Partnership reaffirms BPL’s commitment to community health and investment while expanding BCC’s multi-sector network of anchor partners

(Brooklyn, N.Y.) — Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), one of the nation’s largest library systems, announces it will join Brooklyn Communities Collaborative (BCC), a nonprofit dedicated to improving health and wealth in Brooklyn communities, as an anchor institution. BCC’s anchor institutions are local organizations with large economic and human capital that use their procurement, real estate, employment, and coordination capacity to improve health and well-being in the communities around them.

As a part of the BCC anchor network, which includes Brooklyn-based healthcare and educational institutions, BPL will leverage its extensive purchasing, hiring, and programming to reinvest critical dollars in the local economy. BPL will work alongside BCC’s multi-sector network of partners committed to building economic health and wealth in Brooklyn’s most underserved neighborhoods.

“Brooklyn Public Library is proud to join Brooklyn Communities Collaborative as an anchor institution,” said Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO, Brooklyn Public Library. “As an organization dedicated to providing educational and outreach services in every neighborhood in Brooklyn, this partnership reflects our long-standing commitment to the borough and Brooklynites of all backgrounds.”

BCC offers its anchor organizations unique support to reach their localization and diversification goals, whether it be the development of workforce development programs, connections to local, minority-owned businesses providing key services, partnerships with other anchor institutions and more.

“The Brooklyn Public Library system is the definition of an anchor institution, and a key resource available to every Brooklyn resident in every Brooklyn neighborhood,” said Shari Suchoff, Executive Director of Brooklyn Communities Collaborative. “We are incredibly honored to have them as an anchor institution, and look forward to working together to advance community-driven health, wealth, and wellbeing in Brooklyn.”

Anchor institutions are committed to leveraging their economic power and human capital to benefit the long-term health and wellbeing of the community, and to reinvest the support of the community back into these neighborhoods.