Monday, June 16, 2025
Lifelong Freeport resident Ladonna Taylor has stepped up to a challenging and purposeful new role. She has become the executive director of Nassau County Youth Services, with oversight of the 46 agencies that have contracts with the county to provide support for children and families.
Taylor was appointed to the position by County Executive Bruce Blakeman on Feb. 2, and confirmed by the Nassau County Legislature on Feb. 28.
Taylor, who declined to give her age, brings impressive experience to her new job: 27 years with the county’s Department of Social Services, including seven years as a social welfare examiner and 20 years as a case worker for children and their families.
Youth Services is a division of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services. “Any not-for-profit in Nassau that deals with children that has an approved RFP [request for proposal] from us — we provide them with funding,” Taylor explained. Three of those programs are Walkabout for Young Men and Women, which provides transitional housing services for homeless young adults; the Boys and Girls Club of Nassau County, which offers after-school and summer programs; and the PEACE After-School Program, in Hempstead Village.
“We call the 46 agencies a coalition,” Taylor said. She is in the process of visiting every one in person, because, she said, “I’m not a big talker. I’m more about boots on the ground, so I want to see that things are getting done.”
Taylor meets monthly with each agency and its director. She also oversees the Nassau County Youth Council, which is composed of teens that meet monthly and present youth issues to the County Legislature, and the county Youth Board, to which adults from youth-oriented agencies are appointed to discuss improvement of services for families and children.
During her first weeks on the job, Taylor had to react nimbly to a March 31 deadline. New York state had provided funds for gang and gun prevention that had to be used by that date. “I implemented eight programs throughout Nassau County in the Corridor,” she said. “The Corridor is Freeport, Roosevelt, Hempstead, Uniondale and Westbury. We’ve reached out to Elmont as well — anyplace where gangs and guns are an issue, because that’s where the state wants this money to go.”
Fourteen- to 24-year-olds are the target population for these state funds. Of special concern during Taylor’s first month in office was the week of Feb. 21-25, when the schools closed for winter break, but parents still had to work. One agency that received funds was Morrison Mentors, in Hempstead, which runs science, technology, engineeering and math, or STEM, courses for middle and high school students.
“We had a safe haven for the students that week,” Taylor said. “The Morrison Mentors program went 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 21 to 25. The students each got a computer to take apart and rebuild, and at the end of the week, they took the computer home to keep.”
Taylor also reached out to ABBA Leadership Center in Hempstead, whose executive director, Reginald Benjamin, connects men and women with jobs and training. Taylor partnered with ABBA to administer the OSHA 30-Hour Construction Course, which addresses construction site safety, during Feb. 21-25. Twenty-five young men and three women earned the OSHA certificate, which qualifies them for better jobs in the construction field.
Taylor also instituted two programs at the Salvation Army Citadel, in Hempstead: Guns to Butter, with an award-winning chef teaching culinary arts, and Safe Play, a six-week evening basketball program partly run by Hempstead Public Schools coach Hank Williams, at the end of which each student will take home a free pair of Nike Jordan sneakers.
In Baldwin, Taylor brought in Duckie Confetti, a Hempstead Village native and high-fashion designer, to run a six-week fashion design course, while in Freeport, in partnership with BOCES, there are two programs, one focused on art and music, the other on TV production. When the Freeport courses conclude, each student will take home a keyboard or a camera.
Taylor, and those who work with her, recognize the vulnerability of their target population to temptations like joining a gang. “In all of my programs,” she said, “we have a credible messenger there telling them, ‘Maybe I did the wrong thing as a child, but I turned my life around, and you can do the same thing.’”
A credible messenger is an adult who grew up in circumstances similar to those of the children in the programs, and can speak to issues they face. “I would like to see the kids in Nassau County get what they need on every single level,” Taylor said. “I am always joining meetings with other youth bureaus throughout the state, fighting for funding on the state level.”
Taylor expressly thanked Blakeman for the chance to carry on that good fight. “I never expected to have this opportunity,” she said. “I am blessed for it, and I will make him proud.”
Blakeman’s confidence in his appointee is evident. “Ladonna is uniquely qualified to lead the Nassau County Youth Board and empower our next generation of leaders,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working with her to make sure our young people can continue to have an opportunity to learn, grow and be a force for good in our communities.”
Barbara Simms, a Freeport resident who is retired from 30 years as director of recreation for the Town of Hempstead, became friends with Taylor through the Freeport Republican Club.
“She’s just an amazing, amazing woman,” said Simms, noting that Taylor lost her mother and several relatives to Covid last year, and had a bad house fire as well. “She’s there for everybody. We [the Republican Club] have adopted families through her leadership. … She was with Child Protective Services. I’ve seen her go to people’s homes that you wouldn’t want to go into after dark, but she always felt the children and familiescame first. She’d go to schools and meet with the kids that had these problems and go one-on-one with them. With a case load of 50, that’s not easy.”
“It’s a lot that this job entails,” Taylor said, “but it is very, very rewarding.”
