WRI Solutions' mission is to maximize your impact on improving the lives of individuals and families.
WRI Solutions partners with mission-driven agencies to thoughtfully and efficiently meet your objectives. Known to be flexible and responsive, WRI helps your organization creatively seize opportunities and overcome obstacles. Both a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit and a quasi-governmental agency, our status allows us a wide capacity to meet your needs. By contracting with WRI Solutions, you will exponentially add to your capacity to produce quality results.
WRI Solutions’ staff represent a range of skills and experience across many fields, working hard as a team to be creative, nimble, and productive partners in your important work. The staff share a deep commitment to treating colleagues and the public with respect and humility.
Meet our TEAMWRI Solutions’ Board of Directors bring backgrounds in child welfare, social sciences, mental health, addictions treatment, developmental disabilities, education, not-for-profit management, strategic development, human resources management, housing, domestic violence, public administration, finance and marketing. The board meets quarterly to provide oversight to WRI’s work.
Meet our board membersWRI ratifies its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice with an understanding that this practice is fluid, and that social justice is an organizational priority of continuous improvement.
WRI upholds these practices by embracing and amplifying diverse perspectives so that its staff, board, and range of projects reflect a commitment to supporting a more equitable world by advocating for those who are marginalized. We aim to be an organization where every member feels they have agency and are valued and safe to be themselves authentically, without judgment or contingencies.
We will continue to promote equitable practices by demonstrating ongoing commitment to a shared understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
Additionally, we strive to have our pillars of social justice demonstrated in not only our organizational practice but also in our professional development, our hiring practices, and our internal policies. These steps encapsulate WRI’s strong desire to actively participate in creating a more equitable world through its present and future work.
A multiplicity of shared and different individual and group experiences, values, beliefs, and characteristics among people.
The idea that everyone should have access to the resources and opportunities needed to succeed while taking into account the unique circumstances and needs of individuals or groups. It aims to eliminate barriers in distributing resources in order to promote equal outcomes for all individuals. Equity aims to address historical and systemic disadvantages and achieve equality of opportunity.
The practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as individuals with physical or intellectual disabilities and members of other minority groups.
The establishment or determination of rights according to rules of law and standards of equity; the process or result of using laws to judge crimes and criminality fairly.
WRI was founded in 1967 under New York State's not-for-profit law. It became incorporated as both a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit and a state affiliated agency.
Throughout the 70’s and 80’s, WRI concentrated its activities on research, evaluation, conference coordination, and training and technical assistance.
Key projects:
WRI evaluated the implementation and effectiveness of the state Child Welfare Reform Act (CWRA) of 1979 for the Division of Budget and the New York State Child Abuse Prevention Act (CAPA) of 1985 for the New York State Council on Children and Families.
In cooperation with the New York City Board of Education Office of Education Assessment, WRI evaluated the expansion of the School Health Demonstration Program (SHDP).
WRI formed the Public Employment Research Institute and the Labor-Management Relations Training Institute to conduct research, provide support services to public employers, and conduct training in labor-management relations for public employees.
WRI coordinated a multimedia effort (radio, television, and newspaper advertising, transit posters, and educational materials) to promote sound nutrition among low-income households and increase awareness of federally funded nutrition programs.
During the 90’s, WRI continued to demonstrate its strength in writing, editing, and designing informational and promotional materials. WRI also expanded its research areas of interest to include services provided to minorities, HIV/AIDS patients, and youth and children in foster care.
Key projects:
Child Protective Services Field Operations Manual and the Foster Care/Adoption Services Manual for the New York City Child Welfare Agency
Institutional Abuse Program Manual for the New York State Department of Social Services.
Provided training and technical assistance to minority community-based organizations over a six-year period to support them in obtaining public funds and meeting the complex reporting, fiscal, and recordkeeping requirements of government agencies.
Assessed the Gannett Foundation's three-year adult literacy grant program to identify and document best practices among grantees. WRI also researched and compiled two reports on workplace literacy programs for the Governor's Office of Employee Relations and the Civil Service Employees Association.
Compiled a comprehensive directory of funding sources for AIDS-related initiatives and then conducted technical assistance workshops to help community-based organizations use the directory.
Administered a project grant that funded interagency coordination and collaboration of services to children diagnosed with emotional disabilities and their families in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx.
In the early 2000s, WRI remained focused on its two longstanding contracts with New York City and New York State, work that continued throughout the decade:
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: WRI’s role is primarily to support out-stationed staff in the city, but the contract also provides an opportunity to assist the agency with procurement as needed. This contract has been in place since 1993.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), Bureau of Training and Development: WRI facilitated out-stationed staff, procurements, and provided support to the Youth Advisory Board under this grant. Projects also included working with OCFS to develop a number of online and printed training manuals and system user guides, including the Home Finding Practice Guide; Foster Care Practice Guide; Foster Parent Manual; Having a Voice and a Choice: New York State Handbook for Relatives Raising Children; Working Together: Health Services for Children in Foster Care; and the New York State Child Protective Services Manual.
2010 was a decade of exciting change for the organization. In 2012, we had an infusion of new leadership following the retirement of our longtime Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer. WRI continued to diversify its funding, receiving grants from federal, state, county, foundation, and not-for-profit entities.
Key Projects:
In 2013, WRI assisted the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) in securing for New York State one of five Innovations in Family Recruitment demonstration grants awarded by the US Department of Health and Human Services. OCFS then contracted with WRI to implement a five-year project focused on the diligent recruitment of foster, adoptive, and kinship homes. WRI provided technical assistance to seven New York counties to strengthen their recruitment and retention strategies, and developed resource materials highlighting best practices for national dissemination. As an outgrowth of this project, WRI piloted Fostering Futures New York (FFNY), a program that identified, trained, and managed teams of volunteers to provide practical supports to local foster parents, such as meals, spending time with children, and helping with home maintenance. More than 20 teams were created, including volunteers from various faith-based and community organizations. The direct service aspect of the program was transitioned in 2020 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Capital Region.
WRI conducted evaluation projects for a number of organizations, such as the NYS Unified Court System (UCS), the Mental Health Association in NYS, the NYS Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association, and Casey Family Programs.
Consulting work with local departments of social services was provided under grants from the Redlich Horwitz Foundation.
WRI began to provide event planning support to UCS, OCFS, Lifespan, JASA, the NYS Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, and the NYS Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs.
WRI began to provide administrative support to the state’s Citizen Review Panels for child protective services (www.citizenreviewpanelsny.org).
The end of the decade brought with it some major shifts that presented both challenges and opportunities. In 2019, OCFS’s Bureau of Training and Development embarked on a new path. A state-of-the-art training center was built in Albany and all activities relating to training that had previously been distributed around the state were centralized within OCFS. While not unexpected, the loss of this longstanding contract that produced creative and durable work of great benefit to the child welfare field presented a challenge. However, WRI was met with new opportunities in the year.
In 2020, OCFS awarded WRI a five-year appointment as the state’s administrator of the Education and Training Vouchers, supporting current and former foster youth in their pursuit of post-secondary education (https://etv-nys.smapply.org), and selected WRI to administer several pandemic-related funding streams providing direct support to applicants. In addition, WRI secured a contract with the Developmental Disabilities Planning Council (DDPC) to develop “Quick Guides: Tools for Independence.” UCS contracted with WRI to provide administrative support to the NYS Agricultural Mediation Program, and to provide evaluation and event coordination support to its implicit bias initiative.
