Georgia Boothe: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. And welcome to Every Step of the Way – our Children's Aid podcast. I'm Georgia Boothe, executive vice president here at Children's Aid. And I have with me today, my colleague, friend, and partner in this work, Sandra Escamilla. Hey, Sandra.
Sandra Escamilla: Thank you, Georgia. Yes, I'm Sandra Escamilla and I'm super excited to be here today. I feel like Georgia, you and I have been talking about this podcast for over a year, specifically because we've been wanting to capture the impact of Children's Aid, right?
Beyond theories of change or theories of actions and data, really the human spirit – what the agency does to the human spirit. And we're so lucky today to have Frances Lopez to be our participant in this podcast, to speak to her experience with Children's Aid.
Frances, welcome, welcome, and thank you for being here with us today.
Frances Lopez: Thank you both for having me, and I'm excited to be here and have this [00:01:00] conversation.
Georgia Boothe: Frances, it is so nice to have you be our guest on the podcast. I've known Frances for the last nine years, and she's an incredible leader here at Children's Aid. She leads the work in our preventive services program using the evidence-based model, solution-based casework. Frances, welcome. We are so excited to have you be part of this conversation.
Sandra Escamilla: I want to add one other thing. Did you know that Frances is probably the best salsa dancer here at Children's Aid?
Every single holiday party, she does not miss a beat. So, we're going to talk about that a little bit as well, because I know you grew up in East Harlem where salsa is happening all the time. Can you talk a little bit about Frances Lopez before she got to Children's Aid?
Frances Lopez: Yes, sure can. I had a long, storied life prior to Children's Aid. I grew up, like you said, in East Harlem, born and raised a barrio girl, boricua.
I'm very proud to say that, and [00:02:00] it's a community that is dear to my heart. And then I also had the opportunity to get out of East Harlem and to attend prestigious schools. And how I got through that is a mystery to me. I think a lot of it had to do with the support that I had and the community that gave me the confidence and courage to step out of the barrio and what we know and are familiar with and be able to, be successful in these elitist sort of spaces and to succeed and do well. And then when I got back to New York, I said to myself, I want to give back. I want to dedicate my life to helping those that are voiceless or that do not know how to access resources or systems.
I want to build the community; I want to lift the community. So, I came back and after going to those elite schools, everyone comes out of there making six figures. And I was like, “Nope, I'm going to work in the community and I'm going to help my community [00:03:00] to grow stronger and farther.” So, that's what I've been doing. And I think that I've come full circle, and I've ended up back at home at Children's Aid. So, I'm excited.
Georgia Boothe: Frances, we are so lucky to have you here at Children's Aid. And the children, youth, and families in our preventive programs in the Bronx, they're just so lucky to have you as part of the program and for you to bring your experience, your life experience to this work is really amazing.
So, thank you for coming back to the community and for wanting to invest in making it better.
Sandra Escamilla: So, let's start off by just getting a sense of how you got in contact with Children's Aid. How did you first hear about us?
Frances Lopez: So, growing up in El Barrio, in East Harlem, we have the center, East Harlem Center up on 101st. So, I was born and raised on 103rd. And if anybody knows the neighborhood, there's a giant hill that you have to go up on Lexington [00:04:00] and then Children's Aid was like at the top of the hill, and it was for us a place to go and feel safe and feel and be able to be a kid and have fun and interact with each other and play games and all the wonderful things that you do in your childhood. And everyone loved going up that hill because you knew you were going to the East Harlem Center, and you were going to go and you were going to learn and have fun and you're going to have people who cared about you.
People who weren't your family, but felt like family and they cared about you and looked out for you in every way – crossing the street they're looking out, they're making sure they're protecting you. They're developing all of us to be just wonderful humans.
And it was just a great place to go. And my mom was always looking for free places for the kids, like free lunch, and the cheese line, and take the kids to the center. And it helped her because she had to work [00:05:00] and she had to do other things. But for me, it was just, when I think about it, it makes me smile because it was such a great place to go and to have fun and to have lunch and be taken care of. I went there for after school programs, I think, or I know I went for summer programs and it was the time of my life.
It's the only time you got to be taken to the pool or taken to Coney Island or wherever. It was just a great time.
Sandra Escamilla: I love that. And can you say a little bit more about even what you were saying earlier, you were talking about the ways in which you were able to navigate these elite spaces.
Can you talk a little bit more about that foundational support that you received from Children's Aid and what you learned and bridge us into like how you leverage that later on in life? Or did you leverage that later on in life?
Frances Lopez: So, it's funny because as you're going through it, you're just like living your life, right?
And then things happen and you get encouraged and put in the right [00:06:00] path of things, but you don't really know why. And it's been this experience of looking back that has finally put all the pieces together for me that if I had not been a part of Children's Aid, I don't think I would have had the courage to go downtown to 14th Street to Stuyvesant High School.
All my friends went to the local school – to Manhattan Center – everybody was going over there. And I remember thinking, “Oh, my friends are going there. Why am I not going there?” But I had teachers, and I had people saying, “No, you deserve better. You deserve to give yourself an opportunity to go downtown, to go to this school that's the best school in the city. And this is going to open doors for you.” And I just went with it but not knowing that I thought I was giving something up, not going to the local school. But looking back at it, I know that it's a cliche, but it's so true. It takes a village, right?
So, I had a village of people. I had Children's Aid people. I had teachers at my school who were saying, “You can do [00:07:00] this. Go, give yourself the opportunities that you deserve.” And I just felt empowered by that faith in me that everyone had. Then I felt like I had to prove them right.
So, I went and I got into Stuyvesant and I graduated and I went to Brown. And when I went to Brown, I left New York and none of my friends were doing that. And that was another scary moment. But I did it and I look back and I say, I could have not done any of that if I didn't have the support and the attention and that feeling of being valued and mattering to the world
Sandra Escamilla: Yes.
Frances Lopez: That I got from Children's Aid.
Sandra Escamilla: I love that. And you went on to Columbia after that, right? So, these are all pretty intensive and hard to get into programs. So, congratulations. And again, like Georgia was saying, we're lucky to have you. And I'm glad that we served as a foundation to help you feel like you could navigate that.
Georgia Boothe: Frances, it's amazing. I've known you all this time and didn't know some of [00:08:00] what you just shared. So, thank you so much for sharing that. I feel like I'm getting to know you on a whole other level. You talked earlier about wanting to come back and give to the community. And you talk about kind of your formative years in East Harlem and your educational experiences. How did that shape your decision to become a social worker?
Frances Lopez: It's funny because I don't go around sharing where I've gone to school or anything like that. Cause it's something that to me, it's like I accomplished that, but what I'm doing presently is the most important thing.
And so, a lot of people like you, Georgia, don't know. And when I tell them they're surprised because who goes to those elite schools and then goes back and becomes a social worker.
Georgia Boothe: I'm not surprised because I know you.
Frances Lopez: I think more of us should, right?
And the thing is that, growing up, I was the social worker of my family, and you hear that a lot. Mom didn't read [00:09:00] English or speak English. So, I was always the one who read the letters and navigated systems for her. And I watched that throughout my whole neighborhood, that everyone had to take care of our parents in that way.
And then, seeing her, like I said earlier, going and looking for free programs and putting us and my brothers in programs, and then going on what they used to call the cheese line to get the free cheese and all that other stuff. That was my reality. I lived this experience where I watched everyone in the neighborhood looking for resources, looking for ways to better their life, to provide for their children, to thrive as a family.
And I thought, there's so many people who don't know and don't know how to navigate, don't have the resources or the people around them to help them. And I thought, that's what I want to do. I want to come back and I want to help the community because I want everyone to have a chance to succeed in [00:10:00] life and to thrive and to live their best lives.
And I said, if I can be a catalyst or I can some way help that, then that's what I want to do. And I thought about it and I said, I want to do something that I love and that I'm passionate about. And I want to be happy doing it. I saw my friends go into these high-power jobs, and they were miserable...what I call selling their soul to the devil.
And I did not want to do that. I wanted to come back, give to my community and help others to succeed and to have the opportunities that I had and better.
Georgia Boothe: That's wonderful, Frances, and again, I can't say it enough. We're so incredibly lucky to have you in the program.
Sandra Escamilla: And even as you're talking, Frances, I'm thinking social work is a very particular field of practice. And Children's Aid, as you know, we have social workers, we work with educators, we also work with practitioners, doctors, and I'm just curious about why social work though, right? Children's Aid, we walk across [00:11:00] these four domains and you made a really specific effort and decision to be in behavioral health.
Why was that? Was there something that happened to you at Children's Aid that kind of sparked that? And you said, I want to do this because you could have been a teacher as well.
Frances Lopez: I wanted to be on the ground. I wanted to be grassroots. I wanted to be hand in hand with people helping to make a difference one child at a time, one family at a time.
I didn't want anything on a macro level. I wanted to be on the ground, and I wanted to do that because I felt that's where I could put my efforts into best helping the most amount of people. And the thing is that Children's Aid, as I look back on my life, it's been weaved into all parts of my life.
It helped give me a great childhood. And like I said, the support and encouragement and empowerment to be able to succeed in life. And then when I came back to the city and started doing [00:12:00] this work, I continued to have connections with Children's Aid because Children's Aid existed in every neighborhood that I was working in and that I was helping families with.
And then with my own family, I sent my stepchildren to camp there, went to Alvin Ailey camp, they went to regular summer camp, and then my granddaughter went to Fred Doug. Amy Hyman helped get her into camp there. So, she went to camp there for a couple of years. So, I just really embrace the fact that Children's Aid has been like the foundation for so many things.
And when I came to work here, I thought about this is where I belong, right? This is where I was meant to be because Children's Aid still does it the way that I believe it should be done, which is on the ground. Grassroots. I left an agency that I was at for 20 years because they were not caring about the families or staff the way that I felt they [00:13:00] needed to and I had to go and find my place. At an agency that matched my values and did the work the way I like to do the work.
Sandra Escamilla: I love that. You know, uh, Georgia and I always talk about the Children's Aid way, right? And you were talking about the alignment of your values with Children's Aid.
Tell me what a typical day for you is like, what are you doing on a typical day that you feel accentuates some of these values but also is generating and activating the type of impact that you just talked about.
Frances Lopez: Well, a typical day for me it's going to the office, right? Meeting with my team, hearing about what's going on, what they need, what are they telling us the families need. advocating for that. At Children's Aid I'm not just working in prevention, but we work with all the prevention programs.
We walk across the lines to see what's needed and where we can help each other out, where we can collaborate, where we can, strengthen unity in [00:14:00] numbers. At Children's Aid, I also am part of now the collective impact initiative that we're doing, which is, with Abe and everything, and that's a passion of mine. So, this is like the work that needs to be done. And then I've also been part of the Bronx cabinet. I used to go to the Washington Heights cabinet for a while and I'm part of the education committee and I work across lines with Milbank and all the rec centers because they're the ones that have the access to the families and are doing the on-the-ground work that I believe in.
So, I try to give support where I can to be able to move us in the right direction.
Georgia Boothe: Frances is being so understated in her role in the preventive division. Frances is a true leader and a go getter and whatever is needed on the ground.
It's not unusual for me to get an email or when I visit the site for her to pull me aside and say, Hey, Georgia, my [00:15:00] team needs this, or this family needs this. And I know we're not supposed to do that, but how can we be helpful? She's always thinking about the children, youth, and families first and the work that she does and has been instrumental in constantly reminding all of us why we're here in terms of supporting our client population, but also supporting our staff. She's there early in the morning. She's there late at night. She's just always there supporting her team. But I wanted to ask you, Frances, because I know you and I know your work, but when you're not at work, what are you doing? What are you doing for fun? How do you balance the intensity that you bring to work every day with what you do outside of work?
Sandra Escamilla: She's dancing salsa.
Frances Lopez: With you, Sandra, who is the best partner at the Children's Aid parties. Let me tell you.
I've always been into sports. I played sports all throughout high school and college, and I'm a [00:16:00] sports fanatic. So, when I was younger, I played softball in a league in the summer, but now, the joints can't handle it, but I watch a lot of sports. I'm a big Mets fan, Knicks fan.
Georgia Boothe: You're a Mets fan? We may be the only two Mets fans in all of New York City right now.
Frances Lopez: The battle continues throughout the agency because there's so many Yankee fans and you gotta, you gotta push them back. I wish I had been able to do this in my office because I have the Mets signature in the back and I would have had the Children's Aid logo.
But yeah, sports gets me through a lot. And also, my family, sun, beach, That's my happy place. If I can get to a beach, that's where I find my peace and my serenity. And I like to have beach scenes up, if you ever visited my office, I have a huge one. Because if I get stressed out, I just look at that and just drift.
And then of course I love my salsa music, everything Boricua. So, I love going [00:17:00] to my island and enjoying that and all of the beauty of it and that's what keeps me sane. I think that's the balance.
Georgia Boothe: That balance is so important especially for someone like you that just gives so much to our work every day. Glad to know that you are trying to balance that outside of work as well.
Sandra Escamilla: So, Frances, as you know, we are rebuilding our East Harlem center and we're super excited about that.
We have our centers and we have all our schools. And I want to take you back, like, what advice would you give future participants or current participants in Children's Aid programs?
Frances Lopez: Stick to it, believe in yourself and believe in Children's Aid. It's going to lead the way, every step of the way, to the path to a successful future. All of your dreams can come true. Just believe in yourself and in Children's Aid. We got your back.
Sandra Escamilla: And is there any [00:18:00] particular service or program that you would say that you would have want to have joined that you didn't or that you did and it was like transformational?
If you could only do one thing at Children's Aid, you have to do this.
Frances Lopez: Oh, that's a hard one. You can't just do one thing. You got to do it all.
Sandra Escamilla: Yeah, I know. I heard that.
Frances Lopez: With our clients, we tried to connect them to as many Children's Aid resources as we can. So, we didn't talk about the fact that I got braces at Children's Aid, right? So that, yeah. So, my mom had put braces on me at a private orthodontist somewhere on West End Avenue, and then after a while she couldn't afford it.
And here I was with a mouthful of braces, and we couldn't afford to finish it. So, she found out that Children's Aid had a dental clinic at LMB, and we went down there and they're the ones that finished my whole like I was there for a year and a half. And I still have friends who talk about the dental clinic on Lexington from Children's Aid that they used to go there for free x rays and cleanings and [00:19:00] stuff.
You think it's a small thing, but it's not. Like the fact that I had like bucked teeth and whatever would have caused me to not build my self-esteem the way I would want, and my mom was aware of that and that's why she sought to have my dental work being done, which was seen as like a luxury, but Children's Aid didn't see it that way.
That's why they had the clinics. That's why they had the free clinics. They were about helping families and children in whatever needs they have, right? So, we try to connect to everything – to medical clinics, to the mental health clinics, to the rec centers, to the summer camp programs, anything and everything.
And so, it's hard for me to nail down one only because I think when you place a lot of the Children's Aid services around a child or a family it's the best formula, it's the best formula for them to thrive and to succeed. But what gave me the opportunities that I had was being a part of the East Harlem Center. [00:20:00]
So, the centers are really dear to my heart. So, Fred Doug, Milbank, all of them, I'd do anything to keep them in business and to keep them going. When we used to do our annual holiday party at Milbank, I'd go there on a Sunday and there was literally a line of kids with their basketballs waiting for the center to open at 7 a.m. to go in and play basketball. And I hated to be the one to break their hearts and tell them there's no basketball today because we're having a holiday party for our clients. It hurt me to do that. But the fact, every single time I went and saw that line of kids, just waiting at 7 a.m. on a Sunday to get in and play basketball.
I said, this is what this is about. This is what it's about. They're getting out of bed. They can address it running to the center because it's a place for them to have fun, to be with their friends, to interact. To get fed, to have a full day and everyone at Children's Aid does their best to know each [00:21:00] child, encourage each child.
That's the thing. I'd walk into East Harlem. They knew my name. They knew they saw me with a front. Frances, what's wrong with you today? People care. They showed you that they care about you. And that you mattered and there's nothing you can, nothing more important in this world that you can do to a child is to show them that they matter.
Sandra Escamilla: That's right. Thank you for that.
Frances Lopez: When I grew up, I used to watch TV and I used to lay on the living room floor and every commercial had the commercial for Children's Aid, right? And I used to be like, yeah, that's me. I'm part of it. You know, I was so excited about it. And when I came to work here, when you would call someone in the office, if they put you on hold, the jingle came on and it just took me back to that little girl watching the video and seeing what Children's Aid can do for people's lives.
Sandra Escamilla: Okay, so we've asked you a lot of questions about your career and about what you do outside of Children's Aid, and now we're going to ask you a [00:22:00] few quick-fire questions that kind of deepen who you are and who we know you to be.
Frances Lopez: Yeah, go.
Sandra Escamilla: You ready? Don't overthink it. What first comes to your mind? Your favorite color?
Frances Lopez: Purple,
Sandra Escamilla: Least favorite color?
Frances Lopez: Black.
Sandra Escamilla: What's a sound that inspires you during the day?
Frances Lopez: Birds chirping.
Sandra Escamilla: What discourages you most during the day?
Frances Lopez: The subway system.
Sandra Escamilla: What is the mantra that you say to yourself or your go-to
Frances Lopez: Keep pushing?
Sandra Escamilla: If you weren't a social worker at Children's Aid, what's another thing you would be doing right now?
Frances Lopez: I dunno.
Sandra Escamilla: I love that you don't know,
Frances Lopez: I can't imagine anything other than maybe something like law. I think that was my second choice was to be a lawyer.
Sandra Escamilla: What's a career you would never do? You'd say, I would never do that.
Frances Lopez: I would never be a politician. Ever.
Georgia Boothe: Can't say I blame you.
Sandra Escamilla: And if we were reading the newspaper and you wanted to give one headline about Children's Aid, a message to people about Children's Aid, what would that headline be?
Frances Lopez: Get [00:23:00] involved, help support us, come out, join Children's Aid. Join us in the fight.
Georgia Boothe: Frances, thank you so much for being here with us today and for having this conversation. Obviously, the work at Children's Aid. Was instrumental in your life, and hope and our prayer and our wish is that we're able to continue this amazing work into the future so that more young people like yourself can benefit from all that we have to offer.
Thank you for being here and I hope we will bring you back at another time.
Sandra Escamilla: Yes. Thank you, Frances. We appreciate you.
Frances Lopez: This is a great time, and I love the fact that we all get to work together. That's another thing I love about Children's Aid, is that I am surrounded by like-minded people and we're all in this together to do this work and make a difference.
So, I appreciate it. And thank you both. Thank you both for being [00:24:00] colleagues and for having me here today. This is a blast. Thank you.
Sandra Escamilla: Georgia, wasn't that fantastic?
I loved hearing her talk about how when you're going through an experience, you actually don't know happening until you look back. But I was wondering, is there a way in the work that we do that we could make it more intentional or conscious for our participants, or even if that's necessary?
Georgia Boothe: Yeah, I don't know if there's anything that we can do to make folks more conscious other than them being present in the experience, right? And it's clear that she was present in the experience. Most of us walk through life, not realizing the impact that the people that are in our lives are having.
And I think she is a good example of that. But clearly, we had an incredible impact on her life. I love the story about her getting her braces and it's interesting because over the years we've gone back and forth about whether or not we will have this dental program, right?
Because [00:25:00] unfortunately, insurance plans don't reimburse a lot for dental services. And every single time we find a way to keep it going. And so, hearing her story, like that's going to motivate me.
So, the next time we have these conversations, make sure that we keep that going, because I'm sure there are lots of other Franceses out there who benefited from that.
Sandra Escamilla: And then I loved also when she talked about when I was like pushing her to pick one.
I mean, she gave back to us what we always say. It's not one magic bullet. It's like it's all of it. It's the integration of all of our services, you know. Frances. That really makes us unique and separates us from like a single stop place. And we're a multi service agency who provides integrated services in a holistic way.
And that's what really separates us from other organizations.
Georgia Boothe: Listening to Frances's story, I have goosebumps like just reflecting on, what she said. and it is also a reminder for me of why I am at Children's Aid.
The impact that we're capable of having because we're a [00:26:00] multi- service center, right? And because we're looking at the needs and challenges of our children, youth, and families in a holistic way.
She came to camp. She got her braces done. She was able to participate in activities at Millbank or East Harlem.
Sometimes when we're not sure if we're doing the right thing or, you know, what should stay and what should go, like hearing these stories just really helped to reinforce the importance of what we're trying to do for children, youth, and families.
Sandra Escamilla: I also appreciated another thing. And I was thinking about this cause I went to site visits recently and we have a lot of young people who are coming and they're like midway of like high school and college. And some of them are thinking about their pathways.
It would be great to bring her back to talk to them, but also to help them see what's possible. Right. Because some folks are like, I'm not sure that I want to get my credential right now. I'm just like going to be here and we really want to create because the work that we do is critical. Like, we're working with young people, right?
And helping to change their outcomes, but we're also [00:27:00] working with adults. So, it would be interesting to figure out how to bring Frances back to some of these kids that are at a crossroads and not sure what the post-secondary pathway is going to be for them.
Georgia Boothe: It's interesting that you raise that because I had the same thought. Like, about the kids in foster care, who are thinking about going to college, and they're thinking they can't do it, or thinking it's too hard, or feeling like they don't belong.
I think it's so important for them to hear she went to Brown and Columbia, she's from East Harlem, and many of our young people who have grown up with less than ideal circumstances, sometimes can't see themselves in those kinds of environments. So, I agree 100%. I think it would be great for her to talk to some of our young people who are thinking about that, but they may not be able to do it and it may be too hard. I think for her to share her journey with them would be so powerful.
Sandra Escamilla: Yeah, absolutely.
Georgia Boothe: This was so great, Sandra. I can't wait for us to have more [00:28:00] conversations with more of our Children's Aid staff or alumni who benefited from our program and services. I'm so energized by our conversation with Frances.
So, stay tuned, folks, for the next episode of Every Step of the Way.
