Tuesday, February 28 at St. Francis College
Critical issues facing at-risk youth in Brooklyn’s low-income neighborhoods will be examined at Brooklyn Community Services (BCS) Youth Action Summit: Voices for the Future of Brooklyn, a panel discussion and youth action resource hub. This community event will be moderated by C. Nicole Mason, PhD, noted policy expert, economic justice advocate and author, on February 28 at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn from 5:30pm – 8:00pm. It is free to the public.
At the BCS Youth Action Summit, panelists will examine urgent issues in education, immigration, job readiness, police community relations, crime, self-esteem and other pressing problems affecting Brooklyn’s at-risk youth. There will be a Youth Action Summit resource hub, which features 23 Brooklyn youth-based nonprofits providing information, volunteer and mentorship opportunities and networking to inspire attendees to get involved in activities and programs in their neighborhoods.
Keynote speaker and moderator C. Nicole Mason Executive, PhD, Director of the Center for Research and Policy in the Public Interest (CR2PI) at the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, lives between Brooklyn and Washington, DC, and the author of Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America. Her commentary and writing have been featured in The Nation, Marie Claire, USA Today, ESSENCE, New York Times, Huffington Post, CNN, MSNBC and NPR.
“Children need strong communities–with high quality schools, libraries, and health care facilities. They also need to feel safe, and not worry about where their next meal is coming from or if they will have a home to come to at night,” Mason pointed out. “We must work together to make sure that all children regardless of where they live or socio-economic status have everything they need to survive and thrive.”
The BCS Youth Action Summit will feature an impressive group of panelists who will discuss issues facing young people from underserved neighborhoods, strategies that have been impactful and methods that attendees can utilize to support youth initiatives.
The featured panelists include: Bill Chong, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development; Aber Kawas, Youth Lead Organizer of the Arab American Association of New York; Kaberi Banerjee Murthy, Vice President of Programs at Brooklyn Community Foundation; Dana Edell, PhD, Executive Director of SPARK Movement and Marlon Peterson, a national social and criminal justice advocate and educator who spent 10 years in New York State prisons.
For more information on the BCS Youth Action Summit, please check wearebcs.org/youth-summit. Join the conversation with Brooklyn Community Services on FACEBOOK and also connect on Twitter and Instagram at @wearebcs.