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Contact: Gail Donovan
Donovan Communications
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BROOKLYN PSYCHIATRIC CENTERS
HONORS EDUCATOR LINDA SIMMS-CHIN

BROOKLYN, NY—November 3, 2003— At its recent gala evening, Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers, Inc. honored Linda Simms-Chin, a longtime Brooklyn and Harlem entrepreneur, educator, and community leader, with its second Judge Robert J. Wilkin Award for Commitment to Community.

“I want to thank Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers for finding that my service to the community was great enough to be presented with this wonderful, wonderful award,” Ms. Simms-Chin said at the October 30 event, which was held at the Regent Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. “I’m proud to be honored because it is important for all of us to try to give back to others.”

Denise Arbesu, vice president of North Fork Bank, Brooklyn  Psychiatric Centers’ board member, and co-chair of the gala event, welcomed the guests and thanked them for their contributions at a time when government funding has been cut for the types of programs offered by Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers.

The award Ms. Simms-Chin received is named after Judge Robert J. Wilkin, who founded Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers in 1907 and charged the organization with helping vulnerable children. In his distinguished career in child welfare, Judge Wilkin worked for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, was head of the legal bureau of the Children’s Society in Brooklyn and Long Island, helped establish the Brooklyn Children’s Court in 1902, and was appointed a judge for that court the same year. Judge Wilkin remained on the bench of the Brooklyn Children’s Court for 25 years and was the presiding judge when he died in 1927 at the age of 67.

After graduating with a B.A. in Psychology from Nathaniel Hawthorne College in New Hampshire, Ms. Simms-Chin began teaching children with special needs. Her career in special education has spanned 32 years and in recognition of her devotion to her students, Ms. Simms-Chin was named “Teacher of the Year” in 1989 and 2000.  Ms. Simms-Chin continues to teach at Mark Twain Middle School in Yonkers.

Ms. Simms-Chin also has a long history of involvement in the Brooklyn community. She worked with her late husband, Alfred Chin, to develop the recreational facility Bedford Bowl, 1 Bedford Avenue, which served young and old in Crown Heights. Crown Heights became Ms. Simms-Chin’s life and whether it was providing a gym class for an overcrowded high school, a rainy day activity for a summer day camp, a social event for a drug rehabilitation program, a donation for the local block association, or the bowling center walls for a historic youth painting project, Ms. Simms-Chin was willing to help. Ms. Simms-Chin’s husband purchased Bedford Bowl in 1982 and after his death in 1988, she continued to teach during the day and run the business at night until she sold the property in 2000 to Medgar Evers College.

Ms. Simms-Chin’s parents, the late Sidney Simms, and Doris Simms, taught her entrepreneurship and public relations at a very young age while she grew up in the family business, Simms Bicycle Shop, in Harlem, where she still works every Saturday.  Ms. Simms-Chin is an active member of the Eta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. in the Bronx, and is presently serving as the chapter’s membership chair.

Ms. Simms-Chin, who lives in the Bronx, has been a dedicated member of University Heights Presbyterian Church for over 37 years. She has served on the Board of Trustees for over 17 years, is chairman of the personnel committee, and was its 2000 Woman of Faith for the New York City Presbytery. Since 1990, she has served as the secretary of the Bronx Presbyterian Churches, an organization that brings the18 Presbyterian Churches of the Bronx together in fellowship and worship by hosting an annual United Worship Service and several youth events.

Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers provides borough-wide mental health services to Brooklyn’s most vulnerable residents through its clinics in Bushwick, Canarsie, Flastbush-Sheepshead Bay, Williamsburg-Greenpoint, and downtown Brooklyn and the borough’s public schools. Its diverse staff of more than 100 professionals provide more than 60,000 visits annually to adults, seniors, children and their families. Public funding and government contracts comprise 90 percent of Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ income, but the remainder must be raised from the community. 

Left to right: Denise Arbesu, vice president of North Fork Bank, Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ board member, and co-chair of the gala event; honoree Linda Simms-Chin; her mother, Doris Simms, and Dr. Pam Straker, president and CEO of Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers. Photo by Greg Mango.