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For nearly 100 years, The New York Community Trust has been taking on tough problems to improve the quality of life in New York by supporting nonprofits that speak to the charitable passions of our generous donors.
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East Side House Settlement in the South Bronx is working to build an alternate route for young people who need a second chance to complete their high school educations. One hundred and twenty nine students (including the young woman pictured) from three transfer high schools completed the Post-Secondary Pathway program, and many now have jobs or are in college. With our grant, East Side House brought its program to 250 more students in eight transfer schools.
The technology sector is driving the City’s economy and people with coding skills are in high demand. The Knowledge House helps young people of color from six Bronx public high schools learn coding and web development, then places them in internships that can lead to high-paying jobs. With our grant, the group expanded its entry-level course to 10 Bronx high schools, increasing enrollment and internships, and building its network of employers.
Most residents of Sunset Park, Brooklyn are of Hispanic, Chinese, and Indian descent and don’t speak English at home. The Sunset Park Health Council began a program to improve child care and learning for young children and their families. With our grant, the council has helped programs reach accreditation standards and train more early childhood teachers (including home-based providers like those shown here) to ensure the little ones in their care are ready for kindergarten.
When a child is put into foster care, studies show they fare far better with family members. Children’s Village, which provides and supports temporary care for nearly 500 foster children, used our grant to place more kids with relatives, and to enlist and train more non-related families willing to help raise and nurture a child. Shown here is a former Children’s Village foster care resident with his wife and son.
For many high school students, algebra is a difficult hurdle—but they have to pass it to graduate. Urban Assembly worked with six schools to help students grasp the concepts, pass the algebra Regents exam, and move up to higher math classes. Our funding is helping add nine schools to the Algebra Success program, coach more teachers, and boost success rates.
Poor New Yorkers have Legal Aid; the rich can afford market-rate lawyers. For those in the middle, The Trust is funding the Court Square Law Project. The experimental program, working within CUNY Law School, hires recent graduates to represent those of modest means. Fees vary depending on clients’ income. The program not only fills part of the “justice gap,” but helps solve the problem of too many law graduates and too few jobs. The modest legal fees are already covering much of the program’s costs; CUNY will share its business plan with other law schools.
The Redford Center recognized the world needs hopeful films about our environment that stoke awareness and inspire change. Grants to the Center have helped diverse, up-and-coming filmmakers work with mentors, and focus not just on environmental devastation but on what we can do to restore health to the planet. Here, filmmakers in the program learn how to work drone-mounted GoPro cameras on Bearclaw Peak in Utah.
With our support, ArtBuilt is bringing the magic of interactive public art to 10 more parks in all five boroughs, and expanding themes to sustainability and the environment.
City subway and bus service is bogged down in delays and closures. The Riders Alliance is working to reverse the decline in our transit system by organizing riders to push for improvements. The Trust helped the Alliance win millions of dollars in funding for public transit. The Alliance also helped pass New York’s first-ever Fair Fares program for low-income riders, and won a plan to fix City buses.
Every spring and fall, millions of migrating birds wing their way over the City. They need green spaces where they can rest and fatten up on insects and plants—including on rooftops, such as the green landscape atop the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. But green roofs benefit more than birds. They soak up stormwater, filter and cool the air, and reduce energy costs and carbon emissions. With our latest grant, New York City Audubon coordinated work of the NYC Green Roof Researchers Alliance to further green roof science, production, education, and policy.
Offshore wind farms, with giant turbines bolted to the ocean floor, could supply huge amounts of renewable energy. But what effect do they have on marine life? With our grant, the National Wildlife Federation negotiated with offshore wind farm developers to ensure ocean habitats aren’t harmed and migratory routes remain accessible to whales, seals, porpoises and other sea creatures. Shown here, the nation’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Block Island.
A career onstage can be glamorous, but gigs aren’t guaranteed, and many retired entertainment professionals have little or no savings. The Actors Fund used our grant to renovate space in their midtown residences and opened the Waldman Living Room, a gathering place and education center for retired entertainers. Here, three seniors who participate at the center film a documentary about their “Me Too” experiences with sexual harassment during their careers.
Thanks to medical advances, much has changed since the early days of HIV/AIDS. But there’s still much to do. In 2018, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) established a fund in The Trust, and asked us to design and carry out their grantmaking program. Together we made grants to 15 nonprofits helping people at risk of contracting and/or living with HIV/AIDS. One of the grantees, God’s Love We Deliver (at left), provides healthy and medically tailored meals to people with HIV and their families.