The Horticultural Society (HSNY) was founded in 1900 and has developed into a multi-service organization, with diverse programs bringing the vitality of urban horticulture to kids, adults and families throughout our city.  HSNY creates community gardens, urban farms and street trees all around New York, and provides mentoring and training in professional landscaping to at-risk youth, and to men and women who are in jail on Rikers Island or who have recently been released, providing them with the opportunity to build work skills, rejoin society and start a positive new life.  The organization gives city kids the chance to get their hands dirty in a garden and learn about science and botany through our education programs.  Among many resources are a library and a trained horticulturist, both of which are available for free to anyone, professional landscapers and novice gardeners alike.  The HSNY Exhibition program showcases bold contemporary art that explores the natural world.

To find out more about the programs or to become a member, visit the Horticultural Society of New York Web site at: www.hsny.org. Memberships benefit The Horticultural Society financially, and members come with benefits like invitations to public programs and more.

ReServist Bill Long at Harlem Community Justice Center

Photo by Kyle Fischer

A deep commitment to mentoring young African-American men and women was key to Bill Long’s becoming a ReServist at the Harlem Community Justice Center. Long signed on in May 2008 as Education Liaison at the center, one of three centers to integrate problem-solving, neighborhood services and counseling programs into the justice system.

John Megaw, a Deputy Project Director who first interviewed Long, said he was impressed by Long’s easy confidence and his skills in working collaboratively and in mentoring. Long says, “I find it easy to mentor young men and women because that was what made a big difference in my life.” His mentor as a young man returned from Marine Corps duty was Ben Malcolm, a New York City Parole Commission officer. The Parole Commission was later abolished and Malcolm moved to the Department of Correction where, in the 1970s he was the first black American to serve as Commissioner. “I never forgot Ben’s positive influence,” Long says, “and so my tribute to him has been to mirror that support for the next generation.”

With Malcolm’s help, Bill went to college and became a teacher, working for the Department of Education for nearly 40 years. Simultaneously, for several years he was an on-call clinician for an outpatient substance abuse program. Although now retired at age 70, Bill continues to volunteer-at the Harlem Community Justice Center and as an on-call sexual assault counselor at Mount Sinai Hospital. In addition he is founder of, and a team coach in, a basketball league for young men in the Justice Center programs.

His raison d’etre at the center, however, is to work in the Juvenile Reentry Network. JRN is supported by the Robin Hood Foundation as a resource for juvenile delinquents returning to the community after up to 18 months of out-of-home placement. The JRN approach reduces re-placement for youth who complete their aftercare supervision,  during which time they are required to adhere to a plan that includes school attendance, weekly meetings before the Judicial Hearing Officer (Una Tapper, also a ReServist), and regular attendance at youth development programming through local Boys & Girls Clubs.  As the Education Liaison, Bill engages each young person’s school to track their progress and problem-solve around challenges. He reports school progress back to the JRN team at weekly case management meetings.

ReServist Bill Long at Harlem Community Justice Center

Photo by Kyle Fischer

Bill and another Reservist, Ruby Harmon, run a weekly adolescent support group, Creating Healthy Adolescent Thinking. Bill brings to CHAT his experiences as a black American male who has lived through the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s and ‘70s; who has raised a family, earned a living-and given back to his community. Project Director Chris Watler says Bill’s leadership is “an essential connection for our youth to the history of struggle and success that has defined the black experience in America.”  For Bill, his work at the Justice Center is an essential element of his vow to repay his early mentors. “Role models like Ben helped me when I needed it, and I will never forget that,” he says.

ReServist Marilyn Shaw

Photo by Kyle Fischer

Marilyn Shaw is still lean and lithe some 40 years after her hope to become a weekend runner was dashed by creaky knees. Not one to mope, she became a walker, a self-described exercise freak and a volunteer with the New York Road Runners. “I was given a clipboard and asked to ‘check in the volunteers,’” she recalls. “That’s where it all began.”

Marilyn became hooked on helping others and was happy to be in the company of accomplished athletes. She served the Road Runners for 14 years, all the while working at TWA and enjoying employee perks of deep discount travel to distant places when time and space allowed. For the Road Runners, she recruited and coordinated volunteers for weekly road races-and for the New York City Marathon. “This volunteer job became the pathway to my new career after TWA went bankrupt and I was unemployed,” she says.

After years of donating her time to Road Runners, she started getting paychecks for managing volunteers for other major organizations, including the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York, the ‘96 Atlanta Olympics, the ‘98 Goodwill Games, Women’s World Cup Soccer and NYC2012, the organization formed to bid on the 2012 Olympic Games. Now she is in what she calls “semi-retirement” as a ReServist working at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

Marilyn, an extraordinary woman herself, is in the midst of coordinating “Brooklyn’s Extraordinary Women,” an annual program begun in 2007 in which some 31 women are to be honored by the Brooklyn DA’s office next March in conjunction with Women’s History Month. Each nominee must be at least 18 years old and a resident of Brooklyn. Her actions should benefit Brooklyn residents and be beyond paid employment. A special committee composed of staff from the DA’s office and previous honorees will make the final selections.

Before this assignment at the DA’s office, Marilyn was a Reservist for Brooklyn Generation Schools, a model school at South Shore High School, where she was the logistical coordinator for student trips that were part of a college and career readiness program.

Marilyn came to ReServe in 2007 after a frustrating and fruitless search for full-time work.  In 20 job applications prior to becoming a Reservist, “Employers read my resume and I got the interviews, but once they saw me I was out. It’s really a matter of age, not a capability thing. People don’t want [older workers].”  She says that while she and many others have weathered the abuse of ageism in the workplace, she has high hopes for the bumper crop of Baby Boomers. “They just aren’t going to take it.”

At an age on the far side of 50, Marilyn takes special pleasure in working at ReServe. She says it reaffirms her skills.

ReServist Among 50 Honored for ‘Clear and Bold Vision’

ReServist and AARP honoree Cyril Brosnan

Photo by Kyle Fischer

ReServist Cyril Brosnan, who has devoted more than half of his 79 years to helping others, is one of 50 volunteers honored by the NewYork State AARP as part of the organization’s 50^th anniversary celebration.

Each of the 50 honorees, including dancer and choreographer Judith Jamison, Wall Street lioness Muriel Siebert, and ReServe founders Jack Rosenthal and Herb Sturz, was cited for nonprofit service demonstrating “a clear and bold vision for ensuring that New Yorkers can age with vitality, independence, choice and peace of mind.”

For more than 40 years, as a salaried employee or volunteer, Brosnan has been a soft-spoken but relentless pursuer of fair deals for communities in need of assistance. Most often, his drive has been for improved healthcare and housing.

Cyril was born and educated in Chicago, where his Ph.D. research was noted by a New York University economist who later became a secretary to Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. At the secretary’s invitation, in 1967 Cyril joined Rockefeller’s New York State Health Planning Commission.

He moved to the corporate sector in 1973 with Empire BlueCross BlueShield, where he rose to become president of its Health Services Improvement Fund. There he fostered and implemented projects designed to improve the financing, planning, organization and delivery of health care services.

Soon after, he moved into the nonprofit sector, first as a coordinator of the National Committee for Voluntary Sector Leadership on AIDS for the National Health Council, and later as  Director of Public Affairs for the Actors Fund of America. There he not only increased access to health care for entertainment professionals, he also developed housing for performers in need. Simultaneously, Cyril served pro-bono on the boards of several humanitarian organizations, including the Medicare Rights Center, the National AIDS Housing Coalition and the Medical & Health Research Association of New York, now known as Public Health Solutions. He says his tenure at the latter organization taught him particularly valuable lessons in tactics that promote, finance and implement effective health care.

AARP solicited recommendations for its 50^th anniversary awards from individuals and organizations in New York. Cyril was nominated by SAGE (an acronym for Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders). Brosnan was working at Empire BlueCross BlueShield when he met SAGE Executive Director Ken Dawson at a party and was struck by the group’s purpose to respond to this disturbing statistic: Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender seniors, according to Sage, “may be as much as five times less likely to access needed health and social services because of their fear of discrimination from the very people who should be helping them.”

Dawson wanted volunteers to help SAGE’s constituents, and Cyril became one of the organization’s most active. He began by working as a programmer, advocate and membership recruiter. Then his expertise on housing issues prompted an invitation to the board, where he remained for seven years.

Cyril remains active in providing services to seniors but has resigned from all directorships. “The bureaucratic politics involved,” he explains, “is a real test of one’s serenity.”

As a ReServist, Cyril works at the New York Academy of Medicine. He says he learned about ReServe in Spring 2007 from a lecturer at a conference for advocates. He contacted Claire Haaga Altman, a casual acquaintance and ReServe Executive Director at the time, and applied.  Soon after he had an assignment with NYAM.

“I wanted to be involved with health and human services and implementing change,” he says. But as all ReServists understand, he was no longer willing to work pro bono. He believes that organizations fail to take seriously any effort by someone who works for free, which, of course, is ReServe’s philosophy. Cyril aims to be taken seriously.

At the Academy of Medicine, where he says “it’s a joy to be involved with this work,” he manages forums, focus groups and roundtable discussions-sometimes with several hundred seniors at a time. These groups from a variety of New York communities gather to explain how their communities serve them well and how they don’t.

ReServist Cyril Brosnan with NYAM policy associate Jessica Walker

Photo by Kyle Fischer

Communities fail elders, Cyril says, when streets and parks aren’t clean, when transportation is expensive and hard to access, and when local officials ignore or belittle seniors’ needs. One wry complaint: A park created specifically for seniors lacked bathrooms. Recently such topics have been replaced with the urgent concerns of money and housing.

After an initial round of these sessions, Brosnan’s team drew up a summary report and is helping to organize a summit with New York officials. His team hopes that leaders will appoint a commission to ensure that seniors’ concerns are addressed. Young bureaucrats, Cyril argues, should never presume to know what seniors want or need, nor should they disregard those needs.

With all that Brosnan has accomplished, is there anything he has missed?  “I’m still wishing to be an instrument of change.”

ReServe is moving.

As of Friday, October 24, our address and telephone are:

ReServe
6 E. 39th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: 212-792-6205

The best way to reach us during this transition is by e-mail. For a complete e-mail directory, please visit our web site.

We will no longer be at 150 Court Street in Brooklyn.

Thank you in advance for noting the change.

After three fruitful years as Executive Director of ReServe, Claire Haaga Altman is embarking on a new venture, but will remain committed to the mission of ReServe as a member of ReServe’s Board of Directors.

October 2008

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is a bittersweet moment to bid adieu to friends and colleagues that I have worked with at ReServe over the past three years as I move on to a new position. But it’s so long, not good bye as I know our worlds will continue to intersect. As of October 1, I have left ReServe to spearhead a development project at the HealthCare Chaplaincy – a multipurpose complex for their teaching, research and library facilities along with a residence for persons with serious illnesses and a suite of medical offices.

The month of October marks an important milestone for ReServe – we will be moving to new offices in Manhattan (6 E. 39th Street, 10th floor, 212- 6205). All of the ReServe staff will miss our colleagues at the Blue Ridge Foundation in Brooklyn where ReServe has been incubated since its infancy in 2005. BlueRidge has generously provided ReServe with both financial and logistical support as well as our all important home base, all of which has prepared ReServe for this next level of maturity. Special thanks to Matt Klein, BlueRidge’s Executive Director, who has been invaluable on so many fronts to ReServe’s growth.

Susan MacEachron, ReServe’s Deputy Director since February 2007, has been appointed by the Board as the Acting Executive Director. Most of you know and have worked with Susan who will, I know, lead ReServe ably as we implement a number of innovations designed to increase our ability to place more ReServists in meaningful positions, provide a greater level of assistance to our nonprofit and public agency partners, and advance public policy around the important asset that older adults represent in helping to solve public problems. Susan can be reached at susan.maceachron@reserveinc.org, 718-923-1400×225.

Other changes that are in progress at ReServe are a reorganization into three teams in order to be more effective in generating positions for ReServists. The first – developing positions for ReServists – is being headed by Jess Geevarghese, who has been promoted to Senior Program Officer. Scott Kariya who started as a ReServist is now working with Jess as a permanent part of this team. Anna Collins and Iowaka Barber will head up the team working to place ReServists. The third team will handle ReServe’s operations. We believe these changes will make our process more efficient which should help our Partner Organizations find the people they need and ReServists find positions they want.

I want to say in parting that I am grateful first to all the ReServists who have opened their hearts, and dedicated their minds and energy to helping a myriad of nonprofits and public agencies improve and expand their delivery of services to New Yorkers. Secondly, the response of nonprofits and public agencies – particularly the City of New York and CUNY – to our “new” idea of deploying retirees to take on projects and tasks that might otherwise not be done has been incredible. We began three years ago offering a new service – now being a ReServist is a calling for many who want to help make New York City a better place to live and work. Thanks to all of you for letting me be part of this really exciting experience. I know that you will enjoy working with Susan and all of the ReServe team as we move into our fourth year of operations.

Warmly,

Claire H.Altman

He is new to the ReServe Board of Directors, taking his seat in June to provide advice, counsel and leadership to the organization whose purpose is, he says, “To give older adults an opportunity to use their skills, talents and life experiences through work or service to benefit ourselves and the community.”

He is the fourth generation of Solomon B.’s (last name Watson), and a practiced leader and lawyer in Boston and New York, even though ”my natural proclivity is one of introversion.” That tendency, he says, elicits a style to lead by influence and persuasion as much as to lead by authority. ”I try to get the same good results as any good manager or leader–and can be tough when necessary.” So he could have been found in the trenches with his troops whether leading a platoon of MPs in the Mekong Delta as a young Army lieutenant or seasoning his troop of lawyers as Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of The New York Times Company.

Solomon B. Watson IV (known as Sol) has a law degree from Harvard, but when he left Woodstown NJ (Pop. about 2600 in the early 60s) for Howard University, he studied English and journalism. After graduation, his membership in the ROTC put him in upstate New York and in Vietnam and in the company of young lawyers serving their tours. Most notable was Capt. Stephen A. Swartz, a graduate of Boston University Law School. “He was smart, savvy, cordial, and very capable,” Watson said. Recalling a conversation about his future with the military, Watson says Swartz’ advice was to get out and consider law school. It came on top of a recent diagnosis of pseudofolliculitis barbae. The skin irritation caused by close shaves of curly facial hair may be remedied by letting the beard grow—a military no-no. Watson has had a beard since this diagnosis in 1968.

Watson went to Harvard Law and after graduation to the Boston law firm of Bingham, Dana & Gould. After returning from Vietnam Swartz joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and assisted Watson in becoming an intern there after his first year in law school. The two have retained their friendship. “In large measure, Steve Swartz is responsible for my being a lawyer and the beginning of my legal career,” Watson said.

While he was in Boston, Watson was a founder of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association, a professional networking group ultimately recognized by more established lawyer organizations. Shortly after joining The Times’ legal department in 1974, he joined the advisory board of the Agent Orange Settlement Fund, helping families of children with deformities attributed to the herbicide use in Vietnam.

Watson worked his way to the top of Times’ legal department, leading a staff of a dozen or so lawyers, each immersed in one or more areas of law integral to operating the $3+ billion diversified media company. One of his prides is that long before he retired two years ago, “I had developed a very good legal staff, lead by an outstanding successor. When I left I was confident the company would be well served by the department and its new general counsel.”

Watson says he thoroughly enjoyed his career at The Times, having worked with several generations of management and having seen many changes in the business and legal environments. He was once referred to by a colleague as the “prime minister” because of his counseling of employees at various levels of the company.

In retirement he continues to lend his acumen to several organizations, including the Executive Leadership Council, a group of more than 400 black executives who are within two ranks of the CEO. Watson mentors young lawyers and executives, whom he calls his “troops,” a legacy of his Army days as a platoon leader. Among other commitments he is an advisory board member of the Howard University Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation; board member of the Hudson River Foundation, and, most recently, a board member of ReServe.

“My goal as a director,” he says, “is to help the board give the organization some strategic and other direction as it grows to be influential in the New York City area, and also as it grows as a national model for civic engagement. “ The groundwork for expansion was laid at ReServe’s Replication Conference in New York last May, which attracted nonprofits from across the country interested in the ReServe business model and, in Watson’s words “how it could help their organizations utilize older adults who are able and want an encore career.”

Watson lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, Brenda, retired Director of Human Resources at the Times. He says he’s a stay-at-home type of guy, and if there is one “issue” in their marriage, it’s that she likes to travel. The compromise is to take one big trip a year (this year to two islands of Hawaii.) Otherwise he’s content with saltwater fly-fishing off Martha’s Vineyard and the Florida Keys. While he eats fish he generally returns his catch to the sea with no regret (”catch-and-release”). He says he has simple tastes and his palate tends toward what he calls “AFITS” (all food is the same).

His pro bono work fits nicely with retirement and what he calls the “Three F’s: Family, Friends and Folks of Similar Interests.” He has twin daughters from an earlier marriage and three grandchildren: Trey, the 10-year-old son of Kira, a lawyer, and Tiara and Kayla, the twin daughters of Katitti, an elementary school teacher. He says, “I love spending time with the 28-month-old twins,” in part because they remind him of his daughters when they were toddlers.

While ReServe is increasing its placement opportunities, it also is working to broaden the skills of worker volunteers already in the field. Many of ReServe’s nonprofit partners are in need of professional writers, particularly those who can help write grant proposals to foundations and government agencies.

To help fill that need, ReServe took part in a pilot project with the Community Resource Exchange (CRE), a consulting group for nonprofits in Lower Manhattan which has devised an effective approach to teaching needed skills such as grant-writing. Overall, CRE provides a variety of capacity-building resources to about 200 nonprofit organizations.

ReServists received CRE certification upon completion of the five-day course in September, adding value to future placement with increased skill sets. Both students and teachers voiced high praise for the program. “From our first session together, I could tell that the ReServists had the skills, talent and expertise to become effective fundraisers and grant writers,” Ximena Rua-Merkin, CRE Senior Consultant and course leader, said. Student Ed Falk’s assessment: “The course provided very comprehensive information on techniques used by nonprofits to raise money.”

While a well-written grant proposal is at the heart of a nonprofit development office, the process of raising funds doesn’t end there, nor did the classes. ReServists also learned how to build relationships with funders and foundation board members.

Richard Loyd, a guest speaker at one of the sessions, said that one way to cultivate a foundation is to encourage its movers and shakers to attend events sponsored by the group seeking funds. “Invite them to participate and see what your organization really does,” he said.

“Your project may not be the right fit,” he added. “Now might not be the right time. It’s very possible that they might be saying, ‘Next year…,’ so it’s very important when someone says something like that, that you have a system in place for following up in the future. This is why you make a phone call. Talk to them.”

“You may have two things that you are very excited about and which are very fundable,” Loyd continued. “When you talk to a program officer, find out which might be a better fit.” Rua-Merkin followed up on this point by saying, “They may ask you what is the priority for your organization.”
ReServist Beverly Hemmings said the course provided a valuable blueprint and insightful nuances of the fundraising process in a stress-free environment.” The clarity of the handouts and presentation amassed a wealth of information. It will be useful well beyond the classroom.”

ReServist Barbara Griffing agreed: “It was excellent. CRE could not have prepared and conducted this course more thoroughly.”

ReServist Jan Herman

As Human Resources Director of The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Yosette Jones-Johnson knows a great deal about the value of experienced staff. The right person in the right position can help lift an organization to an all-new level of effectiveness.

That’s why, she says, “We’re profoundly grateful to have the ReServists. We certainly couldn’t afford to hire someone with this level of experience outright. And it takes a lot of care to place a ReServist with this kind of opportunity and have it work so well.”

Retired journalist Jan Herman, one of the Graduate Center’s current ReServists speaks up immediately. “I was struck by that too. The matching setup is very considered.”

Yosette refers to Loretta Williams, a ReServist in Human Resources, as a “perfect” consultant on complex issues regarding the health benefits of city employees, because of the experience Loretta brings as a retired city employee.

“Someone with her experience can tackle almost anything that we confront. There is an answer. And she’s going to help get people there.”

“ReServe is very respectful in the process of communicating with ReServists and laying the best possible foundation for their work. And they follow up! These are very valuable, very different kinds of attributes.”

David Manning, the Graduate Center’s Director of Media Relations and Marketing, explains the benefits of having a ReServist: “For me, reaching out to journalists, having a ReServist come in who is a terrifically experienced, qualified journalist is remarkable.

“If I were setting out to hire an assistant—if there were the money to do that—it would be someone with his kind of qualifications. And because we don’t have that position, and can’t fund that position, to be able to have the kind of skills that Jan has is amazing.

“Just this morning, I had Jan work on making a list of journalists to contact. The Graduate Center has recently done a major breakthrough study of second-generation immigrants, and we want to get exposure on it.

“I sent a pitch out and followed it up with an invitation to come to a performance. One of the writers who responded expressed some interest, so I wrote back, talking about the complexity of the study and how she could focus in on one element of it in an article. And she said, ‘Well, write back and send me a pitch focused in on the element.’ So I turned it over to Jan.

“Turns out he not only can do it, he knows the journalist in question at a major publication, knows what somebody on the other side wants, is familiar, now, with the study, and how to shape something that can be targeted to that person. That’s a significant and important skill to have.”

Jan seems equally impressed by David’s skill in media relations. “In this particular case, you know, David sent out such a really good press release that it became the basis for a New York Times article. And I don’t think that the New York Times article did much more than basically repeat the press release.

“So for me, it’s a good thing, coming to work here. I like the idea of working for an institution that has substance to it. I get as much as I give, from my point of view.”

David picks up again: “Someone mentioned the word ‘volunteer.’ And I’ve worked on the other side of things with volunteers…Volunteers can be more management, sometimes, than they’re worth. Not that they’re not wonderful people, committed, capable, etc.

“But the thing about Jan is that I’m dealing with somebody that comes with experience and skills. It doesn’t require that kind of management. I can give him a much more general assignment and he’ll know what I’m talking about. I mean, I’ve been trying to stump him with something . . .” and here he breaks off into laughter.

Jan expresses a similar admiration. “I feel like I’m talking to a peer, frankly, and a peer who actually knows the business far better than I do in terms of public relations and media relations. So actually, a lot of it is a learning experience for me.”

David sums it up. “And the common ground, for each of us is that this is such an interesting place. I don’t just say that as a PR agent. This is a fascinating place. The dimensions of creative, intellectual, social, collegial people and activities going on around here are just infinite.”