It's Our Money

Name of Your Organization:

El Puente De Williamsburg

Overview of the Project -

Growing Justice/Cultivando Justicia is a youth-led project based in 2 community gardens - Grove Street Garden in Bushwick and Espiritu Tierra Garden in Williamsburg, gardens that are both stewarded by El Puente. Through the Growing Justice/Cultivando Justicia project, young people can get out of the house, away from computer screens, and participate in a hands-on project with their peers. Growing Justice/Cultivando Justicia will provide youth an open space of 2 community gardens to gather and grow with each other while learning important life skills as well as addressing mental health and other social issues.

Growing Justice/Cultivando Justicia will encompass: 

1) A gardening program where youth will gain life skills and address mental health by learning how to grow fruits, herbs, and vegetables. Young people will harvest the food that they grow and distribute them among residents in both communities that have experienced food insecurity even before the COVID-19 pandemic. While learning life skills, youth will experience the aspect of nurturing a garden that will contribute to supporting mental health, as well as creating a sense of purpose, hope, and pride as they grow food.

2) A series of El Puente youth-led community workshops hosted in both gardens that will address issues brought up by youth, including mental health (peer support group around mental health issues), financial literacy, environmental justice, and more that emerges from youth participants. These convenings will include at least one town hall with local elected officials about issues concerning youth such as, but not limited to, advocating for an expansion of youth programming that includes paid internships and other opportunities for employment, environmental justice, and mental health. Workshops will be youth-organized and facilitated with some guest speakers and trainers who are experts in their fields.

Growing Justice/Cultivando Justicia will be led by a cohort of young adult leaders from El Puente and will be open to all youth aged 14-24. Growing Justice/Cultivando Justicia aims to utilize El Puente’s 2 community gardens as safe and healing outdoor community spaces and sources of food cultivation, at a time when young people in our community desperately need both.

Which of the following issues does your project address?

1. Issue 1 - Addressing Mental Health
2. Issue 2 - Preparation for College and/or Career
3. Issue 3 - Youth Advocacy Promotion

1, 2, & 3

Youth Engagement - Please explain how you will engage youth in the planning and implementation of the ,project.

Young adult leaders (aged 18-24) from El Puente brainstormed ideas for this project and proposal. These young leaders will spearhead the planning and implementation of the project and work within and outside El Puente programs to engage other youth aged 14-24 to participate. 

Throughout the course of the project, all youth participants will be engaged in:

1. Planning the design of garden projects based on a needs assessment of both spaces
2. Planning and facilitation of garden convenings, workshops, and peer support groups (brainstorming topics/issues, inviting guests, creating agendas/run-of-shows for each event, setting up and cleaning up from events, doing outreach and publicity to invite youth to come)
3. Hands-on gardening from April-June, preparing and building beds, doing garden maintenance, planting seeds, weeding, harvesting
4. Coordination of food distribution from both gardens 
5. Assessment and documentation of the project from start to finish (photo, video, social media/blogging)

Budget - Your total project budget must equal $20,000 to be placed on the ballot for a youth vote. Please provide a brief description of what the funds would be used for to successfully implement your project. You will also need to download, fill in, and attach a full budget using this template (External link).

Attached via Google Sheets (External link)

Timeline- Please describe the timeline for the implementation and completion of the project. All work for this project must be completed by June 30, 2021, which is the end of the city’s fiscal year and the deadline for the funds to be spent.

Attached via Google Sheets (External link)

Project Activity Alignment - How does your project align with at least one of the following topics:

The Growing Justice/Cultivando Justicia project aligns with all 5 topics.

1) Leadership skills development: organizing & advocacy trainings

Youth participants will develop leadership skills and gain experience in organizing and advocacy through the series of youth-led community convenings and workshops. They will work with their peers to address social justice issues that impact them, and they will gain experience working with elected officials in advocating for those issues at the public policy level.

2) Stewardship of public spaces: public parks, transportation, etc.

Youth participants will take responsibility for 2 public spaces through the gardening component of the project, where in addition to learning how to grow food they will be tasked with improving the space in both gardens for public use. 

3) Youth and student engagement

Youth participants will engage their peers in the project through the community convenings and workshops, designing those events around the interests and concerns of their peers. 

4) Civic education and advocacy

Youth participants will learn civic education in a hands-on manner by learning how to navigate city agencies and government in the project (including the Parks Department, City Council, and other elected officials’ offices. 

5) Community outreach involving residents that have been historically underrepresented in or underserved by city government and its processes

The communities of Bushwick and Williamsburg are predominantly Black and Latinx immigrants who have experienced food inequity before the COVID-19 pandemic. Many young people in these communities have experienced lack of food access. The program will afford the opportunity for young people to learn how to advocate for their own communities, while also distributing what they grow to community members. This program will allow youth to think critically of the various ways to help their own communities through the use of local community garden spaces.

What is your organization's area of focus?

1. Children and youth related
2. Advocacy and organizing
3. Arts and culture
4. Civic engagement
5. Education and literacy
6. Emergency management and disaster response
7. Employment and workforce development
8. Environment and sustainability
9. Faith-based
10. Food access
11. Health and medicine
12. Homelessness and/or affordable housing
13. Human rights
14. Human services
15. Immigrants and/or refugees
16. Justice related
17. Legal services
18. People with disabilities
19. Senior services
20. Women's issues

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, & 10

Affirmations - Type "YES" below each statement to affirm that you are eligible to appear on the ballot for this process.

I confirm that my organization will be registered in the NYC Payee Information Portal and in PassPort, NYC’s online procurement system, in order to receive funding from the City of New York.

YES

I confirm that my organization is able to front the costs of implementing this project. Organizations will be paid based on deliverables. 

YES

Completion of Deliverables: I understand all deliverables must be completed by June 30th, 2021.

YES

I understand a condition of funding includes submission of a final report upon project completion, and participating in a debrief session with the CEC.

YES