New York City faces challenges as vast and complex as the 9 million people who inhabit it. From housing affordability and homelessness to public safety and economic opportunity, these tensions are felt across every block and borough. CitizensNYC believes change begins with those closest to the challenges they seek to address. Regardless of status, financial prosperity, or institutional recognition, these seeds of change are already being planted by New Yorkers every day.
These seeds are worth sowing. And in the case of Allyson Martinez and Brooklyn Level Up, we have borne witness to the fruits of a vision planted years ago. Allyson reflects, “CitizensNYC was one of the first funders that actually gave us funding before we had the 501(c)(3) status.”
Founded in 2020, Brooklyn Level Up has grown into a multifaceted community development corporation and social impact lab, advancing environmental justice and collective wealth building in the Flats (East Flatbush, Flatbush, and Flatlands). Through collective entrepreneurship, small business advocacy, youth programming, environmental stewardship, and climate data collection, Allyson has demonstrated her unwavering commitment to strengthening her community from the ground up.
Years later, that early investment has come full circle. Seated in our inaugural cohort of Elliott Fellows, Allyson has returned to CitizensNYC with years of lived experience and expertise as a grassroots leader. The Elliott Fellowship, honoring the legacy of our co-founder Osborn Elliott, provides $15,000 in support of leaders who have outgrown our grant eligibility threshold through flexible funding and mentorship opportunities to influence the next generation of changemakers.
Throughout the course of her Fellowship, Allyson has carried forward the impact of early investment, stepping into the position of the funder while reviewing grant applications, facilitating workshops on building relationships with elected officials, and mentoring emerging grantee partners. While it is easy to invest in success once it has been proven, the greater act of belief is recognizing potential before it has blossomed.
She explains, “If you don’t have the opportunity to test and take risks, it can be really hard to get off the ground and prove that you’re onto something. CitizensNYC allows community groups to try…to just take a chance on themselves, and to trust what they know from their lived experience.”
In a city like New York, there are a lot of organizations who work with people at the grassroots level. But there are very few who believe in the value of working with people at every step of the process, from the moment they have an idea, through funding and implementation, and all the way to the point where someone’s work has grown bigger than our own. Each year we see dozens of local leaders who, with just a little money in their pockets and a small nudge out the door, grow bigger than they ever thought possible.
That’s the CitizensNYC story. And it’s Allyson’s story, too.
