Community Activist #Yonkers YMCA Head Honcho Shawyn Patterson Howard is known as a problem solver, able to mobilize communities to implement creative solutions to big problems.
When Shawyn Patterson Howard saw the HIV/AIDS epidemic devastating our community in 1996, she joined the fight to help those in need.
Shawyn Patterson Howard won $1.1 million per year in federal funding for AIDS services and housing subsidies.
Understanding the importance of controlling the epidemic through prevention in 1996, Shawyn Patterson Howard mobilized and trained 75 high school students to teach HIV prevention skills and strategies – a program so innovative it was highlighted at the United Nations.
In 1997, Shawyn Patterson Howard saw homelessness sweeping through Mount Vernon and helped the city plan and implement its continuum of care for the homeless system, which to date has brought $18.5 million of federal housing subsidies and services to Mount Vernon’s homeless.
Shawyn Patterson Howard helped create Westchester’s Patriot Housing Initiative that is working to end homelessness among Westchester’s military veterans, and this year she received a “Patriotic Employer Award” from the U.S. secretary of defense for employer support of the National Guard and Reserve.
When Shawyn Patterson Howard saw our growing drug problem and broken criminal justice system incarcerating so many young people, she helped implement and lead Westchester’s first Drug Treatment Court in Mount Vernon in 1998-2003.
It gave non-violent drug offenders the chance to choose court-monitored treatment rather than prison.
Under her leadership, more than 75 people graduated from the program and more than two dozen went on to become credentialed substance abuse counselors or other human service professionals, paying it forward to their community.
Other cities throughout #WestchesterCounty and the Hudson Valley replicated the Mount Vernon model, which continues today.
One of the consistent themes throughout Shawyn Patterson Howard career has been working with individuals re-entering their community from jail, prison and group homes.
From HOPWA to Drug Court to the YMCA, she has helped hundreds of individuals avoid recidivism and rebuild their lives.
In late 2008, Shawyn Patterson Howard became CEO of the Yonkers YMCA in a neighborhood plagued by gun and gang violence.
Shawyn Patterson Howard worked with State Senators Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Ruth Hassell-Thompson to bring the Chicago Ceasefire model of using specially trained “violence interrupters” to Westchester in a Yonkers and Mount Vernon program called #SNUG.
By 2011, the Yonkers Police Department #SNUG with helping the city achieve a 38 percent reduction in violent crimes against persons citywide, and an 85 percent reduction in the neighborhoods monitored by SNUG.
Shawyn Patterson Howard has always been a community builder, a leader who brings people from diverse communities together to work for common goals.
While Shawyn Patterson Howard was CEO of the Yonkers YMCA, the chapter won a national competition conducted by the national YMCA of the USA in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC honored Shawyn Patterson Howard and the Y for putting together 85 partners, including the county health department, City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce, the public schools, mainstream and storefront faith communities, hospitals, major corporations, neighborhood bodegas, cultural groups, neighborhood centers and community leaders.
Shawyn Patterson Howard is an experienced administrator and has 22 years of experience in public and private administration.
Shawyn Patterson Howard served as director of the Mount Vernon #HOPWA Program from 1995 to 2001.
Shawyn Patterson Howard was director of the Mount Vernon City Drug Court from 2000 to 2003.
Shawyn Patterson Howard served as the commissioner of planning and community development and director of the Mount Vernon Renewal Agency in 2016.
Shawyn Patterson Howard, has private sector administrative experience.
Shawyn Patterson Howard served as executive director of the Mount Vernon YMCA from 2004 to 2008 and then became the first woman and first person of color to serve as president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Yonkers.
Shawyn Patterson Howard is widely regarded as a visionary, trailblazer, and inspirational leader, who is currently running to be the next mayor of Mount Vernon.
If she wins, then her new position will probably propel her further up the Yonkers Power List.