BROWNSVILLE — If you’re looking for a way to green your neighborhood or bring healthier options to the area, one organization is welcoming ideas.
Crowd-resourcing platform In Our Backyards, or ioby, is partnering with the New York State Health Foundation to provide training and $100,000 in matching grants to help Brownsville residents improve health in their communities.
The Healthy Neighborhoods Challenge kicks off this summer as a way to empower community members to make their neighborhoods safer, improve access to fresh food or introduce new education programs.
“Neighbors know best what their communities need — they’re best equipped to find and fund opportunities to improve the places where they live,” Ethany Uttech, partnerships manager at ioby, said in a statement.
“We know by now that community health is tied to many factors outside the traditional healthcare system, and that’s why we’re so excited about this campaign.”
ioby will help participants plan, crowd-fund, and implement their projects with trainings, as well as connect them to community organizers and leaders who can help with the cause.
The New York State Health Foundation will match up to $5,000 raised per project.
ioby has already worked with Brownsville residents on a separate match campaign in which local groups are identifying ways to activate community spaces under the Livonia Avenue elevated train.
Past projects that received funding through the organization include an annual event linking residents with parks in northern Manhattan, and a bike-riding program for teens in the Bronx and Brooklyn that educates participants on neighborhood issues.
For the new Healthy Neighborhoods Challenge campaign, ideas can focus on areas like food, active transportation, green space, or fighting disease.
“We want to encourage people to think about community health very broadly and creatively,” said Katie Lorah, communications and creative strategy director for ioby.
“It’s really tied to so many different factors that are environmental and social, and creating opportunity in these neighborhoods.”
In addition to Brownsville, residents in nine areas in New York City and upstate New York are invited to apply, including East Harlem and the Lower East Side, and Claremont, Hunts Point, and Morrisania in the Bronx.
The deadline to apply is Aug. 1, visit the ioby site for more information.
