, as did New York 1. To view the NY1 story please visit: www.cfy.org/NY16-9-07.html. Jonathan and Eduardo are pictured here between Elisabeth Stock and IS 209 principal Dominic Cipollone.

Said Jonathan Berrios: "I, Jonathan Berrios would like to extend a warm thanks to you and your staff for the honor of being the 10,000th family served by Computers for Youth. God bless you all. I'll give the computer the best use ever."