Welcome to Good Shepherd Services
Good Shepherd Services is a leading youth development, education and family service agency that serves over 20,000 program participants a year. We give vulnerable youth in New York City the opportunity to take ownership of their future, making a difference today and for the next generation.
Focusing on high-need communities in Brooklyn and the Bronx, we provide a broad array of individual, family and school-based services to prevent youth from becoming disconnected from family, school and society. We also help those who come to us already disengaged find hope and motivation to reconnect with their community. When young people cannot stay in their families, we continue to provide a safety net of superior quality foster care and residential programs, as we have since 1857.
Good Shepherd's programs succeed because of the unique way in which we work:
- We have a profound belief in the strengths inherent in youth and the ability of individuals and families to transform themselves.
- We surround youth and families with the services and supports they need.
- We employ a rigorous business approach that stresses partnerships and makes the very most of both public and private resources.
The People We Help
Too many young people are reaching adulthood unprepared, with little hope and capacity for long-term success.
Young people growing up in high-poverty New York City communities confront tough odds in their journey to independence. They most likely attend overcrowded public schools where far more students fail than pass. Many lack strong family supports and may have experienced abuse, and emotional or physical neglect. They live in neighborhoods stressed by poverty, substance abuse, violence, and criminal behavior. more
Approach
We Know Young People Have What it Takes to Succeed
Many of the young people with whom we work have already given up on themselves. They have heard all about what they are doing wrong, and almost nothing about what they are doing right.
At Good Shepherd we have a profound belief in the strength of every individual. We help each young person we work with identify and build on his or her inherent abilities. more
Our History
Highlights from Our Timeline of Services
1936
First residential program opens.
1947
The agency incorporates.
1972
First Brooklyn program opens.
1996
Foster care and adoption added to continuum of services.
2005
GSS assumes entire network of programs in the Bronx.
