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PHOTOS: Free Co-Working Space Available for Crown Heights Nonprofits

  The Brooklyn Community Foundation is taking applications for their "Incubator Project" at 1000 Dean St. in Crown Heights.
Brooklyn Community Foundation Incubator
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CROWN HEIGHTS — A few lucky nonprofits have the chance to join the Brooklyn co-working craze for free this year, thanks to a neighborhood foundation aiming start an “incubator” for local do-gooders.

The Brooklyn Community Foundation has more space than it can use in its new L-shaped office at 1000 Dean St. in Crown Heights, where the group moved from DUMBO last year, staff said.

To put the extra space to good use, the foundation is taking applications to award desks and office support for a year  plus a $5,000 stipend  — to as many as three startup organizations or community leaders who align with the foundation’s mission, organizers said.

“We want to be able to be supportive of people with great ideas right at the beginning of that work,” said Liane Stegmaier, director of communications at BCF.

Winners of the “Brooklyn Accelerator Incubator Project” will have free access to two desks, a large conference room and Internet and phone service in the foundation’s brand-new office, set up in an open plan with large windows overlooking north Brooklyn toward Manhattan.

For BCF’s staff, giving away space is part of the organization's commitment to maintaining affordability in the neighborhood.

“When we talk about space, we automatically talk about housing and tenants, but we don’t talk about the good organizations who can’t even afford to be here,” said Tynesha McHarris, director of community leadership at BCF.

“People need spaces where they can convene in Brooklyn that doesn’t make them feel like they have to pay a whole lot of money and a place that makes them feel welcome,” she added.

Applications from Crown Heights groups will be given priority for the project, they said, as will organizations or individuals working on four main issues important to the foundation: youth justice, immigrant youth and families, youth development and racial justice.

The foundation will hold an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. on March 4 for those interested in applying for the incubator. More information and applications for the program are available on BCF's website. The Brooklyn Community Foundation is located at 1000 Dean St., suite 307.