Meet your On the Ground colleagues and get acquainted with Brooklyn. Program starts at 5 pm.
Option A: Promoting Community Engagement in Green Infrastructure
The Gowanus Canal, one of the most heavily polluted waterways in the United States at the center of a rapidly redeveloping neighborhood, has become a focus of resident-led education, advocacy, and improvements in recent years. On this tour, we’ll go to the banks of the Gowanus to learn from Andrea Parker, Executive Director of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, which activates over 1,000 local volunteers each year in its mission to transform the Gowanus into a clean, living waterway. Leif Percifield, self-proclaimed mad citizen scientist and founder of the Don’t Flush Me project, will discuss how he uses technology to educate residents of their personal water-use impacts on the Gowanus, and his experiences crowdfunding his work and finding support within a community of makers. We’ll conclude the visit at one of the neighborhood’s most active community gardens to hear from Judy Janda, President and Co-Founder of Greenspace on Fourth, who will discuss the green infrastructure work undertaken by her group and other self-organized, resident-led groups.
(Includes about 15-20 minutes of walking total; seating will be provided at discussion sites.)
Option B: Innovating Advocacy: Biking, Placemaking and Transit in NYC
This conversation begins with local resident transit activist Grace Freedman, past leader of the Fix this Public Space! ioby project, who will discuss how she has paired creative re-envisioning with traditional grassroots advocacy with the Fourth on Fourth Avenue Committee. We’ll stop by the Old Stone House, a historical site and cultural, to discuss creative advocacy around NYC’s biking and transit. The innovative leaders behind the Biking Public Project and Bikesplorations will join us for the conversation.
(Includes about 10 minutes of walking total; seating will be provided at discussion site.)
Learning
Marketplace
A peer – peer exchanges at On the Ground with Grassroots Grantmakers, hosted by ioby
WHAT IS IT?
We are big believers in co-creation and have set aside blocks of time for you to offer to lead a session, conversation or activity; it’s called the Learning Marketplace. Do you want to:
HOW DOES IT WORK?
You can sign up now and we will hold a specific spot for you OR you can offer your session when we call for it on the first night (and at other spots during the OTG). We will have a large scheduling board where participants will write their topics/activity in the time slots and locations of their choosing. The board will remain visible throughout the OTG.
WHEN ARE THE SESSIONS?
Tuesday, October 13th
Wednesday, October 14th
SIGN ME UP NOW!
Contact Shannon Dixon, Shannon@GrassrootsGrantmakers.org, 901-486-4164
Learning
Marketplace
A peer – peer exchanges at On the Ground with Grassroots Grantmakers, hosted by ioby
WHAT IS IT?
We are big believers in co-creation and have set aside blocks of time for you to offer to lead a session, conversation or activity; it’s called the Learning Marketplace. Do you want to:
HOW DOES IT WORK?
You can sign up now and we will hold a specific spot for you OR you can offer your session when we call for it on the first night (and at other spots during the OTG). We will have a large scheduling board where participants will write their topics/activity in the time slots and locations of their choosing. The board will remain visible throughout the OTG.
WHEN ARE THE SESSIONS?
Tuesday, October 13th
Wednesday, October 14th
SIGN ME UP NOW!
Contact Shannon Dixon, Shannon@GrassrootsGrantmakers.org, 901-486-4164
Learning
Marketplace
A peer – peer exchanges at On the Ground with Grassroots Grantmakers, hosted by ioby
WHAT IS IT?
We are big believers in co-creation and have set aside blocks of time for you to offer to lead a session, conversation or activity; it’s called the Learning Marketplace. Do you want to:
HOW DOES IT WORK?
You can sign up now and we will hold a specific spot for you OR you can offer your session when we call for it on the first night (and at other spots during the OTG). We will have a large scheduling board where participants will write their topics/activity in the time slots and locations of their choosing. The board will remain visible throughout the OTG.
WHEN ARE THE SESSIONS?
Tuesday, October 13th
Wednesday, October 14th
SIGN ME UP NOW!
Contact Shannon Dixon, Shannon@GrassrootsGrantmakers.org, 901-486-4164
Option A: Local Movement Building and System Change: Community Gardens and Racial Equity in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Visit the 462 Halsey Community Garden in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn to hear from the garden’s co-founder Shatia Strother on why she founded the garden and how it has been resourced, including her experience securing seed-funding from neighbors through an ioby campaign. She’ll also discuss how a small-scale project that promotes neighborhood connection and food justice connects to the Black Lives Matter movement. Arif Ullah, Program Director of Programs at Citizens Committee of NYC, will discuss his organization’s model for delivering resources to neighborhood groups. We’ll then be joined for a conversation with Ms. Strother’s fellow activists from the Brooklyn Movement Center and Black Alliance for Just Immigration, who will discuss issues of race and equity in Brooklyn. We’ll walk to the Central Bainbridge Street Community Garden, established in 1978, where we will meet with the garden’s leaders and learn more about the history of food justice in Bed-Stuy.
(Bus to site; Includes about 15 minutes of walking total; seating will be provided at both discussion sites.)
Option B: Resourcing the Grassroots: Food Justice and Public Health Work in East New York
In 2011, Aida Castillo was an engaged resident who helped raise start-up funds for the People’s Garden, via the Pollos del Pueblo ioby campaign. Now the Community Garden Coordinator for the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC), overseeing multiple East Brooklyn community gardens, Aida will share what she’s learned about initiating and sustaining new programs in low-income communities, and the potential of crowdfunding as a tool for connecting low-income project leaders with resources outside their neighborhood. Joined by other CHLDC staff, the discussion will touch on the complex, multiple impacts of community gardening and urban farming projects, and the challenges of quantifying those impacts within traditional evaluation tools used in the grantmaking community. We’ll travel to East New York Farms! farmers market to hear from Daryl Marshall, Community Organizer and Youth Leader with, a cornerstone of Brooklyn’s urban farming food justice movement. East New York Farms, a program of United Community Centers, runs multiple farm sites, two-successful markets, and a local CSA, providing employment and education opportunities along with affordable local produce. United Community Centers staff will also discuss their role as a hyper-local grantmaker and how they catalyze and support an active, extensive urban gardening community in the midst of one of the most economically challenged areas of the New York City.
(Participants bused between three sites; seating will be provided at the last site, standing for 15-20 minutes may be required at others, but seats can be provided needed.)
Only Option: Creative Partnerships for Creative Placemaking in Flatbush
Visit Parkside Plaza in Flatbush, Brooklyn, to hear from community member Sonya Rocvil on how she and her neighbors leveraged citizen philanthropy from within the neighborhood for a new public open space through the NYC Department of Transportation’s Plaza program. Laura Hansen from the Neighborhood Plaza Partnership will join us for a discussion about equity and public space. She will explain how she has worked with ioby to support a cohort of leaders from around the city working to make their neighborhood plazas safer, cleaner and more enjoyable. ioby has invited a representative from the NYC Department of Transportation to discuss its Plazas program and how they are working with the Neighborhood Plaza Partnership to bring the program to neighborhoods where there the amount of private investment available for public space is limited.
We’ll then walk along the edge of Prospect Park to the site of Spring Comes to the Flatbush Trees, where we will hear from Tim Thomas about how a group of neighbors came together to refurbish an unlikely community landmark. We will be joined there by the Sustainable Flatbush team to hear about how the neighborhood’s most engaged residents are taking the lead on reimagining public space.
(Public transportation to first site; conversations will take place at both sites; seating will be available.)