Choice Neighborhoods Community Ambassadors Complete Comprehensive Leadership Training

April 17, 2025 - Five Northside residents have completed an intensive six-week Community Ambassador training program, equipping them with essential skills to serve as trusted liaisons between their community and the Poughkeepsie Choice Neighborhoods transformation process. The comprehensive program, delivered by Poughkeepsie Children's Cabinet Community Partnership Director Matt Evans

between March and April 2025, prepared residents of MLK Jr. Garden Apartments and Thurgood Marshall Terrace to lead community engagement efforts and serve as advocates for their neighbors throughout the planning initiative.

Poughkeepsie Children's Cabinet Community Partnership Director, Matt Evans, leads community members, Cabinet staff, and the Community Ambassadors through a training session at MLK Jr. Garden Apartments

The training program represents a cornerstone of resident engagement and capacity building for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. Recognizing that authentic community engagement requires more than traditional public meetings, the Children's Cabinet developed a sophisticated curriculum addressing the complex dynamics of resident leadership in neighborhood change processes. The program was specifically designed to build trust across diverse groups, facilitate meaningful community dialogue, manage conflicting priorities, and establish sustainable resident leadership that extends beyond the formal planning period.

The six-week program employed experiential learning methodologies, moving participants from individual skill development to advanced group facilitation capabilities. Grounded in the Youth Program Quality Assessment framework and adapted for neighborhood contexts, the training prioritized psychological safety, supportive environments, peer interaction, and resident voice in governance, principles directly applicable to community organizing. Sessions covered building inclusive community spaces, understanding Poughkeepsie's historical development patterns, mastering the "Ask-Listen-Encourage" communication framework, reframing conflict as opportunities for solutions, developing the Poughkeepsie Choice brand identity, and integrating all skills through practical application exercises.

By the final session, the Community Ambassadors had developed comprehensive toolkits using frameworks like the Community Ambassador Compass and practiced responding to real scenarios including construction concerns, displacement fears, youth programming needs, and safety issues. These newly trained leaders are now positioned to maintain community trust while advancing Choice Neighborhoods planning goals, serving as the critical connection between residents and the broader transformation process. Their leadership represents the Initiative's commitment to authentic, resident-driven change in the Northside neighborhood.