Tulsa launches childrens cabinet plan; tribal leaders outline services and gaps

Tulsa Deputy Mayor Crystal Reyes told the Tulsa City Council Tribal Nations Relations Committee on May 5, 2025, that the city has established a mayoral Office of Children, Youth and Families and will contract with local nonprofit ImpactTulsa to run operations and begin creating a strategic plan and a childrens cabinet to align city and community efforts.

The childrens cabinet will convene cross-sector partners, Reyes said, and include "about 30 kind of representatives of institutions of systems that impact children" and focused action alliances for early childhood, career pathways and family stability. Reyes said Ashley Phillipson of ImpactTulsa will serve as director of the new office and that the mayors goal for the initiative is "to put an additional 15,000 youth on a path to economic mobility by 2030." She described the cabinet and action alliances as a structure to reduce silos and coordinate resources across city and tribal systems.

Tribal officials attending the committee described a broad set of child- and family-focused programs available through their nations and flagged gaps that affect service delivery in Tulsa and surrounding areas. Carmen Tecumseh Williams, secretary for community and human services for the Muscogee (Creek)…