Suozzi Announces $1 Million in Funds
to Support ‘Common Sense for the Common Good’ Initiative

8 Agencies Receive Grants to Help Reduce Abortions
& Support Pregnant Women

Mineola – Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi today announced that eight agencies will receive nearly $1 million in grants, as the first phase of his three-year initiative to reduce the number of abortions and support young women facing crisis pregnancies.

Suozzi last May unveiled his “Common Sense for the Common Good” program, which earmarks $3 million over three years – $1 million a year – to achieve the twin goals of reducing abortions in the county and supporting young women who unintentionally become pregnant.

“I firmly believe that abortion should, and will, remain safe and legal,” Suozzi said. “I also believe that we must create a world with fewer unplanned pregnancies and fewer abortions. Each and every one of these eight agencies works tirelessly to achieve that one common goal – even if they don’t share one common ideology.”

“Despite the often unfair and unproductive caricatures of the people on both sides of this issue, defenders of the ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ viewpoints are usually intelligent, thoughtful, compassionate and religious people – on both sides,” Suozzi said. “These agencies prove that.”

In a major speech outlining “Common Sense for the Common Good,” Suozzi said reducing abortions and helping young single pregnant women can be achieved though three approaches:

• increasing the awareness of adoption services;
• providing more housing for pregnant single women and young mothers with newborns;
• strengthening prevention education.

Following the speech, Suozzi appointed a 70-member Task Force with three separate working groups – one each on adoption, housing and prevention – to help develop the guidelines for the request for proposal (RFP) which was issued in December 2005. 

Each of the eight agencies – chosen after a thorough review of their proposals, credentials and past performance – will use the grant money to focus on one of these three approaches.

Adoption Services:

• Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children, New York City: $83,000 to train Nassau County health-care and social-service professionals.

• Schneider Children’s Hospital/Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park: $97,000 grant to provide access to information about adoption to families and health-care and social-service service professionals.  Will collaborate with the Adoption Annex.

Housing:

• Catholic Charities Regina Maternity Services, Merrick: $330,000 for counseling and case management, and to add beds to Momma’s House, temporary housing for pregnant women and young mothers with newborns.

Prevention:

• BOCES, Garden City:  $85,000 grant for a combination of abstinence-focused nd other prevention education programs. BOCES will collaborate with public schools across the County, as well as other agencies.

• The Cedarmore Corporation, the social services arm of Zion Cathedral Church of God in Christ, in Freeport: $70,000 for an abstinence-focused program.

• Life Center of Long Island, Massapequa: $90,000 for abstinence-focused education targeted to high school students in Westbury.

• Long Beach Reach: $59,000 to collaborate with Long Beach public schools for its Passages prevention-education program.