Education and Workforce Development: Nathifa Forde’s Vision for NYC Her Future

Full Transcript

Dr. Cristi Ford (00:00):
It’s no secret that young women of color face inequities when it comes to opportunities in education, employment, justice, and health. My guest today from NYC Her Future shares how the work she’s doing is fostering positive change and creating a brighter future for girls of tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to Teach and Learn, a podcast for curious educators, brought to you by D2L. Each week, we’ll meet some of the sharpest minds in the K to 20 space. Sharpen your pencils, class is about to begin.
Dr. Cristi Ford (00:30):
Welcome back to another episode. I’m Dr. Christi Ford and I’m thrilled to be welcoming Nathifa Forde. Nathifa is the executive director of NYC Her Future, part of the New York City’s Mayor’s Office, and NYC Her Future was developed to address the disparities faced by young women and girls of color. Nathifa also serves as acting executive director of the New York City Young Men’s Initiative, and was previously working at the New York City Center for Youth Employment. I had the pleasure of meeting Nathifa last fall at a city and state event, and let me just say, Nathifa, I’m so pleased to be welcoming you to the Teach and Learn podcast.
Nathifa Forde (01:11):
Thank you so much, Dr. Ford. One, I just want to shout out, we have the Fords in the house today, so I’m a Forde with the the E, so I’m reigning from the Caribbean islands, and you are Dr. Ford, so you are reigning from these United States, so super excited to be here, and thank you so much for extending the opportunity to have me join the podcast today. So I’m excited and ready to share and talk about NYC Her Future, the work that we’ve been doing, and really just explore where there’s some alignment in the discussion today. And also one thing to note is I’m no longer the acting executive director of the Young Men’s Initiative. They have a fabulous executive director now, James Stratford. He’s another StratFord, Ford. We have a trend here, but I am leading NYC Her Future and building it out and making sure that we’re in community and have an opportunity to really speak and hear from all of the community members that make up New York City.
Dr. Cristi Ford (02:16):
Fantastic, Nathifa. Thank you for that adjustment. When we met, I think that you were holding both of those positions, and so it’s good to hear that now there’s good leadership taking over that work. So let’s just jump right in. I’d really love for you to tell us a little bit more about, for our educators and listeners who may not know, tell us about NYC Her Future. Tell us about the mission and the vision of the work that you’re doing.
Nathifa Forde (02:42):
So NYC Her Future is a new office that was created to, as you mentioned, to address the disparities that young women of color are facing across New York City, but most importantly, to advance their lives, and we really do this work across a few different domains. So we have a strong focus on education, workforce development, safety, and another strong component where I really always tell people, we talk about mentorship and really making sure that we’re entering the STEAM careers and professions.
(03:12):
For our work, as I mentioned, it’s new, so we’re not even a year old. We’re still in our infancy stages, but I do think it’s just the opportunity to make sure we’re in these spaces, talking to community and making sure that we’re building thoughtfully, but making sure that we’re aligning the work with those who have been doing this work for many years. And we’ll continue to do this work and be advocates to advance the lives of women across New York City, so we’re entering these spaces very graciously, but making sure that there’s a mayoral office entity that is really grounded in this work and here to support and advance the work as we move forward. So I have been super excited to be a part of this inaugural part of this team and being the founding executive director as we’re really designing what it can and what it will be.
Dr. Cristi Ford (04:01):
That’s fantastic. And that really goes into my next question. As the inaugural director, executive director, and you’ve shared a little bit about your primary goals, but as you think about the work that you’re doing, where can you talk with us about the intersections between the work with NYC Her Future and the New York Public School Systems, and can this work be augmented or how are you thinking about partnership around this work in those spaces?
Nathifa Forde (04:28):
So yes, I would say we have a strong partnership with New York City Public Schools. Outside of this body of work, in my previous role at YMI, we’ve been a strong supporter of the My Sister’s Keeper work and was funding a lot of the work that was happening at New York City Public Schools as it relates to that. Now they have some additional dollars to support it. We continue to be a partner with them in that space as it relates to My Sister’s Keeper, which mirrors My Brother’s Keeper. So for us, our partnership there is deep. It will always be something where we make sure that we’re talking to but also understanding the needs of our young people.
(05:11):
You cannot even begin to talk about where to go to serve and be in service of young people in New York City without understanding our public school system. It’s no way around it. I just got to tell people, it’s no way around it. You have to go there and start there, so for us, that partnership is strong. We actually have some great programs coming out that we’re super excited about in that space, and then we also will continue to partner with them in the upcoming fall to really be around building out new things to just understand, where should we be investing and how can we enhance existing programs?
(05:47):
So one thing to note about NYC Her Future is that we don’t fund necessarily organizations directly. We partner with our CBO partners and we partner with our agency partners more specifically to ensure that dollars are getting to the CBO partners and we’re actually building out and creating programs that are not just sustainable, but programs that are grounded in the needs of advancing the lives of our young people across New York City and making sure that there’s alignment, looking at the full cradle to career continuum. So when you ask me about public schools, I say, listen, this is the place where we start. It is a deep relationship that we have and we have so much more items that we would love to do with them.
(06:30):
We are proud of the My Sister’s Keeper work that’s coming out of New York City Public Schools that we’ve been able to partner with and grow, and we have an exciting new program, a rites of passage program that we did in partnership with them. That will be launching in April, and we try to make sure that we’re working with all of our districts, everybody from District 7 to District 75. We’re testing it this year, but excited to really build upon it and learn from it and see how we can improve upon it in the upcoming years.
Dr. Cristi Ford (07:05):
That’s fantastic. Even in its inaugural year, it is amazing to hear all of the initiatives that you are undertaking, hearing about the one that’s going to kick off with New York Public School Systems next month. As you know, here at D2L, we’re excited to be a partner with New York Public Schools as well as a provider for their Brightspace and allowing them to house all of their great content. And so as I think about what you shared, can you just share a little bit more about why was it important to establish this program at City Hall versus at an agency or another type of entity?
Nathifa Forde (07:39):
So I want to say a few different things. One, we’re not a program, we’re not an initiative. We’re an office. There are many different places where we could have went for this, but as a part of NYC, the Women’s Forward Initiative, which it was a $43 million investment in women in New York City, this was one of the [inaudible 00:08:03] that came out of that, which was the creation of this new office that will mirror the New York City Young Men’s Initiative and have a very gender-specific lens to really enhance the work. But making sure that we’re not just serving one entity of the population, we’re serving all of those individuals in New York City, but we’re prioritizing our young women here because we understand the nuance of how they need to be served.
(08:28):
I would say there are so many other, as I mentioned at the top, there are so many other advocates, initiatives and bodies of work that have similar focuses and have the same focus. However, I think it’s one thing to have the work codified within the mayoral offices and making sure that that’s a priority. I do envision that this office will really strongly work with all of the other entities and really listen, because as I speak about that cradle-to-career continuum, it’s so much work that’s happening in that space that I want to make sure that we’re not being duplicative in the city, that we are thinking about the wholeness of our young women and our young people becoming whole individuals, and that we can look at it in a roadmap and say, “We’re serving this part of the continuum, this part of the continuum, this part of the continuum.”
(09:19):
So I always go, I like to activate individuals, activate people. And it really is one of those things too, all of the organizations and all of the entities and all of the agencies and council initiatives that are focused on young women, what are we doing and how are we faring up across the continuum to make sure that our young women are leading healthy, safe lives that are really grounded in their understanding of who they want to be and making sure that they have the resources to become the individuals that they want to become and flourish as they really enter womanhood, right? And enter their careers and enter these parts of their life.
(10:03):
So for us, it is some of that work that we just think is beautiful and it needs to happen, but also remain in focus that we’re not the only ones in this space, and a lot of times we’re asking to be a part of the table and can we enter the space? Because this work has been done before, it’s not new. We’ve known these issues for many years and we do have to pay homage to the work that has come, the work that will continue to grow from these issues that we aim to address, but most importantly, how do we work together? How do we work together?
Dr. Cristi Ford (10:39):
Man, you’ve said so much there. I really appreciate the emphasis when you talk about young women, about them being a whole person, thinking about all aspects of their lives. And so we talked a little bit about the educational component. Can we maybe pivot a little bit and talk a little bit about addressing disparities for young women of color in the employment or the justice or the health space? How does NYC Her Futures see addressing some of those disparities?
Nathifa Forde (11:08):
So it’s one of these things. I’m excited to say, we do have a program starting with the Administrative Childcare Services, ACS, and the reason why that program is one for me to talk about is because it’s grounded in all of that. It’s thinking about young people who have been impacted by the child services system, but also making sure that this is preventative. We understand who you are and what’s going on in your life, and we may have a small understanding because I don’t understand what’s happening in everybody’s life. I’m not going to sit here and pretend, but we have an understanding and we see the data.
(11:49):
One of the things that we note is that a lot of young people who are in the ACS system unfortunately end up entering the justice system in some capacity, so how do we prevent those things? And for us, we built out a program in tandem with them and partners that’s really centering young people. So what is it that you want to hear? One of the things that I tell people at the top is young people need to hear from young people. It’s not the conversations of adults in their lives. It’s the conversations that they’re having with their peers that are more meaningful than the conversations we’re giving to them, we’re talking at them or we’re asking them to be a part of.
(12:26):
So one of the things that we’ll be doing from that is really, we would love to have you as a guest. Young people, we’ll be supporting them with a podcast that they’ll be creating, and it really is a space for them to hold the conversations that they want to hold, talk to their peers, bring their peers on, talk about issues that they want to talk about, but most importantly, advance, and that’s our role. Our role is saying, we understand all these things are happening, but let’s be solution-oriented. Talk about what you need to talk about, but now let me give you the tools to talk about the ways that we improve the resources and how you can attract to things.
(13:02):
So that’s one of the pieces of the program, and the other piece is from that program, there’s a partnership with the two-year CUNY programs, the junior colleges, and they’ll be taking their credentialing courses, their continuing ed courses on a college campus. Now, some would say, well, why don’t they just take college classes? And I would urge you to think about we meet people where they are. Some of our young people are ready for credentialing opportunities. They’re ready to start different parts of their careers, so when we say post-secondary success in all of its fullness, we have to allow young people to explore, but we also have to allow them to understand what they want to do.
(13:44):
So everything from phlebotomy courses to cosmetology courses and things of that nature. What are you interested in? Here’s where we want to make sure that you go, but also here’s what it takes to run a business, so making sure that they’re understanding those aspects of entrepreneurship. The hardest thing you could do is be in business for yourself, and thinking of those pieces with young people when they’re like, “Oh, I want to be an influencer.” Well, have you spoken to an influencer? Do you understand the level of work and commitment that they have-
Dr. Cristi Ford (14:16):
And discipline.
Nathifa Forde (14:17):
Right? I said those little one-minute clips that you see can take them six hours to create. So those are the types of conversations this program will be having with young people, but it is grounded in entrepreneurship and career exploration. What is it that you want to do? Let us help you get there, and throughout the program, I want to make sure that we remain nimble at what’s in the future so that if we do have to add new components on, we are able to.
(14:44):
And I think there’s also a piece of when you’re working in government and you’re running something, I say we have to remain nimble because the way we design things may not work on the ground, it may not work during implementation. And we have to be honest and humble enough because we are in service of others to say, “Well, hey, how can I fix this? Where can I fix this? Let’s go and do some focus groups. Let’s figure out with the participants, what’s missing here?”
(15:14):
So I want to make sure that we remain nimble in those spaces as we are allowing our young people to not just do career exploration, but it really is life exploration and setting them up with the credential and opportunities that they need to advance in whatever field that they select. Because it’s not just about saying, “I want to go to college.” It’s like, what do you want to do in college? And let’s take a deep dive and get you there. So that program with ACS, I’m excited about-
Dr. Cristi Ford (15:41):
Listen, I hear the excitement, and listen, sign me up as a podcast guest. I am excited to hear when young people are able to be empowered and have agency around their future and to think about where they want to go, so I’m really excited to hear about that as well.
Nathifa Forde (15:58):
Thank you.
Dr. Cristi Ford (15:59):
Let me just move us on a little bit. You’ve talked a little bit about post-secondary success, you talked about students co-constructing their future and being a part and talking with peers and creating community around where they want to go. I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far in the episode without saying AI, so here we go. We’re going to talk about the horizon that AI has in dramatically augmenting the future of work. And so as you think about the new programs and initiatives, how is your leadership thinking and what are you thinking about preparing young women or girls of color to think about the workforce of tomorrow that is going to be infused with AI?
Nathifa Forde (16:37):
Yeah, so let’s start. Automation is already here. We’ve been talking about it, and as you mentioned, prior to my roles, I worked with the Center for Youth Employment. We’ve been talking about automation for quite some time, so we knew it was coming, we’re seeing it in real time, and I think as we’re thinking about preparing our young people for careers in this space, I think that’s a space that we do have to hold to be true. And that’s why I speak so much about what this entrepreneurship looks like, because it is this piece when we think about young women of color, what is your voice looking like in these spaces? How are programs, how are things designed for us and by us?
(17:19):
And that’s why I mentioned we will have a strong STEAM focus, because I’m noticing as we’re talking about building the intelligence behind it, the upkeep of the technology and the machinery, these are all jobs and these are all things that we want to make sure that our young people are prepared for. And I think it’s some of I’m going say a lighter touch to this, a low-hanging fruit is getting our young people to be familiar with the names of those careers. I think people don’t realize this. When young people are saying what they want to be, it’s starting from a place of what they know. So no one knows, no one grows up saying, “Oh, I want to be an executive director.” No one saying-
Dr. Cristi Ford (18:05):
A chief learning officer. What?
Nathifa Forde (18:07):
I want to be, exactly, a chief equity officer, I want to be a commissioner. I want to be a deputy mayor. But these are the roles that we need to allow our young women to get comfortable with saying, because they need to know these are career titles that are out there for them and they’re obtainable and there’s a lot of women of color that are holding these positions now. So I say all of that. In the AI space, we have to do that. They have to be comfortable with understanding what the roles are and what the titles are, because to me, that is such a low-hanging fruit. What do you do? I tell people [inaudible 00:18:41], but what do you do? And it’s like, what do you do? Now let me tell you what I do.
(18:46):
And not only that, and I think on the back end as we’re speaking about women and the role of women in the future, we have to be on the other side of it and building out these things so that they’re taking our voices, our experience and a lot of those things into consideration. And I think when we think about technology and what does it look like, we have to be honest about those things and also understanding the intersectionality in a lot of those things. So the intersectionality between, and forgive me because sometimes my team tells me, “You’re being a little biased with these careers you’re talking about.” And I go, “Okay, okay, okay,” but fashion and technology. There’s an intersection.
Dr. Cristi Ford (19:25):
Absolutely.
Nathifa Forde (19:26):
And you’re seeing it a lot more, and you’re even seeing runway shows that are completely AI generated, and how people are designing clothing and patterns and things of that nature, these are careers, these are jobs that our young people need to be familiar with. And then even when I think on the beauty industry side, we are some mass consumers of beauty products, hair products, scents, all of these things. And I can say, “Well, let me try this. Let me try that.” That is science. That is the science of things, so how do we really have these conversations with our young people? And this is when I talk about the continuum.
(20:07):
So if I have a program that’s doing career exposure in the STEAM field and someone has a specific program that they’re saying on the ground, a CBO partner says, “I do this, I do that, I do this, I do that.” Well, my funding can support a lot of those things. However, one of the pieces that I would say we would be missing, and I always tell people, look at it across the continuum, and this is why it’s important that we understand all of the entities that are in this space, because the K through 16 curriculum is so important. And if we understand, when we talk about AI and we talk about the STEAM careers and all of those different things, a lot of times if our young people are not taking physics, if they’re not taking calculus by 12th grade, by 11th grade, they’re already playing catch up in college.
Dr. Cristi Ford (20:54):
That’s right.
Nathifa Forde (20:54):
So we have to think more strategically about our black and brown young people, our beautiful young people that are interested and have the natural ability to be in these spaces, but making sure that we’re arming them with the practical and knowledgeable academic education and experience that they need to persist in these fields in the future. So for me, I always go, we have to look at it across the continuum, from cradle to career, and begin to plug in. Plug and play and making sure that, well, my NYC Your Future office can’t do everything and we won’t do everything on our own. Who are our allies? Who are our partners on the ground that can do certain pieces? But we have to be able to speak and communicate to each other.
(21:34):
I know what I do well, so let me go find an organization that may be able to use this funding to go on and do this and take it further, or let me partner with this other agency [inaudible 00:21:46]. They have dollars where they can support this end of the spectrum. And all of this is really community work, but we have to make sure that our young women aren’t afraid of the hard classes and making sure that we have educators that are culturally relevant, that are providing culturally relevant pedagogy so that they understand we see the beauty in you first. We see your intelligence, we see your brilliance. Now I’m just giving you language.
Dr. Cristi Ford (22:13):
That’s alright. No, I love all of this because one of the things, as we talk about this exposure piece, you really have leaned into you have to be exposed to understand what’s available. And we are training young women of color today for jobs that don’t even exist yet, so if they can’t understand what an executive director does or a chief learning officer does, man. So I really appreciate that focus and intentionality there. And we’ve talked a little bit about the educational system, but I will tell you, I’m talking more and more with colleagues around the importance of upskilling and re-skilling and workforce readiness. And so while we talked about the My Sister’s Keepers program, I’d love to hear a little bit more about the Doula Work program and the STEAM Pipeline initiative that I understand NYC Her Futures runs as well.
Nathifa Forde (23:00):
So you take us right into that, and that really is about upskilling and re-skilling. I’m not going to talk too much about the STEAM program because that’s still in the works. Oh my God, it takes-
Dr. Cristi Ford (23:10):
Maybe next time you come back.
Nathifa Forde (23:13):
Yes. All I will share on that is we do see that as work that we will need to work in partnership with the K through 16, so public schools and CUNY, and figure out how we’re building that out. So that takes a little bit more conversation, but hopeful that it will happen. However, if it doesn’t happen the way we see it to happen, we have a lot of different other entities that we’ve been doing in that space that’s shedding a light on this body of work.
(23:41):
And in our partnership with public schools, we’ll definitely be focusing on a two-gen, three-gen approach, and really just doing a series of activations that’s sharing skills while you’re learning with your young person. I think sometimes we forget, in our city, we have so many families and so many moms that need to upskill and be re-skilled so that they can have relevant skill sets that could take them into the future. So for us here at NYC Her Future, it is really talking about what is that two or three gen approach, your grandparents, right? To really say, “Well, come learn with your young person. Come experience this.” So that’s something that we’ll be proud to talk about that body of work once it launches and it’s cemented.
(24:31):
Of course, when we speak about our young women, and across globally, nationally, maternal healthcare is such a big part of it. And we get questioned all the time. “Well, you guys are supporting young people 14 to 26, and how are you guys talking about maternal health?” And I go, “That’s a fair question.” And I got that question a lot when I was leading the Young Men’s initiative, and I always go, “But this is a community issue. It’s not a woman’s issue.” People don’t have babies by themselves. Even if you are like, “I’m doing this with a partner,” and it doesn’t work out, or you decide you do need a partner or somebody who understands the process.
(25:16):
So the doula work that we’ve been doing is in partnership with the City University of New York, and it really is, we have some credentialing programs where our community members in central Brooklyn are able to go through the credentialing course for free, and we actually pay for the credential once they complete the course and take the test and do it. So one thing we’re very big on at NYC Her Future and one thing that I’m very big on is really understanding your culture and leaning into that.
(25:47):
I always go New York City is a beautiful city with so many different cultures and ethnicities and rich traditions that are interwoven into one another, that it is a part of all of our agencies and offices to really understand that but also celebrate the richness of cultures. We can’t truly understand the young people that we’re serving until we understand the cultures and the families that they come from, and through the doula work, we hope to highlight that, but most importantly, we hope to ensure that we are doing our part to reduce the number of maternal mortality rates in New York City.
Dr. Cristi Ford (26:28):
And I love the asset-based approach to thinking about the context of culture that you shared in the program, and shout out to the City University of New York system and that you’re partnering with. We have the benefit and pleasure to be in partnership with them as well as a client and sponsor and partner around this work. So in this first year, you all have done a lot. A lot has happened since the time that I saw you in the fall, and so if I just want to take a magic wand or ask you to think about the next 18 months, what do you hope that NYC Her Future will accomplish, and what are the things that you’re really leaning into achieving in the next 18 months?
Nathifa Forde (27:12):
Okay. 18 months, you feel like we’ve done a lot and I go, we haven’t done enough. I would say in the next 18 months, you’re saying the next… I hope, so could we have a full team? I need a full team to do this work, so that will be my first wish for that. And then I think as we move forward, I think it is to strengthen our partnerships, and partnerships with advocates and entities who have been doing this work for a long time, and hoping that we are able to build out and really do a… And I don’t want to get caught up in these landscapes, but I want to have a deeper understanding of how folks are investing in the space across our city, whether it be the public, private, or corporate entities. Just so that we’re not duplicative, but we’re also focused on the continuum from cradle to career and we understand where we’re supporting individuals, but most importantly, we understand where the gaps are. So for me, it’s really taking an understanding of where the gaps are.
(28:13):
I do really hope that we’re able to build out the STEM work that literally will brighten up my day and really do it in partnership, thoughtful partnership from the K through 16, and really have employers that support that body of work as well, so that’s one of the things that I really do hope happens. And then the last piece for me is really around this sense of community. I worked in the nonprofit sector for a long time, so when you’re in those spaces, you hear from the community in real time and you have to respond to the needs of community in real time because you have a reporter in your face. I want to make sure that we don’t lose those things and we’re listening and we’re hearing from community, but most importantly, we’re able to develop programs in partnership with community, CBO partners and city agencies that are whole, thoughtful, and really the thing that they’re asking for.
Dr. Cristi Ford (29:17):
That’s fantastic, and it’s good to hear that not only are you interested in creating these partnerships and programs, but you want that feedback loop to be able to iterate and make the programs better, and to make sure people know what’s available and aware around what they can do and how they can get connected. I will tell you, this has been such an excellent episode. As we close, I always like to have a call to action for folks that are listening. So as they’re listening to all the great work that you and your team have been able to accomplish in a very short time, maybe what’s one piece of advice you’d give to an individual looking to stand up similar programs or getting engaged that may be doing this in another part of the country?
Nathifa Forde (29:55):
Follow us. Please reach out, follow our newsletter. Keep us whole, keep us grounded. Reach out, let us know what’s happening in community. Let us know where we can show up and be supportive of, but also, we want to hear about your programs. Our young people need us to be their voices, to be loud for them and to be in the rooms that they’re not in. And remember, when you have the opportunity to speak up and shed light on something or ask for something, do it. Please do it. But this work is important, it is valuable, and it is literally paving the way to ensure that our future is brighter, because these are young leaders.
Dr. Cristi Ford (30:37):
That’s fantastic. Nathifa, thank you. Thank you for being here, thank you for taking the time and sharing all of the expertise and wisdom and insight about what you’re doing. We will make sure to also link to the podcast around the newsletter and any other pieces that we can make sure to get people connected to, but really grateful to have the conversation with you here today.
Nathifa Forde (30:58):
And thank you, Christi Ford, and I will say, it’s an honor to chat with you. We’ll let you know when some of our programs are more cemented.
Dr. Cristi Ford (31:06):
Please.
Nathifa Forde (31:07):
And we’re excited about things. But it is a privilege to talk with you today and to be in community with you, so thank you so much.
Dr. Cristi Ford (31:15):
Absolutely, and thank you to our dedicated listeners and curious educators everywhere. Please remember to follow us on social media. You can find us on X or Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook, @D2L. And subscribe to D2L YouTube channel so you can see more episodes like this one. You can also sign up for the teaching and learning email list for the latest updates on new episodes, articles and masterclasses. And if you’ve liked what you’ve heard today, remember to rate us, share this episode, and subscribe so you never miss anything we have in store. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You’ve been listening to Teach and Learn, a podcast for curious educators brought to you by D2L. To learn more about our K through 20 and corporate solutions, visit d2l.com. Visit the Teaching and Learning Studio for more material for educators by educators, including masterclasses, articles and interviews. And remember to hit that subscribe button, and please take a moment to rate, review and share the podcast. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, school’s out.

Resources Discussed in the Episode

• NYC Her Future
• NYC Her Future - LinkedIn
• NYC Her Future - Instagram