• Dr. Roberta Wallitt, Ithaca, NY—Dr. Wallitt’s proposal seeks to enhance her current work with the Village at
Ithaca which focuses on recruitment of community members to serve on interview
and screening committees of the Ithaca City School District. This effort is geared
specifically toward the recruitment, hiring and retention of more staff of color.
Dr. Wallitt hopes to work with Ithaca employers to encourage employers to offer
employees paid release, enabling them to participate in community service activities
such as serving on the hiring committees of the Ithaca City School District. The
goal of the project is to bring together all the segments of the Ithaca community
to address the inequity within the school district that negatively impacts families
and students of color.
• Leslie F. Jones, Esq., Ithaca, NY—The Connections Project, proposed by Leslie Jones and the Southern Tier Advocacy
& Mitigation Project, aims to measurably reduce juvenile recidivism and the
risk factors associated with re-arrest among youth released from secure confinement.
While youth in secure custody receive some services, aftercare resources are only
available to youth in limited secure and non-secure facilities. It has been demonstrated
that in the absence of programming designed to help these young people achieve
social, emotional, ethical, physical and cognitive competencies; reintegrative
services aimed at helping them prepare themselves to meet the challenges of everyday
life; and, a seamless continuum of care which transcends the facility walls, this
high=risk population will predictably return to unhealthy and self-destructive
behaviors. The Connections Projects seeks to be a step towards effecting social
change in juvenile justice policies directly impacting juvenile recidivism in
New York State through work at MacCormick Secure Center in Brooktondale.
