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November 2, 2018

We invite you to join NextLI: Let’s shape Long Island’s Future members only facebook group. Through active debates and fruitful conversations, we can find solutions to make Long Island a community that is modern and sustainable.

Our advisory board members

The nextLI Community Advisory Board is made up of thought leaders from a wide range of industries. The committee members are asked to use their unique expertise and experiences to help us identify the issues facing Long Island, to refine our research, to guide our deliberations and to spread nextLI’s mission to each of their networks. At our inaugural board meeting in 2018, the group opted to provide why they are participating in nextLI rather than traditional biographies, fitting with nextLI’s approach of looking toward the future.

Ayesha K. Alleyne Executive Director, Wyandanch Home & Property Dev. Corp.

“Next LI provides an opportunity to collaborate with a diverse population all with a singular goal of improving the life of Long Islanders.”

Matthew Aracich President, Building & Construction Trade Council of Nassau & Suffolk Counties

Kelley Coughlan Senior Development Manager, TriTec

“As a development company focused on revitalizing downtown communities, TRITEC believes the dissemination of accurate data-driven research is essential in helping to educate and inform elected officials and the community at large.”

Ernest D’Ambrose Suffolk County nextGen council

“I’ve joined NextLI because Long Island need us as much as we need Long Island.”

Ruth Douzinas-Smith Environmental engineer, artist, and entrepreneur, partner of Trireme Consulting and a Board Member of the Rauch Foundation

“I joined the nextLI advisory board to give back to a region I love and help bring the thinking behind the LI Index forward into its new incarnation.”

Retha Fernandez Project Director, State of Black Long Island Equity Council

“In telling the stories of Long Island, equity and representation matter.”

Dave Kapell Transportation and Revitalization

“I am excited about the opportunity to bring my eclectic experience, gained over a lifetime in government, business and the arts, to my participation on the nextLI board.”

Bob Keeler Former Newsday reporter and editorial writer

“What I hope is that NextLI can continue to develop powerful data, as the Long Island Index did, and add to the data some powerful advocacy and the ability to convene intelligent conversations about what Long island needs.”

Danielle Oglesby LIU Global Institute

“Understanding the complex issues that affect Long Island residents is the key to planning for our future.”

Yacov Shamash VP Development, Stony Brook University

“The mission of Stony Brook’s economic development programs is to promote a healthy regional economy now and over the long term; nextLI will provide the candid and accurate data that Long Islanders need to figure out how to make life better for ourselves and our children and grandchildren.”

What we’ve been up to

• Suffolk County Planning Federation conference : We were keynote speakers at this year’s conference that covered an array of topics from the Superstorm Sandy task force, technological innovation in municipal planning and an update to land use law.
• Nassau County Social Services : We also attended a meeting hosted by the Commissioner of Social Services Title XX Advisory Council’s Executive Committee where we presented the latest poverty data on Long Island. The meeting was attended by more than 40 DSS staff and supervisors that work in the various Health and Human Service programs who raised their concerns about the communities we might be overlooking when talking about the lack of childcare in the region.

What we’re reading

We’re always on the lookout for articles, websites and projects to inspire our work. Here are a few links that caught our attention since our last update:

• The American Communities Project (ACP) used data from election results, economic numbers, consumer surveys, and polling to map out every single county in America. This data allowed them to study the cultural, socioeconomic and political changes that are remaking the country at the local level using 15 types of counties.
• Journalist Madeleine Bair traveled around Oakland, Calif. with an oversized golden microphone to interview dozens of members of the Latino immigrant community about the ongoing housing crisis in the Bay Area. The interviews were part of the first pilot project of El Tímpano, a local news project Bair launched to improve journalism for Latino immigrants in Oakland.
• Do you know the 7 Ps of community? In this latest article, CMX talks about the 7 P’s needed to help build stronger communities. We’ll give you one, can you guess the other 6? ‘People’