March Edition 2011 - New York Nonprofit Press

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6 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz March 2011 NEWS North Star Fund Grants $3 Million for Greening Western Queens The North Star Fund has announced over $3 million in grants to 15 community groups for the “Greening” of Western Queens. The grants mark the beginning of a three-year, $8 million initiative which will bring trees, green jobs and youth environmental programs to the neighborhoods of Woodside, Sunnyside, Astoria and Long Island City. “We’d like to help these neighborhoods transform themselves into model green communities,” said Hugh Hogan, executive director of North Star Fund. Currently, Western Queens has among the lowest amounts of green space of any neighborhood in New York City – only 2 percent compared to a citywide average of 14 percent. This first round of grants will give way to up to 850 trees, support environmental education and recycling programs, and help fund community gardens and green jobs training programs. Grants will be awarded to both Queensbased and citywide programs to benefit the Queens community. First year projects and grant amounts are: * All Saints Episcopal Church (One-year grant: $20,000): To revitalize their garden, providing public access to local green space; * Asian Americans for Equality (One-year grant: $90,000): To implement environmentally focused organizing and education, outreach, and community-planning programs; * Center for Urban Pedagogy (One-year grant: $30,000): To lead Aviation High AcceSS Knowledge School students in a community research and design project that explores and explains the inner workings of NYC’s energy infrastructure; * City Parks Foundation (Three-year grant: $2,500,000, including a $500,000 challenge grant): For the planting and stewardship of up to 850 trees in Western Queens; * DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association (One-year grant: $15,000): To research the feasibility of a community garden for domestic and other low-wage workers; * Earth Day New York (One-year grant: $20,000): To research and plan the implementation of public green roofs; * Friends of Sunnyside Gardens Community Association (One-year grant: $10,000): To plant trees outside the historic Sunnyside Gardens park; * GrowNYC – Environmental Programs (One-year grant: $20,000): To involve public school students in hands-on environmental education programs; * GrowNYC – School Gardens (One-year grant: $50,000): To develop five gardens in local public schools; * The Horticultural Society of New York (One-year grant: $50,000): To create a Learning Garden in a Queens public school; * ioby (One-year grant: $10,000): To provide matching grants to small scale environmental projects; * Queens Library (One-year grant: $250,000): To transform five local Queens Library power Hugh Hogan, executive director of North Star Fund, presents a facsimile check to representatives from the groups funded in the first round of the Greening Western Queens fund. branches into “Greening Libraries” – innovative resource centers for environmental conservation; * Recycle-A-Bicycle (One-year grant: $25,000): To create a plan for developing a community and bike center in Western Queens; * Solar One (Two-year grant: $110,000); To implement Green Design Labs in eight public schools; * Sunnyside Community Services (One-year grant: $125,000): To provide green-jobs training to youth through an urban forestry summer internship program, in collaboration with Trees New York; * Western Queens Compost Initiative (Oneyear grant: $65,000, including a $50,000 challenge grant): To develop an initiative that will bring community-based, sustainable waste reduction programs to Western Queens. “Our goal is a coordinated and sustainable initiative that makes the entire area more vibrant, healthier and energy efficient. What we don’t want is a patchwork of programs that affect only isolated areas,” said Hogan. North Star will make additional grants in each of the next two years. “At Sunnyside Community Services we are thrilled to be a part of this initiative,” said Executive Director, Judy Zangwill. “Green jobs are fast becoming a vital part of the city’s economy and it is a career track many young people never even consider. We’ll be joining forces with Trees New York, a leader in urban forestry, to provide an internship program which will give young people the tools they need to enter a rapidly growing industry and to become effective stewards of our environment. This collaborative effort is a natural extension of SCS’s commitment to meeting community needs and connecting our participants to new opportunities.” Prevention Programs Save Money Says Comptroller venture forwArd with Youth, i.n.c. Second AnnuAl conference for Youth-Serving nonprofitS tuesday, May 3, 2011 I 8:30 AM – 5:00 pM Hosted by Credit Suisse I 11 Madison Avenue, New York, NY Sessions include Building Organizational Stability through Relationships Innovative and Sustainable Approaches to Making Change Keynote address with Nancy M. Barry, Founder and President of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty Bridging the Sectors Networking Luncheon with corporate professionals register online at www.youthinc-usa.org/2011conference.php Early bird tickets start at $50 www.youthinc-usa.org Programs focusing on at-risk children have proven effective at reducing the rates of juvenile violence and incarceration, according to a report released by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. “Instead of waiting until a child becomes a delinquent, New Yorkers will be best served by addressing problems at the start,” DiNapoli said. “Keeping just one child out of the juvenile justice system saves our state $210,000 a year and even greater costs to victims and communities. Investing in children early is not only the right thing to do, but it also protects taxpayer dollars.” DiNapoli’s report weighs the personal and economic benefits of early intervention programs and compares them with current initiatives that focus on children only after they’ve entered the correctional system. The study noted it costs an estimated $210,000 per person, or a total of $350 million annually, for incarceration. Juvenile delinquents often become repeat offenders and child abuse and neglect increase future criminal behavior by 29 percent. These enormous costs could potentially be prevented by intervening early. Strategies found to be most effective at mitigating risk factors include pre-kindergarten programs, drug and alcohol treatment programs for pregnant women, and programs to assist mentally ill parents. “Waiting for criminal activity to occur and responding accordingly is an expensive strategy that New Yorkers cannot afford,” said William Kilfoil, Port Washington Chief of Police and Immediate Past President of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police. “It simply does not work. As Police Chiefs, we all know that prevention is cost effective and is proven to save taxpayer dollars. With today’s tight budgets, we cannot overlook this fact.” The report encourages better coordination among state agencies and adopting an evidencebased approach to investing in at-risk children in their early years. It also advises that funding decisions be based on program effectiveness so the limited funds available in today’s economic climate could provide the most benefit for at-risk youth and state taxpayers. To view the report go to http://www.osc. state.ny.us/press/releases/feb11/Invest_In_Kids. pdf.
March 2011 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz 7 NEWS Habitat NYC Breaks Ground on St. John’s Residences Goodwill Gets $426K Walmart Grant for “Beyond Jobs” Habitat for Humanity - New York City broke ground on its newest 12-unit affordable housing condominium Project, located in Ocean Hill- Brownsville, Brooklyn on February 15th. Located at 1812 St. John’s Place, these affordable condos are targeted to low-income working New York City families earning between 50% to 80% of the city’s Area Median Income. They will be built to LEED and ENERGY STAR green standards, for healthy, energy-efficient homes. Habitat was joined at the event by future residents, funders and representatives from the community, elected officials, and the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), broke ground today on its newest 12-unit affordable condominium project, located in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn. The St. John’s Residences Condominium include the first of more than 100 Habitat-NYC homes to be built in Central Brooklyn, funded in part through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Neighborhood Stabilization Program Round 2. The Project also receives support from the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office and private funders. Amalgamated Bank is providing the construction loan and the State of New York Mortgage Agency is offering low-interest mortgages. Tradeweb, an institutional marketplace for government bond and mortgage trading, will be among the corporate supporters of this project. HPD sold the vacant land to Habitat-NYC for $12,000. St. John’s Residences is being developed under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP), an $8.4 billion initiative to finance 165,000 units of affordable housing for half a million New Yorkers by 2014. To date, the plan has funded the creation or preservation of more than 111,000 units of affordable housing across the five boroughs. To date, Habitat-NYC has built 50 affordable homes in nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant and 41 homes in Ocean Hill-Brownsville. Construction on the St. John’s project is expected to be completed in 2012. “We have received thousands of requests for homeownership opportunities from hardworking low-income families in Ocean Hill- Brownsville,” said Josh Lockwood, Executive Director of Habitat-NYC. “So, we are thrilled to be able to offer 12 new homeownership opportunities to 12 remarkable families who will build their new condos alongside hundreds of big-hearted NYC volunteers.” “Supporting affordable housing, particularly in these challenging economic times, is high on our list of priorities,” said Gardner Semet, Executive Vice President and Head of Real Estate Finance for Amalgamated Bank. Other friends and supporters attending the event were Marian Zucker, President of the Office of Finance & Development at New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR); Rafael Cestero, Commissioner of HPD; Marilyn Gelber, President of the Brooklyn Community Foundation; Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President; Lee Olesky, CEO of Tradeweb; Hazel A. Younger, Chairperson of Community Board 16 in Brooklyn; Vincent James, Chief-of-Staff for City Councilmember Darlene Mealy; and future Habitat-NYC homeowner Juliet Smith. Goodwill Industries of Greater NY and Northern NJ has received a two-year $426,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation to empower single mothers with all the tools they need to find employment, succeed in the workplace and support their families. Known as Beyond Jobs, the program assists single mothers with job training and placement, but also helps plan for their continued success. Goodwill® works with each woman to create an individualized, holistic plan that outlines how she will gain and retain a job, advance in her career, and ensure longterm financial stability for her family. Beginning March 1st, Beyond Jobs is expected to assist more than 250 single mothers over the next two years. Goodwill will match the grant with $128,000 of funding. “Finding a steady job is a top-of-mind issue for every unemployed single mother, but the struggle doesn’t end when she finds a job,” said William J. Forrester, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Greater NY and Northern NJ. “Goodwill’s Beyond Jobs program helps mothers and families by providing more than a job, giving each woman the full set of tools she needs to support her family today and in the future.” Twenty-six percent of all children now grow up in families headed by single mothers, many of whom face significant struggles in this brutal economic climate. Single mothers are twice as likely to be unemployed as married women, and during the current economic crisis, the unemployment rate for single mothers has ballooned to 12.3 percent, the highest rate ever recorded. Each participant in the Beyond Jobs program receives a complete career assessment, individualized career planning, job skills training, and assistance with job placement. Recognizing that landing a job is only one step on the road to success, Beyond Jobs also provides mothers with continued financial education, family strengthening services, early education and child care assistance, and connections to healthy food and nutrition initiatives. “This grant to Goodwill Industries of Greater NY and Northern NJ will support single mothers in New York City by assuring they have access to gaining the necessary skills for today’s jobs,” said Margaret McKenna, President of the Walmart Foundation. “We are pleased to support this project because it gives single mothers the opportunity to continue to play a vital role in the workforce while providing for themselves and their families.” St. Cabrini Home to Close RTC St. Cabrini Home in West Park, NY announced that it would be closing its Residential Treatment Center (RTC) program on February 28th. The program was originally founded as an orphanage in 1890 by Mother Cabrini. It currently houses approximately 21 girls. The agency had faced a number of financial and programmatic challenges in recent years as state and local policies and practices relating to the placement of youth in residential programs have changed. “After careful and thoughtful consideration, and in consultation with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, the Board of Trustees for the St. Cabrini Home has decided to commence a prompt and orderly discontinuation of the Residential Treatment Care (RTC) Program,” the agency said in a formal statement. “The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are saddened by the closure of the RTC Program, but remain committed and confident that the life and ministry of the St. Cabrini Home will continue in a different form.” The agency has announced that it is working closely with local counties, New York’s Office of Children and Family Services, and local foster care agencies to place girls remaining in the program into appropriate settings. The agency will continue to operate its group home programs and an OASAS-licensed substance abuse treatment program. “In the coming months St. Cabrini-West Park will begin to renew its commitment to its longstanding mission ‘to provide compassionate service which respects the dignity and worth of each individual’, and will convene an advisory task force to seek to meet new community needs in ways that align with the mission of the nonprofit organization,” the agency said in an official statement. Dr. Ilze Earner, consultant for Mission Oriented Projects, is planning to meet with religious, civic, business, and education leaders throughout the mid-Hudson Valley. She hopes to recruit participants for this exciting opportunity to re-invent St. Cabrini-West Park, a spectacular site with multiple resources, into becoming a “good neighbor” in serving the surrounding community. St. Cabrini-West Park is sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and has served the surrounding community for 120 years.
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March Edition 2011 - New York Nonprofit Press

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