Promoting Partnerships to Advance Educational Justice in Poughkeepsie
January 24–25, 2025
Promoting Partnerships to Advance Educational Justice in Poughkeepsie was a two-day program that addressed educational inequalities affecting justice-involved youth in Poughkeepsie and Arlington. This event explored solutions to the school-to-prison pipeline, focusing on justice-involved students and those experiencing disconnection during their K-12 journey. Participants discussed ways to:
- Improve communication between youth-serving organizations to address the “siloed” nature of community programs
- Enhance collaboration among local colleges to support K-12 student programs and educational justice research
- Strengthen coordination between colleges, community groups, and local school boards to provide support for justice-involved youth
- Gather input from students and their families on barriers to graduation and systemic justice issues
Convened by: Andy Borum, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Erin McCloskey, Professor of Education, Taneisha Means, Associate Professor of Political Science, Molly (Mary L.) Shanley, Professor Emerita of Political Science.
The target audience of Promoting Partnerships to Advance Educational Justice in Poughkeepsie was members of the Poughkeepsie (and broader Dutchess County community) who were nominated by local elected officials, educators, non-profit leaders, and others.
The Topics
- Keynote Presentation by Karmen Smallwood: On Resilience and Achievement: Leveraging Individual Student Support Plans to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Youth Criminal Justice in the Schools and Community
- Barriers, Solutions, and Bridges
- Crowdsourcing Solutions - Insights and Unanswered Questions
- Partnerships and Possibilities - Higher Education
Keynote Speaker
Karmen Smallwood
Assistant Commissioner for Youth Services and Director of the Youth Bureau for Community and Family Services, Dutchess County
Karmen is charged with leading the Path To Promise initiative. She has more than 15 years of experience working in the non-profit sector as a program director, grant manager and youth advocate. In her current position, she works to enhance community assets by bridging research with practice and aligning efforts to provide the best array of resources, services and support for children, youth, and families.
Prior to assuming her current position, she served as a law enforcement officer initiating programs to increase justice-impacted individual’s access to resources and opportunities. Her Interactive Journaling program and research study developed in partnership with Marist College was featured at the New York State Pretrial Services Conference and Siena Colleges’ Engage for Change Conference. She is currently spearheading local initiatives to address violence in schools and communities through her involvement in the Dutchess County Youth and Police Initiative.
As a pragmatic leader with experience in program and leadership development, she is committed to making positive sustainable contributions in her community. She is an active volunteer, serving as a trustee at Beulah Baptist Church and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Iota Alpha Omega Chapter, and the Mid-Hudson Ivy Foundation.
She is an accomplished individual who has been recognized for her exceptional community contributions. In 2023, she received the Real Skills Network Inc.’s Community Icon Award. The following year, in 2024, she was honored with the Northern Dutchess NAACP Judge Jane Bolin Justice Award and named The Art Effect’s Community Honoree.
Ms. Smallwood holds a B.A. from Howard University and a M.A. in Counseling and Community Psychology from Marist College.
She is a parent, visionary and changemaker who strives to inspire and empower others with kindness, compassion, and humility.
Abstract
Nelson Mandela famously believed that “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” But what happens when pervasive equity issues within our local educational systems directly impact the delivery of quality education, educational experiences, access to education, and education outcomes? We propose a multi-day workshop and subsequent follow-up session at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts to explore and partner to respond to these educational inequities within the city and town of Poughkeepsie. Our goal is to develop avenues for coordination between programs and services that support young people in completing their secondary education and, in doing so, avoid surveillance, discipline, and involvement in the juvenile and criminal justice systems both within and outside school. This proposal arises from months of conversations between members of local community organizations and faculty from Vassar, Marist, and Dutchess Community Colleges, all of whom are interested in collaborating to assess the effectiveness of existing programs serving local young people. Those conversations revealed a pressing need for an ongoing network of communication and coordination among the colleges, community organizations, and local schools (i.e., Arlington Central School District and Poughkeepsie City School District). The workshop we propose is the first step in establishing such a network.
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The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts
165 College Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New York 12604