Community-Wealth City: New York, New York

As the nation's most populous city since 1790, New York City is currently home to an estimated 8.3 million people, according to the American Community Survey.  Throughout its history, the city has been the leading entrance point for immigrants coming to the United States, helping create an incredibly diverse city. Demographically, the city is 35 percent white (of which one third is Jewish), 28 percent Latino, 25 percent African American, and 12 percent Asian. The city is home to the largest Latino and African American communities in the country and the largest Jewish population of any city in the world.

New York is often considered a global city; it is home to the United Nations, is often viewed as the financial capital of the world, and is considered the most linguistically diverse city on the globe - with an estimated 800 languages spoken. However, it is also a city of neighborhoods and home to many community wealth-building organizations.

Founded in 1967, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation is often considered the first community development corporation in the nation. It has helped attract more than $375 million in investment to Central Brooklyn and placed over 20,000 youth and adults in jobs. Also considered an early program related investment success story, the organization was a recipient of a $3.4 million loan from the Ford Foundation to support the construction of Restoration Plaza, a commercial center completed in 1972 that receives an estimated 1.5 million visits each year.

Representing another national first, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was the first bi-state agency in the nation.  The Port Authority has been responsible for developing: the George Washington Bridge; the Outerbridge Crossing; the Goethals and the Bayonne bridges; the Lincoln Tunnel; upgrading and managing the Newark, LaGuardia, and John F. Kenney International airports; and construction of the World Trade Center. Today, the agency is developing a plan, which is focused on rebuilding the World Trade Center site.  Although created by the city to help develop vital transportation links necessary to its growth, the Port Authority is completely financially self-supporting. It receives no tax revenue, and at the end of fiscal year 2009, the Port Authority had $846 million in net assets and $3.6 billion in gross operative revenues.  

An overview of community wealth building efforts follows:

Anchor Institutions

Fund for the City of New York
www.fcny.org
Established by the Ford Foundation in 1968, the Fund for the City of New York seeks to improve the quality of life of all New Yorkers by focusing on improving the functioning of government and nonprofit organizations. Through its Cash Flow Program, the Fund provides bridge financing to nonprofits waiting for committed funds from government and foundations, loaning about $20 million each year to almost 400 organizations and $250 million since 1976.

New York Foundation
www.nyf.org
Founded with a gift of $1 million from Alfred M. Heinsheimer in 1909, the New York Foundation is one of the oldest in the country and focused on providing resources and early support to organizations seeking to improve life in the city. Over a one and a half year period between Jan 2009 and June 2010, the Foundation provided more than $5.1 million in grants to 122 organizations.

New York Foundation for Senior Citizens
www.nyfsc.org
As the only nonprofit, non-sectarian organization serving New York's seniors in all five boroughs, the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens has been working since 1968 to provide seniors with a better standard of living. Today, with more 1,200 employees, the organization provides over 800 units of housing and 35 social service programs for tens of thousands of seniors citywide.

The New York Women's Foundation
www.nywf.org
Through partnerships that leverage human and financial capital, the New York Women's Foundation strives to improve the long-term economic security of low-income women and girls by focusing on five areas: community organizing and advocacy, economic security and justice, health and sexual rights, positive development of girls and young women, and safety. In 2009, the foundation awarded over $2.75 million to more than 65 organizations through a participatory grant-making process that includes Grant Advisory Committee volunteers.

Community Development Corporations

Abyssinian Development Corporation (Manhattan)
www.adcorp.org
Focused on improving the quality of life in the Harlem community, the Abyssinian Development Corporation works to increase the supply of affordable housing, strengthen social services, foster economic revitalization, and improve educational and developmental opportunities for local youth. Since its founding in 1989, the organization has leveraged more than $600 million in investments. It was one of the first community development corporations to help develop a retail supermarket - Pathmark - in a community that lacked adequate access to healthy food and has also constructed more than 1,500 rentals and more than 200 homeownership opportunities. The group has more than 140 employees.

Asian Americans for Equality (Manhattan)
www.aafe.org
Started in 1974 as a grassroots movement in New York's Chinatown, Asian Americans for Equality is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of immigrant populations, particularly Asian Americans, through community economic development, tenant and minority advocacy, and helping individuals build assets. To date, the group has leveraged more than $55 million in financing for affordable housing, has secured more than $139 million in mortgage financing for more than 1100 clients, and manages more than 400 units of affordable housing.

Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development
www.anhd.org
Consisting of 98 member organizations of non-profit neighborhood housing groups, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development strives to create stronger communities through the development of affordable housing the preserves low-income and working class communities. To date, member organizations have developed more than 80,000 units of low- and moderate-income housing and directly manage 30,000 units, providing housing for nearly 100,000 people.

Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (Brooklyn)
www.restorationplaza.org
Founded in 1967, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation has strived to improve the quality of life of those living in Central Brooklyn. It has helped attract more than $375 million in investment, placed over 20,000 youth and adults in jobs, and has helped construct or renovate 2,200 units of housing. Also considered an early program related investment success story, the organization was a recipient of a $3.4 million loan from the Ford Foundation to support the construction of Restoration Plaza, a commercial center completed in 1972 that receives an estimated 1.5 million visits each year.

Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (Brooklyn)
www.cypresshills.org
Serving more than 8,000 residents each year, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation was formed in 1984 by a group of local community members and small business owners. To date, the organization has renovated a 52,000 square foot, former industrial facility into a 400-seat community-founded alternative public school and has created and currently maintains approximately 200 affordable rental units with 300 additional units in development. The group also operates Youth Build, a job training construction program for young adults who gain experience working on the organization's affordable housing projects, and is currently working on Cypress Hills Verde - a holistic development initiative that plans to incorporate permanently affordable housing, energy efficient homes, businesses, and churches, safe and efficient transportation, access to nutritious, affordable food, and green job training.

Fifth Avenue Committee (Brooklyn) - Update
www.fifthave.org
Founded in the late 1970s, the Fifth Avenue committee to date has developed more than 600 units of affordable housing for low and moderate-income families in more than 100 buildings and has brought more than $300 million in direct investment for community development into South Brooklyn neighborhoods. Fifth Avenue's affiliate, Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, a social purpose staffing company, assists more than 750 individuals access decent jobs each year.

Flatbush Development Corporation (Brooklyn)
www.fdconline.org
Focused on a 2.5-mile area bounded on the north by Parkside Avenue, the south by Avenue H, on the East by Flatbush Avenue and on the West by Coney Island Avenue, the Flatbush Development Corporation was formed in 1975 to address what community members saw as the beginnings of neighborhood decline. Today, the organization is one of the largest providers of programs for youth in the area - offering opportunities for more than 1200 youth and young adults annually - and provides more than 500 tenants and homeowners with individual counseling each year. FDC has also secured funding for various economic development projects, including $1.5 million for the Newkirk Plaza reconstruction project, $1.4 million for a streetscape project for Cortelyou Road, and $4.5 million for a streetscape project for the Flatbush Nostrand Junction.

Pratt Area Community Council (Brooklyn)
www.prattarea.org
Although formed in 1964 by three community members, the Pratt Area Community Council soon encompassed other community organizations in Forte Greene, Clinton Hill, the Wallabout Community and later the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood. Achieving community victories by the mid-1970s, including increased police presence, a Clinton Hill library branch, and new parks and community gardens, today, the Community Council has expanded into housing and economic development, and providing social services. To date, the group has leveraged more than $100 million in order to rehabilitate 67 buildings, comprising 559 residential units and 17 commercial spaces, and has sponsored and marketed 406 partnership homes, 12-unit condominium and 19 two-to-four family homes to low-to moderate-income families.

Promesa Systems, Inc. (Bronx)
www.promesa.org
Promesa Systems, Inc. strives to enable community members to become self-sufficient citizens through a variety of social services and through economic and community development. One of its subsidiaries - the Promesa Housing Development Fund Corporation - manages and/or owns 20 residential housing developments in the Bronx and Manhattan, providing housing to more than 300 families. Another of its programs, the Promesa Summer Youth Leadership Institute, provides 10 to 25 internships to youth ages 14-18 in order to train future community leaders. Another subsidiary - the East Harlem Community Council for Improvement - is currently working to develop an affordable cooperative housing residence with 166 residential units and 43,000 square feet of community space. The project is estimated to cost $50 million, but residents will not have to pay more than 33% of their income in order to own a home.

South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (Bronx)
www.sobro.org
Formed in 1972 by concerned business executives and community leader hoping to address the flight of jobs and businesses from the community, the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO) has developed overtime to incorporate a more comprehensive approach to community development. Today, in addition to providing youth education services, job training and placement and other services, SoBro manages more than 600 units and is currently developing more than 725 units of affordable housing and has created more than 120,000 sq ft. of industrial space, 38,000 sq ft. of commercial space and nearly 100,000 sq ft. of office space.

Community Development Financial Institutions

Acción New York
www.accionnewyork.org
An affiliate of Acción USA, which has made more than 19,500 microloans totaling $119 nationwide, Acción New York is the organization's main office, having lent $84 million since its founding in 1991. As a member of the U.S. Acción Network, the domestic arm of Acción International along with network affiliates form the nation's largest micro lending network, having lent more than $270 million to low-to moderate-income business owners.

Bethex Federal Credit Union (Bronx)
www.bethexfcu.org
Serving more than 9,000 members, Bethex is a small community development credit union based in the Bronx that has come up with an innovative way of dealing with competition from check cashers: partnering with them to enable customers at their point-of-banking terminals - more than 130 sites across the city - to make free loan payments and deposits into their credit union accounts.

Business Outreach Center (BOC) Network
www.bocnet.org
Founded in 2001, the Business Outreach Center (BOC) Network provides micro-enterprise and small business development services to new entrepreneurs and existing organizations in New York City and Newark, NJ. Operating a microloan program, BOC Network has helped clients to access more than $23 million dollars in small business financing. To date, over 45 percent of the organization's clients are new entrepreneurs and it has individually assisted more than 8,000 small business owners and would-be entrepreneurs.

Community Preservation Corporation
www.communityp.com
Sponsored by more than 90 commercial banks, savings institutions, and insurance companies, the Community Preservation Corporation is a nonprofit founded in 1974 focused on stabilizing, strengthening and sustaining low-and mixed-income communities. Accomplishing its mission through helping developers financing and build affordable multi-family housing, the organization has invested more than $7.2 billion and has helped construct more than 136,000 new or rehabbed units throughout New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union (Manhattan)
www.lespeoples.org
As the largest credit union in New York City, the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit union serves the immigrant and underserved population of the city through microfinance, low-interest personal loans and other financial services. Founded in 1986 when all commercial banks left the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the credit union has more than 5,000 members, assets of $22 million, and 19 full time employees.

Primary Care Development Corporation
www.pcdcny.org
Seeking to ensure that all communities have timely and effective access to primary care, the Primary Care Development Corporation strives to increase the capacity and quality of primary care in underserved communities across the state. To date, the organization has invested more than $255 million into more than 84 primary care capital projects, leveraging $6 of private investment for each $1 of public investment. Since its founding in 1993, the group has expanded primary care capacity to provide for more than 575,000 underserved New Yorkers, developed 630,000 square feet into primary care practices, and created 1,300 construction jobs and 2,200 permanent jobs in low-income communities.

Project Enterprise
www.projectenterprise.org
Project Enterprise provides micro loans, business development services, and networking opportunities to entrepreneurs and small businesses in traditionally underserved communities in the city. Founded in 1997, to date, the organization has loaned more than $1.7 million, providing more than 700 loans at an average loan size of approximately $2450. Project Enterprise has served more than 3,600 entrepreneurs and has more than 450 active members. The group estimates that the local wages generated annually by businesses in its loan portfolio to be more than $1.5 million and that businesses experience an average increase in monthly profit of more than 40% after receiving a loan.

Renaissance Economic Development Corporation (Manhattan)
www.renaissance-ny.org
Working in partnership with Asian Americans for Equality, the Renaissance Economic Development Corporation provides financing and technical assistance in low-income, immigrant neighborhoods in order to promote the creation of low-income, minority, women, and immigrant entrepreneurs. Since its founding in 1997, Renaissance has lent more $600,000 to more than 30 small businesses and has provided technical assistance to more than 100 businesses.

University Neighborhood Housing Program (Bronx)
www.unhp.org
Founded in 1983, the University Neighborhood Housing Program seeks to create, preserve, and finance affordable housing in the Northwest Bronx. The group's loan fund, seeded in 1988, has lent almost 5 million to date. This investment has helped provide for the preservation, purchase, and renovation of 53 multifamily buildings and assist the development of an additional 2,000 units of affordable housing. The organization's other projects include the Building Indicator Project, a weighted database that was developed to identify properties in physical and financial distress. The database now includes more than 57,857 buildings (6 units or more) in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corporation (Manhattan)
www.whidc.org
Serving community members in the Washington Heights and Inwood section of northern Manhattan since 1978, the Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corporation operate a micro-business development program, child care business development services, and a micro business incubator for between 20 and 50 individuals (depending on the season). The group has helped create more than 500 micro enterprises since 1992 and has made 341 loans totaling $4.8 million since 1995. Of these loans, 95% have gone to minority-and 40% have gone to women-owned businesses. Additionally, to date, the organization has trained through its childcare business development services more than 153 childcare providers, who have gone onto open 88 new childcare businesses that employ 104 persons and offer 370 new childcare slots in the community.

Cooperatives

Brooklyn College Coffee Collective (Brooklyn)
www.brooklyncollegecoffee.wordpress.com/updates/
Student founded and student-run, Brooklyn College Coffee was founded in 2009 and opened in 2010 to serve the Brooklyn College community and its surrounding neighborhoods. All of their beans are ethically sourced and come from small farms in partnership with their distributor, Counter Culture Coffee.

Colors (Manhattan)
www.colors-newyork.com
Located in New York City and started by former workers of a World Trade Center restaurant, COLORS is a worker cooperative where each of the worker-owners receives a share of the profits and supervises the running of the restaurant through an elected board. Each worker-owner earns a minimum of $13.50 an hour, far above the industry average.

Cooperative Home Care Associates (Bronx)
www.chcany.org
Founded in 1985 to provide quality home care at living wages in the South Bronx of New York, Cooperative Home Care Association now anchors a national cooperative network yielding over $60 million a year in revenue and employing over 1,600 and is the largest worker cooperative in the United States.

The Film-Makers' Cooperative (Manhattan)
www.film-makerscoop.com
As the largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world, the Film-Makers' Cooperative was formed in 1962 to help independently working filmmakers with the financing, promotion, and distribution of their films. Anyone can join by paying the annual membership fee and by submitting a film or video, to which the person retains all ownership rights and pricing power. To date, the Co-op has more than 5,000 films, videotapes, and DVDs in its collection.

Flatbush Food Co-op (Brooklyn)
www.flatbushfoodcoop.com
Established in 1976, the Flatbush Food Co-op is a full-service natural foods store specializing in organic products. Located on Cortelyou Road in the heart of Victorian Flatbush since 1985 in one of Brooklyn's most diverse neighborhoods, the Co-op has nearly 3,000 members and many more shoppers.

Park Sloop Food Co-op (Brooklyn)
www.foodcoop.com
The Park Slope Food Co-op, located in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn was founded in 1973 by a small group of committed neighbors. Today the co-op has more than 12,000 members. Unlike many co-ops where paying a fee is sufficient to become a member, members at Park Slope must commit to doing a work-shift (there are some exceptions to this work policy for hardship cases) every four weeks in exchange for a 20-40% savings on groceries. The co-op estimates that this form of work exchange means that members do 75% of all co-op labor.

Restaurant Opportunities Center - New York (Manhattan)
www.rocny.org
ROC-NY aims to develop worker-owned cooperative restaurants dedicated to food quality, service excellence and employee welfare. Its first restaurant, COLORS, opened for business in January 2006 and has approximately 50 employee-owners. The group ultimately hopes to extend the model of employee ownership to other restaurant ventures within the United States, integrating support for sustainable agriculture and local producers as key business principles.

Cross Sectoral

Initiative for a Competitive Brooklyn (Brooklyn)
www.bedc.org/subsidiaries/initiative-for-a-competitive-brooklyn/
ICB is a comprehensive economic strategy designed to increase economic opportunities for low-income Brooklyn residents. In partnership with the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, the Brooklyn Borough President's Office, and the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation, ICB is implementing an economic strategy anchored on growing sectors of goods and services that cater to the local community.

Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation (Seedco)
www.seedco.org
Headquartered in New York and operating in 16 states across the county, Seedco strives to create better access to good paying jobs for low-income individuals in order to enable them to achieve financial stability and mobility. Since 2005, Seedco has helped more than 51,000 working individuals and families to access $71 million in work supports and government benefits and has provide counseling services for over 14,000 families threatened by foreclosure. Through its subsidiary Seedco Financial, which has $200 million in assets under management, the organization has provided about 800 loans totaling more than $63 million and has invested more than $93 million in communities around the country.

Employee Ownership

Blue Tee Corp. (Manhattan)
www.bluetee.com
As one of the largest 100% employee-owned companies in the nation, Blue Tee Corp. specializes in steel distribution, ferrous scrap and the design and manufacture of equipment and replacement parts for the refining, earthmoving, water-well, oilfield, and solid waste industries. To date, Blue Tee Corp. has approximately 5,000 employees.

National Spinning Company (Manhattan)
www.natspin.com
Headquartered in New York with three spinning plants and one dye plant in North Carolina, the National Spinning Company became an employee-owned textile company in 1994. Originally founded in 1921, the National Spinning Company specializes in dyed raw white yarns for contemporary knits, woven fabrics, and home crafts. The ESOP employs more than 700 people.

Green Collar Jobs

Green Worker Cooperatives (Bronx)
www.greenworker.coop
Green Worker Cooperatives is a South Bronx-based organization dedicated to incubating worker-owned and environmentally friendly cooperatives in the South Bronx. The group is currently developing its first cooperative, ReBuilders Source, which will be a retail warehouse for surplus and salvaged building materials recovered from construction & demolition jobs.

Sustainable South Bronx (Bronx)
www.ssbx.org
Founded in 2001 by South Bronx resident Majora Carter, Sustainable South Bronx promotes innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs. This work includes "green roof" installation and maintenance, as well as its Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program, a ten-week green collar job training and placement program that has had an 85-percent job placement success rate.

Individual Wealth Building

Chinatown Manpower Project, Inc.
www.cmpny.org
Founded in 1972 to provide Chinese immigrants with job training, the Chinatown Manpower Project, Inc. provides vocational training, employment services, educational programs and economic development opportunities to low income immigrants and refugees in New York City. Through their Individual Development Account program, which allows clients to receive a $1 match for every dollar they save, up to $4,000 in some situations, the group has helped more 250 people save and increase their buying 14 times to invest in assets valued at more than $5.3 million collectively.

Individual Wealth Preservation

Chhaya Community Development Corporation (Queens)
www.chhayacdc.org
Focused on creating more stable and sustainable communities, Chhaya Community Development Corporation seeks to accomplish this goal by increasing civic participation in the community and by addressing housing and community development needs of South Asian Americans and other new immigrants. In 2009, Chhaya nearly doubled its full time staff to seven and became a certified Housing Counseling Agency, launching a foreclosure prevention program that reached more than 100 people. In addition, Chhaya reached more than 5,000 community members through direct outreach, including 200 tenants who participated in the organization's tenant organizing work; another 200 potential buyers and owners who received information about home-buying, the foreclosure process, and predatory lending practices; and 150 residents who received individual counseling services.

NYC Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment
www.nyc.gov/html/ofe/html/about/volunteer.shtml
The Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) is the first municipal office of its kind in the nation. Its mission is to educate, empower, and protect low income New Yorkers. OFE volunteers work in one of five major areas: VITA tax preparation, "Your Money Helpline" to provide advice over the phone, one-on-one counseling at Financial Empowerment Centers, outreach assistance and community events, and research assistance to administer surveys, conduct interviews, and manage data. Through guided tax preparation and its $ave NY program, OFE helped incentivize over $450,000 in savings for low-income New Yorkers from 2006 to 2009.

Municipal Enterprises

Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
www.panynj.gov
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey was formed in 1921 as the first bistate agency in the nation, in order to develop important transportation links between the two states. With jurisdiction over the Port District - a region within a radius of approximately 25 miles of the Statue of Liberty - the Port Authority is responsible for developing: the George Washington Bridge; the Outerbridge Crossing; the Goethals and the Bayonne bridges; the Lincoln Tunnel; upgrading and managing the Newark, LaGuardia, and John F. Kenney International airports; and construction of the World Trade Center. Today, the agency is developing a plan, which is focused on rebuilding the World Trade Center site. The Port Authority is completely financially self-supporting, receiving no tax revenue, and at the end of fiscal year 2009, the Port Authority had $846 million in net assets and $3.6 billion in gross operative revenues.

New State and Local Policies

Good Jobs New York (Manhattan)
www.goodjobsny.org
Good Jobs New York, a joint project of Good Jobs First and the Fiscal Policy Institute, serves as a clearinghouse of information about the costs and other key aspects of the largest New York City retention deals of the last decade. Besides investigating these deals, it provides information about accountability measures in use elsewhere, and other ways public resources can be used to strengthen the economy. In May 2005, advocacy efforts linked to its research led New York City to approve a corporate subsidy disclosure law.

Harlem Children's Zone (Manhattan)
www.hcz.org
Providing free services and resources to children from before birth through college, Harlem Children's Zone is a community-based organization focused on breaking the cycle of generational poverty in Harlem. Found in 1970, the organization serves more than 10,000 children and 7,400 adults each year and had a FY 2010 budget of $75 million.

Make the Road New York
www.maketheroad.org
Formed in 2007 by the merger of Make the Road by Walking and the Latin American Integration Center, Make the Road New York is a grassroots organization dedicated to addressing issues of inequality and economic injustice through community and electoral organizing, strategic policy advocacy, leadership development, youth and adult education, and high quality legal and support services. Based mainly in the low-income neighborhoods of Bushwick, Brooklyn; Jackson Heights, Queens; and Port Richmond, Staten Island, the group is led by its more than 7,000 members, who are primarily low-income Latino immigrants, of which 75 percent are women.

Program Related Investment (PRI)

Common Ground Community
www.commonground.org
Working to develop supportive housing and implement other research-based practices that end homelessness, Common Ground has developed more than 3,000 units of permanent and transitional housing in New York City, upstate New York, and Connecticut. A recipient of a $2,000,000 PRI to support preservation of affordable rental housing in 2007 from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Common Ground is working to create an additional 4,000 units of housing for the homeless by 2015.

Social Enterprise

Harlem Textile Works (Manhattan)
www.harlemtextileworks.org
Harlem Textile Works creates career opportunities for underserved students and artists interested in urban-based textile arts and fabric design by providing arts education, professional internships and entrepreneurial experience. The group earns revenue from a variety of activities, including custom printing work, design sales to corporate customers, and retail sale of clothing and other items.

Housing Works (Manhattan)
www.housingworks.org
Housing Works was founded in June 1990 to provide supportive housing for homeless New Yorkers with AIDS and HIV. In its first 15 years, it has housed and/or provided services to over 15,000 people. Housing Works also operates a job training and placement program, which uses social enterprises, including supportive housing apartment rentals, a bookstore and a thrift shop, to underwrite the group's programs and help clients achieve self-sufficiency. In 2005, Housing Works earned over 25 percent of its revenues (more than $10 million) from its businesses.

NPower New York (Manhattan)
www.npowerny.org
NPower NY began offering services in the spring of 2001 and is the second oldest and the largest affiliate in the NPower Network, a national network of local nonprofits that help other nonprofits use technology to better serve their communities. In addition to training disadvantaged workers to provide computer services to other charities, N-Power fulfills a second mission of giving the workers job skills and paid employment through its information technology service social enterprise business.

State and Local Investments

Center for Economic Investment
www.nyc.gov/html/ceo
In December 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the newly created Center for Economic Opportunity would oversee a new $150 million per year initiative to fund more than 30 City anti-poverty programs recommended by the Commission for Economic Opportunity. Included in this effort are programs to help low income individuals build assets, increasing education opportunities for at risk adults, and creating employment opportunities for disengaged young adults. The first program launched was the Citywide Office of Financial Empowerment, which will help New Yorkers access and save financial resources, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, New York's "Basic Bank Account" products, and Individual Development Accounts.

New York City Comptroller "Economically targeted investments"
www.comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/bam/eti.shtm
In 2003, the New York City Comptroller's office made new economically targeted investments (ETI) or financial commitments of city worker pensions totaling $234.5 million and has increased its investments since that period. Between 2003 and the end of 2007, the city has invested and/or committed $397 million for more than 9,900 units affordable renting housing; $283 million in the AFL-CIO's Housing and Investment Trust; and $75 million in the Community Preservation Corporation's revolving loan fund, which is actively financing 100 commercial properties and 8,000 units of affordable housing in low and moderate income New York City communities.

Queens County Overall Economic Development Corporation (Queens)
www.queensny.org/index.php
The Queens County Overall Economic Development Corporation, a partnership between the state, city, borough, and local business sector in New York City, operates the Prospect Street Discovery Fund, which makes equity investments in the amount of $1 to $9 million in local firms in many industries including interactive media, medical devices, telecommunications, biotechnology, robotics and computer-related products.

University Community Partnerships

CUNY Institute for Health Equity
www.www.cunyhealthequity.org/ihe/
Drawing on its wealth of academic resources, public health expertise, strong community relations and location across the city, CUNY Institute for Health Equity was established to address the health inequities among the city's low-income residents and racial/ethnic populations. The Institute will strive to identify and respond to the social conditions that generate these disparities and provide technical support to its community partners so that they can better serve their communities.

Office of School and Community Partnerships at Teachers College (Columbia University)
www.www.tc.columbia.edu/oscp/detail.asp?Id=
About+Us&Info=Introducing+OSCP
Started in 2007, the Teachers College Office of School and Community Partnerships is focused on creating networks and leveraging opportunities that best utilize the college's expertise and resources to benefit underserved youth in the city. The organization's mission is also to collect information on existing University programs that fulfill this mission. One university-affiliated nonprofit that has a strong outreach into the community is Community Impact. With more than 950 Columbia University student volunteers participating in 25 community service programs, Community Impact serves more than 8,000 people each year and has partnerships with more than 100 community organizations.

Urban Agriculture

Added Value (Brooklyn)
www.added-value.org
Added Value is a non-profit focused on creating a local, affordable food system in the neighborhood of Red Hook by turning vacant land into urban farms and by providing job training to local community youth (to date, more than 150 teenagers). Working with the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, Added Value helped create a three-acre urban farm on Governors Island in 2009. The farm is expected to generate $25,000 in produce its first year and more in subsequent years, with proceeds expected to fund stipends - up to 25 of them at $1400 each - for teenagers who work at Added Value's original farm in Red Hook - a community in which the average household income is only $14,000.

Cornell Cooperative Extension (New York City)
www.nyc.cce.cornell.edu/Pages/home.aspx
The Cornel Cooperative Extension based in New York City is focused on improving urban food systems and green spaces while providing support for family and youth development. The Extension offers programs in horticulture and ecology focused on the city's parks and green spaces and a Hydroponics Learning Model Program - a course designed to teach a useful urban agriculture method invented at the Extension while developing students' critical thinking skills. Also working to provide healthy food education, the Extension graduated 3,253 adults from their series of lessons in 2008 and increased healthy food awareness for an additional 2,791 youth.