Five New York Nonprofits to Watch
As Team Tech:NYC begins to look ahead to 2020, we’re also taking the time to look back. Reflecting on 2019, we have a lot of reason to celebrate. There were big wins for the tech sector — and just as many for the city. One doesn't happen without the other, and we're proud to live and work in a place where so many organizations are working to foster community and invest in our city's future.
To celebrate that, our regular Companies to Watch feature is doing something a little different this month. We asked each of our team members to pick a nonprofit organization that really stood out this year. And we’re turning the spotlight onto them. They’re New York organizations working in all kinds of communities, across all kinds of neighborhoods, that make this the city we love.
As you think about your end-of-year giving and how you can also support the city, here's five of our suggestions. Get a peek at their work — and how you can get involved — below.
ALI FORNEY CENTER
Staff pick: Tyler Bugg, Director of Partnerships
What does your organization do?
The Ali Forney Center founder and executive director Carl Siciliano: The Ali Forney Center provides direct services to LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. This includes medical and mental healthcare; substance abuse services; HIV and STD testing, counseling, and treatment services; and emergency shelter and transitional housing. We also offer young people educational and career support services designed to help them rebuild their lives. On average, AFC sees over 1,400 homeless LGBTQ a year, serving over 220,000 meals and providing over 30,000 services annually.
How does your work impact/support NYC communities?
CS: Globally, our work addresses homelessness and traumas of homelessness among LGBTQ youth; as such, we connect with communities throughout NYC to have a meaningful impact on the lives of these young people. We build community movements designed to raise awareness and connect New Yorkers with ways to volunteer and contribute to the plight of youth who are discarded by their parents.
The Ali Forney Center prepares LGBTQ youth prepare for independent living. What are some of the key tools to help a young person get to that point?
CS: First and foremost, we address mental health and trauma associated with their homelessness, working towards stabilizing young people so that they may begin to rebuild their lives. We then address life skills training — “hard skills” like learning about credit, opening bank accounts, developing a budget, developing workplace skills, situational judgment, things like that. We also address “soft skills” or “power skills” like learning how to interview and market themselves, learning how to network, how to shake someone’s hand, and how to tell their stories.
Above all, we work to affirm for our young people that contrary to what their parents believe, there is nothing wrong with them. They are brilliant, powerful, and worthy of love. And we do this by connecting them with people who want nothing but to help them thrive and succeed. This is particularly important as many of our clients are deeply scared and afflicted by the rejection, homophobia, or transphobia from their parents, that they genuinely feel there is something wrong with them. Helping to rebuild their sense of self, their understanding of their identify, and the understanding that others care about them is key.
What projects or plans you looking forward to in 2020?
CS: Our key focus in 2020 is to continue to build our housing development plans to include buildings we can own outright. We currently operate our housing programs over 17 sites of which all but one are rented sites. Owning our own buildings is important to helping us become more self-sustaining. We are also looking to better develop our meals program. We currently serve over 220,000 meals a year which costs AFC over $475,000 in food expenses, not including an additional $200,000 in staff expenses, the costs of non consumable products (utensils, cooking supplies, etc), and other incidentals. These two key items are priorities for us in 2020.
How can New Yorkers help?
CS: New Yorker’s can help by volunteering — our Get Involved link on our website has details on how folks can volunteer. New Yorkers can also help by learning about our mission, telling out story, and connecting their networks with our work – this includes helping to connect us with your workplace, your community, and others you think may want to help.
How do you get to your office?
CS: I live on a farm about 90 miles north of the city, so I am forced to drive daily.
Where do you get your favorite pizza slice?
CS: Anywhere veggie slices are sold.
Where do you get your favorite bagel?
CS: I don’t eat bagels. Gasp.
What is the best New York waterfront?
CS: My backyard, overlooking the Neversink River, surrounded by trees, wildlife, and enveloped in nature.
What’s your favorite New York building?
CS: The Bea Arthur Residence.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you in NYC?
CS: Meeting LL Cool J on West 4th Street.
EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE
Staff pick: Julie Samuels, Executive Director
What does your organization do?
Educational Alliance president and CEO Alan van Cappelle: Educational Alliance offers high-quality, transformational programs and services to all New Yorkers through our network of community centers on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village. As we have for 130 years, we offer best-in-class programming — now across 15 sites — focusing on a mix of education, health and wellness, arts and culture, and civic engagement. Educational Alliance’s network of community centers includes the 14th Street Y, the Center for Recovery and Wellness, the Manny Cantor Center, the Sirovich Center, and Educational Alliance Community Schools.
How does your work impact NYC or serve NYC communities?
AVP: Since first opening our doors, Educational Alliance has empowered New Yorkers to maximize their potential and realize their American Dreams. Over the past 130 years we have extended this commitment to millions of New Yorkers of every race, religion, nationality, language, and background. Today, we remain a proud member of the Lower East Side and our dynamic community centers deliver best-in-class programming and services to our neighbors and customers from across the five boroughs.
Educational Alliance describes itself as the “town square for the Lower East Side.” What benefits have you seen in fostering a community gathering place?
AVP: We operate in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in all of New York. We seek to bring our diverse constituents together over shared goals for our neighborhood, our city, and beyond. We are guided by a strength-based model, believing that everyone is called upon — and everyone is able — to help transform our world.
Your organization has been a Lower Manhattan fixture since 1889. How has Educational Alliance endured the test of time in order to continue serving the community?
AVP: In 1889, the founders of Educational Alliance made a promise: immigrants arriving in New York City’s Lower East Side would have every resource necessary to build better lives for themselves. They knew then that the key to a fulfilling life was access to education, a focus on health and wellness, availability of arts and cultural programming, and a robust engagement in civic life. Understanding those four components are still necessary for a full and engaged life, we have adapted our programs and services to meet the changing needs of our diverse community.
What projects or plans are you looking forward to in 2020?
AVP: I am excited that we are about to embark on a plan to build a new downtown Jewish cultural center! We are reimagining our 14th Street Y community center — stay tuned for more to come!
How can New Yorkers help?
AVP: We believe in a tri-sector approach in which government agencies, corporations, and nonprofits must partner together to better meet the needs of communities. We are always looking for volunteers, corporate partners, and committed donors to support this critical work.
How do you get to your office?
AVP: I walk!
Where do you get your favorite pizza slice?
AVP: Alphonso’s on Grand Street on the Lower East Side.
Where do you get your favorite bagel?
AVP: Kossar’s or Russ and Daughters. So good and so close to home.
What is the best New York waterfront?
AVP: Long Island City facing Manhattan.
What’s your favorite New York building?
AVP: New York Public Library.
What’s the best place in New York for a coffee or lunch meeting?
AVP: Norwood Club on 14th Street.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you in NYC?
AVP: New York is insane, something crazy happens every day.
HIAS
Staff pick: Zachary Hecht, Policy Director
What does your organization do?
HIAS president & CEO Mark J. Hetfield: HIAS is the global Jewish non-profit that protects refugees. Founded in New York in 1881 to welcome Jews fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe, we’re the oldest refugee organization in the world. For much of our history, we were known as the “Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society” and assisted refugees because they were Jewish. Today, HIAS assists refugees because we are Jewish. We operate across the United States and in 15 countries and assist refugees regardless of their religion or nationality.
How does your work impact/support communities in NYC?
MH: HIAS resettles and provides services to refugees in the New York metropolitan area. We also provide legal aid to asylum seekers and work with local communities, elected officials and others to raise awareness about and advocate for forcibly displaced persons.
Refugee resettlement efforts are facing a contentious, uncertain time in the United States and in other countries. Can you elaborate on why you think we should support welcoming asylum policies?
MH: The U.S. is a nation of refugees and immigrants, with a long, proud history of providing new starts to people fleeing persecution. This is a fundamental American value which has contributed to our success as a country.
HIAS spotlights the work of its volunteers. What is a common trait you find drives the work of those who commit their time to refugees in their communities?
MH: Many HIAS volunteers feel a strong personal connection to the Jewish refugee and immigration experience. Our motto, “Welcome the Stranger. Protect the Refugee” resonates strongly with our volunteers.
What projects or plans are you looking forward to in 2020?
MH: We are continuing to implement The Host Organization Model of Engagement (HOME model), a unique community-based approach to resettlement established by HIAS New York, where a local organization, usually a Jewish congregation or several Jewish congregations or an interfaith consortium, commit(s) to providing the human and financial resources to support a refugee or asylum-seeking family (or in some cases, an individual) without relatives or friends in the US, to build a new life in this country.
How can New Yorkers help?
MH: Glad you asked! There are many ways New Yorkers can get involved including volunteering, grass-roots advocacy, and of course, donating to HIAS. Find more info here.
How do you get to your office?
MH: Citibike!
Where do you get your favorite pizza slice?
MH: Joe’s Pizza in the West Village.
Where do you get your favorite bagel?
MH: Best Bagel & Coffee — the pumpernickel with lox spread.
What is the best New York waterfront?
MH: Anything with a view of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, of course!
What’s your favorite New York building?
MH: Joseph Papp’s Public Theater building at 425 Lafayette Street was HIAS’ headquarters from 1921-1965.
What’s the best place in New York for a coffee or lunch meeting?
MH: The Shakespeare.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you in NYC?
MH: Mayor de Blasio, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Rep. Keith Ellison, ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt, author Gary Shteyngart and many others joining me and hundreds of people to show support for refugees at a HIAS rally in Battery Park during a major sleet storm on February 12, 2017 — just a few weeks after President Trump signed the first refugee ban.
KUNDIMAN
Staff pick: Bryan Lozano, Director of External Affairs
What does your organization do?
Kundiman executive director Cathy Linh Che: Kundiman is dedicated to nurturing generations of writers and readers of Asian American literature. Our programs build community, nurture writers and readers, and ensure Asian American stories reach audiences across NYC. We do this through a Bronx-based summer retreat, readings, workshops, and mentorship.
How does your work impact NYC?
CLC: Kundiman works to provide greater racial equity in the arts in NYC. While NYC has a reputation as a cultural and historical haven for writers, diversity in publishing tells another story: in a city where nearly 70% of the population are people of color, 80% of publishers who participated in an industry-wide study on diversity are white. 88% of all books reviewed by the New York Times are written by white authors. Kundiman provides opportunities and resources for people of color to connect with fellow artists, meet publishing agents, and further publish their work.
Kundiman is proud to support a diverse internal staff, comprised 100% of people of color. Each year, we provide nine New York-based internships for young leaders of color to gain experience in arts nonprofit work, specifically in programs, grants, communications, and development. Kundiman also partners locally with community organizations and other organizations representing Black, Latinx, Arab, and Native writers, building important coalitions through collaboration and inter-community solidarity.
What do you consider the most meaningful part of supporting those who participate in your organization’s fellowships, workshops, and the signature Retreat for emerging Asian American writers?
CLC: For me, it’s the lifelong community of care and nurturance that is created.
Kundiman notes that out of difficult stories can come healing, beauty, humor, and transcendence. What are the ingredients to creating a space that empowers writers to share their stories?
CLC: Deep listening, a spirit of generosity, and creating a space that is non-hierarchical that celebrates everyone equally.
What plans are you looking forward to in 2020?
CLC: We have a series of winter and spring workshops at the Ace Hotel New York. In January, a Food Writing Intensive with Mayukh Sen that explores the intersection of food, writing, and history, and in March and April, exploring Poetry & Protest as well as the intersection of Asian American literature and activist history. We will be hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for Asian American literature in May. We will be hosting our 17th Creative Writing Retreat this summer, and our second Mentorship Lab in the fall.
How can New Yorkers help?
CLC: New Yorkers can help by donating to Kundiman and other arts organizations serving communities of color and advocating for racial equity in the arts. Talk to a local city Council Member about the importance of writing, the arts, and storytelling.
How do you get to your office?
CLC: We work remotely, but have a small office space at Fordham Lincoln Center.
Where do you get your favorite pizza slice?
CLC: I love all NYC pizza and I’ll dip into a dollar pizza place just outside of the West 4th station for a quick bite.
Where do you get your favorite bagel?
CLC: I used to get an everything bagel from The Bagelsmith when I lived in Williamsburg.
What is the best New York waterfront?
CLC: I do love the view from DUMBO.
What’s your favorite New York building?
CLC: I think that the Chrysler Building is beautiful.
What’s the best place in New York for a coffee or lunch meeting?
CLC: I’m often at Think Coffee near Union Square.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you in NYC?
CLC: I became a poet in NYC, and I think that finding community for this essential but underappreciated art is pretty wild.
RECESS
Staff pick: Sarah Brown, Chief of Staff
What does your organization do?
Recess founder and executive director Allison Freedman Weiserg: Recess partners with artists to build a more just and inclusive creative community. We offer open-studio artist residencies that address social issues; an artist-led alternative to incarceration program that offers participants aged 18-25 paid pathways to careers in the arts; a critical writing fellowship for emerging arts writers; and a suite of programs that collaborate with other cultural and socially engaged partners.
How does your work impact/support NYC?
AFW: We address our city’s most entrenched systemic failures through creative thinking and arts-based action. Historically, the arts is an elitist, white, male-dominated field. At Recess, we collaborate with artists and audiences who have been excluded from cultural institutions.
Your program, Assembly, empowers young people who faced the criminal justice system to use art to tell their stories. What tools are you using in supporting their ownership of their own life narratives?
AFW: We use a technique we call “visual storytelling.” Young people aged 18-25 who are arrested in Brooklyn join us for an initial court-mandated cycle in which we offer a storytelling curriculum rooted in performance to disrupt stereotypical narratives of “criminal” and replace them with nuanced, individual, empowered accounts of self. The curriculum was designed by artist Shaun Leonardo. Once participants complete the first four weeks of their mandated cycle, they can elect to participate in our paid arts-career training for a full year and Fieldwork Internship capstone with a cultural institution.
What positive impacts have you seen in helping young people avoid a criminal record by taking part in a diversion program?
AFW: First? Less young people in jail. But we aren’t just avoiding jail time, we’re replacing it with a real investment in each participant’s personal and creative goals. So instead of incarceration, which would entrench youth further in a cycle of disenfranchisement, we offer a foundation in creative problem solving that then serves as a leg up when building toward careers in the arts.
What projects or plans are you looking forward to in 2020?
AFW: We just began diverting felony charges in addition to misdemeanor charges. This means we’re in a position to invest in youth that much of society has written off. These young people have already shown themselves to be incredible artists and talented individuals, and we look forward to building deeper relationships with them in the new year. We also have some amazing artists queued up for 2020, so join our mailing list at recessart.org and we’ll keep you posted!
How can New Yorkers help?
AFW: First off, show up! Visit our artists and youth at 46 Washington Avenue in Brooklyn and enjoy some amazing art while showing them that you value their hard work. We’re open to the public five days a week Tuesday-Saturday, and we have tons of public programs to attend year-round. Do you know someone who works in the creative field who could take on an Assembly Intern? Email info@recessart.org and let us know! Join our efforts to use art as a tool for crafting equity by contributing a one-time gift or becoming a sustaining monthly donor.
How do you get to your office?
AFW: I walk! It’s a 20 minute walk — perfectly timed to my podcast episode.
Where do you get your favorite pizza slice?
AFW: Il Porto, which is (dangerously) right across the street from Recess.
Where do you get your favorite bagel?
AFW: H&H Bagels were the best, may they rest in peace. Blackseed is pretty great though.
What is the best New York waterfront?
AFW: Red Hook Piers.
What’s your favorite New York building?
AFW: I love the carriage houses on Waverly Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
What’s the best place in New York for a coffee or lunch meeting?
AFW: Olea in Fort Greene.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you in NYC?
AFW: One time I took three subway lines to get uptown and walked on to an approaching train at every transfer without breaking a stride. Sometimes (one time?) the MTA works! I also wondered if there was a glitch in the Matrix!
Author and Editor: Kelly Zegers
All illustrations by Elly Rodgers
Aerial view of Central Park and Times Square: by TierneyMJ/Shutterstock.com