15 BRONX WEEKLY June 23, 2019 www.BXTimes.com
Retired teacher helps families
deal with abusive situations
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A local volunteer is using
her decades of experiences as
an educator to help children
and families in need.
Recently retired veteran
educator Elizabeth Tronconi
of Morris Park started volunteering
her time in September
at Jacobi Medical
Center’s Family Advocacy
Center, which handles intake
for children and families
who are suffering from
abusive situations.
Tronconi said that when
she retired in July 2018 from
the NYC Department of Education,
where she was a
teacher for 38 years including
26 years at P.S. 83, she
wanted to volunteer at the
hospital because she had
a fondness for the care her
family received there and
because it is in walking distance.
She was paired with Jacobi’s
Family Advocacy Center,
where she is assigned to the
waiting room where children
and families in physically or
sexually abusive predicaments
come in to meet with
doctors and social workers.
Tronconi said that she is
often tasked with putting the
youngsters and their parents
at ease in what is usually an
emotionally trying time in
their lives.
Oftentimes the children
may be upset as they and
their parents are interviewed
and physically examined.
She provides comfort and a
dose of kindness to children,
playing games to put them at
ease.
“I have absolutely no responsibility
but fun – I’m in
charge of fun,” said Tronconi,
adding that she has to
be very delicate, and if the
conversation steers into anything
that is therapeutic, she
tells the child, teenager or
adult in the waiting room to
save the information for the
doctor.
“People are here for a variety
of situations, but it is
usually a very angst-fi lled
situation,” said Tronconi.
When parents are waiting
for their children, she often
offers to get them a drink
of water or a snack or shows
them where the bathroom
is located, as well as having
light-hearted conversations,
she said.
“The kids are nervous
and the parents are often
nervous or sometimes angry
or even hostile when they
come to the center,” said
Tronconi. “Just talking, in
general, kind of releases the
tension.”
Dr. Olga Jimenez, who
is chairperson of the Family
Advocacy Center, said
that greeting families as
they attend appointments
at the center is challenging
because they are under a lot
of stress.
“They have experienced
some kind of traumatic
event that has affected the
whole family and extended
family,” Jimenez said of the
people the center serves.
“The abuser is usually a
close friend of the family
or a family member.”
Tronconi said she is getting
a great sense of fulfi llment
from her volunteer
work, and is going to encourage
her friends to volunteer
somewhere where they can
be of service. She feels she is
giving back to her local community.
She said she loves her
Morris Park community because
everything from shops
to the Morris Park Library
to Jacobi Medical Center
are all within walking distance,
and the community
has strong community advocates
in the Morris Park
Community Association.
Jacobi Medical Center
has 276 volunteers, according
to the hospital.
To learn more about volunteer
opportunities at Jacobi,
call their volunteer department
at (718) 918-4881.
Dr. Olga Jimenez (l) and Elizabeth Tronconi, volunteer in the Jacobi Medical Center Hospital Family
Advocacy Center, which handles allegations of abuse. Photo courtesy of Jacobi Hospital
People come out to honor Junior at the corner of East 183rd Street and Bathgate Avenue on Thursday,
August 20. Schneps Media/ Alex Mitchell
Justice For Junior: 5 killers
to spend their lives in prison
week trial for the accused
killers, which caused Leandra
to sob repeatedly in the
Bronx Hall of Justice.
“They left me dead and
my heart broken,” she emotionally
said in Spanish
after an earlier court hearing
.The five will be sentenced
on Tuesday, July 16
and are likely to do life in
prison with no opportunity
for parole.
“I just need justice for
my son,” Junior’s Mother
Leandra Feliz told supporters.
The DA is considering
to leverage plea deals to the
eight additional accused accomplices
in Junior’s case
in an effort to reach the
roots of the gang responsible
for his death.
Frederick Then, Ronald
Urena, Jose Tavarez,
Danel Fernandez, Gabriel
Ramirez Concepcion, Diego
Suero, Danilo Payamps
Pacheco and Luis Caberasantos,
face second-degree
murder charges for involvement
with cornering Junior
into the infamous bodega.
Pre-trial for those eight
is expected to begin on
Monday, September 23.
At the time of the murder,
the accused were
rounded up by police
quickly from an overwhelming
fl ood of amateur
footage and tips that they
received within hours of
Junior’s death.
This case also served
as the inspiration for the
Bronx DA’s offi ce to create
its new camera-sharing
program, which creates
an intranet of security
cameras to help prevent
another teen sharing the
same unfortunate fate of
Junior.
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