Category Archives: uncategorized
Donated Sandy Housing Directory: New Yorkers can list their homes and extra space easily and immediately, all for free, and people who are looking for a place to stay can access these free spaces via Airbnb’s Donated Sandy Housing Directory.
New York Cares: Volunteer opportunities for Sandy Recovery are posted on a rolling basis, so check back frequently!
Brooklyn Public Library Donation Drop Off: Beginning Thursday, November 8, 16 BPL locations will be collecting items for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy
Where to Turn: Especially useful for those on Staten Island!
Coney Recovers: An initiative of the Alliance for Coney Island
FEMA Assistance Application: Learn more about what FEMA offers here
Disaster Assistance: Here’s where you can apply online!
Daytime Warming Centers: With the drop in temperatures, the City is providing warming centers located within Senior Centers in the five boroughs for a place to get out of the cold during the day. Residents can go to these sites to pick-up food, blankets, and water
Overnight Shelters: The public shelters are available to anyone who requires overnight shelter including food, water, and shower facilities.
Bus Service to Select Overnight Shelters: Bus service is available to select bus shelters
Blanket, Food, and Water Distribution Sites: Residents can go to these sites to pick-up food, blankets, and water.
Food Truck Locations: Hot food will be available via local food trucks at these locations from 12PM – 4PM.
Mobile Medical Van Locations: Mobile medical vans staffed with primary care providers who will be able to provide medical care and distribute commonly prescribed drugs are now at several of the City’s Disaster Assistance Service Centers.
Comprehensive Service Map: Includes volunteering and donation, shelters and recovery centers, and other useful locations.
Con Edison Outage Map: Maps the number of customers out in a given area.
Parks Updates: Important Parks Department storm-related service changes.
Attention school gardeners: Grow to Learn has announced a new cycle of mini-grants! Eligible projects can win between $500 and $2,000 to start or expand school gardens. Applications are due by May 1st, and New York City public and charter schools registered with Grow to Learn are encouraged to apply. Check out the application here and visit the Grow to Learn website to learn more about this exciting program.
It’s that time of year again: Christmas trees are strewn by the thousand across New York City’s curbs. Luckily, there’s a way to give your tree a second life. Join the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and GreeNYC for “MulchFest” this weekend to recycle your Christmas trees into wood chips. Last year was as huge success – close to 17,000 trees were recycled citywide, and hundreds of New Yorkers took part in the event. Not only does this effectively remove curbside trees, the mulch is critical for winter tree upkeep. Mulching a ring around trees, with space between the trunk and the mulch ring, insulates the soil from the cold and prevents salt and other pollutants from infiltrating the soil.
Sound like a good idea? There are several fun ways to chip in! Drop your tree off at any of the drop-off sites by January 8th and have your tree mulched for you later. You can also bring your tree to a chipping site this weekend, January 7th or 8th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and take home a free (biodegradable!) bag of mulch. Drop-off and chipping sites are listed here (or visit http://www.nycgovparks.org/highlights/festivals/mulchfest ).
We want to try and give more and more projects a chance to share in the spotlight. That’s why every now and again we’ve been changing the featured projects on our homepage. We’d love to be able to feature absolutely every project all at once, but we’ve only got space for six! This week we’re featuring projects from Staten Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and another that reaches across all five boroughs! They range from a composting project to a local foods supper club, from a revitalization project to a stormwater management project focused on our City’s marinas! Thanks to everyone for making Change by Us NYC into an exciting place to collaborate with other New Yorkers to make our city better!
Actually, it’s more than one project, but we couldn’t resist the reference. You may have seen that we’ve recently started tweeting about Change by Us NYC projects for our followers. But there’s only so much you can do in 140 characters, right? So we’ve turned to our trusted blog to applaud some of the terrific community collaboration happening on the site.
This week’s projects are brought to us by the borough of Brooklyn. And they each give a really good sense about how New Yorkers can use Change by Us NYC to organize, engage, and act to make a lasting impact in local neighborhoods.
Compost for Brooklyn:
• Members: 41
• Mission: At Compost for Brooklyn, we transform our community’s organic waste into compost, which is used to cultivate healthy urban ecosystems throughout NYC. (www.compostforbrooklyn.org)
• Coming Up: Raising funds to buy a leaf shredder for project LeafDrop in the fall!
Project Beekman Compost:
• Members: 24
• Mission: Composting can provide paid positions for young adults. Today’s youth face high unemployment rates. With the support of PLGNA (plgna.org) we plan to create opportunities for them in the green economy!
• Coming Up: Creating a collection bin to temporarily store collected food scraps—so we don’t have to use freezers and fridges!
Myrtle Village Green:
• Members: 19
• Mission: Myrtle Village Green is a community of green conscious individuals who want an IMMEDIATE & INTERIM park/garden built on Myrtle and Kent Avenue in the Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy section of Brooklyn, along with an inclusive participatory planning process.
• Coming Up: Block Party, September 24th!
The activity on Change by Us NYC continues to grow. The website’s been live for a little less than a month, and we already have 180 projects! So check back soon to see what projects we write about next – and which are featured on the homepage.
We just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped to give Change by Us NYC such a terrific launch. There are already 140+ projects and nearly 1200 ideas on the site, and we’ve only just started.
To keep the momentum going, we ran a grant application workshop with our partners CCNYC this past Thursday. With more than 30 local organizations in the room, we had a chance to really get to know some of the people behind the projects and resources on the site. The evening was a great success, so thanks to everyone who attended! The next application workshop will be held on Saturday, August 6th in the Bronx.
In the meantime, look for the Change by Us NYC team at a greenmarket near you.
We’re going to be visiting greenmarkets around the city over the next week. We want to spread the word and answer any questions folks might have about the site. Be sure to stop by and talk to us about community greening and how you can use Change by Us NYC to support your local efforts.
Here’s the schedule for where you can find our team in the coming week:
Saturday, July 23rd: 82nd Street
Fort Greene
Sunday, July 24th: Carroll Gardens
Tuesday, July 26th: Bronx Borough Park
Wednesday, July 27th: Mount Sinai
Thursday, July 28th: Brooklyn Borough Hall
Friday, July 29th: 97th Street
City Hall
We look forward to seeing you there. If there’s a greenmarket near you where you would like to see the Change by Us NYC team visit or if you would like to help us with our outreach efforts, write us at info@nyc.changeby.us.
All across our City, green-thumbed residents are caring for carnations, tending to thyme, and helping keep New York abloom. Check out the recent New York Times article on the community associations that are participating in this year’s Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest – it’s pretty inspiring.
Change by Us NYC is here to tap into that same spirit and passion for greening New York. So take a moment to read about these beautiful Brooklyn blocks — and the people behind them — and then post a project for your own neighborhood on Change by Us NYC.
You’ve created a project on Change by Us NYC. And now you’re wondering, what’s next? It’s actually pretty simple. Getting members involved and keeping them informed is the key to making your project a success. And there are a number of great features on Change by Us NYC that can help you do just that.
Recruit, Recruit, Recruit
(1) “Invite people with similar ideas” is a feature in the lower left of your project page. It automatically searches for ideas likely related to your project. Click “invite” to send a message to anyone with a similar idea who might like to join your project.
(2) Click on “members” at the top right of your project page. It lists your current members and gives you a way to send email invitations for others to join. The email will include a link to your project and space for a brief message.
(3) Click the Facebook and Twitter links on the top of your page to share your project on Facebook and Twitter.
(4) Use the search page to find similar ideas by keyword. Click the “invite” button to send a message to anyone who posted a related idea. Be sure to search again in a few days, because there are always new ideas posted to the site.
Details, Details, Details
(A) Post a goal that brings people together. Events, meetings, drives, etc. Long-term goals are good, but if you tell folks where to go, what time to be there, and what to bring, they’ll put it on their calendars.
(B) Post a message and introduce yourself – say a little bit about why you started the group, what interests you about the work. Tell them why it’s important! People want to connect with people, so let them know who you are.
(C) Use the links section on the left of your project page to link to your blog, Facebook group, or other sites useful to your project. You can start it off by pointing to information that might be helpful and then encourage your members to post anything they run across.
(D) Add resources that are relevant to your project. Resource owners are emailed with a link to your project when they are added. It’s a great way to connect with community-based organizations and City agencies that just might be able to get your project to the next level.
If you need a bit more help getting your project started, you can contact us at info@nyc.changeby.us. We’ll be more than happy to help!
New Yorkers can use Change by Us NYC to turn their ideas for greening their neighborhoods into reality – and we want to help make that happen.
That’s why the City of New York, in cooperation with Citizens Committee for New York City, will be inviting volunteer-led community groups to apply for a Change by Us NYC grant. There will be a total of 20 to 40 grants, ranging from $500 to $1,000 each. The full eligibility requirements and application materials will be available soon, so check back for updates.
When it comes to greening NYC, a little funding can go a long way, and we look forward to seeing what project groups can achieve.
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