Leadership from the Poughkeepsie City School District, City of Poughkeepsie, Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet, and other community groups joined more than 750 leaders from across the country earlier this month to discuss strategies for elevating student success and closing opportunity gaps.
The William Julius Wilson Institute’s fourth annual Power of Place convening in San Diego, held Oct. 15-17, not only gave the Poughkeepsie delegation an opportunity to listen to expert speakers on the topics relating to place-based, cradle-to-career approaches, but also interact with others across the country doing the same work in various situations. The conference also placed a spotlight on Poughkeepsie itself, with speakers discussing the progress and strategies utilized locally, and its success acquiring more than $8 million in grants and funding.
Superintendent of Schools Gregory Mott and Executive Director of Operational Effectiveness and Multilingual Education Dr. Jennifer Daddino attended, along with Executive Director of School Engagement Da'Ron Wilson in his capacity as Common Councilperson At-Large, Mayor Yvonne Flowers, Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet Executive Director Jill Gomez, Community Matters 2 CEO L’Quette Taylor, and others.
“The objective was really to mobilize various communities across the country to come together to brainstorm how we can strengthen place-based, cradle-to-career work in today’s world,” Mott said.

Mott is a member of the Education Leaders Design Fellowship through the William Julius Wilson Institute, a network of local leaders who can provide for each other support, counsel and strategic partnerships. He said one strategy used by a district in Wayne County, NY – utilizing BOCES’ Cooperative service application, or CO-SER, system – is a new idea for city leaders to explore after acquiring more than $5 million in funding through the Wallace Foundation.
And, Poughkeepsie had much to teach others, as well. “We were there to really showcase to other communities what can be done when city, school, county come together with one mission of collaborating to address the social and economic needs of the community,” Mott said. Daddino noted, “a lot of the commentary I heard was, ‘Wow, your superintendent and your mayor are together and part of the leadership for your backbone organization?’ Which, in our case, is the Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet.”
The cabinet’s approach to connecting students with cradle-to-career support by bringing together the city’s schools, government and institutions is heavily influenced by the work done by the Harlem Children’s Zone and its offshoot, the William Julius Wilson Institute. The institute is a national resource for place-based, people-focused solutions that open pathways to social and economic mobility. It has invested in the professional development of leaders in Poughkeepsie, supported the creation of the Children’s Cabinet’s 10-year strategic plan, and last year, founder Geoffrey Canada came to the Queen City for a special presentation titled “Putting Kids First: Unlocking the Promise of Poughkeepsie.”

The footprint of the William Julius Wilson Institute has ballooned in the years since it began working with Poughkeepsie. While roughly 250 place-based leaders attended the organization’s first Power of Place conference in 2021, more than 770 attended this month, giving Poughkeepsie’s delegation a wide spectrum of allies in its efforts. The scope of the conference has also grown. This year’s event featured evening programming aboard the USS Midway aircraft carrier, and speakers included trailblazing actor and producer Isa Rae and Nike Jordan Brand Advisory Board Chairman Larry Miller.
“Across the country, communities from Harlem, NY to Berea, KY and beyond are looking to place-based, cradle-to-career strategies because they have shown real results,” said Christian Rhodes, Chief National Impact Officer at the Harlem Children’s Zone. This movement, he said, is “rooted in place, powered by communities, and anchored by a commitment to an audacious goal: put one million young people on the path to social and economic mobility.”
Mott noted some of the most powerful speakers were those who have become successful leaders but started as troubled youth, including Canada himself. 
“Without cradle to career, you could never save a kid like me,” Canada told them. “How many Geoffrey Canadas have we missed because we didn’t catch them at five, or nine, or eleven?”
The message was clear, the superintendent said, “never give up on an individual kid.”
Daddino called the experience “an overwhelming understanding of how this work is done throughout the country,” as well as in New York. Mott said the Poughkeepsie leadership will soon set up a meeting to learn more from Wayne County’s leadership on how they use the CO-SER system, as well as other next steps.
“We’re looking forward to building on the fellowship and connecting with partners on how to creatively use funding,” he said.