By Camryn Sanchez
The new Yonkers nonprofit 914UNITED is launching new programming in March and February. 914UNITED is an organization cofounded by Jonathan Alvarez and John Cabrera which spearheads several causes including anti-racism and youth outreach throughout Yonkers and the entire lower Hudson Valley.
This month, 914UNITED launched the Streets Give Back Program geared towards supporting formerly incarcerated individuals as they reintegrate into society by accessing benefits, navigating paperwork, and even getting food and clothing. “We’re trying to bring people together in the name of helping those in need, and we would love to see in the future us being an entity that’s providing those services to the young people of color in the city, or brothers and sisters returning home. I do know that the city should do more, needs to do more for those returning home,” says Alvarez.
Alvarez is a Yonkers native who was formerly incarcerated, but was released in 2018. Since then he has become a mentor for My Brother’s Keeper, works as a case manager for SNUG – a violence prevention program under the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, and is an academic coordinator with a youth offender program.
The Streets Give Back Program partners with local brands from different neighborhoods of Yonkers. “We are tapping into different areas of the city who historically have been disconnected. So we have individuals who lost loved ones due to warfare between one block or another. So inter-community conflict that’s been going on since the mid 90s,” says Alvarez.
Brands like Top Level and Hood Millionaire Clothing appear together through 914UNITED. “914UNITED is looking to unite blocks so individuals or groups that have been historically disconnected in the name of helping individuals coming home so that’s something that I feel like is very powerful with what’s going on with this movement it’s definitely fresh it’s still growing. We started off with six brands. We now have eleven brands that donated.”
Streets Give Back Program participant and 914UNITED brand manager Dominick Pallano says, “I always wanted to give back after everything that I’ve been through, because there was a lot of things growing up we didn’t have. Nobody was doing what he’s doing now.” Pallano says that as a child in Yonkers, programs like 914UNITED were not available to him. “It’s easy to transition back into a life of crime and what we know because we’re scared. People are scared of trying something new and failing. Everybody is used to just going into what they know, and that’s just committing crime.”
914UNITED is rolling out a new program in March that Alvarez describes as, “A campaign from hood to hood to basically talk about financial literacy.” The program is aimed at adults interested in workshops on investment, budgeting, and economics. Limited by Covid-19 restrictions and budgeting, 914UNITED does not currently operate a public center, but is based out of 45 Ludlow Street within the PowerLab. Although relatively new, 914UNITED is already an important staple in the Yonkers community and has the support of several organizations like the Yonkers PowerLab and Pamela’s Big Heart Foundation.
“No greater value exists than caring for the less fortunate. It is with the mindset of WE that build communities and improve the welfare of the people,” states the 914UNITED website. Never has this been more true.
