2/9/10 - New York’s Community Foundation Awards $7.25 Million to Help New Yorkers Through the Recession

CONTACT:                                                                                                             
Ani Hurwitz, vice president, communications
The New York Community Trust
909 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022
T (212) 686-0010 x 224  /  F (212) 532-8528
afh@nyct-cfi.org / www.nycommunitytrust.org

New York’s Community Foundation Awards $7.25 Million to Help New Yorkers Through the Recession

New York City, Feb. 9—Eight nonprofits that provide food, shelter, legal help, counseling, and cash to New Yorkers struggling through the recession have received $6.1 million in grants from The New York Community Trust. The Trust gave another $1.15 million to six community groups and 37 settlement houses to maintain essential services such as day care, after-school programs for youth, senior activities, adult education, and job workshops.

Nancy Wackstein, executive director of United Neighborhood Houses, which manages the grant for the settlement houses, says, “As we enter 2010, the recession continues to have a disproportionate impact on low-income communities around the City.  Unemployment and loss of low-wage jobs continues; difficulty among families and older adults in meeting rent and utility bills and putting adequate food on the table persists; and affordable child care and afterschool programs remain in short supply.”

Last February, The Trust made a similar set of grants to help the growing number of people who were hungry and had lost jobs and homes. The nonprofits that were funded distributed 63 million pounds of food to 1,000 emergency feeding programs; delivered 35,000 emergency food boxes to home-bound elders; and opened 6,000 new legal cases, many to help keep people in their homes. More than 50,000 working-poor families got $82 million in tax refunds; 700 households received cash to pay expenses, such as rent; and 1,500 people received help paying their medical expenses.

With an anticipated jobless recovery, deep cuts in State and the City budgets, and the phase-out of federal stimulus money, The Trust’s board and program staff decided that another early infusion of money was needed this year.

“Struggling New Yorkers are best served when they don’t have to go to five different places to apply for food stamps, eat a hot meal, and get financial, legal, and housing help,” says Joyce Bove, senior vice president for programs at The Trust. “With that in mind, our safety net grants are structured to encourage grantees to work together and provide services at each other’s sites.”

Using this strategy, a 2009 grant to New York City Financial Network Action Consortium and the Food Bank helped New Yorkers apply for $82 million in tax refunds at 21 settlement houses, food pantries, and other grantee offices. Building on that success, a 2010 grant will help expand this program, adding six new staff and bringing food stamp enrollment centers into three participating credit unions. In addition, settlement houses will host workshops on using LawHelp/NY’s free legal database, and hundreds of food pantries will provide information about other grantee services.

The following eight grants will provide basic services City-wide, including food, legal help, benefits enrollment, and cash assistance to prevent foreclosure and eviction:

• Bridge Fund of New York, $1,250,000, for cash assistance and counseling to help families keep their homes.

• Cancer Care, $850,000, for financial aid to needy cancer patients.

• City Harvest, $200,000, to get more fresh produce to emergency feeding programs.

• Citymeals-on-Wheels, $400,000, for weekend and emergency meals for poor, home-bound elders.
• Food Bank for New York City/Food for Survival, $1,500,000, to help emergency feeding programs get more food and serve more people.
• LawHelp/NY, $75,000, to provide online legal resources for poor New Yorkers.
• Legal Services NYC, $1,200,000, to continue a partnership with the Legal Aid Society that provides legal services for low-income New Yorkers who are threatened with destitution by the economic collapse.
• New York City Financial Network Action Consortium, $600,000, to coordinate and expand a system to get cash and non-cash benefits for eligible New Yorkers. The grant will also fund credit and financial counseling and free tax preparation at dozens of food pantries and community centers throughout the five boroughs.
  
  
  The following seven grants will shore up community groups that provide early childhood and after-school programs for youth, senior activities, adult education, and job workshops in the City’s neediest neighborhoods.
  
  
• United Neighborhood Houses, $1,000,000 to help 37 settlement houses in all five boroughs maintain critical services for poor New Yorkers.

• Abyssinian Development Corporation, $25,000 for financial counseling for low-income seniors in Central Harlem.
• Groundwork, $25,000 for social services for families living in and near public housing in East New York, Brooklyn.
• Highbridge Community Life Center, $25,000 to sustain services for poor families in the Highbridge section of the Bronx.
• Ocean Bay Community Development Corporation, $25,000 to maintain critical services in Far Rockaway, Queens.
• Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, $25,000 to sustain youth and senior programs in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
• Southern Queens Park Association, $25,000 to help sustain services for children and youth in south Jamaica, Queens.

About The New York Community Trust

Since 1924, The New York Community Trust has been the community foundation of New York City, helping charitable individuals, families, and businesses to improve the quality of life for all the area’s residents through an aggregate of 2,000 funds. The Trust is dedicated to meeting the changing needs of children, youth, and families; aid in community development; improve the environment; promote health; assist people with special needs; and support education, arts, and human justice. The Trust is governed by a 12-member Distribution Committee composed of community leaders appointed by a variety of civic institutions.  Its staff is recognized for its experience in grantmaking, financial administration, and donor service.  Divisions are located on Long Island and in Westchester.  In 2009, The Trust made grants of $127 million from assets of $1.8 billion (unaudited).      

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