Blog & News

Senior Leaders Rack Up Awards

Roderick L. Jones, Susan Matloff-Nieves, Larry Wood Honored Three Goddard Riverside and Isaacs Center senior staff members won statewide recognition in the waning days of 2024, capping a busy year of awards. Roderick L. Jones, our president, was named to the PoliticsNY and amNewYork Nonprofit Power Players list along with executives at organizations such as […]

A word cloud featuring words like giving, empathy, compassion and community

Your Year-End Giving Guide 

The end of the calendar year is the best time to champion your favorite causes!   If you’re looking to give back to your community this holiday season, here are some ways you can work with Goddard Riverside and the Isaacs Center to help your community:  Volunteer  Volunteering at Goddard Riverside is a wonderful way to […]

Several people pose for a photo in an auditorium lined with windows

Small Mental Health Clubhouses Celebrate Survival and Thank City Council  

“It’s a home away from home.”   “I love my Clubhouse.”   “You ask what my Clubhouse has done for me? I answer: What hasn’t it done for me?”   As mental health clubhouse members and staff gathered at our Bernie Wohl Center to celebrate surviving a turbulent year, one member after another stepped to the microphone to […]

Why are Housing Costs So High? Our Book Prize Winner Points to Bad Zoning Laws 

Zoning laws are exacerbating the housing crisis and segregating our neighborhoods. That’s the message author Richard Kahlenberg drove home in our recent Book Chat about Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism, and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See, the winner of last year’s Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice.  Zoning, which […]

Three people pose for a photo in front of a Goddard backdrop

Bash Celebrates Investments in Community, Honors Social Justice Books

Rod Jones, Angela Henry and Stephan Russo See photos from the Bash on our Facebook page! (You don’t need an account.) Supporters and guests flocked to our annual Bash to celebrate another year of work in the community—and to find out who won our social justice book prizes.  Soft lights glowed overhead at our new […]

A young woman displays a scholarship certificate while standing in front of a Goddard/Isaacs Center backdrop

Scholarships Help Bring College Dreams to Life

Getting into college can be a challenge —and for low-income students of color and first-generation students it’s even harder. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found only 20 percent of first-generation students completed college, compared to 82 percent of those who had two parents with bachelors degrees. This summer, as they have for […]

Two students watch as a third student speaks on a video screen

Are Schools Ready for Students?

Youth-Led Research Finds Room for Improvement  We often hear alarming talk about students not being ready for college. But are colleges and schools ready for students—that is, all the different kinds of students who seek them out?  That’s the subject of a new youth-led study released by #DegreesNYC, and their findings are sobering.  “We’re living […]

Story Workshop Captures Older Adult Memories 

“I’ll never forget Mrs. Heller. Because I lived far from school. And I had to walk a long distance. And a lot of it was uphill. And I was a little girl.”  That’s how one story started at “Tell Us Your Stories,” an event at our  Columbus Avenue Older Adults Center in June.  With the […]

Six people pose for a photo in front of a Goddard Riverside Good Neighbor Awards backdrop

Good Neighbor Awards Honor Volunteers who Make our Communities Stronger

Fighting homelessness, advocating for students with special needs, feeding the community, and empowering women around the world: these are just some of the contributions of the five longtime local volunteers honored with Goddard’s Good Neighbor Awards this year. In addition, State Assembly Member Danny O’Donnell, who is retiring from the legislature, received a Community Champion […]

2024 Nonprofit Trailblazers logo over a head shot of Roderick L Jones

Goddard President Roderick L. Jones Honored as “Trailblazer”

Here at Goddard Riverside, we’ve always seen our president, Roderick L. Jones, as a trailblazer. But it was gratifying to see him recognized by City and State Magazine, which recently named Jones as one of its Nonprofit Trailblazers for 2024.  Jones grew up in the Cypress Hill projects in East New York. He went to […]