$30,000 / 2010
2-4 Nevins Street, 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Jon Kest, Executive Director
Website: www.nycommunities.org
Over the period of the previous strategic plan, New York Communities for Change (NYCC) took on a range of important public school reform issues including: inadequate funding, class size, school safety and teacher quality. ACORN/NYCC helped to build a movement that, to this point, has successfully prevented the threatened closure of 19 neighborhood schools. NYCC works closely with CEJ to demand that the Department of Education make an effort to fix schools instead of summarily closing them. ACORN/NYCC also works with parents in charter schools, enabling charter parents to participate in how their schools are run and to exercise their rights to advocate for their children. Hazen’s $30,000 grant in 2010 will enable NYCC to organize in neighborhoods threatened with the closure of district public schools and incursion of charter schools.