Seminar on Poverty in Westchester Held in Ossining
By Robert Christie – Community Voices Heard held a seminar, “Poverty 50 Years Later” last week at St. Ann’s Parish School in Ossining.
Members of the community came out to learn about poverty in their area and in Westchester and come up with strategies to combat those issues.
Those in attendance were given a few presentations on poverty throughout the community and throughout history. Next they broke up into groups to discuss topics such as housing, education, employment and healthcare. Following the breakout sessions, certain individuals from each group were given time to report back some of the issues – and possible solutions to those issues – that were discussed.
Juanita Lewis, the Yonkers community organizer for Community Voices Heard, explained what she wanted those in attendance to take away from the seminar.
Lewis said she wanted attendees “to realize that they can make changes in their communities and it can’t happen with just one person. It has to be a whole group, a whole community fighting for those issues and that change to happen in order to build power to make those changes.”
She also described some of the positives which have already come out of the seminars around the county.
“There’s been some really good dialogue and information shared among the different cities and the different individuals,” said Lewis. “And now people are really starting to dig into the particular issue areas that they were concerned with.”
Lewis gave the example of affordable housing as one of the areas in which people were able to learn more about. She also explained that the seminars are beneficial for those who struggle with the same issues but haven’t met each other yet.
“That’s pretty exciting to learn that there are more commonalities than differences in the county,” Lewis adds. “So it’s our job to bring out those commonalities to build power to push for that change.”
Sandra Jones lived in the Ossining community from the 1950s to the 1970s before raising her family in Queens. She also became a Gold star mother after the passing of her son Lance Corporal Craig Lewis Wyche in 1983. Jones said she has also seen progress in the work CVH has been doing.
“We’ve been able to have officials in the other cities and neighboring towns – White Plains, Port Chester, Yonkers – listen,” explained Jones.
According to Lewis, CVH plans to bring all the attendees across the county together at the Yonkers Library on May 31. There, they will review what has been discussed at the seminars around Westchester and come up with solutions that can be put into place to start addressing poverty in the county.
CVH will begin a second round of seminars throughout Westchester and then bring everyone together once again in September.
