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exalt's Executive Director named on City & State's 2020 100 Responsible List
The 2020 Responsible 100: 100 individuals fighting the good fight.
For the past several years, City & State has closed out the year with a list of leaders in the private sector who are actively seeking to help New Yorkers and make our state a better place. It was a nice, uplifting feature that reminded us all that there’s more to life than making money as we brainstorm our own New Year’s resolutions.
But 2020 was different. As we shut ourselves in our homes and lost family, friends and neighbors to a deadly pandemic, and as the federal government abdicated responsibility, it fell on state and local governments and private institutions to do the responsible thing and pick up the slack to help New Yorkers in their time of need.
City & State is pleased to announce the 2020 edition of The Responsible 100, our annual list honoring individuals whose work is making life better in communities in New York City and across the state. The leaders recognized below work in government, business, health care, education and nonprofit organizations, among other fields. We asked each of them to tell us about their work, provide insight on social responsibility and share the best advice they have ever received. Read on to learn more about this year’s Responsible 100.
The 2020 Responsible 100
100 individuals fighting the good fight.
For the past several years, City & State has closed out the year with a list of leaders in the private sector who are actively seeking to help New Yorkers and make our state a better place. It was a nice, uplifting feature that reminded us all that there’s more to life than making money as we brainstorm our own New Year’s resolutions.
But 2020 was different. As we shut ourselves in our homes and lost family, friends and neighbors to a deadly pandemic, and as the federal government abdicated responsibility, it fell on state and local governments and private institutions to do the responsible thing and pick up the slack to help New Yorkers in their time of need.
City & State is pleased to announce the 2020 edition of The Responsible 100, our annual list honoring individuals whose work is making life better in communities in New York City and across the state. The leaders recognized below work in government, business, health care, education and nonprofit organizations, among other fields. We asked each of them to tell us about their work, provide insight on social responsibility and share the best advice they have ever received. Read on to learn more about this year’s Responsible 100.
exalt awarded $200,000 through Inaugural NBA Foundation Funding
NBA Foundation announces $2 million in inaugural grants to support Black communities
Seven organizations have been selected as the recipients of the first grants from the Foundation.
NEW YORK – The NBA Foundation today announced a total of $2 million in inaugural grants that will drive economic empowerment in Black communities through employment and career advancement. Seven organizations – exalt, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, Marcus Graham Project, Operation DREAM, TEAM Inc., The Knowledge House and the Youth Empowerment Project – have been selected as the recipients of the first grants from the Foundation. The organizations align with the NBA Foundation’s mission to provide skills training, mentorship, coaching and pipeline development for high school, college-aged, job-ready and mid-career Black men and women in communities across the United States and Canada. These inaugural grants aim to increase education and employment access in Black communities, as well as enhance and grow the work of these national and local organizations.
City Alternative to Incarceration Program Expands
Partnership with nationally recognized George Mason University research team leads to increased number of providers, diversified programming options to better serve more clients
New investments expected to result in additional 15% recidivism reduction among participants
Visit MOCJ’s ATI program page for more information
NEW YORK—The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) is expanding its successful Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) programming, increasing the number of providers and programs across the City through millions in new investments.
The expansion comes after a multi-year, cooperative effort by the City, policy experts, non-profits and justice-impacted people to revamp its original ATI programming. Partnering closely with Dr. Faye Taxman, a nationally recognized criminologist at George Mason University, the City identified the key support and service opportunities that, if expanded, can lead to improved long-term results for program participants.
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“We are honored to partner with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and be part of an extraordinary and disciplined cohort of ATI providers dedicated to racial equity and advancing justice for the young people of our city,” exalt Executive Director Gisele Castro said. “exalt provides court-involved youth a clear path to college and careers with a robust academic and work development program as well as support to help reduce and vacate sentences. We are excited to share our tested and proven model and transform the lives of countless families across New York City.”
Read the full press release from The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
Young Latinas Behind Bars: An Alarming Trend we Must Reverse
OCTOBER 22, 2020
Gisele Castro on womensmediacenter.com
Mass incarceration is devastating African American and Latino communities, and this is by design. Systemic practices, from discrimination in employment, to ineffective school discipline policies, limit the options for the youth of these communities. These deep historical, structural, and systemic deficiencies, rooted in gender and race discrimination, over policing and the criminalization of poverty, are landing more young women behind bars.
Latinas and girls of color are being incarcerated at increasing rates. From 1997 through 2017, there was a 52% increase of Latinas, both girls and women, incarcerated nationally. Here’s why:
A lack of fundamental support for the trauma that many young women of color are experiencing may lead them to entering the system. Girls in the criminal justice system are often runaways and/or victims of physical or sexual abuse that has gone unaddressed. And unlike their male counterparts, who are typically detained over issues of public safety, adolescent girls are being arrested for violating societal expectations for their gender, such as reacting to conflicts by way of fighting.
Lack of employment opportunities for young Latinas also substantially increases their risk of exposure to the “justice” system. Research shows that the US has essentially pushed young people entirely out of the labor market. For 16, 17, and 18-year-olds, their employment rates have dropped to about half what they were a decade ago. For Latinas and young women of color, this problem is compounded because many of them need to work to contribute to their families’ expenses for essentials such as food and rent.
The onset of COVID19 has only exacerbated these problems. The multilayered crisis of COVID —including the shuttering of schools, community centers and other places of engagement and safety, and the collapse of the economy— have deeply impacted teenagers who come from underemployed or unemployed homes. This leaves many young women struggling to survive in neighborhoods that are patrolled by police the same way that officers patrol prison facilities. The harsh set of rules that these young women have to follow are being complicated further by the pandemic.
At the youth intervention nonprofit exalt, we have also witnessed this progression. In 2019, 36% of all our Latino/Latina/Latinx students were young women, compared to 19% female across all races. This is an increase of 50% from 2018, when 24% of our Latino/Latina/Latinx students were young women.
For a 16-year-old girl grappling with these heavy challenges and facing an indeterminate amount of time without the fullness of her freedom, this pressure is painful and demoralizing. When we first meet our young girls, too many of them express that they see themselves either dead or in jail.
“When we first meet our young girls, too many of them express that they see themselves either dead or in jail”
Gisele Castro, Executive Director of exalt
The age-old promise that education can be the great leveler, leading to a career that enables them to live comfortably and move upward economically – feels out of reach. But it’s not elusive if we ensure that young girls advance academically, while also providing them with options. We have evidence showing that investing in educational strategies reliably diverts vulnerable girls from the criminal justice system to professional careers pathways.
exalt’s proven model increases school engagement with 95% of alumni graduating high school, reduces recidivism to 5%, achieves a 76% sentence reduction rate, and matches 100% youth to internships into high growth sectors, like finance, technology, and health care.
This model consists of a four-and-a-half-month program of classroom education that includes works like The New Jim Crow, and workforce preparedness followed by a paid internship and alumni phase. We take this approach because these young women articulate that they lack support with real-life needs.
But we must also get to the root of this problem. This means disrupting and reversing centuries of racist policies of social control and trauma. It requires focusing on decarceration by introducing fairer sentencing, bail reform, and ensuring that our youth have the basic necessities to be contributing members of society.
“Should they secure a victory, a Biden-Harris administration must see and hear girls of color as equal and respected individuals who can identify solutions”
Gisele Castro
Should they secure a victory, a Biden-Harris administration must see and hear girls of color as equal and respected individuals who can identify solutions. Because those closest to the problem are typically in the best position to solve it.
The next administration in its first 100 days must expand on criminal justice reform by introducing fairer sentencing that eliminates barriers to employment and college access. It must also create more living wage jobs and aggressively invest in low income communities, like at the level the federal government did for the automotive bailout.
If this, as a matter of justice, is not moving, then consider the future of this nation: With the Latinx population growing rapidly, skewing younger and poised to become the tax base of many communities, it is to the benefit to invest at the front.
NYTimes | Stop Persecuting Black and Brown Girls in School
A nonprofit that works with teenagers says “sassy” attitudes are really an expression of strength. Also: The toll Covid takes on women; undocumented domestic workers.
To the Editor:
Re “Racism in the Principal’s Office: Seeking Justice for Black Girls” (front page, Oct. 2):
In New York City, in the year 2020, a girl who defends her friend in a fight can be charged with a felony for gang activity, sending her to detention and a lifetime of consequences.
Thank you for shining a light on the unfair punishment meted out in the school system to young Black and brown girls, who have for generations been the target of neglect, surveillance and punitive discipline policies for being “loud” or “threatening.”
Every day at the youth organization I run, we teach our students a survival skill: code switching. For them, changing how they present themselves to society — from body language to wardrobe to speech — can keep them alive, employed and free.
I look forward to the day when fashion choices and “sassy” attitudes are accepted for what they really are: an expression of strength, independence and spirit. I look forward to the day we stop silencing, penalizing and incarcerating our girls of color, and start listening to what they are telling us and give them the same opportunities and respect as their white or white-passing peers.
Gisele Castro
New York
The writer is executive director of Exalt, a nonprofit that works with teenagers who have been involved in the criminal justice system.
exalt's Executive Director speaks at Stand Together Conference
Gisele Castro, exalt’s Executive Director, spoke at the Stand Together Conference held in Colorado in August 2019. You can watch the video below, where she addresses fellow grantees and other funders as she speaks about the transformational work of exalt.