What difference can a community garden really make in the face of climate change? It’s a fair question. Climate change is global, complex, and systemic. A single project can feel small against that scale. But across New York City, our grantee...
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Like New Yorkers themselves, native plantings have grown and changed with the lands that they inhabit. With more than 1,300 plant species native to the five boroughs of New York City, these plantings support pollinators, improve soil health, and require significantly less water and maintenance than ornamental or imported species. Native species have always carried...
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How do we build community? According to a survey conducted on behalf of the American Psychological Association to identify and analyze a loneliness epidemic, more than 60% of adults living in the U.S. reported feeling isolated, left out, or lacking companionship often or some of the time. Nearly 70% of U.S. adults recorded a discrepancy […]
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Some of the most important work in New York happens close to home: neighbors sharing information, community leaders spotting a need before anyone else does, local organizations helping families navigate challenges that can feel bigger every year. That is what makes the Community Energy Project so meaningful. Through a new partnership between CitizensNYC and National...
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In 2024, the Nation’s Report Card scores indicated that fewer than a third of students nationwide were reading at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Proficient level, a level that would demonstrate a consistent degree of understanding and interpretation of written text. The average reading scores for high school seniors fell to their lowest […]
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Nowadays, one can learn any trade online. With endless Reddit forums, step-by-step YouTube tutorials, and even more so with the advancement of artificial intelligence, our bounds are practically limitless. But despite the unrestricted access to information just beneath our fingertips, we seem to have lost the meaning of our craft. While we can replicate techniques...
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In 2018, seventeen-year-old Chloe Kim stunned the world with a gold-medal performance in the Winter Olympics women’s halfpipe, making history as the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding medal. Yet as her achievement took center stage, much of the discourse that followed focused less on her technical mastery and more on her physical appearance–offering […]
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Across New York City, young people are leading. They’re organizing classmates, showing up at community meetings, turning school hallways, parks, and public housing courtyards into spaces for dialogue, healing, and action. With support from The Pinkerton Foundation, CitizensNYC is investing directly in that power through a new cohort of 15 Youth Leadership Councils and...
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Grantee Stories In Canarsie, the movie theater isn’t just about entertainment. It’s about dignity; About having a place in your own neighborhood where people can gather, laugh, talk back to the screen, and feel like the city is investing in them, too. That’s why CitizensNYC is proud to support the Canarsie Third Space Initiative through our Collaborative […]
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When Aparna Yenamandra talks about her work, she starts with gratitude. “My parents ingrained in me that they moved to a country with opportunity—and you owe that back. To whom much is given, much is expected.” That philosophy has guided her from her early days at law school to her current role as a partner […]
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Jeffrey Finger didn’t plan on a career in restructuring. “I found it by accident,” he says with a laugh. “I was sent to New York for a meeting early in my career, and I remember thinking, why is everyone so unhappy? It turned out I’d walked into a restructuring.” That meeting changed the course of […]
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