Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet Names Members

POUGHKEEPSIE – Poughkeepsie City School District Superintendent Dr. Eric Rosser and Mayor Rob Rolison announced the members of the Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet Executive Committee designed to shepherd a shared vision and cradle-to-career path for child development in the city.

Children’s cabinets are used by localities around the country to bring together school districts, government agencies, child-serving community organizations and other local stakeholders to improve their ability to collaborate and coordinate youth supports and services.

“This is a big day for the Poughkeepsie City School District and the community in general,” said Superintendent Rosser. “The formation of the Children’s Cabinet presents unlimited opportunities for better coordination among city organizations and institutions but also to bring in others to provide more resources and their expertise to enrich our children’s future.”

“Dr. Rosser and I are excited about the potential of the Children’s Cabinet,” said Mayor Rolison. “For some time now, it’s been abundantly clear an effort has been needed to galvanize so many well-intentioned initiatives being made in the city to create opportunities and a better life for our youth.”

Cabinets address young people’s holistic needs as they grow and develop. By creating common goals, sharing and comparing data and addressing gaps or duplications in resources, leaders in different systems (healthcare, human services, parks and recreation, higher education and others) are empowered to craft better policies and decisions.

While our schools are of central importance in our children’s lives, it is important to recognize that children spend much more time out of the classroom than in it. For this reason, children’s cabinets are designed to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among schools, cities and the many other public services and institutions that children interact with outside of the classroom, including libraries, health clinics, social workers and after-school programs.

The development of the Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet will benefit from the resources of The Local Children’s Cabinet Network, a national initiative of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Education Redesign Lab, The Forum for Youth Investment and the Children’s Funding Project. Both the city and school district are committing staff resources as well.

The Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet was an outcome of the first-ever Poughkeepsie Summit at Harvard University, which convened more than 20 local officials and nonprofit leaders to discuss community development opportunities related to the City. This summit focused on developing citywide solutions to help children succeed.

The Cabinet, which held its initial meeting today, will discuss developing a citywide collective impact agenda for development in public education and creating talent pipelines to enroll young people and emerging leaders in strategic projects for the betterment of the city.
The Executive Committee also will expand the Cabinet to include working groups – in areas such as integrated health and human services and out-of-school enrichment and learning – to get a better assessment of what programs are available and how they can be improved.

These groups will also include students and community members. Developing common goals, sharing and comparing dataand addressing gaps in resources allows leaders to craft better policies and decisions, ultimately serving children and youth in more effective ways.
Dr. Rosser and Mayor Rolison are pleased to announce the members of The Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet Executive Committee:
* Rob Rolison, City of Poughkeepsie Mayor (Co-Chair)
* Dr. Eric Rosser, Poughkeepsie City School District Superintendent (Co-Chair)
* Sarah Salem, Councilmember-at-large of the City of Poughkeepsie Common Council
* Dr. Felicia Watson, President of the Poughkeepsie City School District Board of Education
* Marcus Molinaro, Dutchess County Executive
* Karmen Smallwood, Dutchess County Assistant Youth Commissioner
* Tom Lawrence, Director of the Poughkeepsie Public Library District
* Andrea Reynolds, President and CEO of the Dyson Foundation
Nevill Smythe, Interim President and CEO of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley
* Paul Calogerakis, President of Poughkeepsie Alliance
* Frank Castella, Executive Director and CEO of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce
* Dr. Pamela Edington, President of Dutchess Community College
* Dr. Dennis Murray, President of Marist College
* Dr. Elizabeth Bradley, President ofVassar College
* Dr. Donald P. Christian, President of SUNY New Paltz
* Dr. Tim Ryan, President of the Culinary Institute of America
* Gabriela Vega-Matthews, Community Organizer and Advocate
* Geraldine Laybourne, Co-Founder of Day One
* Sue Serino, New York State Senator
* Jonathan Jacobson, New York State Assemblyman
* Brian Doyle, Chief Executive Officer of Family Services
* Stacey Bottoms, Associate Minister, Youth Director and Assistant Clerk, Beulah Baptist Church
* Timmian Massie, Senior Vice President for Marketing, Public Affairs and Government Relations at Nuvance Health
* Gloria Cukar, Director of External Affairs, Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center
* Tamoya Norwood, President of the PTA Early Learning Center.
* Heather Martino, Poughkeepsie High School Special Education Teacher and Poughkeepsie Public School Teachers’ Association President,
* Robert Wright, President of Nubian Directions II
* President Jeannie Montano, President and CEO of the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region

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