City Council Funding

Call Today to Support New Garden Programs and Services

GreenThumb has put together a menu of programs and services that might be eligible for this funding. See below for eligible projects in your gardens and help us advocate for critical supplies and services for GreenThumb Gardens!

If you would like to seek funding through this initiative, we recommend reaching out to your local Council Member today to request support for your garden through the Parks Equity Initiative. Council Members are expected to make allocation decisions in early August, so call now!

Supplies and services that Council Members may fund for your garden are as follows:

• Purchasing garden supplies and tools to help GreenThumb community gardens flourish
• Supporting the creation of new community garden farmer's markets or help expand existing community garden farmer's markets to bring more healthy food options to your neighborhood
• Purchasing important equipment for GreenThumb community gardens including rainwater harvest systems and greenhouses

With these important supplies and services we know your gardens will be able to do even more for your neighborhoods and the city as a whole. With the recognition of the Parks Equity Initiative, community gardens continue to be at the forefront of creating and making open space programming available to all New Yorkers.

Thank you for all that you do – we cannot wait to see what you will do next. Remember to make those calls to your council members now!

Sincerely,

Nancy Kohn
Director

Dear Council Members and Staff -

Included in the FY‘16 adopted budget is the Parks Equity Initiative, which is an initiative designed to support small and mid-size neighborhood parks through capacity building of “friends of” groups, support for community gardens, and community programming. Through this initiative, each Council Member will have $24,000 to allocate to groups that can provide a variety of parks-related support and programming, including: maintenance and cleanup, capacity building for small “friends of” type groups, gardening and material support for community gardens, arts and cultural programming, movie nights and festivals and other similar programming.

**Designations are due Friday, August 7th at 5pm.**

Council Members should make designations as follows:

• One designation for $24,000
• Two designations for $12,000 each
• Four designations for $6,00 each
• One designation for $12,000 and two designations for $6,000 each
• or denominations of the CM’s choosing, so long as they meet a minimum of $6,000

Included in this email are proposals from seven different organizations that can provide this type of work. Please note that some organizations cannot do work in every district, and when applicable, they have noted the districts where they can provide services. Council Members should reach out directly to these organizations and/or other groups of their choosing to discuss further the terms of the services to be provided.

A brief description of the work that these seven group can provide is as follows:

1. New York Restoration Project:managing and maintaining community gardens in your district, tree giveaways, workshops and/or other community events.
2. City Parks Foundation: leadership development for “friends of” park groups, community visioning for neighborhood parks, park clean ups, spring programs for children and teens, sports programs, and film programs.
3. GrowNYC:maintenance of community gardens, rainwater collection and bioswales, flower garden design and construction, installing garden benches, plantings and other garden work.
4. Citizens Committee for NYC: micro-grants, one-on-one project planning assistance, capacity-building workshops, and resources to resident-led projects in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods that improve equity through community gardens, farmers markets, and community supported agriculture.
5. The Trust for Public Land:green infrastructure playground support (note this is limited to only Council Districts 2, 19, 20, 28, 33 and 34).
6. Green Guerillas:spring giveaways of vegetable seedlings, flowers and seeds; community BBQ’s and other community events and youth programs; other community garden improvement projects.
7. The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation: seasonal playground associates, gardener/horticulture services, community gardens support and/or farmers markets via the
   Greenthumb program.

OR:

A local 501c(3) group that will do community parks and/or arts programming to be selected by the Council Member for their district.

The remainder of the funding will be allocated to the City Parks Foundation to continue upon the work they began last year in providing small grants and technical assistance to existing parks groups and small “friends of” groups as well as providing the kind of training and support that has led to the growth of new “friends of groups” across the city. The money allocated this year will enable them to continue to build upon this important work in year two of this initiative.