Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration donations and toy drive.
Dec 04, 2014
We know that Giving Tuesday has come and gone but it’s still the giving season so we wanted to share these worthy cause with you. The first is detailed in the flyer above. A Toy Drive in the Carroll Gardens and Columbia Waterfront areas. The deadline for drop off is today and they have a few locations listed above. The next charity is Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration. A wonderful organization. They were collecting donations for Giving Tuesday and sent us this info. Definitely not too late for this one. You can donate and get more info here.
While Brooklyn as a whole is thriving with continued revitalization and rising real estate costs, many communities have been left behind, their residents struggling just to make ends meet. Economic indicators are sobering:
- 30% of our Bedford Stuyvesant residents live in poverty and 45% rely on income support
- Median household income is $36,535 in comparison with Brooklyn’s $45,230 and New York City’s $56,448.
- Unemployment lies at 15.6%-with parts of Brownsville having rates as high as 75%
- Roughly 20% of youth aged 16 to 24 are not in school or working.
What separates the privileged from the unprivileged? One word: opportunity. For almost 50 years, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation has been in the business of creating opportunity for those left behind. With a mandate to combat poverty and unemployment and strengthen our community, Restoration’s Economic Solutions Center reached more than 8,000 Brooklynites last year with services ranging from education, workforce development, financial literacy and counseling, benefit enrollment, and wrap around social supports.
Just look at our accomplishments in 2014:
- Doubled job placements, helping 342 residents find employment
- Generated $10.8 million for the community through benefits, personal debt reduction and energy savings.
- Secured over $3.5 million in tax refunds including close to $1.6 million in earned income tax credits