New Ground is proud to be featured in Long Island Business News as an organization committed to the empowerment and advancement of women in the workplace.
The following article was originally published by Long Island Business News, Edition 9/29/2023
The mission of Levittown-based nonprofit New Ground is to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty not only for parents and veterans, but for the children and youth thus impacting future generations. Most of the homeless families New Ground serves are headed by single mothers who have been marginalized by society. The organization works to elevate its female clients – moms, veterans, teens and girls – through various education programs and intensive social work services, providing long-term and lasting solutions to raise them out of poverty.
Since 1991, New Ground has served more than 700 individuals, 62 percent of them female. The nonprofit plans to expand programming by 2025 to serve more women impacted by domestic violence.
New Ground employees have been overwhelmingly female, with more than 95 percent women occupying all positions. The agency is strongly committed to empowering female staff. Since its inception more than 32 years ago, New Ground has been led by women – first by its founder from 1991 to 2006, and since then by Shannon Boyle, its current executive director. The other leadership positions have almost always been held by women. New Ground also promotes the advancement of all female staff members. Five years ago, the nonprofit made a commitment to increase the number of women on its board of directors as well as the other two boards that provide leadership for the organization. Efforts toward this have been extremely successful and continue to be a focus for the future.
New Ground is also dedicated to mentoring women professionally. For more than 15 years, the organization has engaged social work interns annually; 97 percent of these student interns have been women, and, with agency assistance, completed their necessary experience to obtain their college degrees.
New Ground has provided mentorship and professional development opportunities to all women employees since 1991. Over this time, various female staff members have received financial assistance to cover the cost of key educational programs including college coursework and advanced trainings in specific fields. All program staff receive intensive mentorship and clinical supervision in order to constantly develop their skills in social work and human services. The executive director provides mentorship regularly along with the three female directors at the next level of leadership. The social work director provides weekly clinical supervision to all social workers and the three undergraduate social work interns with the agency during each school year.
This supervision is required for all social workers and interns to obtain their next level of licensure and/or academic degree. Believing strongly in developing women, New Ground invests funds to provide ongoing educational opportunities and professional development for all employees including covering costs of continuing education credits, membership in professional organizations and obtaining higher levels of professional licensing.
View the article on Long Island Business News Online here: https://libn-ny.newsmemory.com?selDate=20230929&goTo=S19&artid=0
Copyright (c) 2023 Long Island Business News, Edition 9/29/2023