If you’ve heard Monroe Nichols speak about his first year as mayor, you’ve heard about the Office of Children, Youth and Families. He championed the initiative at Harvard last year and talked about it in the State of the City. In the year since he established it, the office has fallen behind on many of its goals — the city says it’s still a success.
Nichols used his first executive order to create the office. The goal: setting 15,000 children on the path to economic mobility in five years by bringing leaders from every sector together. That was February 2025.
“This stuff takes a little bit of time,” Nichols said in a recent interview with the Flyer. “Anybody who thinks that starting from scratch and you get to where you ultimately want to be in a year — it’s not true.”
The city selected ImpactTulsa, the nonprofit Nichols co-founded in 2014, to run the office and appropriated $390,000 to do so — with half of that funding going directly to the nonprofit’s staff. Nichols says partnering with a preexisting nonprofit was more efficient than starting from scratch. Even so, progress has been slow:
- Several initiatives the office hoped for in 2025 — including an eviction-right-to-counsel ordinance and a “918 literacy day” — haven’t happened or were delayed.
- The office is built around seven community groups to inform its work; four have been established.
- A public rollout of a “fiscal map” outlining funding for youth was delayed to spring 2026 after facing pushback over its structure and methods from city councilors in December.
The city reports year-one gains in preschool enrollment and pilot program launches in 2025. However, the city says, its central success is getting the office up and running.
“The first year of the children’s cabinet has been heavy process-y, trying to move this group of superintendents and institutional leaders together before we even do a thing, right?” Nichols said while promoting the effort at Harvard in December. “And the accountability part is always really critical.”
Here’s what the office has and hasn’t accomplished in its first year — and how it’s funded.
‘Grassroots to grasstops model’
The office is the first of its kind in Oklahoma, modeling itself after other American cities that have brought governments, schools, nonprofits and philanthropies together.
“This is not something that we want to do to just talk about problems,” said Deputy Mayor Krystal Reyes, who chairs the office. “We are putting the specific infrastructure in place to get all this done.”
A 36-person “children’s cabinet” leads the office. It’s made up of superintendents, nonprofit executives, tribal representatives and city government staff. Their work is supported by “action alliances,” which are larger coalitions that meet quarterly to support the office’s goals.
It’s a “grassroots to grasstops model,” focused on getting Tulsa’s decision-makers “rowing in the same direction,” according to Ashley Philippsen, the departing executive director of ImpactTulsa and co-chair of the mayor’s initiative.
Philippsen announced in January she was leaving her role at the nonprofit for a “new opportunity” with an unspecified national organization, according to ImpactTulsa, though she will stay on through the spring. One of her key tasks was establishing the cabinet.
The cabinet has met six times since May. Four of the seven action alliances were kicked off In October, when more than 120 participants attended an interest meeting. The office’s draft calendar sets the next alliance meeting for March 6.
The children’s cabinet is not subject to open meeting requirements, meaning it doesn’t have to publicize its agendas or meeting times. According to documents shared by the city, the cabinet focused on the office’s structure, priorities and relevant data about Tulsa’s youth:
- At the cabinet’s first meeting in May 2025, attendees heard about the potential for systemic transformation in the office from StriveTogether, Nichols’ former employer and the organization that oversees ImpactTulsa. Presentations focused on the building of the office. One was titled: “What is a system? What do we mean by a system?”
- At its June meeting, the cabinet examined case studies in other cities with similar initiatives like Chattanooga, Tennessee and Poughkeepsie, New York. It discussed challenges facing Tulsa’s youth and where its efforts could make an impact.
- At its August meeting, the cabinet discussed the launch of three action alliances focused on early childhood, future pathways and safety. During a September special meeting, the cabinet discussed the draft fiscal map.
- At its October meeting, cabinet members read and discussed draft bylaws for the office. They were not finalized until this February.
- At its December meeting, ImpactTulsa presented a framework for measuring the office’s impact called “Know Your Number.” It also hosted a 20-minute “fireside chat” from the mayor about the office’s importance.
‘What it costs to run a nonprofit’
ImpactTulsa was “uniquely suited” to run the newly established office, according to the city’s initial contract with the nonprofit.
In March, ImpactTulsa’s staff became the office’s operators. The city awarded them a sole-source contract in May, first allocating $115,000 for ImpactTulsa to bill against through August. An additional $275,000 was added through August 2026.
ImpactTulsa’s data sharing agreements with school districts, demonstrated successes and deep expertise set it apart from other local organizations, according to city contracts. Nichols helped establish ImpactTulsa to create “a more equitable future for Tulsa-area children.” He left in 2016 before becoming a state representative.
Nichols said ImpactTulsa was brought in as a partner for efficiency, instead of starting an office from scratch. They were a partner “who actually has the ability to do things,” he said in an interview.
Contracts show 50% of the allocated money is going directly to ImpactTulsa staff.
At least six ImpactTulsa employees received these city funds, according to Philippsen. ImpactTulsa and the city declined to provide a more specific breakdown of how that money is distributed and to whom.
Philippsen will continue advising the mayor’s office through May. Her salary was among those boosted by city funds, but city officials did not comment on how — or if — her compensation will change as an adviser.
Another 15% of city funds go toward “office infrastructure, supplies and other resources for staff,” according to city contracts. This includes mileage reimbursement, copies, travel for youth participants of the cabinet or alliances and food at meetings, according to Philippsen.
The remaining 35% is being used for data management, the expansion of ImpactTulsa’s eviction alert system in schools and compensation for those engaging in the office’s door-knocking efforts, Philippsen said.
The Flyer asked Nichols if it is typical for the city to allocate money for staff salaries to an already-existing organization.
“I don’t know — I mean, we grant out a lot of money, so I’m sure we do have where that happens quite a bit,” Nichols said.
The Flyer asked the city to provide other examples that were similar; they did not respond.
A lot of time, a lot of effort
Launching the remaining alliances and strategic objectives are planned for early 2026, according to Reyes and ImpactTulsa. Progress will be tracked “transparently year over year,” the city says.
“Some of those things naturally pivot and change, just based on the kind of complexities of doing them,” Nichols said, noting many of the timelines established were set following the public school year. “Very few times does every plan go exactly according to, and you hit every benchmark.”
Several pilot programs will continue into the office’s second year, including a housing hub at East Central Middle School first launched last fall. The program was supposed to be up and running with legal support by the end of fall, according to the group’s strategic plan. They are still attempting to hire an attorney.
The office also hopes to expand ImpactTulsa’s eviction alert program from Tulsa Public Schools to Union and Jenks by fall of this year. A pilot internship course at McClain High School placed nine students in internships last semester, the nonprofit said. The office expects to create a summer work-based program next.
It also secured external partnerships with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Burns Institute and FUSE Corps. Many of these partnerships are funded by grants, subsidies or with pro-bono labor. A fellow with FUSE Corps, a national nonprofit, will create a strategy to improve workforce training opportunities in the city.
Going forward, the office will track progress toward its 15,000 youth goal through a “know your number” framework. It pledged to keep the public updated on that progress but has not publicly laid out metrics it is tracking.
Last school year, the office wanted 705 students to meet these milestones and says it met nearly two-thirds of that target — with more high school graduation and workforce enrollment data to come. There was “notable movement” in preschool enrollment, eighth grade math proficiency and chronic absenteeism rates, the city said in a Feb. 6 news release.
It did not share the methodology for that data. The office says chronic absenteeism declined by 836 students but did not specify which grade levels or school districts. There are more than 61,000 students in the three districts working with the office: Tulsa, Union and Jenks Public Schools.
“Those outcomes are critical, so we at least have some standard to hold us to say, ‘are these things getting better and worse over time? And can we draw that back to interventions?’” Nichols said.
A full accounting of the office’s first year is on the horizon — ImpactTulsa’s contractually obligated annual report is due April 5.
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