Brooklyn Communities Collaborative Awards Over $300,000 in Grants

Yesterday, the Brooklyn Communities Collaborative (BCC), a nonprofit organization focused on providing aid for Brooklyn and its residents, awarded over $300,000 in grants to Brooklyn nonprofits serving communities impacted by Covid-19. These grants are part of the BCC’s $3 million campaign to help Brooklyn recover and rebuild from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The following organizations received grants yesterday:

• The Campaign Against Hunger – $125,000 grant towards offering social services, food, and transportation to residents of Brooklyn.
• Little Essentials -$50,000 grant to continue providing families with early childhood care supplies and expand the service within the borough.
• New Heights Youth Inc. –  $50,00 to provide athletic and academic support to at-risk youth both virtually and in-person through the pandemic.
• Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls – $45,000 to cover digital equipment and operating expenses for their arts education curriculum.
• The Red Hook Initiative – $30,000 grant to provide for Red Hook residents.
• The Anne Kastor Brooklyn Free Clinic – $20,000 to provide funding for personnel and operating costs, and keep its services free.
• GrowHouse International – $20,000 to purchase technology supplies for its Youth Leadership Program, which teaches racial and health equity interventions.

Shanna Sabio, co-founder and executive director of GrowHouse International, told us that the pandemic has posed challenges for both the organization and youth involved in its Leadership Program.

“As part of its curriculum, the program hosts workshops and plans trips to enrich and unite youth, experiences that cannot be offered during a pandemic,” Sabio told Bklyner, saying she is grateful to the BCC for providing GrowHouse with a grant to keep services ongoing, even in a limited capacity.

At first, GrowHouse was only offered $16,000 by the BCC, but when Sabio and her colleagues explained that the organization needed at least $20,000 to cover expenses, the BCC had the full amount for them in just two weeks.

Sabio told us that Growhouse plans on using these funds to provide technology for youth to help them stay connected through the pandemic.

“Over the next year, we are looking to build a coalition of individuals and community-based organizations,” she said. “We want to bring young adults to the table”.

Ted Smith, Executive Director of New Heights Youth Inc. had similar sentiments. “New Heights is thrilled to be partnering with the Brooklyn Communities Collaborative to provide services and opportunities,” he said.

While New Heights has been struggling through the Covid era, they hope to expand this year in Crown Heights to host community events for youth.

Smith told us that the grant the organization received will not only contribute to this expansion but also enable New Heights to provide athletic programming to youth through the pandemic.

New Heights reception of the grant was a “smooth and seamless” process that also only took about two weeks.

Last June, the BCC awarded four other local organizations with over $180,000. As of December 2020, it had given out close to  $2 million of its $3 million campaign.

The BCC will continue to award grants to organizations in need. Non-profit organizations can check their eligibility and request a grant here. To get involved, you can send a message on their website.