Michael G Clements – Director

Michael has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and American Studies from Brandeis University and Master of Science from Syracuse University in Education.  

Michael’s life mission is to support those living in underserved communities through gaining access to resources that reduces the cycle of generational poverty, challenges oppression, addresses racism and supports their healing.  After completing his Masters at Syracuse he relocated to NYC where he has worked with several nonprofit organizations such as Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement, Harlem Children’s Zone, Union Settlement and Children’s Aid.  He is highly skilled at program and community development, youth development, staff development and coaching, education, and grant writing. 

Michael has over 25 years of experience in youth development, community development and education.  He has been responsible for the success of many NYC metropolitan area nonprofits including by not limited, fundraising, increased high school graduation rates, increased college acceptance rates, decreased pregnancy rates, access to comprehensive mental health and health services, etc.

Michael has mentored youth workers, teachers, education administrators, middle & upper managers.  He has authored and received over $5 million in grant funding.

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Vileti Akolo

Vileti (she/they) LMSW is a first-generation Tongan trauma-informed clinician, circle practitioner, consultant and facilitator. Based in NYC (licensed in NY), Vileti is a psychotherapist and group facilitator at Critical Therapy Center, where psychotherapy is integrated with social and transformative justice praxis. She dedicates her personal and professional work to upending oppressive systems and centering the lives of Black, Indigenous, people of color relegated to living on society’s margins. Vileti is deeply committed to creating and holding intentional space and expanding capacities for profound, collective healing. 

The bedrock of Vileti’s overall approach to clinical and communal work is informed by Critical Race and Black Feminist theories and embodied through an anti-oppressive, intersectional lens. For over a decade, she has developed curriculum, training and provided workshop facilitation for a multitude of clients and organizations on topics including social-racial-transformative justice pedagogy & applications, youth development, professional development, trauma-informed care & mental health awareness, community care & community healing. Vileti’s consultant work is holistic and rooted in collaborative and liberatory praxis where ultimately, the hope is deeper awareness and radical change. Vileti prioritizes research and attending training on cutting edge topics in order to stay abreast of the latest innovative approaches to healing. 

Vileti currently provides supervision to an intergenerational, multi-ethnic team at the Community Navigator Program (CNP) that provides mobile case management support and linkages to social service providers to struggling New Yorkers across the city. They’ve partnered with and consulted for many organizations including: College of Staten Island School of Social Work (CSISSW), Nyack College, The Arthur Project, Community Connections for Youth (CC-FY), The Credible Messenger Institute (CMI), The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP). She has presented at Network Days, a conference hosted by The Sanctuary Institute. Vileti received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and her Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in New York City.

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Saida Gordon

Saida holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Health and Human Services from the State University of New York at Buffalo (2010).  She has over ten years of experience serving children, youth, and families throughout the five boroughs.

She has worked in diverse settings, including HSE/College Access programs, mentoring services, behavioral health, and preventative services. Saida brings expertise in peer workforce development, community advocacy, and holistic interventions/services for youth and their families. Her career has focused on bridging the gaps between marginalized communities and their access to historically oppressive systems. She privileges the importance of collaborative conversations that honor diversity and inclusion in her work. She hopes that these conversations reignite people’s trust and access to these systems. In addition to her professional work, Saida holds her LMSW (2015) and SIFI (Seminar in Field Instruction) (2018), where she has served as Field Instructor for many MSW and BSW students. She brings an endearing, energetic, and passionate lens to her work.

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Juan “PaPo” Santiago

“PaPo” is a Puerto Rican writer, cultural worker and community organizer in the Nuyorican tradition, with lived experience as an orphan, young adult with housing and food instability, currently living with diagnosed mental health and anxiety disorders. Having to learn to navigate adulthood without the support of a traditional family, Juan believes that mainstream service institutions in New York City can learn from the communal responses of nontraditional venues, marginalized populations and cultures. He is a proponent of the idea that community is best healed from within, from people who understand its needs and honor its strengths, who draw from their own lived experience to offer authentic interventions. 

At Hunter College, Juan has served as an editorial assistant for the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, and as Admissions Officer for the Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work programs, with particular focus on supporting Black, Latinx and radical-minded applicants seeking higher education. While not a Social Worker himself, Juan is informed by Social Work values and was mentored directly by leadership in the Community Organizing major.  Currently, Juan is the Coordinator for the Community Navigator Program since 2017 where he helps screen, select and hire Navigators and recommends personnel policies. Juan interfaces with community on the micro level as residents call, e-mail, or walk through the program doors, and at a macro level where he represents the Community Navigators in neighborhood, CUNY and city-wide stakeholder meetings. Much of the work on the macro level is to foster collaboration between entities utilizing resources that already exist but are often overlooked. He also promotes the idea that stakeholder decisions should be resident-led, and that community conversations should involve all segments of community including those considered hardest to reach.

Juan’s cultural work has been covered by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, the V-Me/PBS channel, and has been the subject of doctoral dissertations and independent media publications.

Juan has received numerous honors including a 2013 New York City Council Certificate of Recognition, a 2014 Hispanicize National Positive Impact Award, a 2016 New York State Assembly Citation of Merit, and a 2020 NYPD Community Affairs award, for community leadership in arts and public service.