Invest in Youth

Earlier this month, a few of our staff members and donors had the pleasure of joining our Invest in Youth grantee Footsteps for a special look at artist Sara Erenthal’s solo show Moving On at FiveMyles Gallery in Crown Heights. 

Today, together with criminal justice advocates across New York State, we are celebrating a landmark reform victory: the State Legislature has passed legislation to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18-years-old. 

All across New York City, criminal justice advocates and organizers are celebrating one of the biggest victories in recent memory: the Mayor’s announcement of a plan to close Rikers Island by 2027.

On Sunday, March 5th, our Brooklyn Youth Fellows led their first-ever conference, designed for youth, by youth. The Youth Resistance Conference — aka #YouthResist2017 — was held in partnership with youth leaders at the YWCA Brooklyn. 

Through our Immigrant Rights Fund, we’re supporting BAJI’s comprehensive outreach to Black Muslim immigrants.

Through our Immigrant Rights Fund, we’re supporting AAANY’s advocacy and organizing in Brooklyn’s Muslim immigrant communities.

Restorative approaches to conflict have a long history rooted in cultural healing of indigenous communities. Yet, the use of restorative approaches to building community and repairing harm is relatively new in U.S. schools. Educators across the nation have many unanswered questions about best practices for introducing restorative justice (RJ) to their communities, building sustained engagement with school discipline reform, and eradicating disparities in exclusionary school discipline.

This year, in addition to continuing our investment in over 40 outstanding youth-serving Brooklyn nonprofits, we are supporting 17 organizations for the first time through Invest in Youth.
 

Grants total $1,915,000, bringing the Foundation’s funding for youth-serving nonprofits in Brooklyn to $2.3 million in 2016.