MercyFirst Youth Development

What is Mercy First?

MercyFirst is a not-for-profit human service agency serving more than 3,200 children, teenagers and families each year in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. Founded as an orphan age in the late 1800s by the Sisters of Mercy (Angel Guardian Home in Brooklyn and St. Mary’s of the Angels Home in Syosset) today MercyFirst offers a continuum of care through its network of programs in New York City and on Long Island.

MercyFirst operates Family Support Programs, Foster Homes and Adoption Services, Treatment Family Foster Care, Community-based Group Homes, Mother/Child Residences and Campus-based Residential Treatment Programs.

The staff of MercyFirst are professionally trained and prepared to respond to the complex needs of traumatized and neglected children, youth with serious emotional problems, teens and young adults without families who must learn to make their own way as adults, and families coping with poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness.

What is the youth development office?

The youth development office provides support and services to foster youth ages 14-21.  They assist in job finding, housing, and education. They host career academies, run workshops, and work with the children to reach their goals before they age out of foster care.  Youth development also has a mentoring program in which teens are matched with supportive adults.