The Westchester County Youth Bureau, in partnership with Lower Hudson Valley My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, the Obama Foundation, and SUNY Westchester Community College, hosted the Youth Leadership Summit aimed at overcoming obstacles and fostering leadership and empowerment for youth.
The event kicked off with inspirational messages from leaders in education, community, and sports, and featured student-led panel discussions on personal branding and the impact of social media on youth culture. Attendees, called “fellows,” also heard from a panel of MBK alumni and members of WCC’s Black and Hispanic Male Initiative who shared their experiences since graduating high school.
New Rochelle’s fellows were joined by fellows from Greenburgh, Mount Vernon, Newburgh, Ossining, Peekskill, Port Chester, Southern Westchester BOCES, White Plains, and Yonkers.
“Your generation is redefining what leadership looks like: collaborative, innovative, inclusive, and unafraid to imagine something better,” said Westchester County Youth Bureau Executive Director Ernest McFadden. “In a world that often tells young people to wait your turn, you are proving that your turn is now.”
My Brother’s Keeper New Rochelle Program Coordinator Nate Adams said, “It brought me great joy to bear witness to such a dynamic room of motivated young men of color who represented so many communities from our MBK Hudson Valley school districts.”
Student attendees got the message.
“I honestly loved it. It’s not often that you’re lucky enough to be surrounded by people who think and look like you,” said New Rochelle High School junior Kelechi Njoku. “There’s no better encouragement than seeing people like you succeeding and thriving in an array of ways. I learned so many valuable lessons from my peers, and I can’t wait for another opportunity like this.”
The Alliance is a consortium 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 fourteen local MBK programs to improve life outcomes of boys and young men.