Round One: All In Neighborhood Grantee Announcement
Citizens Committee for New York City Announces $250,800 in Grants to 64 Community Groups Responding to COVID-19
New York, NY (May 14, 2020)—Citizens Committee for New York City, whose mission is to help New Yorkers—especially those in low-income areas—improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods, has announced a new fund focusing on community groups responding to the COVID-19 crisis.
Under its new All In Neighborhood Grants program, Citizens Committee has awarded $250,800 in grants to 64 resident-led organizations that are addressing critical community needs in all five boroughs of the city and filling in wide service gaps revealed by the pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home order. Each grantee will receive up to $10,000; additionally, groups will have access to Citizens Committee staff and resources to implement their projects. Grantees across all five boroughs are quickly organizing to provide food and water, deliver medications, meet emergency financial needs, host online workshops for teens and older adults, and more.
“Our All In Neighborhood Grants mark an intentional effort to fund community projects that uplift the most vulnerable during this COVID-19 crisis,” says Dr. Rahsaan Harris, CEO of Citizens Committee, “and we are thrilled to support the heroic community outreach efforts of our grantees. Our communities are hurting, especially our communities of color in the Bronx and Queens. These grassroots groups dove all in to figure out immediate solutions to local problems.”
The All In Neighborhood Grant is a renaming of Citizens Committee’s signature grant program. All In grants award unrestricted general operating support to grassroots leaders who identify their own community’s needs and design service projects accordingly. For nearly 50 years, Citizens Committee’s neighborhood grant projects have centered on improving residential life in the areas of arts and culture, beautification, literacy and education, urban greening, youth, leadership, and mental well-being programs. To quickly respond to the COVID-19 crisis, the organization paused its annual neighborhood grant cycle to focus on a survey meant to determine New Yorkers’ most urgent needs and challenges. The survey resulted in more than 1,000 responses from all five boroughs, and highlights a pattern of citywide priorities, including food, financial aid, healthcare and access to technology.
Citizens Committee intends to award $500,000 in All In grants by July 1, 2020. The next round of grantees will be announced in June.
List of organizations/groups funded in the first round of the 2020 All In Neighborhood Grant Program
About Citizens Committee for New York City
Citizens Committee for New York City’s mission is to help New Yorkers— especially those in low-income areas—come together and improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Residents are uniquely situated to define and act on the issues affecting their communities. When provided with modest support, neighborhood and school groups can effectively mobilize with the assistance of grants, skills-building workshops, project planning assistance and an equipment share library. In 2019, we provided 596 projects with $2.3 million in grants and services, impacting more than 130,000 residents in 164 different neighborhoods across the five boroughs. Since 1975, we have promoted the spirit of volunteerism, local engagement, and social justice that drives our work.
Contact: Scott Young, Interim VP, Development & Communications, syoung@citizensnyc.org