JAMESTOWN, N.Y. \u2014 Miles Dawson, 13 of Jamestown, and several other kids ages 10 to 15 recently graduated from a six-week YWCA Empower U Summer Leadership Summit in Jamestown.<\/p>\n
“Oh, it’s been a pleasure, because if I was hot here, I just would have spent my whole summer just wasting away. Here actually gives me something to do,” said Dawson.<\/p>\n
The free program was made possible thanks to a $100,000 grant from the State Office of Cannabis Management’s Community Grant Reinvestment Program, one of 50 grants awarded in 24 counties.<\/p>\n
Of those 50 grants, 38 were given to 13 priority counties that have a high rate of poverty and experienced higher-than-average cannabis arrests.<\/p>\n
“The money probably allowed for all of us to impact our community in a way where we saw the most need because we’re the ones out here trying to meet those needs,” said Deborah Brannon, director of Empower U at the YWCA.<\/p>\n
Program leaders say activities included life lessons in leadership, goal setting and socializing with others. They also choreographed a dance, went on field trips and led a community action project, raising money for the homeless.<\/p>\n
“We’re hoping that they got to walk away with some new skills to be able to communicate, even if it takes practice. They genuinely were put in a position to have some type of supports and skills that we hope will transfer into school, and home and all these other areas,” said Brannon.<\/p>\n
“Real change happens from the ground up, not from the top down,” said Tuona Batchelor, a senior advisor with the OCM.<\/p>\n
OCM leaders say the state invested an additional $15 million in the program in 2025 to help expand access for grassroots organizations. Money for the program comes from a portion of the cannabis sales tax generated from legal sales.<\/p>\n
“As the cannabis industry grows, so too will this fund. We’re making sure that we can keep families whole and we’ve got extra dollars to invest into communities, so it’s really a win-win,” said Batchelor.<\/p>\n
Dawson says he looks forward to returning next year, and encourages others to sign up as well.<\/p>\n
“Have a purpose for their summer, walk away with skills. A lot of my friends probably are sitting at home on their devices, doing absolutely nothing all summer,” said Dawson.<\/p>\n
Applications for the 2026 reinvestment fund are now closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JAMESTOWN, N.Y. \u2014 Miles Dawson, 13 of Jamestown, and several other kids ages 10 to 15 recently graduated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113,231,16799,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,200],"class_list":["post-331741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-buffalo","tag-human-interest","tag-mark-goshgarian","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}