Rising Ground
Rising Ground is a large[1] human services organization in New York City, with approximately 1,600 employees[2] supporting more than 25,000 children, adults, and family members annually.
Founded in 1831 as the Leake and Watts Orphan House,[3] Rising Ground focused on providing child welfare services for much of its existence.
[5] Rising Ground won Gold in The New York Community Trust Non-Profit Excellence Awards 2014,[6] and is the recipient of the Strategy Counts!
[13] The architect Ithiel Town designed the orphanage for boys at West 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Upper Manhattan.
[17] In 1884,[14] Andrew Peck, who had lived at the home, formed the Leake & Watts Association of New York City as a fraternal group for men who had been supported by the organization.
[18] In 1886, the Leake and Watts Orphan House in the City of New York was described as "A free home for full orphans in destitute circumstances, between the ages of three and twelve; must be bodily and mentally sound; indentured or returned to relatives at the age of 14; unsectarian [sic]; receives children of any nationality or religion; disorderly children not received.
"[18] By 1886, "1,374 children, 942 males and 432 females, have found shelter and protection beneath this roof since the time of opening, to the present date.
So many are the children who have been bereft of father or mother, or both, by the war and its consequences or by the influenza epidemic, that like other institutions, we have been almost compelled to stretch our capacity to its utmost limit.
[25] But that began to change in 1921, when the organization introduced a "cottage system" to provide a home-like setting in which groups of eight to twelve children could live.
In 1956, the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of New York put on three performances of "The Gondoliers" at the Master Theatre on Riverside Drive and 103rd Street in Manhattan to benefit the home.
[34] An article announcing an October 1958 benefit at Yonkers Raceway reported that Leake and Watts was raising money to accommodate more children.
In 1988, Leake and Watts was granted three-year funding for a demonstration program to train other New York City child welfare agencies how to recruit foster families to care for HIV-positive children.
[37] The organization celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1981 with a benefit for 1,500 guests at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which featured a musical performance by Max Roach M'Boom and the World Saxophone Quarter.
[16] The center's mission is to "work to strengthen families, prevent child abuse and neglect, and promote the well being of children in their own neighborhoods.
That same year, the organization that would become Rising Ground established a group home for young expectant and new mothers in foster care and their babies.
[1] In January 2020, Rising Ground announced that it was moving its administrative hub from Yonkers to Downtown Brooklyn to have closer proximity to its many New York City programs.
In September, Rising Ground instituted strict protocols to allow more employees to return to their offices and for its educational classrooms open for in-person learning.
[41] In 2021, Rising Ground announced its intention to sell its Yonkers campus and relocate affected programs to other sites in New York City and Westchester.
