Manhattan groups earn fortune in community grants
Photo courtesy of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance
BY BETH DEDMAN
The New York Community Trust is
awarding $7 million in grants to
47 non-profit organizations that
address issues including caring for cancer
patients, fighting gerrymandering and
providing better access to nutritious food.
This round of grant approvals is the first
of five that the trust will award in 2020,
said Amy Wolf, assistant director for digital
media and marketing.
“Every year we give out $50 million in
competitive grants,” Wolf said.
The trust employs program officers to
vet proposals for the competitive grant
programs, Wolf said. The officers review
proposals year-round regarding their field
of expertise.
The largest grant will provide $700,000
of financial aid to at least 2,200 cancer
patients who need help offsetting the
cost of transportation, child care, pain
medications, insurance premiums and
co-payments. The program will help ensure
low-income people of color, immigrants
and working parents are able to afford the
care they need.
Another grant will help the LatinoJustic
PRLDEF fight gerrymandering in the
congressional, state and county legislative
districts. This non-profit will use their
$525,000 grant to engage New York City
residents in the fight with a nonpartisan
redistricting commission.
The trust is also providing four grants
totaling $610,000 to increase access to
nutritious food, according to the press
release. The Urban Food Policy Institute
at the CUNY School of Public Health and
Health Policy, Lenox Hill Neighborhood
House, United Community Centers and
the West Side Campaign Against Hunger
will use these grants to affect policy, create
programming, support farms, coordinate
food pantries and negotiate food prices, all
for the sake of helping New Yorkers have
easier access to healthy food.
The Transform Don’t Trash NYC Coalition
will use a $130,000 grant to shape rules
affecting the creation of a new zone system
to manage the removal of four million tons
of commercials waste produced annually as
well as advocate for reducing pollution and
bring attention to poor working conditions.
The trust will also help the New York
Taxi Workers Alliance help debt-burdened
drivers with an $85,000 grant, Urban
Youth Alliance International to adopt requirements
for a new Bronx prison facility
that will help replace jails on Rikers Island
with $80,000 and will also assist Hester
Street Collaborative to help non-profit
organizations find and negotiate for affordable
work spaces with $150,000.
Among the 47 organizations, the trust
also provided grants to nonprofits covering
areas related to arts and culture, cancer
research and care, health, conservation and
environment, education, historic preservation,
homelessness, human justice, human
services, job development, people with
disabilities and technical assistance.
The New York Community Trust is a
grant-making foundation that is “dedicated
to improving the lives of residents of New
York City and its suburbs,” according to
their website. The Trust connects donors
to nonprofits to make a difference in the
lives of communities, particularly in New
York City, Westchester and Long Island.
More information about the New York
Community Trust can be found at nycommunitytrust.
org.
PHOTO BY ARI MINTZ
Group Fitness instructor Miki Henkin leads Silver Sneakers class at
Center at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House.
NYCHA app aims to improve communications with tenants
BY GRANT LANCASTER
New York City Housing Authority
officials launched an updated
version of their MyNYCHA app
Wednesday that will allow users to get
notifications about maintenance in their
building, pay rent and file maintenance
reports with ease.
The updated app lets users opt in to
receive push or email notifications about
maintenance status and outages affecting
their buildings, according to a Wednesday
press release from NYCHA.
Residents can use the app to view and
pay their rent through the app.
Users can now create work tickets for
elevator maintenance in the app, as well
as letting them submit tickets for heating
problems and window problems at the
same time. They can also view work orders
grouped by the type of repair.
“MyNYCHA is an invaluable tool for the
Authority,” said NYCHA Chair Gregory
Russ. “These upgrades expand functionality
and improve communications, customer
service, and quality of life for our
residents.”
Since the app launched in 2015, nearly
95,000 users have submitted more than
1.4 million maintenance requests through
the app, according to the press release.
NYCHA officials estimate that the app has
saved them $4.4 million.
About 564,000 New Yorkers used
NYCHA public housing or Section 8 programming
in 2019, according to a 2019
NYCHA fact sheet.
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