Children’s Association (WCA), the county’s only independent child advocacy organization, held its third annual Commissioners’ Conversation on Thursday, June 17, at the Greenburgh Public Library. The event attracted over 80 attendees from across the County and was sponsored by M&T Bank Charitable Foundation.
The Commissioners’ Conversation brought together Westchester County officials to share updates, insights, and strategies for addressing the challenges facing children, youth, and young adults. The panelists were Dr. Sherlita Amler, M.D., M.S. Commissioner of Health, Rachel Kotzur, Assistant Commissioner of Probation, Leonard Townes Commissioner of Social Services, Lisette Matos Deputy Commissioner of Social Services, Ernest McFadden Executive Director, Youth Bureau, Elizabeth Oliveto Program Administrator, Westchester-Putnam Career Center Network, and Michael Orth Commissioner of Community Mental Health.
This year’s discussion comes at a particularly urgent time, as federal funding cuts threaten the stability of critical programs and services that support families across Westchester. The conversation was robust and included burning issues such as marijuana use amongst our youth, disparities that persist for our black and brown communities, and how the county is thinking about preparing the workforce of the future with rapidly changing technology such as AI emerging.
Limarie Cabrera, the Director of Data, Operations and Finance, served as the events moderator. Limarie said, “The point of the WCA’s Commissioners’ Conversation is to have a meaningful discussion about how the community, non-profit organizations and government agencies alike, can take a proactive stance in the face of uncertainty to ensure that Westchester’s children and youth continue to thrive. We here at WCA will continue to ask difficult questions from a place of kindness – the issues that children face today will not be solved in a single morning, but they can be addressed through the cooperation and the coordination that we saw at today’s panel.”
