Poughkeepsie Children's Cabinet: 2024 End of Year Report
2024 End of Year Report
Dear Friends,
As 2024 comes to a close, I have been drawn in a renewed way to the sparkling holiday lights that decorate local businesses and homes throughout Poughkeepsie on my drive home from work each day I find myself thinking about how each light is a small part of the whole, that creating a small point of brightness, each bulb contributes to the overall impact of its display, and taken together throughout an area, creates an overarching message of celebration. Similarly, each of the youth and families within Poughkeepsie are working hard to shine, to share their talents, hopes and selves with others. Individually, a light can serve as a beacon and a bright spot in the dark – but only collectively, when each light is welcomed and fostered, does the f we are thinking each day about how to create a culture of excellence a youth need, what are the supports that will propel them, to share their
I am filled with gratitude when I reflect on my first year at the Cabinet. G brilliant co-founders Rob Watson and James Watson; for the support a Directors; for the warm welcome from community partners, civic leader for the Cabinet’s role as convener and partner, as we increasingly coor the city. Our goal, our North Star, is to scale and deepen the connectio cradle-to career continuum, to focus on raising academic and social ou impact so we can celebrate together our victories, and strategize how each organization and individual contributes to the complex pathway f pathway to socio-economic mobility
The following pages share a snapshot of the Cabinet’s journey in 2024 - strengthening immediate supports for families while building the systems necessary for lasting change From launching youth leadership initiatives to securing transformative grants, the Cabinet is creating an infrastructure that will support our children's success for generations to come. This is just the beginning. Thank you for sharing your light with us, and we look forward to shining together in 2025
Jill Gomez Executive Director
Mission
Our mission is to connect all members of the Poughkeepsie community who support children in order to create and coordinate a cradle-to-career system of services, supports, and opportunities that ensures every child can thrive in Poughkeepsie regardless of race, ethnicity, poverty, or circumstance.
Core Values
Prioritize Youth: Ensure Children and Youth Come First
Cultivate Sustainable Community
Leadership
Catalyze Inclusive Systems of Opportunity for ALL In and Out of School
Embrace Equity, Joy, and Justice
Scale Impact through Citywide Coordination and Alignment
21
110%
160
14
PK BAY, conducting research and creating public art for their community
Increase in early childhood care spots in Poughkeepsie from 2020 to 2023 (from 455 to 956)
Number of full-time after-school seats for students in Kindergarten through 5th grade currently available in Poughkeepsie, establishing our baseline for growth
Size of the Poughkeepsie delegation that traveled to Birmingham to learn from Purpose Built Communities, showing deep collaboration, and leading to our successful Choice Neighborhoods grant
Joining the National Stage: StriveTogether Partnership and Brand Evolution
In a pivotal moment in the Cabinet's growth, we were welcomed into the prestigious StriveTogether network, joining a national cohort of 72 communities committed to improving outcomes for children through data-driven, collaborative approaches. The StriveTogether
partnership has already yielded valuable opportunities, including tsupport for the emerging New York State policy coalition to advocate for sustainable youth funding streams.
To better reflect our evolution from concept to action, the Cabinet unveiled our new logo. The modernized visual identity captures our commitment to building bridges between services. The Cabinet also successfully transitioned from fiscal sponsorship to independent 501(c)(3) status, representing a crucial step in our organizational maturity.
Amplifying Youth Voice: The First PCSD Youth Summit
The Cabinet supported the launch of the inaugural Poughkeepsie City School District Youth Summit at Dutchess Community College, a landmark event that brought together young people from across the city to share their perspectives on community challenges and opportunities The Cabinet's support of this initiative reflected our commitment to ensuring youth voices shape local policy and programming. Students offered invaluable insights that continue to inform our strategic planning and program development.
Strengthening Early Childhood Systems
In partnership with the Dutchess County Workforce Investment Board, the Cabinet co-hosted a groundbreaking Early Childhood Care Roundtable that brought together providers, policymakers, and advocates to address the critical shortage of affordable childcare in Poughkeepsie. This collaborative dialogue led to the development of strategic partnerships that would later inform our successful implementation of The Basics community strategy and shape our approach to early childhood system-building. The roundtable exemplified our commitment to working across sectors to create sustainable solutions for our youngest residents.
Choice Neighborhoods: From Vision to Victory
What began with an exploratory trip to Birmingham with 14 community leaders in April blossomed into one of Poughkeepsie's most significant wins of 2024. The journey started at Purpose Built Communities' national conference, where our delegation glimpsed the transformative potential of comprehensive neighborhood revitalization. This inspiration led to an intensive summer of collaboration between City of Poughkeepsie officials, the Poughkeepsie Housing Authority, the Cabinet, and MASS Design to craft an ambitious housing revitalization plan centered on the Martin Luther King Jr and Thurgood Marshall Terrace developments In September, these efforts bore fruit when Poughkeepsie was named one of just 13 communities nationwide to receive the prestigious Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant - a federal initiative that supports locally driven strategies to transform distressed public housing and revitalize surrounding neighborhoods through a comprehensive approach to housing, people, and community. As the first New York State recipient in over a decade, the proposal's perfect score in partnership development reflected the deep collaborative spirit that has become Poughkeepsie's hallmark, and marks the beginning of a 24 month planning process involving community residents and leadership.
PKBAY: A Youth Vision Realized
The summer of 2024 marked a transformative moment for youth leadership in Poughkeepsie with the culmination of the first Poughkeepsie Board of Artistic Youth (PK BAY) initiative. Twenty-one young leaders from five youth organizations came together to reimagine public spaces through art while conducting vital research on
Summer 2024 marked two significant milestones in the Cabinet's institutional development Our transition from fiscal sponsorship to independent 501(c)(3) status represented a crucial step in our organizational maturity. Simultaneously, we welcomed Purpose Built Communities (PBC) for a site visit that would later prove instrumental in our successful Choice Neighborhoods application, as well as Poughkeepsie’s designation as a prospective PBC Network member. This season of growth demonstrated the Cabinet’s readiness to take on expanded responsibilities in service of Poughkeepsie's youth and families barriers to youth engagement. Their journey culminated in two remarkable achievements: the installation of "Portal," a community-designed sculpture at Pulaski Park, and a groundbreaking presentation to both the City Council and Board of Education on the challenges teens face in accessing after-school programming The students' research, which gathered insights from over 80 of their peers, highlighted critical issues around transportation and part-time employment - findings that continue to inform the Cabinet's strategic planning around youth services.
Building Independence and Infrastructure
Community Engagement & Partnerships
Data-Driven Decision Making: Community Dashboard Launch
Providing a critical resource to the community, the Cabinet launched our comprehensive Community Dashboard, a pioneering tool that makes crucial data about youth outcomes and community indicators publicly accessible. The dashboard represents our commitment to transparency and data-driven decision making, tracking everything from early childhood development to post-secondary success, with results disaggregated by race to highlight and address persistent inequities. This resource, created with the support of Finding Common Purpose, has become an essential tool for partners and policymakers in understanding and addressing the challenges facing Poughkeepsie's youth.
Quality Improvement in Action: YPQI Implementation
In a landmark move toward system-wide quality improvement, our core program partners adopted the Youth Program Quality Intervention (YPQI) framework, focusing initially on three critical areas: Active Engagement, Skill-Building, and Reframing Conflict This shared commitment to evidence-based quality standards marked a significant step in our journey to create consistently excellent programming across all youth-serving organizations in Poughkeepsie.
Growing Our Team, Deepening Our Impact
The Cabinet's evolution from vision to action took a significant leap forward in 2024 with the strategic expansion of our team. Matt Evans joined as Community Partnership Director, bringing extensive experience working in schools and achieving student impact within national strategies. Alexandra Smith came aboard as our Children's Funding Coordinator, contributing valuable experience in collective impact initiatives and public financing from her work with major foundations and government agencies. The Children's Funding Coordinator position, supported through a grant from the Children's Funding Project, strengthens our capacity to develop sustainable financing strategies for youth services. As we enter 2025, we're excited to welcome Bryce Holland as our Talent Development Fellow, a role that emerged from our commitment to building pathways for local youth to return and lead in their community. This growing team reflects our dedication to building the infrastructure needed to support our ambitious cradle-to-career vision.
Learning from the Best: Harlem Children's Zone Visit
November saw a delegation of Poughkeepsie leaders travel to the renowned Harlem Children's Zone's Baby College, an opportunity to learn from one of the nation's most successful cradle-to-career initiatives This visit provided valuable insights into implementing comprehensive early childhood strategies and strengthened our partnership with the William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children's Zone, which continues to provide technical assistance to our initiatives.
Sharing Our Story: FSCS National Conference
The Cabinet's Executive Director Jill Gomez took the national stage in December, presenting at the Full Service Community Schools National Conference alongside national thought leaders from the Children’s Funding Project, StriveTogether, and Harvard GSE EdRedesign Lab. This opportunity to share Poughkeepsie's emerging story of collaborative impact not only raised our city's profile but also allowed us to contribute to the national conversation about effective strategies for supporting youth and families. The presentation highlighted our unique approach to integrating multiple federal funding streams, including Full Service Community Schools and Choice Neighborhoods, to create comprehensive support for Poughkeepsie families.
Rob Watson, Jr., Chair
Executive Director, Harvard EdRedesign Lab
Andrea Reynolds, Treasurer
President & CEO, Dyson Foundation
Sally Cross, Secretary
Principal, SJ Cross Consulting
Hon. Yvonne Flowers
Mayor, City of Poughkeepsie
Dr. Eric Jay Rosser, Superintendent
Poughkeepsie City School District
Sue Serino
Dutchess County Executive, ex-officio
Jill Gomez
PCC Executive Director, ex-officio
James Watson
Co-Founder, Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet
Rachel Kashimer
Deputy County Executive, Chief of Staff
John Penney
Community Engagement Dir., City of Poughkeepsie
Karen Williams
Youth Services Director, City of Poughkeepsie
The Davies Family
The Gorman Family
The Schwartz Family
Wallace Foundation
Thank You
Hon. Yvonne Flowers
Mayor, City of Poughkeepsie Co-Chair
Dr. Eric Jay Rosser
Superintendent, Poughkeepsie City School District Co-Chair
Stacey Bottoms, Associate Minister, Youth Director and Assistant Clerk, Beulah Baptist Church
Dr. Elizabeth Bradley, President, Vassar College
Natasha Brown, Community Schools Executive Director, Poughkeepsie City School District
Frank Castella, Executive Director/CEO, Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce
Bob Creedon, Vice President, Poughkeepsie City School District Board of Education
Sally Cross, Principal, SJ Cross Consulting
Leah Feldman, CEO, Family Services
Jonathan Jacobson, New York State Assemblyman
Dr. Peter Grant Jordan, President, Dutchess Community College
Tom Lawrence, Director, Poughkeepsie Public Library District
Geraldine Laybourne, Co-Founder, Day One Early Learning Community
Fatimah Martinez Santiago, President, Poughkeepsie City School District Board of Education
Jeannie Montano, President/CEO, United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region
Tamoya Norwood, Parent, Poughkeepsie City School District
Kimberly Popken, President, Poughkeepsie Public School Teachers’ Association
Andrea Reynolds, President & CEO, Dyson Foundation
Robert G. Rolison, New York State Senator
Dr. Tim Ryan, President, Culinary Institute of America
Dr. Livia Santiago-Rosado, Commissioner, Dutchess County Department of Health
Sue Serino, Dutchess County Executive
Karmen Smallwood, Assistant Commissioner, Dutchess County Youth Services
Lisa Spencer-Perry, Exec. Dir. of Strategic Planning and Resource Stewardship, Poughkeepsie City School District
Gabriela Vega-Matthews, Community Organizer and Advocate
Dr. Felicia Watson, Commissioner, Poughkeepsie Housing Authority
Dr. Kevin C. Weinman, President, Marist College
Da'Ron Wilson, Chairman, City of Poughkeepsie Common Council; Executive Director of School Engagement, Poughkeepsie City School District
Robert Wright, President, Nubian Directions II Inc
Early Career Fellows: Young professionals (ages 21-25) from Poughkeepsie who share our commitment to educational equity and community service are invited to learn more about career pathways in social impact, engage in community service, and have fun exploring Poughkeepsie. Contact Bryce Holland, our Talent Development Fellow, to explore opportunities
Choice Community Ambassadors: Help shape the future of Poughkeepsie's Northside by nominating residents of Thurgood Marshall Terrace or Martin Luther King developments to serve as Community Ambassadors in our Choice Neighborhoods planning process Ambassadors will receive training and stipends while helping ensure resident voices guide neighborhood transformation. Contact Executive Director Jill Gomez, to submit a nomination.
Early Childhood Champions: Join our team of local caregivers making a difference for Poughkeepsie's youngest residents. Champions receive training in community outreach and early childhood development, connecting families to resources while building relationships that strengthen our community
Support Our Mission: Your financial contribution helps sustain and expand vital programs serving Poughkeepsie's youth, from early childhood initiatives to after-school programming Every dollar invested helps build pathways to success for our community's children. You can donate by clicking here.
Early Literacy Drive: Support early childhood literacy by donating gently used books for children ages 0-5 These books will be distributed to families through our Early Childhood Champions program, helping ensure every child has access to age-appropriate reading materials at home. Donations can be dropped off at: 201 Main St., Suite 101, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
