CP Feature: Baby's First Home

Amanda Raposo is the start-up director of Baby's First Home, a shelter for mothers in New York City aged 17 and 21. She is currently a student at New York University. (on the left is her partner Jessica Mason)




Baby's First Home aims to serve as a housing and support center for mothers in New York City aged 17 to 21. What sparked this idea?
I was a freshman at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work when I started working with teen mothers through a pilot program called 1st STEP (Services to Empower Parents). I helped to provide these women with access to resources in the city. I was quickly frustrated by the multi-dimensional problems my clients faced, their inability to take advantage of the resources I provided, and the near impossibility of finding housing for those who needed it.

Jessica Mason was a sophomore at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work working at an inner-city public school. She was outraged to see so many young girls drop out of high school because of pregnancy. Teaming up with Jessica, we agreed to open a shelter for homeless teen mothers together. Baby’s First Home will be the only long-term supportive housing for teen mothers who have aged out of foster care in New York City and its surrounding boroughs.

What resources will BFH provide to the housed families? Will BFH also serve as a community resource for those families not housed in the BFH location?
By offering counseling services, peer mentoring, access to educational and vocational training, health education, life skills programs, empowerment and leadership programs, spiritual services, as well as social and cultural opportunities, we plan to help mothers build independent lives and stable futures for themselves and their children. Our goal is to create a strong foundation in which these young women can build off of upon completion of the two-year residential program. Baby’s First Home is already partnered with a program called 1st STEP (Services to Empower Parents) that helps teen mothers at Bellevue hospital find vital resources in the city and surrounding areas.

Although Baby’s First Home will be providing shelter and services to five families on-site, our goal is to reach hundreds of families through our website. We plan to increase website membership each year by at least 15% for the next 5 years by creating an online forum where we can help other young mothers access the resources they need, as well as a network of young women interested in empowerment and leadership.

You've chosen to open your first location in Queens. Why?
To be honest, it was the opportunity offered to us by my father who was willing to donate a building in Queens that initiated our mission in creating Baby’s First Home. We did not choose the location, the location chose us. However, the borough of Queens also happens an area with great need for our services.

When you open BFH's first location, how will go about finding staff members as well as getting in contact with the families that can utilize your services?
Via our website and postings alone, we have already had so many people reach out to us either wanting to help or needing our help. For the homeless mothers looking for our support, we offer them services that they can use now and plan to keep in touch with them until we are ready to open. We are also affiliated with many other shelters in New York and Long Island that focus on our exact demographic.

In terms of staffing, we will have an application process, background check, and interviews. Our close connections with the NYU Silver School of Social Work along with our ability to network online will provide us with a sufficient pool of possible applicants to develop our staff.

You've received funding from both Youth Venture and NYU that totals to $11,000. How did you portray BFH as a strong applicant for these funders?
We told our story and spoke from the heart. It’s as simple as that.

We are a team of young women who have witnessed the results of teen pregnancy and homelessness in our daily lives and we backed our stories with statistics of the need and a visual of the building. We had a very preliminary budget and the presentation in itself was quite basic. I truly believe that the passion for our vision was our ultimate strength.

As grand prize winners of the NYU Reynolds/YV "Be A Changemaker" competition you were also given a private lunch with Craiglist founder, Craig Newmark. What was that like?
The lunch with Mr. Newmark was enlightening and reassuring. Mr. Newmark is a down-to-earth, extremely intelligent and quirky man with an incredible story about entrepreneurship. His ability to make his dream possible was quite inspiring to us. He was also kind enough to answer any questions and listen to our experiences. His advice and guidance, which ranged from web design to creating a team to networking, measuring impact and expanding, were very helpful to us.

How do you spread the word about BFH?
We did and continue to do everything in our power to reach out to as many people as possible. From developing a 30-second elevator pitch that we can use in any social situation to creating a support letter and press packet that we can send out to various people within various fields, we are determined to get our story out. We expanded the team by posting our mission and application on various websites including idealist.org, volunteermatch, NYU CareerNet, craigslist, etc. We made business cards and brochures as well. We have found that the most effective means of publicity is word of mouth. We ask for advice and guidance from those with experience and we do our best to speak everyone we can because you never know who might be interested in or who might know someone who might be interested in supporting our cause.


As student entrepreneurs, what's a typical work day like?
Incorporating BFH work among our student responsibilities is tricky. We developed a system where we break down our long term and short term goals, then them onto our on our BFH timeline so that we can break down our needs and goals each week. On a given Friday, I will spend about an hour making phone calls and at least two sending emails and finalizing appointments. Other responsibilities range from coordinating the team, filling out grants, working on financial and law processes, and figuring out or implementing the needs in taking the next step.

Where do you see BFH in the next three years? Do you plan to continue after graduation?
Baby’s First Home will always be a part of my life to some capacity. The first three years will involve a lot of adapting and continued program development. This time will be spent stabilizing all aspects of the program and funding. I have personal plans to spend time abroad and go to graduate school and will only pursue these goals once BFH has measured and proved its success.

You've chosen non-profit instead of for profit. Why?

In deciding to work with the poorest on the social ladder, there really is no profit that can be made with our target population. We are, however, working on developing revenue-streams and a comprehensive sustainability plan. We have already launched our Kids for a Cause program. Here, NYU and Columbia students have teamed together to offer a childcare program that donates 100% of proceeds to charity. “Kids for a Cause” monthly field trips give parents the day off while their children are taken to wonderful NYC venues. Parents are invited to name their own price in the form of a donation – of which 100% goes directly to Baby’s First Home.

We also plan to profit by advertising on our website, selling Baby’s First Home baby supplies, and expanding the home to create units with subsidized rent for young women and children. This income will help ensure the survival and sustainability of Baby’s First Home.

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