Candidate Mathylde Frontus
[NY Politics]
Long-time Coney Island resident and community leader, Mathylde Frontus, announced her candidacy for New York State’s 46th Assembly District, which covers Coney Island, Sea Gate, and portions of Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Brighton Beach, Dyker Heights and Gravesend.
“It is a pleasure for me to announce my candidacy for the 46th Assembly District. I have been living in the district for over 30 years, and have been involved in community service since my teenage years. In my mid-twenties, I founded Urban Neighborhood Services, a multi-service community-based organization which served the needs of my community through a range of signature programs and services such as financial literacy, homeownership assistance, legal assistance, veterans’ outreach, job and housing search assistance, re-entry assistance, anti-violence organizing and youth leadership.”
Frontus, is a child of Haitian immigrants.
She established the Coney Island Coalition Against Violence in 2009, and the Coney Island Anti-Violence Collaborative in 2013. She organized her neighbors and colleagues around the issue of public safety and brought residents, law enforcement, elected officials, students, educators, clergy and tenant leaders to the table to find smart and cooperative solutions to addressing the violence that has plagued her community for decades, she says.
Frontus’ record of community activism extends over 20 years. As a teen, she spent years volunteering every Sunday at her local soup kitchen. She has served as a Community Advisory Board Member at Coney Island Hospital; the Recording Secretary for the 60th Precinct Community Council; and a member of the Community Learning Schools Advisory Board at P.S. 188 in Coney Island. She was appointed to the NY Rising Community Reconstruction Planning Committee for Brighton Beach, Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, and Sea Gate, as part of the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. Additionally, she was a part of the hiring panel for the Coney Island Cure Violence program, an initiative for which she personally advocated to help bring to her community.
Frontus has also worked with K-12 students in schools throughout the district such as P.S. 188, P.S. 329 and Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island, as well as J.H.S. 259 William Mckinley, in Bay Ridge. Her work ranged from providing counseling services to the students to establishing a youth leadership council and implementing a leadership curriculum.
Frontus added: “I am proud of my record of service and leadership in the 46th Assembly District. I know what it’s like to fight with my neighbors in the trenches by finding solutions to the issues that our working families face on a daily basis. Together, we must tackle the issues that matter the most to us, this includes affordable housing, homeownership assistance, illegal home conversions, strong union jobs and training programs, health care, and responsible economic development.”
“We must invest in our community cornerstones, such as public schools, senior and youth programs, small businesses and MTA service,” she said. “As I travel throughout the district, my neighbors tell me day after day that they want their next Assembly Member to be a hard-worker attuned to the community’s needs. I believe that my record of advocacy in the community stands for itself. This is why I am running to represent the hardworking people of the 46th Assembly District.”
Frontus is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work and the NYU Silver School of Social Work, where she teaches Advocacy and Social Justice.
She is the Founder and Principal of MKF Ventures, LLC, a social enterprise operating Avant-Garde Consulting and Avant-Garde Behavioral Health Resources.
She received her BSW and MSW from NYU, an M.A. in Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and an MTS from Harvard Divinity School. In 2015, she graduated with her Ph.D. from the Columbia University School of Social Work where she specialized in Social Policy and Administration.
