CHARLEE's mission is to provide exceptional services to abused, abandoned, and neglected children. One of the ways they achieve that goal is by educating prospective parents through the Parenting Resources for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE) program which is designed to strengthen the quality of family foster care and adoption services. Through the program, CHARLEE has been able to finalize close to 100 adoptions each year.

Most youth learn the skills needed to live independently through their parents, guardians and/or extended family. Unfortunately, many youth in foster care do not have the opportunity to learn these skills at home either because they are moving from placement to placement or they are living in a large institutional facility where these skills are not stressed. Ultimately, the experience of life in foster care combined with the added stress of being unprepared for independent living has a multitude of negative implications for these youth. The CHARLEE life skills training curriculum consists of bi-weekly workshops for youth between the ages of 13 and 17. These workshops focus on the tools necessary for our children to achieve self-sufficiency and independence.

Research shows that a child is better poised to succeed in life when he or she is able to thrive within the original family, as opposed to entering into foster care. Keeping that in mind, the goal at CHARLEE is to provide families with all the necessary tools to provide a healthy and happy environment for the child. At CHARLEE, they always seek to achieve permanency for the children in their care by reuniting them with their biological parents. In the case of Tondaleeia, that included helping her overcome her 17 year drug addiction.

The Perez Family (Brothers & Sisters)

My brother (#1) and sister (#6) at my father's tombstone, St. Raymond Cemetery

Here's where it all went down. Our apartment building took up the whole corner. We'd usually be hanging out right out front, sitting on whatever car(s) was parked by the light post. On the wall to the right of the red car is where we'd play "slugs" (sometimes as many as 8-10 people), football, and wiffle ball (pitching from the street to the wall).

On the wall behind us, you couldn't touch my boy Tito and I when it came to "slugs". We were each other's only competition. People would come from other blocks to play us and be sent back home, humbled, within minutes (I once saw Tito whip someone, who claimed he was the slugs champion of his block, using just his left hand!). I'd never ever admit it to him but he may have been just a bit better than I was. Maybe.

View of the Grand Concourse, once considered "the Park Avenue of middle-class Bronx residents". It is only a shell of what it once was but you only need to walk a few blocks with a keen eye to notice the many artifacts from it's glorious past.

The once glorious entrance.

The inner hallway, with terrazzo floors and brass handle rails (that were eventually stolen), still retains a sliver of its original charm.

What certainly must have been an amenity back when the building was first built - an elevator.

When it was too cold (or hot) outside, the many inner staircases proved a more than suitable place for hanging out (not to mention a host of other things that would make a mother frown).

The apartment provided a grand view of the front of the building and the Grand Concourse...

as well as a grand view of the back of the building (looking out towards Valentine Avenue). The back courtyard, once an ideal location for a "block party", became a dark and dangerous place in the evening. The back entrance was closed in the early 80's after a rash of muggings and drug dealing activity.

My mom and my sister (#3) in the kitchen

Side view from what was once the bedroom shared by my two sisters (I can still hear the cat-fighting when I walk in there!)

Another view of the front of the building from the living room window. The Art Deco style moldings that adorned the top of the building above the windows (common in many of the buildings that line the Grand Concourse) had to be removed after a chunk of it fell to the ground, just missing a passerby.

From the hallway just outside the apartment is a window with a stellar view of the basement entrance on 196th Street (if you can stand the stench of garbage and the occasional rat sighting).

Conveniently located at the corner of the building is the Kingsbridge Road D Train station. Must have descended that malodorous staircase several thousand times on my way to Manhattan (where I worked at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue for almost 10 years!).