April 2014 Grants Newsletter

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grants April 2014 Newsletter

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Young at Heart

The Trust helps the City’s elderly stay active and connected | page 3

Questions about setting up a fund at The Trust? Contact: Jane Wilton, general counsel, at (212) 686-2563; Gay Young, VP for donor services, at (212) 686-2234; or Bob Edgar, VP for donor relations, at (212) 686-2564.

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5 Questions

How to Boost New Yorkers’ Health

1. How would you describe your program?

We weave together 125 funds to make grants that improve health and help those with special needs— everyone from newborns to octogenarians. For example, our grants help the Adaptive Design Association, a nonprofit based in Hell’s Kitchen, use inexpensive materials to make neck braces and other equipment for disabled kids so they can learn, play, and eat better.

2. How do you coordinate with your two suburban divisions?

Here’s an example: We met with the Mental Health Association of New York City and learned that vets returning from Afghanistan and Iraq face ignorance and hostility on college campuses. With our funding, the Association created a program to bring veterans and students together on four City campuses. Our Westchester and Long Island divisions helped expand it to four suburban campuses.

3. How do you use technology to improve health?

We’ve helped develop electronic medical record systems throughout the City. In the last few months, we took it a step further. Our grant to the Charles B. Wang

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Irfan Hasan, The Trust’s program officer for health and people with special needs, earned his B.A. from Northeastern University and M.P.A. from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service. Before joining The Trust in 2000, he oversaw programs at Greater Boston Rehabilitation Services.

For 90 years, The Trust has been making donors’ charitable dreams come true by funding the nonprofits that make the City and its suburbs great places to live, work, and play.

Community Health Center in Manhattan’s Chinatown helped create the City’s first Chineselanguage patient portal, to get lab results online and manage chronic conditions such as diabetes.

4. What issue concerns you right now?

Mental health. The number of workdays lost because of depression and other mental health issues is staggering.

The City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene now requires hospitals to report young people hospitalized for a first psychotic episode—the first in the country to have such a rule. Our grant helps these people find coordinated, easily accessible care. Getting the right treatment can mean keeping their jobs and relationships.

5. Why should someone create a permanent fund in The Trust?

Thanks to the generosity of past donors, we’re poised to act. For example, the money for the young people I just mentioned comes from a fund set up in 1944 and another fund set up in 1980. Think about that: 70 and 34 years later, those donors are still making life better for New Yorkers.

A Fund at the Heart of New York Francis Florio didn’t consider himself a philanthropist. Although he did well investing in properties in Brooklyn and Queens, he wasn’t fabulously wealthy. After watching a close friend and business partner cope with a blood disorder before she died in 1970, Florio approached The Trust to create a charitable fund to support research about blood disorders.

The Florio Fund started in 1974 with a $1.7 million gift from Mr. Florio’s estate. At the time, of course, no one had heard of AIDS, and the war

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on cancer had barely begun. Since then, we’ve made grants totaling $7.9 million that spurred research into leukemia; one of the country’s first grants for HIV/AIDS; malaria; sicklecell anemia; and other life-threatening diseases. Usually ranging from $50,000 to $100,000, our grants allowed young scientists to do initial work, which led to larger grants from the federal government and other funders.

A study commissioned by The Trust lists the accomplishments of Florio Fund recipients in these four

decades: An oncologist went on to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the origins of cancer; another scientist contributed to Nobel Prizewinning work studying the body’s immune system; and an epidemiologist we supported has become one of the world’s leading vaccine advocates.

Today, the Florio Fund is going strong, with a market value of $7.4 million—more than four times the original gift. We’re confident that Francis Florio would say he made a great investment.

Cover story

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Young in Spirit

n 1976, Katherine Park learned the meaning of loneliness. The 76-year-old socialite and philanthropist lost her husband, Sam. She stopped traveling and going out, and later confessed to a friend she felt “all alone in the world.”

But Park wasn’t alone. All around her Upper East Side neighborhood—indeed, all around the City—elderly women and men struggled with similar feelings. When she died in 1981, her will established the Katherine A. Park Fund for the Elderly at The Trust to help senior citizens with mobility, health care, financial problems, loneliness, and depression. If the City’s million residents older than 65 seceded and formed their own city, it would be the ninthlargest in the country.

Thanks in part to The Trust, the City is viewing this population as a tremendous resource.

Two federal safety nets, Social Security and Medicare, provide basic income and medical benefits, but one-fifth of the City’s seniors still live in poverty—mainly because they’re struggling to cover the high cost of health care.

Most are not disabled, which means they can actively contribute to their neighborhoods, says Len McNally, The Trust’s program director for health and people with special needs.

“In every borough, you notice that elders run the community gardens and the food pantry because they have the time,” McNally says. “They’re very rooted in their communities and tend to stay local.”

The Trust is distributing $460,000 among several nonprofits to help make a better life for the City’s elderly.

A grant of $150,000 to the Aging in New York Fund will enable several senior centers in poor neighborhoods to improve access to nutritious food. In addition, senior centers will update recreation programs to entice the next generation of seniors, who aren’t content with bingo. By 2030, these Boomer seniors are expected to outnumber the population of youth in the City. This will be a common trend in many developed nations.

Nearly half of The Trust’s budget for programs to assist the elderly comes from the Park fund, because Katherine Park foresaw a need to befriend people just like her. The programs it inspires can ease the isolation among the elderly, while encouraging them to help their neighbors.

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Above: Group Fitness instructor Miki Henkin leads a Silver Sneakers class at Center @ Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. Cover: 90-year-old Harry Miller and Wonci Yee, tap dancing in Leah Breier’s class at Center @ Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. Photos by Ari Mintz / The Trust

The Elderly, by the Numbers Elderly residents in New York City:

1

million

Projected population by 2030: City seniors living in poverty:

19

1.4

million

percent

City seniors who are not disabled:

80

percent

Additional Grants for the Elderly Council of Seniors Centers and Services of New York City, $100,000, to help blind and visually impaired elders manage money and live independently.

The New York City Elder Abuse Center at New YorkPresbyterian Hospital, $60,000, to train staff of the Adult Protective Services to identify signs of elder abuse in those at risk of harm because of physical or mental impairment.

Medicare Rights Center, $150,000, to advocate for chronically ill seniors who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. New York is one of 15 states to receive a federal waiver for a pilot project to combine both programs into a single plan.

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Harlem River $454,313

Eastchester $428,511

Bradhurst $508,026

South Bronx Waterfront $349,360

Port Morris $1,013,050

Flushing River Waterfront $1,505,700

It’s no longer called the Erbograph Building. The former film-storage warehouse (pictured in black and white) on West 146 Street in Harlem was demolished in 2010 to make way for the Dr. Muriel Petioni Plaza, an affordablehousing apartment building for seniors (pictured in color). Photos

Bushwick $136,263

Jamaica $1,661,312

East New York $117,084

by Jonathan Rose Companies

Red Hook $151,650 Sunset Park $223,944 Broadway Triangle $400,000 Gowanus Canal Corridor $275,137

Atoning for Sins of the Past

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housands of acres in New York City are polluted with lead and petroleum—industrial wastes that brand the land as “brownfields.”

These properties once were home to railroad yards and utility sites, gas stations, dry cleaners, as well as manufactured gas plants that converted coal, wood or oil to fuel for heating and cooking. Many sites have been abandoned, but developers are cleaning them up—and offering communities a chance to build affordable housing and businesses.

The Erbograph Building in central Harlem, a film-storage warehouse, sat empty for half a century, contaminated with asbestos, lead, and gasoline. In 2011, it was converted to a green building, providing affordable housing for seniors and jobs for the neighborhood.

To get the Harlem project off the ground, New Partners for Community Revitalization, a 13-year-

old nonprofit, provided technical and financial assistance.

It helped the local nonprofit, Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, inspect the property and hire and manage environmental consultants to assess the building’s condition.

But that’s only part of what New Partners does to revitalize communities blighted by brownfields.

It also lobbies for resources and policy changes so communities have the funds to make decisions about their neighborhoods’ future and encourage developers to build projects consistent with their plan by earning bigger tax credits.

The Trust is renewing its support for New Partners with a $50,000 grant to protect funding for the City’s Office of Environmental Remediation. The new mayor’s focus on affordable housing will require the rezoning of brownfields to be successful, says Jody Kass, New

West Brighton $50,000

Cypress Hills $1,418,745

Funding from The Trust helped New Partners lobby for $12.6 million in additional grants from the State to help community organizations clean up brownfields in their neighborhoods.

The map shows a selection of neighborhood projects and how much funding they’ve collected.

Port Richmond $548,025

Partners’ executive director. In the next step, New Partners will push for better State policies to benefit the City’s neighborhoods.

“When we started, there weren’t laws or programs encouraging people to clean up these properties,” Kass says. “Where redevelopment was occurring, it was typically for noxious uses, such as waste-transfer stations.”

New Partners is focused on communities with the

most health problems—neighborhoods like Mott Haven and East Harlem.

“New Partners was instrumental in the 1990s in reforming the State’s approach to brownfields,” says Arturo Garcia-Costas, The Trust’s new program officer for national and City environment. “They’re still the most effective voice for ensuring redevelopment makes sense and gives a boost to poor communities.”

The charitable passions of our donors and our grants program often combine to get results. To learn more, contact Jane Wilton at (212) 686-2563.

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New Grants The full list of grants approved at the February board meeting can be found in the Latest News section of our website, nycommunitytrust.org.

The Center for Bronx Nonprofits, based at Hostos Community College, is using our $120,000 grant to train leaders of nonprofits such as Rocking the Boat, which teaches teenagers practical and academic skills through boatbuilding and sailing.

The Gibney Dance Center in the Flatiron District offers hundreds of workshops every year to help domesticabuse survivors retake control of their lives. It also provides practice space and other resources to mid-career artists. Our $150,000 grant will help Gibney Dance lease an additional 36,000 square feet downtown and expand community outreach so small, artistic groups can rent affordable space to teach and practice dance. Photo by Whitney Browne

Caption

Brooklyn is home to craft beers, artisanal mayonnaise—even cold-brewed coffee by Grady’s.

But trained workers are needed to make these products. With a $60,000 grant, East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation will help connect Brooklyn’s specialty food businesses with workforce training. That way, local products will create more local jobs. Photo by Nicole Hensley / The Trust

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Two former barracks in the Fort Totten Historical District would make a great home for the Center for the Women of New York, but a colony of raccoons moved in first. The New York Landmarks Conservancy used funds from The Trust to remove the critters and clean the barracks so construction workers could finish the job. An additional $100,000 Trust grant helps the Conservancy repair other historic buildings caught in a pinch. Photo by Nicole Hensley / The Trust

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he Bronx is the birthplace of hip-hop and break dancing, but for decades it also has carried the stigma of urban decay and raging crime.

Its southern neighborhoods like Mott Haven and Melrose are among the poorest in the nation, with 31 percent of residents living in poverty, according to U.S. Census figures. More than 84 percent of students in 25 of the neighborhoods’ schools are eligible for free lunches, according to the Department of Education.

But now, organizations such as Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education want to change that unsavory image and remind kids their community is a mecca for the arts.

“We want to remind children that the Bronx has a rich history and is home to these artistic achievements,” says Kerry McCarthy, The Trust’s program officer for arts, culture and historic preservation. “They need to know it’s been the home to incredible artistic achievements.”

The Center, founded in 1934, was the first charitable organization to serve the Latino population in New

Taking Back the Bronx Inspired by Puerto Rican traditions, dancers with Danza Fiesta perform on the South Bronx Culture Trail throughout Hunts Point and Longwood. Photo by Nabil Rahman

York City. Its alumni include actress and singer Rita Moreno and salsa musician Tito Puente. Moreno won an Oscar for her role as Anita in the 1961 film “West Side Story,” and Puente earned a Grammy and the nicknames El Rey de los Timbales and the King of Latin Music.

Thanks in part to the Casita Maria Center, Moreno, Puente and many others grew up in a safe environment with arts, culture, and a community with a sense of purpose.

A grant of $80,000 will help the Center highlight the South Bronx’s contribution to the arts by building markers along the South Bronx Culture Trail, an online map of significant locations based on the neighborhood’s history and culture. A folklorist with City Lore, a cultural-heritage organization funded by The Trust, will research other sites, such as Casa Amadeo, the first Latin music store in New York, and lead walking and trolley tours to boost tourism.

Planned Parenthood Looks to Queens As the isolated neighborhoods of the Rockaways struggle with the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, a new problem has come to light—a spike in teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Queens is a haven for immigrants, but the culture clash between parents rooted in another country and teenagers who see themselves as American leads to problems for young women. The Rockaway neighborhoods lack a confidential health provider to handle the 10 percent jump in chlamydia and gonorrhea cases and 100 percent increase in teen pregnancies since Sandy hit in October 2012.

It’s not just a problem in the Rockaways. In Queens overall, about 63 percent of pregnancies are unintended, compared to the national average of 51 percent. Only eight Queens clinics offer City Department of Health designated “teen-friendly” free or low-cost reproductive health care,

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compared to 21 in Manhattan. With a $125,000 grant, The Trust is helping Planned Parenthood of New York City build a full-service clinic in Queens—a first for the borough.

In the meantime, Planned Parenthood will continue to offer reproductive health training and support to three Queens partners—the Flushing branch of the Queens Library, South Asian Youth Action!, and Sunnyside Community Services. Trained staff can talk about birth control, sexual activity, relationships, and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as refer women to other clinics for treatment.

Planned Parenthood also will expand its education program to Queens Community House, another organization funded by The Trust, and to its more than 20 community centers that assist low-income residents of all ages.

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Make your philanthropic dreams come true.

If you’re interested in the work in these pages, contact Jane Wilton, general counsel, at (212) 686-2563; or Bob Edgar, vice president for donor relations, at (212) 686-2564.

For more stories about our grants in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, see nycommunitytrust.org

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Inside: Our Elders Toxic Sins Planned Parenthood Joggers are familiar with Manhattan’s Waterfront Greenways and Central Park, but soon they’ll have a new route—14 scenic miles in Brooklyn. From Greenpoint to Bay Ridge, runners, bicyclists and pedestrians will have access to a landscaped path along the East River.

Five miles of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway already have been completed, and a $50,000 grant from The Trust will help recruit businesses for an adopt-a-greenway program to help fund the rest of the route. Rendering by Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway