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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Families Task Force Meeting - May 7, 2026: ALICE Report and Growing Together Initiative Update

Board of Legislators & Committees — Thursday, May 7, 2026

BodyWestchester County, New York

SessionBoard of Legislators & Committees

DateThursday, May 7, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:08:42

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:00

That is another thing.

0:01

Yes, that's crazy.

0:04

Okay, awesome.

0:06

We're just about ready, folks.

0:08

This meeting is being recorded and summarized.

0:14

All right.

0:15

Great.

0:15

Good morning.

0:17

I'm Nancy Barr, co-chair of the family's task force.

0:20

Kathy Hallis, co-chair.

0:23

And we're excited today to have United Way here to um to go over their Alice report and also to give us an update on the uh growing together program that was uh funded by the county legislators a few years ago.

0:41

And we're just really excited to to hear about those things.

0:45

And we have a couple of little housekeeping things before we get started and before we do our introductions.

0:51

I just want to say in June, we're going to meet on the the 11th, which is the second Thursday, uh, because June 4th, there's a big uh uh nonprofit Westchester event.

1:03

So I think we don't want to make people choose.

1:08

Um and uh and we'll we'll be focused uh in part on food uh insecurity, we'll be hearing from feeding Westchester.

1:17

Um we're also working on um uh put together a child care subcommittee of this task force because uh we have because we have a lot of interested uh parties um as you know that's been a very um kind of an intractable issue uh for a long time and um we have you know we we did put together that Westchester uh works scholarship which has been really well received and is really the only one of its kind yeah in the state and kept kept our child care in Westchester from deteriorating the way many uh it did in many other counties but um you know but we don't have as much money for that anymore we have uh very high demand uh for quality child care and um and over the last couple of years some of us have been investigating different methods that um other areas have been trying and we're we're in the process of sort of you know evaluating you know whether those pilots in other places worked and we may try to do uh pilots here so we have a lot going on so you'll hear more about that um anybody who's j you know particularly interested in that let us know um and um meanwhile we'll fill you in uh uh as that moves along and I don't know if did either of you have any additional comments in that area.

2:52

Oh I have another announcement.

2:54

Okay, that's okay.

2:55

Go ahead.

2:56

Um the uh disconnect to reconnect uh group continues um and huge thanks to the Westchester Library System and in particular Pat Brigham for wonderful conference last week um the keynote in particular was spectacular Mia Sunstrom the CEO of the National Student Play and um and my daughter has made me take up Mahjong but because I went to this play conference I thought I need to play more so I am trying but it's not really fun to say so far and as we learned at the conference play is not play if it's not fun I may I may have to opt for something else if it doesn't do it for you yeah but um also the disconnect to reconnect group um is going to be holding a town hall webinar uh featuring Andy Lydell who is one of the uh founders of the edtech law center to talk about the recent landmark decision that went against meta and YouTube out in California and the implications of that uh save the date will be coming out shortly it's May 21st at noontime so we'll be sending that out widely as soon as we have the flyer and I I urge you to um you know to join in because it there's some interesting discussion to to follow for now indeed yeah um so let's do our our introductions and then we'll get right into the the program wanna go yes Kathy Hallis uh sometime Rajar player David Mammar Western County um Latcha Bright United Director of Social Tom Gabriel President CEO of the United Way and executive director of family ties in Westchester and on the screen Brad Turner and feeding Westchester good morning Ernest McCarthy County Youth Bureau good morning Ernest morning everyone Racco executive director of neighbors link thank you and good morning Avery hi Avery Zuvick also with United Way uh Chief Impact Officer and Janine good morning Janine O'Connor

5:00

Turner and feeding Westchester.

5:03

Good morning.

5:05

Ernest McFar and the Westchester County Youth Bureau.

5:07

Hi.

5:08

Good morning, Ernest.

5:09

Morning, Ron.

5:11

Corolla.

5:13

Hi everyone.

5:15

Executive Director of Neighbors Link.

5:18

Thank you.

5:19

Good morning, Avery.

5:21

Hi, Avery Zuvik, also with the United Way, uh, Chief Impact Officer.

5:26

And Janine.

5:28

Good morning, Janine O'Connor, Chief Program Officer at the Child Care Council of Westchester.

5:34

And Anitra.

5:36

Good morning, Anitra Guzmont Santana, Executive Director, Family Service Society Belongers.

5:42

Good morning, you guys.

5:42

And Leonard.

5:50

Thank you.

5:51

Angel.

5:53

Good morning, Ingo Gray Program and Policy Director, West Hattery.

5:59

And the Saena Joseph, Deputy Director at the Hudson Bounty Justice Center.

6:09

Okay, thanks for joining us.

6:10

Welcome everybody.

6:12

We have today as our coordinator.

6:17

Filling in for Alfie McGusson.

6:19

Thank you so much.

6:21

All right.

6:22

And with that, we'd like to turn the program over to Tom Gabriel.

6:26

Thank you so much for coming in today.

6:27

Thank you so much for having us.

6:28

We appreciate it.

6:30

Can we get the Alice presentation?

6:32

We're going to talk about two different things today.

6:35

Our 2025 Alice Report.

6:38

For those that don't know, Alice stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained and Employed.

6:44

It is a united way-driven study that's going on 20 years old now that looks at the real economic needs of that portion of the community that are living paycheck to paycheck.

6:58

And then the second thing we'll talk about is our new program Growing Together, which we are so excited about.

7:07

It's literally just launched a couple of days, a week or so ago, officially, thanks to the incredible generosity of the Board of Legislators and the Phelps Community Health Foundation.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Economic Development█████████████████████████25%

Maternal Health████████████████████████24%

Procedural████████████████16%

Nonprofit Sector███████████████15%

Workforce Development████████8%

Child Care Services█████5%

Public Engagement██2%

Technology and Innovation██2%

Food Assistance██2%

Summary of Proceedings

Families Task Force Meeting - May 7, 2026

On May 7, 2026, the Westchester County Families Task Force convened to discuss the 2025 ALICE Report and the new Growing Together Initiative. The meeting featured presentations from United Way of Westchester and Putnam, highlighting the economic challenges faced by 38% of Westchester households and a new program to support caregivers of young children.

Discussion Items

2025 ALICE Report Presentation

Tom Gabriel, President and CEO of United Way of Westchester and Putnam, presented findings from the 2025 ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Report. Key data points include:

38% of Westchester households live in poverty or are paycheck-to-paycheck (10% in poverty, 28% ALICE).
Since 2010, the number of ALICE households has increased 36% (from 78,000 to over 106,000), and poverty households have grown 32% (from 29,000 to 38,000).
The household survival budget for a family of four with two children in child care is $131,000 per year, covering only basic necessities.
Food costs increased 166% from 2010 to 2023; the ALICE Essentials Index rose 7.3% annually (2018-2023), outpacing the CPI (6.1%) and wage growth.
More than half of Westchester jobs are hourly positions, making workers vulnerable to economic instability.
Top five impacted zip codes: 10550 (Mount Vernon), 10553 (Mount Vernon), 10701 (Yonkers), 10566 (Peekskill), and 10549 (Mount Kisco).
Single-parent households, seniors, and Black, African American, and Hispanic/Latino households are disproportionately ALICE.
Tom Gabriel raised concerns about AI replacing higher-paying jobs, compounding worker vulnerability.
Co-Chair Nancy Barr and others noted that childcare costs often exceed rent, and that the federal government is unlikely to increase childcare funding, necessitating more local advocacy.
Cindy Cannisher (PACE Women's Justice Center) emphasized the importance of understanding clients' lived experiences.
Ernest McCarthy (County Youth Bureau) inquired about plans to identify next-generation jobs; Gabriel noted ongoing discussions at the Business Council regarding a continuum of jobs from tech to manufacturing.

Growing Together Initiative Update

Avery Zuvic, Chief Impact Officer, and Latasha Griffith, Director of Social Work, introduced the Growing Together program, which launched in late April 2026. The program provides caregivers of children ages 0-6 with curated, age-appropriate resources on 10 key topics (e.g., prenatal care, child development, health, school readiness). Key features:

Enrollment via website (growingtogetherwestchester.org), referrals from healthcare providers, or self-enrollment via QR code.
Content is sourced from local nonprofit partners (e.g., Feeding Westchester, Child Care Council) and reviewed by social workers for accuracy.
The website offers text-to-speech and translation in multiple languages to improve accessibility.
For high-need families, additional support includes four home-delivered medically tailored meal boxes (21 meals each, 84 total) via DoorDash, and $200 in Lyft credits for transportation to appointments.
The program is funded by Westchester County and the Phelps Community Health Foundation.
Latasha Griffith noted ongoing outreach to community partners, including tabling at events.
Avery Zuvic shared that the program aims to improve maternal and infant health (noting that Black women are 2.6 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes), lift families out of poverty, and improve school readiness.
Co-Chair Nancy Barr praised the initiative, noting it originated from the Zero to Six Committee and has become a multifaceted resource.

Key Outcomes

The Task Force committed to continued advocacy for affordable childcare, food security, and economic stability.
Next meeting set for June 11, 2026 (second Thursday) to focus on food insecurity with Feeding Westchester.
A childcare subcommittee is being formed to explore pilot programs.
The Disconnect to Reconnect group will host a town hall webinar on May 21, 2026, about a recent court decision against Meta and YouTube.
United Way will share the Growing Together flyer and website link with Task Force members for distribution.
Future presentations may include the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program.

Meeting Transcript

That is another thing. Yes, that's crazy. Okay, awesome. We're just about ready, folks. This meeting is being recorded and summarized. All right. Great. Good morning. I'm Nancy Barr, co-chair of the family's task force. Kathy Hallis, co-chair. And we're excited today to have United Way here to um to go over their Alice report and also to give us an update on the uh growing together program that was uh funded by the county legislators a few years ago. And we're just really excited to to hear about those things. And we have a couple of little housekeeping things before we get started and before we do our introductions. I just want to say in June, we're going to meet on the the 11th, which is the second Thursday, uh, because June 4th, there's a big uh uh nonprofit Westchester event. So I think we don't want to make people choose. Um and uh and we'll we'll be focused uh in part on food uh insecurity, we'll be hearing from feeding Westchester. Um we're also working on um uh put together a child care subcommittee of this task force because uh we have because we have a lot of interested uh parties um as you know that's been a very um kind of an intractable issue uh for a long time and um we have you know we we did put together that Westchester uh works scholarship which has been really well received and is really the only one of its kind yeah in the state and kept kept our child care in Westchester from deteriorating the way many uh it did in many other counties but um you know but we don't have as much money for that anymore we have uh very high demand uh for quality child care and um and over the last couple of years some of us have been investigating different methods that um other areas have been trying and we're we're in the process of sort of you know evaluating you know whether those pilots in other places worked and we may try to do uh pilots here so we have a lot going on so you'll hear more about that um anybody who's j you know particularly interested in that let us know um and um meanwhile we'll fill you in uh uh as that moves along and I don't know if did either of you have any additional comments in that area. Oh I have another announcement. Okay, that's okay. Go ahead. Um the uh disconnect to reconnect uh group continues um and huge thanks to the Westchester Library System and in particular Pat Brigham for wonderful conference last week um the keynote in particular was spectacular Mia Sunstrom the CEO of the National Student Play and um and my daughter has made me take up Mahjong but because I went to this play conference I thought I need to play more so I am trying but it's not really fun to say so far and as we learned at the conference play is not play if it's not fun I may I may have to opt for something else if it doesn't do it for you yeah but um also the disconnect to reconnect group um is going to be holding a town hall webinar uh featuring Andy Lydell who is one of the uh founders of the edtech law center to talk about the recent landmark decision that went against meta and YouTube out in California and the implications of that uh save the date will be coming out shortly it's May 21st at noontime so we'll be sending that out widely as soon as we have the flyer and I I urge you to um you know to join in because it there's some interesting discussion to to follow for now indeed yeah um so let's do our our introductions and then we'll get right into the the program wanna go yes Kathy Hallis uh sometime Rajar player David Mammar Western County um Latcha Bright United Director of Social Tom Gabriel President CEO of the United Way and executive director of family ties in Westchester and on the screen Brad Turner and feeding Westchester good morning Ernest McCarthy County Youth Bureau good morning Ernest morning everyone Racco executive director of neighbors link thank you and good morning Avery hi Avery Zuvick also with United Way uh Chief Impact Officer and Janine good morning Janine O'Connor Turner and feeding Westchester. Good morning. Ernest McFar and the Westchester County Youth Bureau. Hi. Good morning, Ernest. Morning, Ron. Corolla. Hi everyone. Executive Director of Neighbors Link. Thank you. Good morning, Avery. Hi, Avery Zuvik, also with the United Way, uh, Chief Impact Officer. And Janine. Good morning, Janine O'Connor, Chief Program Officer at the Child Care Council of Westchester. And Anitra. Good morning, Anitra Guzmont Santana, Executive Director, Family Service Society Belongers. Good morning, you guys. And Leonard. Thank you. Angel. Good morning, Ingo Gray Program and Policy Director, West Hattery. And the Saena Joseph, Deputy Director at the Hudson Bounty Justice Center. Okay, thanks for joining us. Welcome everybody. We have today as our coordinator. Filling in for Alfie McGusson. Thank you so much. All right. And with that, we'd like to turn the program over to Tom Gabriel.

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