Community Responds to Summer Camp/Youth Employment Cuts-
Raises over $35K

In response to tremendous cuts to Beacon community center and afterschool programs, St. Nicks and School Settlement Association board, staff, participants, parents and local supporters have so far raised a whopping $35,071.22 through the Walk for Camp 2010 campaign.   Aimed at increasing awareness and support for our summer camp programs, the campaign will continue.  To help us meet our goal of raising $50,000 and support our youth and families, click here.  To learn more about Walk for Camp and our summer camp programs, click here.

The Summer Youth Employment Program is also facing tremendous cuts (from $67.5 million to $36 million across the city).  As a result, St. Nicks will only be able to offer jobs to 240 teens this July and August compared to last summer’s 550.  New York City’s youth unemployment rate stood at almost 25 percent last year, about 4 times higher than any other age range in the City's population.  We are proud that our youth received wide press coverage in recent days to advocate for summer youth employment funding: (click on links below)

Teen Summer Jobs Hard to Find

Job Openings of the Rise, Stat Show

Menos Trabajos de Verano en NY

Labor Commish Pleads with Congress for Summer Jobs

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$500K for Community Plan

A community development proposal for the Greenpoint Hospital just received a shot in the arm – of $500,000!
The donation came from the Von Damm Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization with deep roots in Williamsburg and with St. Nicks.  The donation went to St. Nicks for its efforts with the Greenpoint Renaissance Enterprise Corporation (GREC), a longstanding coalition of five neighborhood-based organizations that has put together a community plan for the site.
The community plan calls for a comprehensive 10,000 square-foot senior health facility that would help replace the benefits of the original hospital, whose 1982 shuttering coincided with the opening of Woodhull Medical Center.  To meet the acute community need for affordable housing, the proposal calls for 90 units of senior housing and an additional 175 units of affordable family housing.
Since May 2007, the city has been deliberating this proposal and others, a lag time that represents the longest the Bloomberg administration has ever considered a Request for Proposals.  The GREC proposal is the only proposal that includes a senior health facility.
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez expressed confidence that she could help obtain $10 million in “202 financing” from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the senior housing development.  “I know that St. Nicks has put together the best application.  No one knows better what works here than the people that live here,” she said.
For the complete story on this wonderful donation and the City’s delay in the selection process, please click here:

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NY Community Trust Grant to Trinity Human Service Center, Facilitated by St. Nicks

The St. Nicks Alliance recently facilitated a $35,000 grant for the food pantry at Trinity Human Service Center, the social service center run out of Williamsburg’s Most Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church. The grant was made by the New York Community Trust through the United Neighborhood Houses to help those individuals and families most seriously hurt by the economic downturn. According to Michael Rochford, Executive director of St Nicks Alliance:  “the Trinity Human Service Center was the most effective way to help those hurt hardest by the economic down turn.”

The funding was much needed.  As the troubled economy continues, the number of people or families who patronize the pantry has risen over 2,000.  Friar Santo Chriccio, the church’s pastor, said the 40 percent increase since last year in people who use the pantry represents the largest single-year increase since the pantry opened in 1981.

While the pantry’s demand has drastically increased, its funding has drastically declined.  In February, city funds to the pantry will be cut by 60 percent.  Although Friar Santo said various donors have enabled the pantry to enough food, the cuts will threaten the staff of three full-time employees the pantry relies upon to distribute food.

“The irony is we have the food, but we may not have people to give it out,” he said.

For more information on the pantry, visit the website of Most Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church at www.mhtbrooklyn.org

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The tenants of 202 Franklin Street return home, five years after the fire

St. Nicks, UNO and partners celebrate residents’ homecoming

Click here for the details

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St. Nicks NPC to Provide Free Green Jobs Training in Brooklyn

Brooklyn, NY: August 11, 2009—The US Environmental Protection Agency has selected St. Nicks, the St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation in Brooklyn, NY, to receive $500,000 to train community members for jobs assessing and cleaning up brownfields sites.

“St. Nicks Workforce Development has been successfully training and placing individuals into Environmental Remediation jobs during the past seven years and we’re excited to add the Brownfields Assessment and Cleanup training to our curriculum,” said Michael Rochford, St. Nicks Executive Director.

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez said that “by training our neighbors for jobs in environmental remediation, St. Nicks prepares them to take part in one of the fastest growing fields.  Given the economic difficulties many New Yorkers are struggling to overcome, programs like this one that provide additional employment resources are vitally important.  Through this funding we are spurring job growth and taking steps to clean up our local neighborhoods.”

St. Nicks has a well-established, highly successful training program and plans to train 244 participants, graduate 195 students, and place 146 graduates in environmental careers. Six 12-week, 450-hour cycles of environmental remediation technician training will include six to nine certifications for at least 180 students. Four 8-week, 160-hour cycles of commercial truck driving training will be offered to at least 54 students. One 12-week, 320-hour cycle of photovoltaic solar panel installation training will include one to two certifications for 10 students. St. Nicks has strong employment partnerships with local business owners and remediation firms that will facilitate placement of graduates in environmental jobs. Call 718-302-2057 for details on how to apply for the free training.

“In many ways, EPA’s Brownfields program was an idea ahead of its time,” said George Pavlou, Acting Regional Administrator. “It was one of the first big national programs to put money into the hands of organizations and local governments that not only creates jobs and teaches valuable skills to those seeking employment, but also ultimately cleans up our communities.”

St. Nicks is dedicated to keeping North Brooklyn sustainable for low- to moderate-income people by providing essential services and programs in five main areas - housing, health care, workforce and economic development, and youth and education - to over 9,000 community residents. St. Nicks is a not-for-profit, non-sectarian community development organization.

Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (Brownfields Law) was passed. The Brownfields Law expanded the definition of what is considered a brownfield, so communities may now focus on mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs. EPA’s Brownfields Program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.