Geriatric Care
For families faced with the complex and worrisome issue of needing to provide long-distance care-giving for loved ones, we offer Geriatric Care Management. Our experienced, credentialed and dedicated staff of social workers provide comprehensive assessments, care plans, care implementation and complete follow-up services to clients and their families.

Guardianship

FSSY is Westchester’s only community-based non-profit appointed by the New York State Supreme Court to act as legal guardian for incapacitated adults who are in danger of neglect, abuse and/or financial exploitation.

FSSY also serves as Guardian in the Bronx, as well as Rockland and Orange Counties.

FSSY accepts guardianship cases solely by court appointment by the New York State Supreme Court.  To obtain information about eligibility for guardianship, contact the New York State Supreme Court in your respective county.

FACT: FSSY provides Guardianship Services to more than 350 incapacitated individuals.

FSSY is Westchester’s leader in providing FREE academic support to public school students with help from our large pool of volunteers, most of who are adults 65 and older.  These programs benefit both children and seniors by providing students in-need with free academic support AND seniors with the community engagement they need for healthy aging.  FSSY Academic Support Programs include:

Students and Mature Adults Read Together (SMART) provides public school students who are achieving below grade level with weekly one-on-one, personalized tutoring and mentoring during the school day. FSSY trains volunteers 60 years old and older to use the most up-to-date approaches to literacy/academic support and mentoring.

Reading Buddies After School (RBAS) uses the SMART model, but the program takes place after school.  RBAS brings senior adults, college and high school aged mentors into elementary schools to help students complete their homework and build their literacy, basic math and other academic skills.

Summer Reading Buddies (SRB) takes place in local public libraries and is designed to help prevent the loss of literacy skills that students often experience during the summer break, otherwise known as “summer slide”.

After School Programs provide licensed after school childcare for students at sites in the Yonkers City School District. Programs focus on homework help, social/emotional support, arts instruction, science, technology, engineering, and math learning (STEM), and recreation.

Enrichment Activities use fun, interactive, hands-on projects and experiences to stimulate students academically.

Parent Workshops offering a range of training, informational and interactive sessions to engage parents in their children’s academic, social and emotional development, as well as provide essential resources to support healthy families.

Kinship Support
Thousands of grandparents, adult relatives or close family friends in Westchester County are raising children whose parents cannot care for them due to incarceration, drug addiction, absence and other circumstances that cause crises and trauma in families. This is known as kinship or kinship caregiving.

We provide a variety of services to enable and empower kinship caregivers to provide a safe and nurturing home for their children and to keep the children out of the foster care system. Services include case assistance, legal services (i.e., custody issues), parenting education, family mediation, individual and family counseling, distribution of clothing, books and school supplies, peer support groups for children, teens and adults, and school holiday and summer programs for the children. We also assist families with obtaining benefits and link caregivers and their children with many other services in the community, such school resources, mental health services, and recreational and employment opportunities.

FACT: FSSY’s Kinship Support Program serves nearly 175 grandparents, other relative caregivers and children every year, helping them to create nurturing homes, develop supportive and positive relationships, reduce the need for additional child welfare services, and receive the counsel and services they need and to which they are entitled.

GrandPower Advocacy Project
To empower and educate grandparents and older Westchester County and Yonkers kinship caregivers to advocate effectively for kinship-related issues, FSSY created the GrandPower Project. GrandPower advocates gain the confidence and skills needed to share their stories as kinship caregivers with local lawmakers and advocate on behalf of kinship families in Westchester County about issues related to financial benefits, social services, and more.

Permanent Supportive Housing and Case Management
For more than 20 years, FSSY has been working to reduce homelessness in Westchester County by providing permanent supportive housing for disabled homeless and chronically homeless individuals, and we oversee social services related to their care. For elderly and disabled residents of the Municipal Housing Authority of the City of Yonkers and in Section 8 Housing, we develop and implement individualized care plans and assess and monitor residents’ well-being on a regular basis.

Home Accessibility
To help low- to moderate-income disabled and elderly residents of Yonkers and Westchester live safely and independently in their houses and apartments, FSSY provides housing modifications such as ramps, wider doorways and accessible baths and showers.

Representative Payee Services
Through an agreement with the Westchester County’s Department of Social Services (DSS), we manage benefit payments, such as Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for Westchester residents who need assistance managing their finances. We also provide Representative Payee services privately on a fee-for-service basis.