“Million Trees NYC” And “Change By Us NYC” Award Grants To Community Groups

Twenty three New York City community groups have recently been awarded grants by MillionTreesNYC and Change by Us NYC to pursue projects that will improve their surrounding communities and the City.

MillionTreesNYC, in collaboration with Change by Us NYC, awarded mini-grants to support committed groups who can organize and strengthen tree stewardship and sustainability efforts in their neighborhoods. This year’s grant winners represent a diverse range of New York City neighborhoods and the groups will pursue a variety of different local improvement initiatives. Grants were given to projects whose work fell into the following categories: tree and park stewardship, composting, community gardening and agriculture, waste reduction, energy efficiency, and green infrastructure.

The following groups and projects will receive Change By Us grants:

• 462 Halsey Community Garden: will work in Bedford-Stuyvesant to expand their composting capabilities by building more durable compost bins and establishing their community garden program as a designated NYC Compost Project Demonstration Site. ($1000)
• A.B.L.E. House Tree Guard Project: will train residents in East Harlem in the construction of durable metal tree guards, lead composting and stewardship workshops. ($1000)
• Butterflies, Birds & Bees, Oh My!: will develop and lead workshops at community gardens in the Bronx and throughout the City to introduce better gardening practices and to help attract pollinators to the area. ($600)
• Empowering Powell Street: will use their community garden in Brownsville as teaching center that will educate the surrounding community about the importance of nutrition and healthy eating. ($1000)
• Go Green Boerum Hill: will bring residents of a Boerum Hill block together to plant trees, flowers, and learn about stewardship. ($300)
• Help the Streets of Prospect Heights: will construct tree guards for neighborhood street trees along Vanderbilt Avenue. ($650)
• M’finda Kalunga Community Garden: will install a turtle pond in their community center’s garden to diversify the wildlife in the Lower East Side/Chinatown area. ($900)
• Roosevelt Island Garden Program: will enrich their school’s educational garden by introducing vertical agriculture and enhancing facilities on Roosevelt Island. ($500)
• Vernon Cases Garden: Will revitalize and restore a community garden in Bedford-Stuyvesant with flower bed plantings and tree stewardship efforts. ($1000)
• Unify and Beautify W. 150th Street: will organize continued planting, beautification, and revitalization projects throughout the Hamilton Heights neighborhood. ($1000)

The following groups and project will receive MillionTreesNYC StewCorps grants:

• 500 Block W 150th St Block Association: will organize a Youth “Adopt-a-Tree” program, and offer a tree care workshop and planting day in Hamilton Heights. Students acting as “Tree Buddies” will care for tree beds and will create tree journals to document their tree stewardship. ($1000)
• Chelsea Garden Club & 300 W. 23, 22 & 21 St Block Association: will enhance planting in the bike lane tree pits from 18th Street to 30th Street on 8th Avenue. This project will culminate with a "Walking Tour" of the mini-gardens created by the group. ($600)
• E 103rd Community: will work in East Harlem to plant shrubs and flowers in tree beds, mulch, remove litter, and educate their community about tree care. ($1000)
• Forth on Fourth Avenue: will expand tree stewardship in Park Slope/Boerum Hill/Gowanus by educating these communities about the benefits of trees. They will provide inexpensive tree guards, plantings, mulch and watering assistance to new tree stewards and recognize their efforts by distributing Friends of 4th decals. ($700)
• G.I.V.E. (Getting Involved, Virginia Avenue Efforts), Inc.: will hold a tree workshop and planting event in Newbold Avenue & Virginia Ave, Bronx to get the community involved in caring for tree beds, planting bulbs, mulching installing and decorating tree guards. ($980)
• Garden Scouts: will launch The Tree Pamperers Project to recruit candidates to become community Tree Scouts and offering tree care workshops in East New York. Workshops will cover basic tree irrigation, compost and mulch care, and how to spot a tree in need of pruning. ($1000)
• Human Impacts Institute: will bring together Ecopreneurs and Growing Our Roots programs to connect small businesses with community stewardship and youth leadership training in the Southside Williamsburg community. They will work with storefronts to adopt local street trees and work with local teens to plant bulbs and mulch neglected tree pits. Two participating businesses will receive a one-of-a-kind tree guard for their tree at the end of the program. ($760)
• Lenox Road Block Association Alliance: will plant flowers and cultivate street tree beds on Lenox Road between Nostrand and New York Avenues. They will host a workday and conduct outreach in the community to increase tree adoptions. ($440)
• Montessori Day School of Brooklyn PTA: will engage students in caring for the trees, tree beds and building tree guards to protect trees near their school in Prospect Heights. ($450)
• Newkirk Cares Collaborative: will build tree guards, prioritizing newly planted and young trees, plant flowers and mulch tree beds along the Newkirk Avenue corridor in Flatbush. ($1000)
• Proyecto de Embellecimiento 137th Street Beautification Project: will organize a block planting in West Harlem involving kids and will provide gardening tools and tree pruning tools. They will take Citizen Tree pruner classes and create a bilingual street tree coloring book with fun tree facts. ($1000)
• Rockaway Civic Association: will start an ornamental grass planting project in center medians along Rockaway Park/Belle Harbor where trees have recently been planted. ($1000)
• WAPHA Street Beautification Committee: will plant bulbs & build tree guards in tree beds along Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights. ($1000)

The funding for this year’s round of grants was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. Grant applications were reviewed by non-profit partner Citizens Committee for New York City, and grant winners were selected by a panel composed of representatives from Local Projects, PlaNYC, MillionTreesNYC, Citizens Committee for New York City, the Mayor’s Office of Operations, GrowNYC, GreenThumb, the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, NYC Service, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, and the Mayor’s Office of Correspondence.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.”

Paul Fix
(1901 – 1983)

<< Back to Daily Plants Main.