Lucy Friedman, Visiting Fellow

Lucy has always been up for a new challenge. In the 1980s she helped shape the city’s policy on drug abuse prevention which led to the creation of innovative schools (the “Beacons”) that opened their doors to the community in non-school hours. She founded and led Victim Services—now Safe Horizon–the nation’s largest assistance program for victims of crime and abuse. And in 1998, she launched The After-School Corporation (later rechristened ExpandEd Schools) to create and support new models for high-quality after-school programs in the city. Her enthusiasm for using high school students as mentors, interns and leaders in after-school work meshed perfectly with the Foundation’s commitment to supporting high-quality internship and job-training experiences for disadvantaged young people. So when Lucy announced plans to retire, we jumped at the chance to bring her in as the Foundation’s third Visiting Fellow. Her new challenge is to do a comprehensive review of the City’s Summer Young Employment Program and offer her thoughts on how to help this well-funded program reach its full potential as a true educational and job-readiness experience. The record suggests that Dr. Friedman is up to the task.