Community Voices Heard (CVH), a grassroots nonprofit, invited as many as 30 organizational and individual collaborators, including churches, parent groups, worker centers, human service agencies and community centers across Westchester County with the goal to create a comprehensive people's agenda to address poverty, which they plan to lobby for among elected officials in the county.
The group has previously held smaller poverty summits in Yonkers, White Plains, Port Chester and Ossining. They seek to add ones in Peekskill, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle.
A representative from CVH said, while doing work in Westchester, the group realized poverty is a serious issue across the country and is clearly affecting the county.
The summits were created to encourage people to talk about poverty in a united way.
"Everyone in Westchester County who is feeling the impact of poverty should have an amplified voice," she said.
She added that the group highly anticipates the upcoming New York gubernatorial race, given candidates Gov. Andrew Cuomo and County Executive Rob Astorino are both from Westchester County.
"We hope both candidates will rise to the challenge of confronting poverty on the county and state level," she said.
The public is welcome to the event, which is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Yonkers River Front Library, 1 Larkin Plaza.
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