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Welcome to the Program Design and Development Wiki

This site is designed to provide rapid access to the information and resources needed by service providers, advocates and communities in Westchester County, New York. Clicking on any of the links below will take you to a page with meeting notices and other information and resources relevant to each collaboration.

Collaborations

Yonkers Juvenile Crime Enforcement Coalition (YJCEC)

This collaboration, facilitated by the Yonkers Police Department, is developing and implementing a coordinated Juvenile Justice Strategy and Action Plan to reduce violent juvenile crime in Yonkers, New York.

Yonkers Truancy Reduction Strategy Group (YTRSG)

This YJCEC workgroup is implementing an innovative strategy to reduce chronic truancy in Yonkers.

Mt. Vernon Truancy Reduction Strategy Group (MVTRSG)

This workgroup is replicating the YTRSG strategy to reduce chronic truancy in Mt. Vernon.

Yonkers Continuum of Care for the Homeless

This group brings together all the homeless housing and service providers in Yonkers, New York funded with HUD Continuum of Care for the Homeless funding administered by the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers.

Mount Vernon Continuum of Care for the Homeless

This group brings together all the homeless housing and service providers in Mount Vernon, New York funded with HUD Continuum of Care for the Homeless funding administered by the City of Mount Vernon.

Westchester County Partnership for the Homeless

This group coordinates all of the homeless housing and services providers in Westchester County, New York.

DCMH Shelter Plus Care

The 9 agencies which administer Shelter Plus Care units as sub-grantees under the Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health meet regularly to improve program performance.

Recovery Housing Network of Westchester

This group works to engage and house chemically dependent homeless adults in early stages of recovery.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP): General

This program provides financial assistance and services to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless and helps those who are experiencing homelessness to be quickly re-housed and stabilized.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP): Yonkers

This program provides financial assistance and services to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless and helps those who are experiencing homelessness to be quickly re-housed and stabilized in the City of Yonkers.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP): Mt. Vernon

This program provides financial assistance and services to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless in the City of Mt. Vernon.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP): New Rochelle

This program provides financial assistance and services to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless in the City of New Rochelle.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP): Resources

This page contains the forms and documents related to the day-to-day operations of HPRP in Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, and New Rochelle. These documents and forms were generated by both HUD and the three cities.

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PD&D In The News

Stanley Schear Leadership Award

• Karl Bertrand to receive the Stanley Schear Leadership Award for his 27 years of homeless organizing and advocacy.
  

On 5/14/10 PD&D's founder and President Karl Bertrand received the fourth annual Stanley Schear Leadership Award for his work in providing shelters and services for homeless people in Westchester County, New York for more than 27 years. The award was made by the Senior Housing and Services Coalition of the Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services. His work to date has included co-founding the first shelter for the homeless in Yonkers, co-founding the Coalition for the Homeless of Westchester (the first countywide advocacy group for the homeless), developing the initial concept for the Bridge Fund eviction prevention program, co-chairing the Westchester Partnership for the Homeless, which coordinates planning and management of $10-12 million in annual Continuum of Care for the Homeless funding from HUD, and securing over $165 million in grant funding for local public and private programs benefiting the poor.

• Why I am an advocate for the homeless and the poor
  

In his speech accepting the Stanley Schear Leadership award, Karl Bertrand tries to explain for the first time in public why he is an advocate for the homeless and the poor. He says writing and delivering this speech was more difficult than any other speech he's ever given, except for his mother's eulogy.

• Greenburgh man honored for years of service to help the homeless
  

This Journal News article summarizes Karl Bertrand leading up to the award. One minor correction: He says he never said "most richest"!

• WCDSPS Commissioner Mae Carpenter presents the Stanley Schear award
  

• Closing remarks from the Honorable Ken Jenkins, Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman

WTFCAN Unsung Heroes Award

• Karl Bertrand's 90-second Truancy Prevention award acceptance speech

On 4/28/10 Karl Bertrand was awarded an "Unsung Heroes" award from the Westchester County Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. The award was given for his work organizing local communities to address chronic truancy by enforcing mandatory education laws and offering supportive services. In Yonkers, NY this program cut chronic truancy by 18.6% in the first two years, which basically means that hundreds of kids who were spiraling toward dropping out, delinquency and a lifetime of poverty, are now going back to school more often. The man handing him the award is Westchester's newly elected County Executive Robert P. Astorino, who is in the process of grappling with a projected $160 million budget deficit. In this 90-second acceptance speech, Mr. Bertrand challenges Mr. Astorino to expand this truancy prevention effort countywide.

• Karl Bertrand receiving 2010 Unsung Heroes Award from the Westchester Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect

The award is being presented by Kathie Halas, Executive Director of the Child Care of Westchester and co-chair of the Westchester Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Evidence-Based Targeting

• Changing the Court: The Pyramid of Risk

This blog discusses Karl Bertrand's presentation on Evidence-Based Targeting at the NYS DCJS 2008 statewide-conference on juvenile crime prevention.

• Karl Bertrand on Evidence-Based Targeting

In this video developed for a regional Weed & Seed training sponsored by the City of Yonkers, NY, Karl Bertrand describes Evidence-Based Targeting, a new concept developed in Yonkers that allows communities to use objective data to target limited juvenile crime prevention resources to the specific youth who need them most, rather than allocating resources less efficiently using traditional neighborhood-based targeting that essentially relies on stereotypes of race and class to identify youth who are most at risk.

Yonkers Juvenile Crime Strategy and Action Plan

• YPD Releases Juvenile Crime Prevention Plan: Comprehensive study outlines strategies to reduce juvenile crime in Yonkers
• Overview of Yonkers' Juvenile Justice Strategy and Action Plan, final draft as released 4/8/08, 9 pages
• Main body of Yonkers' Juvenile Justice Strategy and Action Plan, final draft as released 4/8/08, 62 pages
• Appendices for Yonkers' Juvenile Justice Strategy and Action Plan, final draft as released 4/8/08, 137 pages
  

Homeless Advocacy: "Beds Not Chairs"

• Karl Bertrand at Beds Not Chairs rally: Part 1

In 2007 Westchester County instituted an ill-conceived plan to make emergency overnight shelters for the homeless replace their cots with chairs, based on the wrong-headed notion that what we needed to do to help homeless people put their lives back together was to increase their suffering. The Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and the Homeless convened a rally in White Plains, NY on 10/25/07 to oppose the plan. Karl Bertrand was one of the speakers. Shortly thereafter the plan was quietly rescinded.

• Karl Bertrand at Beds Not Chairs rally: Part 2

• Karl Bertrand describes the need for the 2007 Beds Not Chairs rally

Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner's blog published this guest commentary from Karl Bertrand on 10/23/07 describing the need for the upcoming Beds Not Chairs rally.

New Models of Homeless Services

• A New Model of Eviction Prevention in Westchester

This overview of the new model of homelessness prevention being piloted in Westchester with HPRP funds from HUD was submitted to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness for potential inclusion in the new Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.

• Homeless Assistance Changes

This 3/30/2010 article in the White Plains Times describes a conference convened by the Westchester Partnership for the Homeless in which Karl Bertrand described the changes in homeless services mandated by the recently passed HEARTH Act, and laid out a strategic vision for transforming homeless services in Westchester.

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PD&D Presentations

Evidence-Based Targeting

• Evidence-Based Targeting: A New Approach to Juvenile Crime Prevention, presented at 10/27/08 ANYSYB conference
  

Karl Bertrand delivered a presentation on "Evidence-Based Targeting: A New Approach to Juvenile Crime Prevention" at the 38th Annual Conference of the Association of New York State Youth Bureaus on October 27, 2008. This workshop focused on the new concept of Evidence-Based Targeting. Using 16 years of data from Yonkers, PD&D measured the impact of specific risk factors on juvenile crime. This workshop taught participants to use a “Pyramid of Risk” to identify youth at highest risk for juvenile delinquency, target limited resources, and magnify potential impact on reducing juvenile crime. Karl Bertrand has also made presentations on Evidence-Based Targeting at recent conferences sponsored by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, the New York State Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Juvenile Delinquency Prevention.

Advocacy

Hunger Action Network of New York State (HANNYS)
The Hunger Action Network of New York State is a statewide anti-hunger coalition that combines grassroots organizing at the local level with state level research, education and advocacy to address the root causes of hunger, including poverty.
Supportive Housing Network of New York State
The Supportive Housing Network of New York represents over 150 nonprofit organizations that develop and operate supportive housing and is the only supportive housing membership organization in New York State.

Coalition for the Homeless
Coalition for the Homeless is the nation's oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women, and children. We are dedicated to the principle that decent shelter, sufficient food, affordable housing, and the chance to work for a living wage are fundamental rights in a civilized society. Since our inception in 1981, the Coalition has worked through litigation, public education, and direct services to ensure that these goals are realized.

National Alliance to End Homelessness
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan, mission-driven organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the United States. We are a leading voice on the issue of homelessness. The Alliance analyzes policy and develops pragmatic, cost-effective policy solutions. We work collaboratively with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to build state and local capacity, leading to stronger programs and policies that help communities achieve their goal of ending homelessness. We provide data and research to policymakers and elected officials in order to inform policy debates and educate the public and opinion leaders nationwide.

Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless
WCHH shares information and technical services with providers, connects volunteers to programs needing their help, promotes legislative action for systematic changes and collects data on the hungry and homeless that it provides as an information resource to government agencies.

Westchester Homeless Advocacy Response Network (WHARN)
WHARN is an email network that informs members when they have immediate opportunities for short-term political advocacy that could improve the lives of Westchester’s homeless residents. WHARN emails alerts to its members when policy decisions are being made and when they can make a difference by sending an email, calling a legislator, or attending a rally or vigil.

Housing Action Council
The Housing Action Council provides technical assistance, grants, and advocacy to increase and improve housing opportunities for low - and moderate - income households and special needs populations throughout the Hudson Valley Region.

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