Following a year of successful pro-active collaboration to enrich services to Harlem and East Harlem children and families, a formal corporate merger has been approved.
East Harlem, NY – October 2019
The corporate merger of two of Harlem/East Harlem’s most respected community-based youth and family service providers – SCAN (Supportive Children’s Advocacy Network) New York and Boys & Girls Harbor – has been approved by New York State: the new corporate entity will be known as SCAN-Harbor. With 23 different program sites in Harlem, East Harlem and the South Bronx, which together will annually serve over 7,600 youth and 1,000 families, SCAN-Harbor will establish itself as the largest youth service provider in the community of Harlem/East Harlem. SCAN-Harbor operates all seven of the NYCHA-based, DYCD-funded Cornerstone Community Centers in East Harlem – the primary venues for connecting with at-risk youth. The agency also runs two of the three Beacon Centers (community centers based in NYC Dept. of Education sites) in the community.
Both SCAN and Harbor have long been essential parts of the fabric of Harlem/East Harlem. SCAN has a 40-year history of distinguished service in the community, and currently runs eleven community centers focused on youth programming in El Barrio and Central Harlem. Harbor, which was founded in 1937 by Tony Duke, boasts a more than 80-year record of giving the young women and men of Harlem/East Harlem an opportunity to grow and thrive.
SCAN-Harbor’s synergistic integration of program elements has proceeded smoothly over the past year, during which the two agencies mutually entered into an integration of corporate and programmatic operations in order to enhance and grow their high-quality programming. As a result, students served via Harbor are benefiting by having full access to SCAN’s robust array of “wrap around” social service supports, and SCAN’s youth are being afforded exciting new opportunities to participate in Harbor’s acclaimed afterschool and performing arts programs.
Jamel Oeser-Sweat, President of SCAN-Harbor’s Board, stated, “I came to SCAN as a ten year-old homeless child. I moved to East Harlem after being put in a group home, went on to college, law school and served on SCAN’s Board for 13 years. Our agency has shown not just that we employ an exemplary community-based youth and family service model to deliver services to inner-city children and families, we have shown that we also raise the leaders that will ensure the sustainability of our work. Growing up, we were taught we had to get out of the neighborhood to succeed. When our Board entrusted me to lead, they sent a message to the City that growing leaders does not stop when the services we provide stop. We must also provide those that we serve the opportunity to sit in positions of leadership, and work to ensure that they become effective leaders. I think Tony Duke would be proud of what we have become.”
Lew Zuchman, Executive Director of SCAN-Harbor, and a 50-year veteran of East Harlem service delivery, noted, “Our merger serves as a critical beacon of thoughtful community-based management, as not-for-profits struggle to survive and thrive within a most challenging fiscal environment.” Stephen J. Dannhauser, the former Harbor Board Chairman, noted, “The great working relationship we have all built together over the past year will enable SCAN-Harbor to move forward and be even more impactful, and ensures that we will be able to continue to do so on a long-term basis. Thanks to this merger, the legacy of Harbor and Tony Duke will endure – a legacy that bears critical import as our community struggles to meet the complex social challenges of today.”
The newly constituted Board of SCAN-Harbor now includes several noteworthy New Yorkers, who will continue to move the agency’s objectives forward, including: Stephen J. Dannhauser, former Chairman at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at Google; Barry Friedberg, Co-Chairman of New York Private Bank & Trust; Stewart K. P. Gross, Managing Director at Lightyear Capital; Sylvester F. Miniter IV, President at Durham Capital Corporation; Craig M. Overlander, Retired CEO Société Générale Americas; Joseph Perella, Founding Partner at Perella Weinberg Partners; Michael W. Vranos, Co-Chief Investment Officer at Ellington Financial; Ernest Lyles II, Founding Partner and Principal at The HiGro Group; Tanya K. Robinson, Esq.; Richard Asche, Attorney at Litman, Asche, Lupkin & Gioella; Sampson Glassman, Managing Partner at Nyati Capital Hedge Fund; Gregory M. Healy, Vice President, Wealth Advisory at the Glenmede Trust Company; Joanne Hunt, Principal at Brooklyn Charter School; David Mitchell, Attorney, Hogan Lovells; Jamel Oeser-Sweat, Attorney, Law Offices of Oeser-Sweat; Nan Puryear, Vice President at Exquisite Apparel; and Lulita Duke Reed, daughter of Tony Duke, the founder of Boys & Girls Harbor.