The Westchester County Youth Bureau, in partnership with the Lower Hudson Valley My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and the New York State My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, hosted a Youth Leadership Symposium aimed at overcoming obstacles and fostering leadership and empowerment for young men of color. The first in-person MBK symposium since 2019 attracted over 350 students, superintendents and elected officials from Westchester County and Hudson Valley school districts to the County Center in White Plains.
The event kicked off with inspirational messages from educational and community leaders and featured a keynote address by speaker, motivator and author Brad Butler, II, entitled “From IEPs to Degrees.” Attendees then went on to expert and student-led panel discussions on a wide range of relevant topics such as the value of education in attaining lifetime success, teen dating and emotional resilience, and the impacts of social media and violence on youth culture.
During the Superintendents Fireside Chat segment, school district leaders from across the Hudson Valley didn’t just answer questions; they were challenged to name commitments, close gaps and show up differently for the students who need them most. The conversations moved beyond acknowledgment and into action, challenged to make specific, measurable outcomes for the students and community partners who were present.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said: “The MBK Youth Leadership Symposium and events like it are invaluable to creating the confidence and skills needed for our young men of color to have a seat at the table. In a world that often defines people by what they lack, we can be inspired by the narratives shared today about how adversity can be the catalyst to success. I want them to understand that excellence is a habit to be practiced every day, and that they have the power to shape their own reality and make this community a better place.”
Westchester County Youth Bureau Executive Director Ernest McFadden said: “At the Youth Bureau, our mission is to ensure every young person has access to the guidance, resources and opportunities they need to thrive. Seeing hundreds of students come together with educators and community leaders reminds us that empowerment happens when young people are surrounded by support, inspiration and opportunity.”
MBK New Rochelle Program Coordinator Nate Adams said: “To witness the outcome of the Hudson Valley Symposium on April 21 was truly a rewarding experience for the committee that worked for over six months to provide this space for our students. To see the light in the eyes of our students, to hear the conversations from our young men in the breakout sessions and to feel the energy in the auditorium lets me know that there are some truly empowered young men formulating their life story here in the Hudson Valley school districts.”
MBK New Rochelle student Quincy Fosu said: “I was granted the opportunity to present in one of the breakout sessions on something I truly see myself doing in the future. The MBK event gave me the opportunity to build on what already exists within me. I wish we could be poured into like this more often. The statement that stuck with me is that ‘gems can be given freely, but their value depends on the hands that use them.’”
Right NOW Leaders Host André G. Early said: “The 2026 MBK Symposium was proof that when educators, policymakers and young people occupy the same space with intention, something transformative happens. Those conversations don’t stay in the room, they travel home, into classrooms, into policy and into the lives of young men across the Hudson Valley.”
The MBK Alliances are consortiums of municipalities, local educational agencies and non‐profit organizations that have accepted former President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Community MBK Challenge. Since 2018, Westchester County and the Youth Bureau have partnered with 14 local MBK programs to improve life outcomes of boys and young men of color, and help change the narrative too often associated with this demographic.
