Brooklyn Communities Collaborative’s Strong Communities Fund is looking to help community-based organizations keep their doors open to residents who need them now more than ever.
BROOKLYN, NY— June 29, 2020—Today, Brooklyn Communities Collaborative announced $392,000 in grants to help Brooklyn nonprofits and community-based programs continue to support vulnerable residents in the current economic climate. The grant recipients are:
BCC made $3 million available to nonprofits through its Strong Communities Fund at the end of April. This is the second round of grants made, marking nearly $577,000 awarded to ensure equitable access to care, social services, and economic development opportunities in Brooklyn, during and after the COVID-19 crisis. While the pandemic has heightened health and safety risks for the poor, hungry, homeless, and other vulnerable populations, many emergency relief funds under-accounted for the needs of nonprofits that provide critical services to these people.
“These funds are part of building a post-COVID-19 Brooklyn that more justly allocates resources to all of its residents,” said Roger Green, Vice Chair, BCC Board and former member of the New York State Assembly representing neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
“Brooklyn Perinatal Network is ecstatic to receive this grant from BCC,” said Ngozi Moses, Executive Director of Brooklyn Perinatal Network Inc. “The COVID-19 pandemic has put so much stress on our communities and grassroots organizations serving them. It also claimed the life of our partner Fort Greene SNAP’s founder and Executive Director, Dr. Georgianna Glose. This grant will help us honor Georgianna and continue to work with SNAP to support low-income Black and Brown residents in Fort Greene’s rapidly gentrifying Community District 2.”
BCC continues to process additional applications. Eligible organizations are invited to apply here.
About Brooklyn Communities Collaborative (BCC)
BCC is a New York State 501(c)(3) not-for-profit focused on strengthening health, wealth and leadership in Brooklyn communities. Leveraging the power of anchor institutions and knowledge of community members, BCC convenes and supports stakeholders to collaborate, integrate services, build resources, and inform the policies and practices that most affect health and wellbeing. The Strong Communities Fund is one of BCC’s four interrelated key initiatives, which also include projects to expedite affordable housing, develop unionized cooperatives to supply anchor institutions, and coordinate care management and community efforts to connect Brooklynites to services.
About Brooklyn Perinatal Network Inc.
BPN was founded to engage local stakeholders in finding a community-led response to address high and rising infant death rates in North and Central Brooklyn. It was one of five NYS Department of Health-designated Comprehensive Prenatal Perinatal Service Networks established 30 years ago to address troubling infant and maternal health disparities. With NYS Department of Health funding in 1988, BPN evolved from a community task force into a non-profit with a strategy to organize community stakeholders for collective efforts targeting the most underserved and poverty-challenged communities of northern and central Brooklyn.
About Brooklyn – Queens – Long Island Area Health Education Center
The Brooklyn – Queens – Long Island Area Health Education Center is one of nine AHECs in New York State. Its mission is to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the healthcare workforce. The vision is to improve health care outcomes in underserved communities by increasing the pool of diverse, competent providers to work in those communities.
About the Haitian American Community Coalition, Inc.
The Haitian American Community Coalition, Inc. (HCC) is one of the leading community-based organizations in central Brooklyn providing access to free resources, low to no cost direct care, preventative and supportive services to a large Caribbean population regardless of their socioeconomic conditions. HCC has been a long time trusted source to the marginalized, underserved and most vulnerable (immigrants, seniors and working poor) who seek help in the areas of stable housing, benefits, food security and primary care from an organization who understands cultural and ethnic traditions. Some of HCC’s core programming include HIV/AIDS prevention and education, testing and linkage to care, mental health counseling and support, supportive housing, benefits navigation, ESL education, and a free weekly fitness program.
About FAN4Kids
FAN4Kids’ (F4K) mission is to educate kids and families of all shapes and sizes about healthy eating and active lifestyles to empower them to make healthy decisions about fitness and nutrition. F4K stalls and reverses the health problems related to unhealthy lifestyles that disproportionately plague underserved populations. F4K breaks down the barriers to good health with its lessons that last a lifetime.