Nonprofit marks a century of tracking youths’ needs

Since its start in the Progressive era at the turn of the 20th century, the purpose of the Westchester Children”™s Association has always been the same, said Executive Director Cora Greenberg.

The WCA, which this year embarked on its second century, is known for publishing annual data reports on the status of the county”™s children and convening groups to make changes to benefit youths. Its goal is to “identify children”™s unmet needs, make those needs known to the public and policymakers and mobilize to see that those needs are met,” Greenberg said.

The association has been a leader in the movement to raise the age of adult criminal responsibility in New York state from age 16 to 18. New York is one of two states that does not treat 16- and 17-year-olds as juveniles. The WCA compiled data that shows youths in adult jails and state prisons are more likely to suffer from abuse and sexual assault and relapse into crime.

Cora Greenberg, executive director of the Westchester Children”™s Association, in her White Plains office. Photo by Danielle Brody

Greenberg said the WCA “mobilizes for change,” leading the raise-the-age effort in 2013 by encouraging people to contact Gov. Andrew Cuomo in support of the initiative. Out of all the letters Cuomo received, about 25 percent were from Westchester, she said. In early 2014, he appointed a commission to address the issue.

“We”™re driving the bus and we”™re getting a lot of people to get on the bus with us,” Greenberg said.

The organization, operating on an approximately $900,000 budget this year, does not take government money and is funded by private donations. “We”™re not dependent on people liking us,” Greenberg said.

Because the association is privately funded, Greenberg said, it has a good opportunity to inspire change and give people in coalitions a voice. “We have the kind of independence that gives us a little more freedom to do that,” she said.

The WCA started as an offshoot of the State Charities Aid Association more than a century ago. In the early 1900s, a group of “wealthy white do-gooders” concerned about the poor formed the White Plains-based Westchester County Children”™s Committee under that state agency, Greenberg said.

In 1913, a request to the children”™s committee from the Westchester commissioner of the poor for a report about the needs of children living in poverty started what would launch the WCA and its mission in producing. From the results of the report, the group recommended the county hire its first children”™s welfare workers, then raised the money to hire them. These six workers became the start of the Division of Family and Child Welfare in the Westchester County Department of Social Services.

In 1914, the group broke off as the Westchester Children”™s Association. It incorporated in 1923.

“Since then we”™ve had pretty much the same mission,” Greenberg said. The way the organization has carried out this mission has evolved throughout the century.

For years, WCA volunteers, mostly nonworking women, led their own projects through town chapters. The WCA gradually changed to a staff-driven operation after the early 1990s, Greenberg said. Today it has seven employees, five of whom are full time, and gets support from volunteers. Greenberg has been with the nonprofit since 1994.

In its 100 years, the organization has launched and run services on its own as a catalyst to social change, Greenberg said. The WCA established a child guidance center in White Plains, the county”™s first shelter for runaway and homeless youths in Valhalla and a child care center in the Yonkers Family Court.

When public funding became available, the WCA handed over those services to other organizations so it could focus on its specialty in producing data that leads to social change.

“We decided there are lots of people out there that can do services, but we”™re the only ones that can do advocacy the way we do it,” Greenberg said.

Limarie Cabrera, WCA director of data analysis, said the association in the past produced a 300-page book of data about Westchester children. People would call asking for a summary of the information. “There was a demand for data that was distilled to its simplest essence,” she said.

With the rise of social media about five years ago, the staff started creating infographics and sharing them on Facebook and Twitter. Cabrera said she has been using new technology and learning from the business world on how to organize the information. With the tools she uses, she can create interactive data cheaply or at no expense that would have cost at least $10,000 a few years ago, she said. “It”™s an exciting time to be in the data business,” she said.

Last year, the WCA discontinued the book and instead released a six-page print-out for their annual Children by the Numbers report, which is supported by the Westchester Community Foundation and The John P. and Constance A. Curran Charitable Fund. It contains information on demographics, economics, poverty, education, youths and young adults, health and child welfare.

Cabrera said a wide audience wants to see the data, including students, grant writers, nonprofits and businesses. The WCA blog, which is used to share information and data analysis, is viewed across the U.S. and internationally.

“We transformed from a data warehouse to an information provider,” Cabrera said.

Individual towns have asked for their own reports, Cabrera said. The WCA has been approached by organizations for special projects, Greenberg added. Recently, Yonkers chose the WCA to manage the city”™s data for the Yonkers Thrives Partnership, a new program to improve the education and lifelong success for children and youths in Yonkers.

Greenberg said the association has done “little bits” of fee-for-service work, but the Yonkers project would be their first substantial subcontract. “It could be another revenue stream for us,” she said.

The WCA is also piloting its own initiative, GPS 4 Kids, to bring industry leaders together from different sectors and agree to address pressing issues. She said she and her staff attend many meetings, and based on all the people that are working to help, more could be done. “We should be getting more bang for our buck,” she said.

She hopes that a diverse group of industry leaders can gather resources to do something to benefit kids”™ lives. Greenberg said that as a neutral, credible nonprofit, the century-old association is a good candidate to lead the charge.