FPWA 2018 Annual Meeting

On Thursday, October 11th, more than 100 nonprofit leaders and social justice advocates across New York City gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by the human services sector at our annual meeting. It served as an opportunity to begin conversations around “ending the poverty to prison pipeline” – a task force assembled by FPWA in early 2018. The task force consists of leaders in academia, faith communities, human services, government, and criminal justice system-impacted individuals who worked to analyze the systemic pattern between poverty, race, and high jail incarceration rates in New York City’s community districts.

FPWA CEO and Executive Director Jennifer Jones Austin spoke of the critical issues facing low-income families here in New York and across the nation, and how FPWA has sought to be proactive in addressing them. Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives, J. Phillip Thompson, who oversees a diverse collection of priority initiatives including Pre-K for All and ThriveNYC delivered a riveting speech about the inequality faced by marginalized groups and the importance of organizing people to have a voice on all things that have an impact on their lives.

A panel discussion centered on the importance of disrupting the poverty to prison pipeline and how human services, government agencies, the faith community, and concerned allies can achieve this together followed the Deputy Mayor’s keynote. Panelists included task force members Sharon Content, Founder and President, Children of Promise; John Ducksworth, New York Theological Seminary/Former Captain, Salvation Army; Dr. Michael Lindsey, Executive Director, McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research; and Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Executive Director, NYC Department of Health and Mental Health’s Health Access Equity Unit.