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New Rochelle Officials To Lay Out City's 'My Brother's Keeper' Action Plan

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – After months of meetings, discussions and a Local Action Summit with the community, local school and elected officials are gearing up to announce the city’s plans for the future after they accepted President Barack Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper Challenge” to improve educational opportunities for children.

New Rochelle High School Principal Reggie Richardson and City Councilman Jared Rice, who has been at the forefront of the city's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative.

New Rochelle High School Principal Reggie Richardson and City Councilman Jared Rice, who has been at the forefront of the city's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative.

Photo Credit: NRCSD
The New Rochelle City Council accepting President Barack Obama's "My Brother's Keeper Challenge" earlier this year.

The New Rochelle City Council accepting President Barack Obama's "My Brother's Keeper Challenge" earlier this year.

Photo Credit: Jay G. Wegimont

Since hosting the Action Summit in June – when New Rochelle became the only city in Westchester County to accept Obama’s challenge - a steering committee comprised of members of the City Council, school district and prominent community members has been hard at work “creating action steps to address six areas of the focus – the goals of the challenge – that are critical to ensuring that youth can succeed from pre-K, all the way up through college and careers.”

Under the challenge, all children will be emotionally, socially and physically prepared to attend classes, with all children literate by the third grade. Other specific goals include ensuring that every youth graduates high school, completes post-secondary education and come out prepared for gainful employment.

The city and school district will team up to invite the community to the Action Plan Launch Event, which will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26 at the Whitney Young Auditorium at the high school. During the event, officials will outline the plan, and describe what the community can expect moving forward.

“The My Brother's Keeper Community Challenge is about providing opportunities so that everyone can reach their potential, particularly, boys and young men of color," the steering committee said in a joint statement. "We all want success for our children, yet in our community, despite the diversity, rich history and cultural heritage of which we are so proud, we are not seeing success for ALL of our kids. The My Brother’s Keeper New Rochelle initiative seeks to build upon and improve the conditions in our community to ensure success for ALL of our young people. On October 26, with the assistance of several community partners, our Plan of Action will be released and it will be the framework for how we as a community intend to best achieve our goals to provide opportunities for all of our youth.”

Once completed, the “Action Plan” will outline how dozens of local organizations plan to help improve safety, increase early childhood literacy, prepare students for state testing, and help them ultimately become youth leaders as they make their way through high school, college and into their careers.

In an event to keep the community apprised of the city’s progress after accepting Obama’s challenge in April, web designers are in the process of designing a comprehensive and interactive website, which will launch the day before the Action Plan Launching Event.

“Along with the comprehensive website, the Plan of Action will detail how to best connect the dots that already are present,” the steering committee members continued, “To provide a roadmap creating a ‘My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) New Rochelle’ master highway that connects all of our existing lanes.” 

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