LIFT

Melvin Foster first came to LIFT after quitting his job as a security guard because he was only given two days of work per week.  He was reluctant to remain underemployed and sought LIFT’s help with finding a job in the healthcare field, where he had most of his experience.

Special Terry had been a veteran social worker with the city of New York for close to a decade, but budget cuts eliminated her job, leaving her unemployed and uninsured, with three children to care for and little financial breathing room.  As someone who had held a steady job with stable income and benefits for years, and was preparing to receive her Master's degree, Special found the experience of using social services humiliating.  LIFT-The Bronx volunteers were able to assuage her concerns and embarrassment by helping her locate immediate income assistance and strategizing for a long-term plan to get back into the workforce.  LIFT-The Bronx helped her enroll in food stamps from the privacy of the LIFT office, and she is currently working with volunteers to locate new employment.

Jeffrey Richberg grew up in East Harlem. After finishing high school, he was in and out of trouble, bouncing between jobs, and struggling to support himself. After seeing a television ad for the LIFT-The Bronx Local Office, he contacted the volunteers for help with a Section 8 housing application. "The housing authority was prolonging my case as long as they could. The volunteers looked right into it for me and made phone calls," Jeff says.

After her children's father abandoned the family, Quaneesha Cutts was left to take care of five young children on her own.  Not only did Quaneesha need help supplementing her family income, but she was also worried about her children, who were demonstrating behavioral issues due to their father’s absence. The children's school offered little support, and without knowledge of any resources in the Bronx, Quaneesha began to feel overwhelmed.

After we wrote a cover letter and faxed it in with her résumé, my client told me that every night for weeks she had been saying, “Hey God. It’s me again,” and that all those prayers finally paid off because she found LIFT.”

Maryann Rosa grew up in the Bronx, and upon entering Fordham University, she knew that she wanted an opportunity where she could give back to her neighborhood. “I wanted a volunteer experience where I could learn the roots causes of the issues that faced my community, and also something active that would provide me the training and resources to work with adults.” Now in her third year with LIFT, Maryann feels she has not only gotten to know her community better, but she has been able to give back at the same time.

As a Spanish Language and Literature major at Fordham University, Kristina Lepore had taken numerous Spanish courses, but the one that brought her to the LIFT-The Bronx office is the one she will remember most.

In her junior year, Kristina enrolled in “Spanish and New York City,” a course founded by Fordham professors Dr. Viviane Mahieux and Dr. Carey Kasten, which requires students to apply their Spanish language skills within the context of Latino culture in New York City through a service-learning component.