Staff Recognition Day
Good Shepherd Services is a non-profit, social services and youth development agency which provides a broad range of services to more than 18,000 of New York City's most vulnerable children and families each year. Throughout their community-based preventive services, foster boarding home and group care programs they help program participants develop the personal, educational and vocational skills they need to create postive change in their lives and open pathways to a better future.
COMMENTS FROM STAFF RECOGNITION DAY
Today we give tribute and share in celebrating the 150th year of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in NYC.
150 years!
I find it both humbling, and amusing that a tiny multicultural band of very young novice and older sisters were "missioned" to NYC from Philly. Clearly we New Yorkers were seen as a population at risk.
It was lay people who begged the Archbishop over 150 years ago to bring the sisters to NY, and lay people today play an increasingly important role in living out the sisters' mission, to awaken in each person a sense of their unique and inestimable value.
From humble beginnings on 14th Street, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd carried out their work, which from the very beginning focused on the marginalized, abused and neglected, with vision, commitment and leadership.
Some of you may be familiar with the story of Sr. Mary Euphrasia and the tunnel in Angers, France. I share it because it captures the creativity, energy and steely determination that has always infused the sisters. When told by the local bishop, who was clearly threatened by Sr. Mary Euphrasia's zeal, that she could not cross a certain road to gain access to land she needed, she accepted this charge in his presence, returned to the motherhouse, and immediately set about organizing the sisters and other supporters - to dig a tunnel UNDER the road!!
So through the inspiration and commitment of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, they, and we, have dug tunnels, built bridges, scaled heights and forded streams
It is the leadership, risk taking and vision of the Good Shepherd Sisters that has brought us to this point. New York City's services and policies for children, women, families, the marginalized, would be in a much sorrier state without the history and presence of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. We thank the sisters profoundly and celebrate moving forward together.
~ Bonnie Genevich, Brooklyn Division Program Director - Good Shepherd Services
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On May 9, Good Shepherd Services commended and recognized staff for their efforts. Below is an article on Onyedika Chuke, a young man and talented artist currently in one of the Good Shepherd Services programs.
About the Artist: ONYEDIKA CHUKE
Onyedika Chucke is a self-taught Nigerian artist and a present resident of Good Shepherd's Chelsea Foyer in Manhattan. He is currently attending Hostos Community College studying Liberal Arts and in the fall plans to attend Cooper Union to begin his formal training as an artist.
He has been creating art since the age of 17 and has been featured in many shows throughout the country. His art work can currently be seen in a body of work called Urban Iconoclasm in Brooklyn, NY at the Bed-Sty Restoration Center.
The piece in the pictures below, was presented to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd as an Onyedika original at Good Shepherd Services Staff Recognition Day on May 9, 2020. It is an abstract collage in which he utilizes fabrics and photography to bring the face and heart of Mary Euphrasia to life. The pieces of fabric have all been individually cut and crafted by him to create a very intricate and compelling look.
He is now calling it Abstract #7 - Sr. Mary Euphrasia.