Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation Inc

Career & education, small business support and community organizing -chldc served 1,267 residents through our career & education programs in fy24 which includes the summer youth employment program and sector specific job training programs, including transportation, health care, it, culinary and construction skills. We assisted 212 participants in obtaining one or more nationally recognized workforce credentials and placed 150 participants in jobs with an average wage of $19.50 an hour. Chldc provided organizing support to the cypress hills business partners merchants association to plan clean-ups, graffiti removal days, lighting upgrades and came one step closer with the city council's approval to establishing a business improvement district on fulton street to sustain their safety, sanitation and revitalization efforts on the commercial corridor. We worked with 122 small business operators to put together business plans, improve their marketing and accounting and secure financing products. In fy24 our community kitchen/small business incubator worked with 27 food entrepreneurs on licensing, business planning, financing, and marketing. Chldc mobilizes local residents and merchants through the east new york coalition for community advancement to demand housing, transit and economic justice for the community. Last year, 500+ residents participated in meetings and actions to stop the displacement of black and latino, low and moderate-income people from east new york. The coalition includes other community-based organizations, clergy members, homeowners, renters and merchants. They are also advocating for transit equity and investments in the broadway junction hub. Our community organizing team at chldc supports youth activists in a grassroots group "future of tomorrow" that is seeking more investments in public schools for guidance and college access support as well as restorative justice programming. Chldc is incubating the east new york community land trust, which is advocating for community control of public land in the neighborhood.

Community development, housing counseling & advocacy and community center in our second year of operations at our new cypress hills east new york community center, we have grown into a bustling service hub for young people and families to connect to vital resources and opportunities. We were able to offer sports, arts, it and media, adult education and recreation classes for 871 residents. Some of our offerings included: basketball, soccer, bachata dance, podcasting, meditation, a teen therapeutic art program and other stressreduction activities. Chldc made progress on a robust pipeline of affordable housing development and preservation projects. We are rehabilitating four partially occupied apartment buildings through the city's third party transfer program and are working on five other projects, which are in the pre-development phase and getting closer to construction loan closings. We partnered with the eny community land trust to organize residents of a long forgotten part of the community known as the hole which lacks basic infrastructure, floodsfrequently and attracts dumping. The two organizations have engaged residents, elected officials and government representatives to plan for massive infrastructure upgrades and the future of the area. Our organization, along with the pratt center and impacct brooklyn also continued our energyfit initiative to retrofit and electrify small homes in the community. Chldc assisted 1,252 low income new yorkers in applying for public benefits such as snap and fair fares. We hosted our cypress hills farmers market with grownyc and helped 1,300 community members gain access to healthy food. In fy24, our housing counselors assisted 675 renters and homeowners in enrolling in lotteries for affordable housing and securing housing subsidies/benefits and repairs, avoiding foreclosure and eviction and preventing displacement. Chldc offered in-person tenant counseling, foreclosure prevention, financial literacy and homeownership stabilization support throughout the year.

College success programs - ch ldc runs a suite of programs that support young people in east new york in aspiring to college, applying to college and financial aid, matriculating into college and persisting until graduation. In fy24, we provided supportive counseling and attendance improvement services and college access and persistence services to 3,543 high school and college students across two school-based student success centers (sscs) and community schools programs and our college steps program at the community center. We provide early awareness groups, college knowledge workshops, in-person college trips, one on one intensive admissions counseling, essay writing help, financial aid help and support around selecting the "best fit" college. Through our college persistence program, we worked with 991 college students to transition into higher education, select courses and majors, secure academic and other support services on their college campuses, navigate oftentimes-bureaucratic systems and transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions as appropriate.