At Goddard, Lifelong Learning is one of our core values. Linda Aka, a case manager at our Resource Center, is showing us how to do it— while helping others and thriving in the process. In less than a year, Linda has gone from an internship to her new role, in a career that she began […]
Blog & News
Building Strength on Both Sides of the Park: Goddard Riverside, Isaacs Center Merge
Goddard Riverside and the Isaacs Center are excited to announce that we have formally merged as of June 2025. We launched our partnership nearly four years ago with a sense that our goals and strengths complemented each other—and that sense has only grown as we’ve become one team. “The Isaacs Center had a great unifying […]
“My Mind is Blown”: Options Center Conference Highlights Obstacles to Education
A woman approached a table with a sign that read Quick Loans and Pawn Shop. The agent behind the sign immediately picked up her cellphone and launched into an animated conversation. “I’m busy! I’m on the phone!” she told the customer. Scenes like this played out all around the large meeting room at the CUNY […]
TOP Members Help Lead Fight for Community Clubhouses
Update: TOP and other small clubhouses have been funded for another year in the city budget. We’re grateful to Council Members Gale Brewer and Linda Lee, and everyone who supported our bid for funding. Community mental health clubhouses are once again fighting for their lives, and TOP members are leading the way. At a lively […]
Inside the 2024 Goddard Riverside/CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice
Our Children’s Book Giveaway this year was hosted by our West Side Beacon program with the help of volunteers from the Kulu Foundation and Target. Along with a chance to grab some free books, children also got to sit down and listen to Dianna Wilson Sirkvsky, our 2024 Goddard Riverside/CBC Youth Book Prize for Social […]
Good Neighbor Awards Celebrate Unique Contributions to Community
One grows and distributes food. Another fights tirelessly for her unhoused neighbors. Another gives prom gowns to teens who otherwise might not be able to afford them. Two more are unpaid directors of small community organizations and one passionately tends the flower beds in a section of Riverside Park. As always, our Good Neighbor […]
Goddard Thought Leaders Honored
Staff members from our president to our uptown homeless outreach team have been recognized recently for their impact on the community. President Roderick L. Jones and Resource Center director Wayne Tyre were honored by City and State Magazine for the second year in a row. Jones was named to the Nonprofit Trailblazers list for the […]
Goddard Ads Engage, Inform Upper West Siders
“When our neighbors thrive, we all do.” That’s the theme of our ad campaign that rolled out across the Upper West Side this month. The colorful ads are displayed on bus shelters, CitiBike stations, store windows and lampposts from West 65th through West 110th Street. Some feature images from our programs, representing our six cause areas. […]
Transcript of Roderick L. Jones’ speech at City Hall
Good morning everyone. I think I wanna spend my couple minutes helping you to understand what it is on the not-for-profit side, not to be paid. If you think back just two years ago during the period of Covid, we had employees who were on the street risking their lives because we deemed them essential. […]
President Roderick L. Jones Speaks Out on City’s Late Payments [Video]
Our president, Rod Jones, remembers the darkest days of COVID—when our frontline staff carried official letters from the city authorizing them to be out delivering services during lockdown. “We had employees on the street risking their lives because we considered them essential,” he said at a boisterous rally in front of City Hall in late […]