Elora is a writer, reader, and lifetime lover of words and stories. She has written and ghostwritten for numerous publications and organizations, largely focused on children, families, education, policy, and advocacy.
Hudson Valley Parent Clips
Moms share how they cook with and for their kids
Are class parties terrifying for your child because of extreme food allergies? Meet a girl who doesn't let her food and environmental allergies hold her back.
Don't let anxiety hold you back. Ways for moms to deal with anxiety.
Up and down,all around! Brush, brush, brush! In honor of National Children's Dental Health Month, we've asked some local dentists for simple tips to help your kids develop great oral hygiene habits.
Worrying about whether your child might have a developmental disability can be tough. Are you overreacting? Is your pediatrician concerned? Should you just wait until your child is older before you make the call? Local experts walk you through the process and answer frequently asked questions.
Is your family safe from Lyme disease? Mothers share the scary reality of having a child with Lyme disease.
Local pediatrician discusses the pros and cons of cannabis in pediatric medicine.
Grow a garden with your kids. 6 reasons growing a garden is the best way to bond with your children this summer
Night terrors usually include intense crying, screaming, yelling or fearfulness. This can be traumatizing for the child experiencing the night terror, the parents and other siblings in the house.
We've chosen 15 of our favorite local day trips for fun with the whole family this summer and beyond.
There are more constructive solutions than time-out that will not only calm your child down, but can strengthen your relationship and reduce the likelihood of repeat behavior.
IEPs can be confusing. Author Elora Tucci offers tips on how to keep up with your child's IEP and how to make improvements to it.
Is it better to have an extroverted child? Doctors debunk the differences between introverts and extroverts.
Is your child wearing the right backpack? Advice from chiropractors on how to choose the right backpack.
Whether you have a preschooler questioning the logic of a stork delivering his baby sister or a teenager who wants to go on birth control, there are plenty of ways to make talking about sex with your kids a healthy, productive discussion. And Planned Parenthood Mid-Hudson Valley is here to help.
There are specific things teenagers can do to improve their chances on being hired for seasonal employment at businesses and organizations around the Hudson Valley.
Working parents sometimes struggle to create a balance between work and family. Here are 10 tips from the book
Although the thermostat may be dipping now, summer will be here before we know it. If you have a child with a food allergy or other dietary needs, that might mean looking for a summer camp program that can accommodate him at lunch and snack times.
Citizens' Committee for Children of New York Clips
Mary Tobin can barely contain her excitement about the progress Brownsville is making. Tobin is the director of The Brownsville Partnership, an initiative of Community Solutions to address employment, safety, and neighborhood conditions. She knows the challenges the community faces, and the stats on high poverty, low graduation rates, and other issues that, she says, keep her up at night.
Power of Two program graduate and Bronx office manager Shamina Bermudez plays with her son. One Sunday after church, Brownsville mom Shamina Bermudez took her four children out for pizza. The pizza was too hot for her youngest, a toddler, to eat right away, and he grew increasingly agitated as he waited for it to cool down.
When we interviewed residents of northern Manhattan for our report, Celebrating Strengths, Addressing Needs: Community Driven Solutions To Improve Well-Being In Northern Manhattan, one of the biggest concerns we heard was around a lack of access to information and resources. The families we spoke with were all laser-focused on making sure their children have everything they need to thrive.
Governor Cuomo has unveiled a plan to invest $1.4 billion in central Brooklyn that could be a game-changer for children and families in the area. The plan, dubbed Vital Brooklyn, advances a holistic approach to fighting poverty that our research has shown is desperately needed.
Black and Latino children make up 58% of the child population in New York City. Yet in the ten communities with the highest level of risk present, Black and Latino children comprise an astounding 94% of the child population. That statistic is no accident.
For Elaine and Mark Kessel and their children, involvement with CCC is a family affair. Though they are bi-coastal and quite busy, each member of the family has a way to connect with CCC. Elaine, the family matriarch and a psychotherapist, is a board member and heavily involved in the day-to-day at CCC, serving on the Nominating, Development, and Program Committees.
Homelessness in New York City has captured a lot of attention in recent months, and rightly so - more than 62,000 New Yorkers are currently living in Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelters. But what often gets overlooked in the conversation about homeless people is that, as of January 9 th, 23,484 of them are children.
The 2017 American Community Survey data showed signs of progress for NYC families: the family poverty rate is down across the city, dropping more than a percentage point from 2016. But in Staten Island and on the North Shore in particular, the family poverty rate moved in the opposite direction.
It's been eight years since Laura Jankstrom joined the CCC staff. She first joined as a YouthAction coordinator, where she managed programming designed to help New York City high school students develop skills in leadership, advocacy, and/or civic engagement. She has since worked her way up to lead all of CCC's civic engagement programming with adults and youth.
More than two decades ago, this year's Eleanor Roosevelt Award recipient Judy Garson was looking for ways to turn her training as a lawyer and passion for public service into a meaningful volunteer opportunity. Over lunch, she told a friend what she ideally wanted. Her friend immediately told her to call CCC.
Lauren Duca, the recipient of our 2017 Vanguard Award, has no shortage of topics to cover in her weekly Teen Vogue column, Thigh-High Politics. She often has the opposite problem: With so much confusing and complicated news coming out of Washington, it can be hard to know where to focus.
Bijan Kimiagar recently stepped up as the first-ever Associate Executive Director for Research, leading CCC's research and data analysis staff in producing data driven reports, maintaining Keeping Track Online, and conducting community-based assessment projects to better understand both welcomed and worrisome neighborhood level trends.
Dawn Eig has moved 18 times in her life, across four countries and five states, before finding a permanent home in New York City, her place of residence for the past twenty years. Now living in Chelsea with her husband Andy, 12-year-old son Oliver, 8-year-old daughter Lucy, and dog Frodo, she decided she wanted to make her adopted hometown a better place for children and families.
Brownsville Community Justice Center participants visiting Rutgers University as part of the college bound programming. Back in the '90s, Brownsville native Kyle Hollins would play basketball with friends in Fresh Pond, Queens. After the games, he and his friends would sometimes linger, hanging out and catching up.
Heidi Stamas, who will receive the Eleanor Roosevelt Award at CCC's upcoming Breakfast, is driven by a fundamental truth: "Children are innocent people who by accident of birth are lucky or not."
Progress doesn't always happen as quickly as we'd like it to. This is a lesson that working in advocacy has taught me well. Yet, advocacy work has also taught me to believe in other truths I've found to be key: dedication, patience and persistence always pay off.
There was never a dull moment during Wednesday night dinners at the Solomon household in 1994. That's when Nancy Solomon, the recipient of our Eleanor Roosevelt Award at this year's upcoming Celebration Breakfast, was enrolled in CCC's Community Leadership Course.
Sheila Cruz works as a Foster Parent Advocate at The Children's Village, an organization that helps struggling children and families access resources and opportunities that can help them thrive and a strong partner of CCC's. In her role, Sheila guides, supports and gives advice to the foster parents who serve as crucial resources for the youth whom The Children's Village serves.
"I want to publish ambitious pieces that change the way people think and talk about the world." Julia Turner is the first woman to be Editor-in-Chief of Slate Magazine, having previously served as deputy editor and culture editor. Slate, one of the first online publications, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and digital innovation remains at the core of its mission.
"The situation that they're in is so overwhelming. To be looking at the possibility of never getting to live your life, at an age when you don't know what it means to live your life in the first place." Ben Lear will receive the Samuel P.
The Robertson Center Clips
Elora Tocci - May 24, 2019 It's the first day of Jess Johnson's U.S. History class. Her sixth graders are looking at her expectantly, waiting to start learning about King George III or the lost colony of Roanoke. Instead, class starts with much more recent history - an assignment for scholars to tell the story of their birth.
When Dr. Jacob Ham was a junior in college, he worked at a summer camp for severely emotionally disturbed children. One of his charges was a five-year-old born with adorably chubby cheeks and an addiction to crack. One day, that child was sick and laying down to take a nap.
"I don't know if I can do this." "I'm exhausted." "I'm not cut out for this job." Julia King Pool, 2013 DC Teacher of the Year, knows what it's like to teach with these thoughts running constantly through your mind. She also knows where they too often lead.
Whatever you do, don't throw out all your garbage. That's the advice from Shavon Frazier, a kindergarten teacher at PS 41 and panelist at the Robertson Center's inaugural Thought Starter event, The Power of Play: Using Playtime to Help Kids Thrive. The mini-summit brought together parents, educators, and early childcare providers from across the city ...
It's no secret that the holidays are a tough time of year for teachers. The excitement of a new school year has worn off, and the demands of the job have only intensified - all while the frenzy of gift buying and cookie baking swirls in the air like snow.
It's day one of Ms. Kammerer's annual collage self-portrait project and a room full of first graders looked stumped. The assignment: Represent yourself using construction paper and scissors. The catch: No pencils allowed. "The kids are used to engaging with materials in a very specific way," she explains. "Draw a shape.
There's no doubt about it: teaching is tiring. Between early mornings, late nights, and the nonstop pace of the school day, feeling rested can start to sound like a downright dream. But it doesn't have to be that way. Dr. Chris Winter, author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to ...
On a chilly Friday morning in February, Aaron Marcus gave his second graders a TGIF version of morning work. "Write a poem about your weekend coming up," he instructed. "Use rhyming words, make it fun, make it flow." Chase and Atiyyah, two of Mr. Marcus' second graders, looked unconvinced.
Navigating 2019 as a child is tough. For kids with marginalized identities, it's even tougher. Last week, educators, parents, and community members gathered at the Robertson Center for a special conversation on supporting kids with diverse identities as they figure out who they are and who they want to be.
A woman near the front of the room had a question. Taking the microphone, she gave a brief explanation of her interest in the topic at hand - the power of poetry in schools and beyond. "My organization is responsible for putting poems in the subways," she explained.
It's the beginning of spring break and the day before first-year teacher Travis Brady's birthday. He's thrilled about the time off and upcoming celebration - but he is also eager to talk about his students. "I can't get over how talented they are in so many different areas," he said.
The world of snaps and double taps can feel downright paralyzing for parents trying to help their kids navigate it. What does all this terminology mean? What are the rules here? How can my kids have fun and stay safe at the same time? To help navigate this new terrain, we invited Laurie Wolk, a ...
This post originally ran on New York School Talk. As a former librarian, acclaimed YA author, co-founder of CAKE Literary, and COO of We Need Diverse Books, Dhonielle Clayton has some stories to tell. On Tuesday, November 19, she came to the Robertson Center - a new learning and resource hub for public school educators ...
We all know, in theory, what we need to do to have more money: Spend less, and save more. But if that advice has you staring at your bank account in confusion, you're not alone. "It's like telling someone to eat better and exercise more," said Ryan Frailich, a certified financial planner at Deliberate Finances.
A new school year brings so much - new friendships, new achievements, new soccer schedules and art projects. But while hallways and classrooms burble with the joyful chatter of all that great stuff when school re-starts, one reality returns to the tune of a communal groan from parents and students alike: homework.
Last week, educators came together at the Robertson Center to conquer one of the universal challenges of the workplace: what to eat between the first bell and the last. Though we have a general idea of what we should eat to feel our best during the school day, making it happen in the midst of grading, ...
As a teacher, you are busy. Your mind and body are running a mile a minute, and it can be hard to find the time to slow down and re-center. That feeling can really take a toll, especially during the late fall and early winter, when both the start of school and holiday breaks feel ...
Christine Poser is the school librarian at I.S. 24 on Staten Island, but she jokes that she's just as suited for a career as a used car salesman. "I always tell the kids, 'I work for you,'" she said. "If you're not walking out of the library with a book you love, I didn't do ...
Teach For America Clips
I made it to the Olympics because I hated gym class. Back in seventh grade, I saw signs near the gym in my middle school advertising a sweet deal: Sign up for fencing, get out of PE. "Cool," I thought. "Sign me up!" It's not exactly a storybook beginning to an Olympic career.
This February, students across the country celebrated Black History Month. They read books by black authors, wrote research papers on civil rights activists, memorized Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, and watched videos about the Underground Railroad. And as they learned about...
To close out Black History Month, a Teach For America alum reflects on supporting students of color so they can build strong futures.