Brownsville Partnership
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Join us for two new exciting weekly events!
SUMMER PLAZAS-July 10, July 17, July 24
The Pitkin Ave. BID and the Brownsville Partnership invite you to walk, bike, play, and shop along Pitkin Ave on three car free Saturdays: July 10, July 17, and July 24 between 11AM and 6PM. Summer Plazas will occur on Pitkin between Strauss and Thomas S. Boyland Streets and will include a beach party, arts and crafts, dance classes, exercise classes, music performances, and so much more! We are looking for more volunteers for this event. If you are interested, please contact Michelle Johnstone at mjohnstone@commonground.org.
BROWNSVILLE YOUTHMARKET-Fridays: July 9-October 29
GrowNYC and the Brownsville Partnership invite you to a new neighborhood Farmer’s Market on the corner of Rockaway Ave. and Livonia Ave. on Fridays from 2:00PM-6:00PM. The Youthmarket will be staffed with local young people and will include many fun health demonstrations and activities. The youthmarket accepts EBT/Food Stamps, WIC, and Senior FNMP coupons.
Click the image above for a map of Brownsville, with our operations indicated
Common Ground focuses on both ends of the homelessness spectrum: eliminating chronic homelessness and preventing homelessness among known vulnerable groups. Our homelessness prevention programs provide targeted assistance to at-risk families and individuals so that they can maintain their housing while they work to improve their financial situations, or make the transition from institutions into stable housing.
Since March 2005, Common Ground has operated a homelessness prevention services program for families in the Brownsville neighborhood in East Brooklyn. Brownsville ranks sixth among New York City neighborhoods that produce family homelessness: on average, 350 families become homeless there each year.
To date, we have worked with over 500 families and stabilized the living situation of nearly 200 families at immediate risk of becoming homeless. Using intensive case management, legal services, and cash assistance to defray rent arrears, these families were able to remain housed. As a result of our work in the community, Common Ground amassed considerable knowledge regarding the causes of family homelessness in Brownsville and how to address them. We know, for example, that a consistent 26% of our clients come from public housing and, of this group, the majority struggles with crises in maintaining housing.
Based on this knowledge, Common Ground created the Brownsville Partnership, a unique collaboration with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and top social service organizations. The Partnership will serve four large public housing developments – the Brownsville, Van Dyke I and II, and Tilden Houses.
The Brownsville Partnership:
The Brownsville Partnership is Common Ground’s pioneering homelessness prevention initiative in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. Rooted in research that has long showed that homelessness is associated with communities of concentrated poverty and is a symptom of community breakdown, the Partnership is changing the conditions that produce homelessness, beginning with one of New York City’s most challenged communities.
Tilden Houses
Homelessness, unemployment, poor health, crime, family violence and educational failure are concentrated in census tracts 910 and 912 in the heart of Brownsville, an area made up of four New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments with 4,400 households. Through the Partnership, Common Ground is applying its expertise in transforming individual buildings to improve the health, stability and prosperity of an entire neighborhood.
The Brownsville Partnership:
- Is informed by research and data
- Prioritizes the most needy individuals and families for intensive assistance
- Helps all neighborhood families and individuals to acquire or maintain stable, affordable housing linked to the help they need to thrive and contribute to the community
- Improves the physical environment
- Engages strong, complementary partners
- Shares its discoveries with other organizations and communities throughout the country and around the world
The Partnership makes comprehensive and targeted investments in two Brownsville census tracts to foster civic participation, provide reliable help without hassles to struggling families, and to improve the physical environment and quality and availability of affordable housing.
Strategy
Homelessness is a problem of inadequate housing and income, but is fundamentally related to the
erosion of community ties. Preventing homelessness means addressing all these needs.
Brownsville Partnership Program Director, Greg Jackson with neighborhood children at 2008 Back to School Jamboree
The Brownsville Partnership works to create a strong, healthy community that protects residents from becoming homeless by:
- Encouraging citizens to act together to achieve common benefits and stand up for common values
- Supporting families in maintaining their housing, caring for their children and being good neighbors
- Enhancing the physical environment and quality of public spaces through public safety initiatives, beautification projects and community events
- Creating new affordable homes and improving existing housing
- Connecting Brownsville residents with new employment and educational opportunities
- Making Brownsville a safer, better connected, more prosperous place where neighbors are equipped help each other
Measuring Impact
The Brownsville Partnership tracks short term and long term indicators of the effectiveness of its approach, including:
- Rates of family homelessness
- Evictions prevented
- Participation in community events
- Job placements
- Cleanliness and quality of public spaces
- Crime rates
- Truancy
- Voting rates
- Housing units created
- School completion
- College attendance
- Health
- Incarceration rates
- Income
- Social trust/confidence in neighbors
Partners
The Brownsville Partnership brings together best practices in family and community development and premier organizations to support residents of Brownsville, Tilden and Van Dyke I and II Houses:
- Common Ground Homelink
- East Brooklyn Congregations
- SCO Family of Services
- Healthy Families (a program of Long Island College Hospital and the Arthur Ashe Institute)
- Brownsville Recreation Center
- Consortium for Workers Education
To view the Brownsville Partnership brochure, click here.
For more information on the Brownsville Partnership contact:
Greg Jackson, Executive Director or Rasmia Kirmani, Program Director at (718) 282-2308 or (718) 282-6851.
