The Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet has been selected for a new Wallace Foundation initiative that will provide funding to help seven communities across the country reach their economic mobility goals by expanding enrichment and career-focused opportunities for young people. Poughkeepsie is expected to receive funding of approximately $5-6 million to improve interest-driven career exploration opportunities for youth outside the school day. 

The Children’s Cabinet was chosen by the Wallace Foundation following an extensive process, which started with an “Open Call” that drew interest from more than 1,700 communities.

The Wallace Foundation Fund for the Advancement of Opportunities for Adolescents at the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley initiative will explore how schools, nonprofits, government agencies, businesses and other entities can deepen their collaboration with the afterschool, enrichment and summer programs that comprise each community’s out-of-school sector. In addition to funding, participating communities will have access to technical assistance, peer learning opportunities and other resources. Through the multi-year initiative, The Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet will also build capacity for the community to sustain what works from the initiative and apply this to future efforts.

“We are truly appreciative to receive this opportunity to improve youth outcomes for an entire community,” said Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet Executive Director Jill Gomez. “By implementing the partnerships and innovations emerging from the Cabinet, we have been able to take a deeper dive into the data and the many out-of-school factors that influence youth development and classroom success in our city. The Wallace investment in our adolescents will allow us to make significant progress towards our North Star goal to increase socioeconomic mobility of youth in Poughkeepsie through connecting 5,000 youth to cradle to career supports.”

The Children’s Cabinet, formed in 2020, brings together representatives from across sectors -- including nonprofits, local government, schools, higher education, faith-based organizations, philanthropy, business and healthcare – and receives funding support from Dutchess County and the City of Poughkeepsie, the Dyson Foundation, Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, and  local corporate and individual donors.

Poughkeepsie City School District Superintendent of Schools Gregory Mott and City of Poughkeepsie Mayor Yvonne Flowers serve as co-chairs of the Poughkeepsie Children's Cabinet Leadership Council, as well as members of the Board of Directors. County Executive Sue Serino is additionally an ex officio member of the Board. 

“When we invest in our young people’s time beyond the classroom, we invest in their confidence, creativity, and future,” Mott said. "This partnership affirms that Poughkeepsie’s children deserve every opportunity to learn and grow no matter the hour of the day.”

The Wallace Foundation initiative aims to provide adolescents in the middle school through early high school years with greater access to out-of-school opportunities that spark new interests, skills, and an awareness of potential future careers they may choose to pursue. Collaboratively, local youth providers and city leaders will build systems that provide adolescents and their families more formalized support available to help them navigate across systems to find programs and resources they need.

“Young people spend more than 80% of time learning outside of school,” Flowers said. “It’s essential to have robust afterschool and summer programs that provide positive opportunities for our youth. We thank the Wallace Foundation for including Poughkeepsie in this innovative initiative.” 

The Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet previously received funding from the Wallace Foundation that, in part, was used to improve access to out-of-school time programming for Poughkeepsie youth and provided financial assistance to The Poughkeepsie Board of Artistic Youth (PK B.A.Y.) art project “Portal,” at Pulaski Park. The collaborative project was a partnership between the Cabinet and The Art Effect, Community Matters 2, Nubian Directions, The Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, and Family Services. 

State Sen. Rob Rolison said, “[t]he Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet has come a long way since its foundation during my time as mayor, and I’m incredibly proud to see how much it has grown. The Cabinet’s selection for this major investment is a testament to what can happen when a community unites around one shared goal — putting children first. As a member of the Leadership Council and the Ranking Member of the Senate’s Committee on Children and Families, I remain deeply committed to our mission of building systems that help every child in Poughkeepsie thrive. Together, we are reimagining how decisions are made and creating a future where every child in Poughkeepsie has the opportunity to succeed and shine.”

In addition to Poughkeepsie, the Wallace Foundation initiative includes partnerships in Adams County and Broomfield County, Colorado; Akron, Ohio; Hamilton County, Tennessee; Monterey County, California; South Salt Lake City and Millcreek, Utah; and Wayne County, New York.

Each of the cross-sector partnerships involved in the Initiative will engage in a year-long planning process comprised of vision-setting and program design. Beginning in 2027, the Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet and its local partners will concentrate on a range of core activities, including strengthening and expanding collaboration with Poughkeepsie’s youth development sector, bolstering youth development practices and programs and collecting and analyzing data across the community to track program availability, cost, participation to improve communication efforts and better outcomes.