Community Conversations

Recognizing that community-wide commitment is critical for successful public/private partnerships, Yonkers Partners in Education is using its unique position as an independent education fund to convene a broad array of stakeholders in a series of community conversations about supporting the schools.

The first was an Education Summit held in January 2008 bringing widespread attention to the effort of supporting our schools with keynote speaker, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Following Mayor Bloomberg’s remarks key community stakeholders - including business leaders, community-based organizations, colleges and universities, parents, educators and faith-based organizations - participated in breakout sessions where they responded to the question:

“What resources can each stakeholder group contribute to improve academic achievement for all students in the Yonkers Public Schools?”

These discussions identified three needs that currently exist and could be addressed through careful planning with stakeholder groups in the community:

• College and career access in high schools with a college-going culture in all schools throughout the district.

•  Increased parent involvement in public education

• Greater awareness of community resources available to support children, i.e. arts and cultural programs, academic tutoring, after-school programs, family literacy programs, sports programs, etc.

Future conversations will be less formal, but still organized by sector so that continuous feedback is gathered and stakeholders have a voice in addressing these three areas of community need. Learn More

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