Blog & News

Rent reform is the hottest topic in Albany this year, and tenants activists working with the Goddard Riverside Law Project are helping to shape the conversation. On a recent Tuesday several tenant volunteers met up before dawn at the McDonald’s on Broadway and 95th. At 7 AM they piled into a charter bus for the […]

Plants hang in the window in the tidy Amsterdam Avenue apartment where Rosa Olan has lived for 16 years. She sits at a small dining table just inside the front door, next to the wall she painted herself with jaunty brown and white stripes. Olan worked hard for decades after moving here from Puerto Rico: […]

For Lujira Cooper—author, retiree, and graduate student—Capitol Hall is both a refuge and a launchpad. Cooper moved to our 87th Street supportive housing residence in 2015, after spending nearly a year homeless. Now, instead of spending her days trying to keep a roof over her head, she can pursue her dreams. “I’m hardly ever here,” […]

The sky is still black at 5:45 AM when homeless outreach specialists Eugene Lewis and Maribeth Gayle climb into a small SUV parked around the corner from their Chinatown office. With the temperature hovering below freezing, they’re bundled up in hats, boots and heavy jackets. The city has declared a Code Blue, meaning people staying […]

It’s been a big year for the Options Center, which has been recognized as a national leader in breaking down barriers to collegeÑand the year ahead is set to be even bigger. This fall, Options was honored as the 2018 College Access Organization of Excellence by the National College Access Network. In its announcement, NCAN […]

Goddard Riverside’s two major fall events, the Annual Gala and the Book Fair, once again brought supporters, participants and staff together to celebrate the year behind and power the year ahead. “Our work is far greater than merely dispensing charity,” said Executive Director Roderick L. Jones at the Annual Gala, attended by more than 300 […]

Phil Ollila has a knack for listening. When he visited Goddard Riverside, our 2018 gala honoree gave each person he spoke with his full attention, from our executive director to the kitchen staff. Ollila spent so long chatting with Senior Center members over lunch that we had to rush him off to the next visit. […]

Our beloved Book Fair moves to new location this year at the Bernie Wohl Center, 647 Columbus Ave (at 91st). The Bernie Wohl Center is the home of our Community Arts program, so it’s a natural place to hold the Fair — as well as a great place to highlight the amazing plays, music and discussions staged […]

America’s prisons are overflowing, and the mass incarceration machine benefits neither prisoners nor society as a whole, argued Susan Burton in a recent appearance at the Bernie Wohl Center. The nearly half-million Americans imprisoned on drug charges “aren’t broken,” the author and activist said; instead they’re using the few tools at their disposal to cope […]