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Mayor de Blasio Announces The New York City Children's Cabinet

April 7, 2014

Spearheaded by Deputy Mayor Buery, multi-agency effort will create comprehensive framework to support and significantly enhance the well-being of children

NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced the creation of the New York City Children’s Cabinet, a multi-agency initiative to bolster communication among city agencies and develop strategies for a holistic approach to a child’s safety and well-being. The plan to assemble a Children’s Cabinet came after the tragic death in January of 4-year-old Myls Dobson. It stems from the mayor’s belief that children at risk are served by multiple city agencies, and therefore the responsibility of keeping them safe and attending to their well-being should extend beyond the Administration of Children’s Services. 

The New York City Children’s Cabinet will be chaired by Richard Buery, the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives. The Cabinet will be composed of commissioners and directors from 20 different city agencies and mayoral offices, with subcommittees to be created at the discretion of members. The Cabinet will meet for the first time at the end of this month, and will create a schedule for regular meetings and specific outcomes.

“We are putting in place an all-hands-on-deck approach to enhance children’s overall well-being and prevent abuse, injury or death of vulnerable children and youth. We recognize that to protect our children and keep them safe, we need multi-agency, multi-sector strategies. I look forward to seeing the Children’s Cabinet deliver progress for families,” said Mayor de Blasio.

“The city is at a turning point in our approach to serving and supporting children and families across the five boroughs. The Children’s Cabinet will help us crystalize the challenges that exist in our current systems and develop the sorts of solutions that cut across agencies and make sure we are collectively meeting the needs of our children, particularly those in high-risk circumstances. To be clear, this is not a one-shot deal; this will be a sustained and far-reaching coordination effort,” said Deputy Mayor Buery

“We welcome the opportunity to work with our partner agencies to ensure that everything is being done to promote the safety and well-being of our children and young people. Their lives are touched by a multitude of city agencies, and ultimately, it’s all of our responsibilities to look out for their safety and well-being,” said ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrion.

The Mayor also announced a new partnership with Casey Family Programs to provide national expertise and support to the Children’s Cabinet. Casey Family Programs is the nation’s largest operating foundation focused on safely reducing the need for foster care and building Communities of Hope for children and families across America. This latest partnership is an extension of Casey’s long-standing collaborative relationship with the City of New York and its agencies that touch the lives of children and families.   

“We applaud Mayor de Blasio’s leadership in taking this important step to improve the safety of New York City's children. This is just the sort of collaborative cross agency approach that will truly benefit children and their families,” said William C. Bell, President and CEO of Casey Family Programs. 

The New York City Children’s Cabinet members are:

Administration for Children’s Services (ACS)
Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO)
Center for Innovation through Data Intelligence (CIDI)
Department of Correction (DOC)
Department of Education (DOE)
Office of the First Lady of New York City (FLONYC)
Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC)
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)
Department of Homeless Services (DHS)
Housing Authority (NYCHA)
Human Resources Administration (HRA)
Law Department, Family Court Division (Law)
Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ)
Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA)
Mayor's Office of Operations (OPS)
Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence
Parks & Recreation Department (Parks)
Police Department (NYPD)
Department of Probation (DOP)
Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD)

The Children’s Cabinet will provide a space for leaders of multiple city agencies to identify and analyze individual and common areas of work that impact children safety and create an action plan to become child-safety focused. Specifically, the Children’s Cabinet will:

  • Proactively create opportunities for early intervention and prevention
  • Strengthen partnerships across agencies to meet the needs of vulnerable children and families
  • Engage in collaborative problem solving and share and leverage each other’s resources
  • Enhance communication between and among agencies
  • Inform children’s policies and programs by utilizing linked administrative data from multiple agency systems.
Set protocols for access to information, resolving policy conflicts, engaging in joint training and program development and coordinating service delivery.