New Yorks First Mentor
Matilda Cuomo knows something about children. She has five of her own, 14 grandchildren and she is a former teacher. When her husband, Mario, was sworn in as New York"s governor in 1983, Cuomo put that background to use by influencing policy and legislation that would promote family and protect children. In 1987, she was appointed honorary chair to a Council on Children and Families, started by Gov. Hugh Carey. â??It gave me a segue to help the whole system, Cuomo said. â??The breakdown of the family is so devastating. Cuomo helped create a 24-hour, toll-free parent information phone number, a first-time parents manual and a nutritional information guide for teachers. In a partnership with Kodak Film, she helped foster children get glossy photographs taken and compiled in a book called â??New York"s Family Album. â??This was instituted across the country, Cuomo said. â??We went on the Phil Donahue Show to show everyone the book. They all got adopted from his show. Cuomo began her advocacy on mentoring in 1987, when her husband, the governor, approved a statewide, one-on-one mentoring program's the first of its kind in the country. â??The only thing Mario said to me was make sure the committee that puts this together is completely bipartisan, Cuomo said. But after Gov. Cuomo was defeated for a fourth term by George Pataki in 1994, the program was eventually cut. She found out from her son, Andrew Cuomo, now the state"s attorney general. â??He really shook me up. He said, â??It doesn"t exist, but you can"t let that happen. You nurtured the baby, you got to get it going again," Cuomo said. Her son convinced her to start Mentoring USA, housed in the basement of the Brooklyn building where he ran Help USA, an organization for the homeless. â??Their kids need this mentoring more than anyone, Cuomo said. Now, the program is in 15 states and has been providing mentoring services to 5,000 children. Mentoring USA also trains social workers in states without the program. â??My whole concept, what my husband would adopt's the decade of the child, that he set in motion for us's was a set of comprehensive programs, from Buffalo to Long Island, that were geared toward helping the family stay together, Cuomo said. Finances for Mentoring USA come from Cuomo"s books, The Person Who Changed My Life, a collection of essays from celebrities and dignitaries describing their own experience with mentors. The third edition will be out later this year, featuring new essays from actor Alan Alda, comedian Rosie O"Donnell and CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, among others. As for her own son"s endeavors, Cuomo won"t say a word about an expected primary challenge to Gov. David Paterson. But she trusts his instincts. â??[Andrew] knows the do"s and don"ts. He knows what really works, Cuomo said. â??It must be in the DNA. He"s just like his father. They love public service. For â??National Mentoring Month this January, the flagship Bloomingdale"s, at East 60th Street and Lexington Avenue, unveiled a window designed by mentored children and 4th grade students at nearby P.S. 59. The children"s letters to soldiers in Afghanistan decorated the display. Cuomo, who grew up in Brooklyn, now has a home just a few blocks south of that display. Having always lived in a house, she made sure her East Side apartment had a patio. â??Not only can I see the East River, but I see Queens, she said. â??The Pepsi Cola sign lights up at night and it reminds me of Hong Kong. She still calls herself a â??Brooklyn gal, but she"s starting to get attached to her new borough. â??I am, she said, â??an East Sider.