Public Allies’ Tarnasia Lundy and Riis Settlement:
Outreach, Advocacy, and Education

This feature is the first in a series entitled “Partnerships,” which, over the next few months, will highlight the successful community collaborations that are helping Riis Settlement make a difference among the residents of Long Island City and Western Queens.

Public Ally Tarnasia Lundy is Riis Settlement’s new Youth Service Coordinator.

“Progression comes with experience and achievement.”  That’s the self-coined motto by which Riis Settlement’s new Youth Service Coordinator, Tarnasia Lundy, lives her life.  Tarnasia is not only a Riis employee, she is a participant of 2009-2010 class of Public Allies, which takes talented young adults from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds and helps them become tomorrow’s leaders through partnerships with not-for-profit organizations.  A Summa Cum Laude graduate of SUNY Binghamton, Tarnasia was attracted to Public Allies because she felt that it would provide her with vital youth organizing and education experience as she prepares to earn her Masters degree and eventually teach High School English.   After Public Allies’ rigorous selection, orientation, and training process, Tarnasia was matched with Riis Settlement’s Center for Youth Development, where her background working with youth of all ages and desire to become an educator make her an ideal fit. 

She spends four days per week at Riis, where her typical day is a combination of teaching, outreach and advocacy, and vital administrative tasks.  For example, Tarnasia leads two job-readiness workshops per week, one for middle-schoolers and the other for older adolescents, helping them navigate issues like proper attire, resume writing, interviewing, and obtaining and maintaining necessary paperwork.  She also offers academic enrichment and counseling to youth of all ages. The young people at Riis “are works in progress,” she stated recently, “and we are there to offer consistency.” 

But the experience at Public Allies, which was founded by, among others, Michelle and Barack Obama, offers a lot more to its participants.  Every Friday, students attend full-day training sessions at Public Allies, where they develop communication and leadership skills, work on teamwork strategies, and learn about community organizing and advocacy.  Each of the 50 Public Allies is placed into teams, which develop and implement service projects focusing on various areas relating to social justice.  Tarnasia’s project is centered on environmental justice and will culminate in a youth climate justice conference in April. One of her goals is to involve young people at Riis Settlement in this initiative as an invaluable service learning experience.   Finally, each Ally is mentored and supervised by a Public Allies staff member as well as staff from their host site.  Max Chang, the Program Manager at Public Allies New York, meets regularly with Tarnasia to go over her individual development plan and says that she is, “extremely professional, a leader by example, and a doer.”  Eddie Gonzales-Novoa, Public Allies New York’s Executive Director, seconded that assessment. “We’re very proud of the work she’s doing and of the partnership.” We here at Riis Settlement couldn’t agree more!