A Community Center's Highest and Best Use

Investing in our kids.
Lifting up our adults.

For the past several years the Hudson Youth Department Budget has undergone cut after cut. The staff that remains does a great job providing services to Hudson's Youth with extremely limited resources, and worn out equipment. But the budget cuts have left Hudson's Youth Department in the worst shape in memory. That needs to change. Hudson's children deserve better.

My administration will find the funds to reinvigorate the Youth Department. We need to give our children all of the tools that they need to be successful.   We will implement and fund enhanced recreation programs with new updated sports equipment and upgraded computer equipment.  We will also offer expanded hours including weekends.

The Youth Department's home for most of the year is at the Boy's and Girl's Club on South 3rd Street. The building is not used for youth programs all Summer when the action is all at Oakdale Lake. The center is used for senior programs for part of the day year round. But there are still plenty of times when the center is not being used at all. This is a terrible waste, the building should be alive with activity all year long, all week long and all day long.

My proposal for the Boy's and Girl's Club is to turn it into a more full featured Community Center. The  Hudson Community Center would serve not only young people, but a wide range of people of all ages at different times of the day. The Community Center would serve as meeting space,  job training center, education center and recreation center depending on the time of day. 

The job training and education center would help train our unemployed or underemployed residents for the jobs that are already here in Hudson and Columbia County. We will enlist all of the expert talent in Hudson to help make the job training program successful as volunteers or paid trainers and we would actively seek out Federal and State Department of Labor grants to fund the job training program.

Apprenticeships in hospitality, restaurants, agriculture, antique restoration, construction, home weatherization and green technology installation could be offered. The city would partner with Workforce Development which could provide up to 6 months salary for the training of apprentices. Businesses would have the ability to train new potential employees and have that training subsidized or paid for by Workforce Development. We can lift up our unemployed and underemployed residents but teaching them skills they can use right now. While at the same time increasing the pool of skilled labor for our local businesses. 

My administration will hit the ground running to provide even better programs for our youth, while at the same time working to solve some of our most vexing social issues. By offering a path to jobs with real earnings potential for our neediest residents, we will work to break the cycle of poverty that is all too common in Hudson. 

Hudson can and must do better for all of its people. 

The change begins on Election Day, November 5th.