“Mayor Bloomberg Presents Apartment Keys to New Residents Including Formally Incarcerated Individuals and Low Income Families

NEW YORK – Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today joined The Fortune Society, Jonathan Rose Companies, and federal, state and local officials in celebrating the opening of Fortune’s “Castle Gardens,” a mixed-use affordable, supportive and green apartment complex in West Harlem. Located at 625 West 140^th Street , the new 110,000 square-foot building will provide 114 apartments for homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals and low income families from the local community. The Fortune Society is one of the most respected and effective alternative to incarceration and reentry agencies in the country.” Read the full story after the jump!

This new regular feature, written by Alvaro Cumberbatch, will be comprised of musings of a formerly incarcerated man who is currently in the process of building his own better future.  Having served six and a half years on the inside, Alvaro has a unique inside/out perspective to share with our readers.  Comments and questions are encouraged!!  To learn more about Alvaro, please scroll to the bottom for a full profile.

(Tuesday, August 17th, 2010)

…Then, she went to The Fortune Society.

“Everybody here is beautiful,” she gushed. “They believed in me.”

In the last two months, they helped her get the apartment, offered the GED course and got her substance-abuse counseling…

Read the full article by clicking here!

July 29, 2010

The eight of us with our white or black or golden skinned hands made an image of cooking camaraderie as we pulled apart 4 cooked chickens from Costco–total cost $19.80.  It was a first for all of them,  and a lesson I hope will stay with them. Now they know first hand how much meat you can get off of one of those chickens, how quick and easy it is, and by adding some halved grapes and toasted pecans you can create something fine.  We winged a dressing of mayonnaise, sour cream, olive oil, lemon juice and fresh dill from items we had on hand in the refrigerator.  The dill was “not perfect but still perfectly good,” to quote my neighborhood grocery store in Washington, D.C. from a sign that hangs over the bruised vegetable bin…

Cool food for hot days: Today it was HOT outside and also inside the Fortune Kitchen. We made cold pasta salad using fresh grape tomatoes, olives, capers, fresh herbs, tuna and an olive oil dressing so Joyce (faithful volunteer) could show our clients an authentic summer dish from Rome.

Welcome to “Bits and Bites from Miss Betty’s Kitchen,” a regular feature written by Betty Wilson, who has been volunteer teaching “Miss Betty’s Practical Cooking/Nutrition Class” at Fortune for the past four years.  Betty will post vignettes about her students and her class, photos of the colorful and delicious meals they make together, and some of the recipes she loves and teaches in her class.  The following is an introduction to what Miss Betty’s class is all about.

On Thursday, June 17th, The Fortune Society was honored to host Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for a press conference during which he announced the launch of a citywide fatherhood initiative to strengthen New York City families by helping fathers be active in their children’s lives.