What’s New

The Center for the Study of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn Community Foundation are pleased to release the first ever Brooklyn Neighborhood Reports. Over 600 pages in total, each of the 19 new reports- one for each of the borough’s 18 Community Districts, and one for all of Brooklyn- include over 90 indicators that explore 9 different theme areas. Accompanying Data Tables provide even greater detail, as will the forthcoming Data Notes. Links to both an online digital version and downloadable PDF version of the reports, as well as the accompanying Data Tables, are available. Click here to view a press release, and click here for a related article in City Limits magazine.

As it did last year with Lutheran Family Health Centers in Sunset Park, the Center for the Study of Brooklyn is partnering with CAMBA in Flatbush, one of 15 organizations nationally to receive a Promise Neighborhood grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which provides a year of planning, analysis and project development to help improve the educational and developmental outcomes of local children. As a community partner of CAMBA, the Center for the Study of Brooklyn will facilitate a community assets and needs assessment, and produce supporting data analyses and reports- including graphical and mapping presentations where relevant- to ensure that children and their families in the neighborhood have access to a continuum of solutions that improve educational and developmental outcomes.

The Center for the Study of Brooklyn was invited to work with the Brooklyn Community Foundation and the United Way to create a needs assessment survey and reporting tool for their Hope and Healing Fund grantees- 12 community-based groups in Brooklyn serving Haitian immigrants- in the issue areas of Legal Services, Case Management, Education and Healing. The Hope and Healing Fund was created in the wake of the January 12, 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti to address the immediate and long term needs of the Haitian community in New York City. Click here to read a report on the first year of the Hope and Healing Fund.

The Center for the Study of Brooklyn is partnering with Lutheran Family Health Centers in Sunset Park, one of 21 organizations nationally to receive a Promise Neighborhood grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which provides a year of planning, analysis and project development to help improve the educational and developmental outcomes of local children. As a community partner of Lutheran Family Health Centers, the Center for the Study of Brooklyn will facilitate strategic planning, a community needs assessment and produce supporting data analyses and reports- including graphical and mapping presentations where relevant- to ensure that both students in the target school and other children in the neighborhood have access to a continuum of solutions that improve educational and developmental outcomes. Click here to view a press release.

In Fall 2012, the Center for the Study of Brooklyn will launch the first ever Brooklyn Trends Report. The Report will include municipal social indicators which present both a narrative and quantitative picture of Brooklyn. Over 100 expert advisors, including approximately 40 Brooklyn College faculty and staff, and 60 community-based leaders, have been engaged via interviews, surveys and meetings. The Report highlights important issues impacting the borough, prioritized by advisors, and further articulated via data analysis and mapping. Eight theme areas will be addressed in the Report, including Arts and Culture, Civic Engagement, Demographics, Economy, Environment, Health, Public Safety and Youth and Education. Please click on the above link for more information.

The Center for the Study of Brooklyn is partnering with the Heart of Brooklyn to implement a national planning grant from the IMLS. The "Cultural Institutions Collaborate to Build Strong Community Networks" research project will examine the factors that encourage or inhibit meaningful collaborations between cultural institutions and their communities in Brooklyn, with the goal of replicating this approach nationwide. The Center for the Study of Brooklyn will provide relevant data analysis and research for the project, and help facilitate the engagement of Brooklyn-based stakeholders. The Center's director, Gretchen Maneval adds "It is our hope that inclusive engagement of both Brooklyn-based and national groups in this planning process will engender in Brooklynites a sense of ownership of the cultural institutions in their respective communities, as well as a sense of pride that their practice of bringing innovative cultural programming to the borough will play a key role in advancing the important work of cultural institutions across the country." Click here to view a press release.

Raising Brooklyn: Nannies, Childcare and Caribbeans Creating Community

Tamara Mose Brown, an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Brooklyn College, recently published her first book, titled "Raising Brooklyn: Nannies, Childcare, and Caribbeans Creating Community," the first published work to feature data analysis by the Center for the Study of Brooklyn! In the book, Brown presents a sociological survey of the cultural community and work environment of West Indian nannies in the gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, exploring the daily lives of these childcare providers and the roles they play in the families whose children they help to raise. "Raising Brooklyn" can be purchased via Amazon.com.

Brooklyn Organizations Directory

The Center for the Study of Brooklyn has launched the Brooklyn Organizations Directory including over 1,000 Brooklyn-based organizations and institutions. If you are a Brooklyn-based organization and would like to be included in this directory, please follow the link to complete the Contact Information Survey. If you have any questions, please call 718-951-5000 x6631 or email cpisano@brooklyn.cuny.edu.
Curious to see where different types of organizations are clustered in Brooklyn? Click here to view maps.

The Center for the Study of Brooklyn provides data analysis and mapping services for Brooklyn-based community groups, institutions, elected officials, researchers, local businesses, and media. Groups have used these custom reports to support funding proposals, advocacy initiatives, programming and marketing decisions, research and publications, and targeted outreach to constituencies. Click on the link above to find a list of reports that the Center has produced from November, 2009 through June, 2010. Please contact Gretchen Maneval, the Center's director at 718-951-5852 or gmaneval@brooklyn.cuny.edu if you'd like more information about having a custom report produced for your organization.

In spring 2010 we completed the drafting of the first ever Brooklyn HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan with the Brooklyn Linkage to Care Coalition. Please contact the Center’s Director at 718-951-5852 to learn more about our HIV/AIDS projects.
June 2011 Community Based Organization Funding Calendar

Check out this one-stop page for finding biographical and contact information for your elected officials and community boards!