New pilot programs tackling transportation and housing instability for Tulsa’s families and youth are on the horizon.
More than 100 of Tulsa’s most influential nonprofits, philanthropies and educators have identified four priority areas for the city’s youngest residents: transportation, early grade literacy, the youth workforce and housing instability. Through the Mayor’s Office of Children, Youth and Families, pilot programs targeting these areas are set to roll out this fall.
The mayor’s office launched last year with a goal of setting 15,000 children on the path to economic mobility over five years. It created a new structure of problem-solving in the city with a Children’s Cabinet and several working groups called Action Alliances.
Those working groups have big ideas: making routes to school walkable and improving the accessibility of Tulsa’s public transit, expanding family literacy resources and better preventing evictions across the city. They’re captured in four reports shared with the Children’s Cabinet in April.
“We’ll be figuring out which ones we roll out this year, before the end of the year, and then seeking resources both public and private to fund and try out these efforts,” said Deputy Mayor Krystal Reyes, who chairs the office, at a July Tulsa Public Schools board meeting.
All four reports emphasize the need to coordinate systems across Tulsa, from education to city government.
“Transportation challenges rarely exist in isolation,” reads one report. “They are often compounded by housing instability, neighborhood safety concerns, infrastructure gaps, and limited access to information — creating layered barriers that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations.”
Some of the pilot programs from the office will expand what’s already working in the city, Reyes said, while others will be entirely new efforts.
“Out of a lot of ideas that have been raised, they’re now working to narrow those ideas into a few feasible opportunities that can be implemented by the end of the year,” said Carson Colvin, city spokesman. “We will have something more concrete to share publicly in the coming months about what those are and how they would/could be implemented.”
Action Alliances meet again in September. Those interested in getting involved should email mocyf@cityoftulsa.org.
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