Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Laurie Sherman Graff. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Laurie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.
The primary goal of Heart Gallery NYC is the placement of children in NYC foster care into loving, adoptive families. In order to continue to address this issue, and in response to the needs of older youngsters across the state, we have expanded our reach to include all New York state children in the state’s foster care system in need of “forever families”. Many of the youngsters we deal with who age out of the system without finding an adoptive family enter adulthood facing a future defined by incarceration in the penal system, homelessness, drug/alcohol abuse, lack of educational opportunities and poverty.
Initially founded in New Mexico in 2001, Heart Gallery is now a nationally recognized organization that acts as an advocate on behalf of children in foster care. Now operating throughout New York State, Heart Gallery NYC collaborates with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to raise awareness of the needs of children in foster care, and to provide safe, stable and loving families for them. In December 2017, Heart Gallery NYC and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) collaborated to launch the first Heart Gallery New York website, dedicated to featuring quality photographic images of freed New York children in need of loving, adoptive families. The displayed images highlight the children’s personalities, thus enabling prospective adoptive parents to view the youth in their “best light”. Since the initial launch, there have been thousands of visitors logging onto the new Heart Gallery New York website. Children featured on Heart Gallery New York are in the process of being adopted or exploring pre-adoptive placements.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
It’s hard for me to believe that Heart Gallery NYC was founded over 17 years old!
The journey started back in January 2005 when I was traveling from LA to NYC, and happened to pick up a copy of Parade Magazine to read in-flight.
Parade was an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 700 newspapers in the United States. It was the most widely read magazine in the U.S. during that time.
As I browsed through the magazine, an article caught my eye. It was entitled, “Their Faces Spoke to the Heart” by Rosemary Zibart. It was a heartfelt story about youth in foster care within the New Mexico Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD) in desperate need of permanent adoptive families.
An innovative Santa Fe photographer named Cathy Maier Callanan proposed to CYFD that professional photographers donate their talents to take portraits of older youth in foster care at risk of aging out of the system without adoptive families. Through the photographers’ art, the unique spirit of each individual child shone through, capturing the hearts of prospective parents.
Children were adopted; the media was enchanted, and the Heart Gallery project was born.
As an adoptive parent and an advocate for children in need, I was captivated by this story, and upon my return to New York City, I immediately began planting the seeds to create Heart Gallery NYC!
Beginning in 2006, with support from the NYC Administration for Children’s Services, and in collaboration with dozens of incredibly talented and notable photographers, we photographed hundreds of youth in foster care in need of adoptive families. We had invaluable support from thousands of volunteers, and numerous iconic and well- trafficked NYC venues, such as Times Square, Penn Station, Atlantic Terminal ,City Hall and so many other locations. These venues generously offered us the opportunity to display our exhibits of beautiful, larger than life-sized photographic images of the children. These installations, with amazing photographs of the children by well known and talented photographers, raised awareness to millions of passersby, and our staffed recruitment tables provided information on how to adopt youth in foster care to thousands of prospective adoptive families.
Heart Gallery NYC produced numerous special projects over the years, including a mentor program, match events where children and prospective families could meet and explore compatibility, job/life skills programs and the first PRIDE Exhibits in the nation, empowering LGBTQ youth in foster care. Please visit https://www.heartgallerynyc.org/special-projects-1 to learn more about our Special Projects.
I’m very pleased to share that many children found their “forever families” through our efforts and collaborations with the foster provider agencies.
In 2011, Heart Gallery NYC produced the first National Heart Gallery Exhibit with support from Casey Family Programs and the Freddie Mac Foundation. Fifty Heart Galleries across the nation participated in the 10th anniversary celebration of the Heart Gallery project. On November 1, 2011, in honor of National Adoption Month, a beautiful photo exhibit comprised of fifty larger than life sized poster images of waiting youth, launched on Capitol Hill in Washington DC . The event was well attended by members of the legislature. The National Heart Gallery Exhibit then traveled across the nation for a year, with multiple displays in California, Indiana, Iowa, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC and New York City, raising awareness and recruiting millions of prospective adoptive families.
Heart Gallery NYC and Heart Gallery New York are now established entities. Our statewide initiative, in collaboration with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, recruits families for children seeking adoptive forever families throughout the state of New York, via our online photo gallery.
In short, we have accomplished much for a small, yet high profile nonprofit organization, but this is no time to rest on our laurels!
We must continue to advocate for these youth to ensure that these vulnerable youth do not fall through the cracks of the foster care system.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I have always felt that helping others in need was a calling and life purpose for me. My creative journey is driven by knowing that whatever we’ve accomplished thus far, t’s still not enough…and I feel the need to continue to do more to make a difference in the lives of the children that we serve.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Prior to founding heart Gallery NYC, I was involved in the performing arts, first as an actor/performer…and later, I created workshops and performing arts studios with coaches to teach others the art of acting, dance and voice. I always considered these programs to be self development classes that could assist with self confidence and self expression.
In other words, you did not need to become an actor to study acting…the tools that one could learn in an acting class could be used in “real life” scenarios.
Later when I discovered the non profit world, elements of what I learned from my performing arts background helped me to create Heart Gallery NYC, to feel comfortable with public speaking during events, speaking to the media about the cause or soliciting much needed donations from corporations or individuals.
My “creative” journey has been self guided without actual business plans. Many times, I was asked for a “business plan”, and initially, I was a little embarrassed to say that I did not have one.
I always let my intuition and of course, hard work, guide me toward any successes that we have been able to achieve.
This is not to say that I don’t appreciate or understand the significant value of a business plan when creating a company, organization or any work project.
What I have learned however is that we should trust our intuitive thoughts, and not let anyone intimidate you if you know that your project is something that you are meant to do.
Believing in your goal, developing your creative ideas and doing the disciplined work is what will bring success, with or without the business plan mold.
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