Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice and Hester Street
The project is a one-year campaign to reclaim 20,000 square feet underneath the Bruckner Expressway along Bronx River Ave. With Hester Street, YMPJ is developing a conceptual reuse plan and a roadmap for the Soundview Economic Hub to fully realize the space for small business owners and offer local wealth-building opportunities.
AT A GLANCE
GRANTEE PARTNERS
Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice (YMPJ, Lead)
Hester Street
LOCATIONS
Bronx Community District 2 (Hunts Points/Longwood)
Bronx Community District 9 (Parkchester/Soundview)
TARGET BENEFICIARIES
Bronx-based business owners
Immigrant populations
Latinx, Black, and AAPI residents living in Districts 2 & 9
KEY STATS
Residents in these neighborhoods are in the 100th percentile for social vulnerability
55-58% of residents in these districts are rent-burdened (compared to 50% citywide)
ACTIVITIES & ACHIEVEMENTS
After 6 months, the partnership proudly claims these markers of success from the Planning Grant:
NYDOT work is complete, and the space has been handed over to YMPJ
Incubator spaces have been included as a major feature of the conceptual reuse plan
Functionality around manufacturing, back office, greenhouses, clean soil banks, and the Bronx River Foodway are key considerations
Summer events were hosted in the commercial corridor to activate the space
STORYTELLING
YMPJ has recently gotten physical access to the 22,500 square foot space where the Soundview Economic Hub will be located. While critically important to developing our vision for the project, our community/stakeholder listening and planning sessions for the SEH have been held in off-site meeting spaces where they have felt removed and theoretical. That changed with a site visit we conducted in early May with local CBO partners, such as Bronx Defenders, and leaders from the Urban Design Forum (UDF) and Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development (ANHD). This was the first time many of us had visited the site since the New York State Department of Transportation (NYS-DOT) completed its site-readiness reconstruction and turned it over to YMPJ as a “white box” canvas. Standing in the space provides a compelling visceral sense of how this project transforms this area, which has been historically split by gray infrastructure polluting our community, into a key community asset that reconnects previously bisected neighborhoods and fosters resident health, wealth, and wellbeing.
Contact Us
For more information on how to join the Collective and help transform the New York small business landscape, fill out the contact form below:
NY Small Business Funders Collective
Project Management provided by:
ImpactFull, Inc.
Kristine Michie, Managing Partner
kristine@impactfullinc.com (funder inquiries) inquiries@nysmallbusinessfunders.org (grant application inquiries)
www.impactfullinc.com
Fiscal Sponsorship provided by:
Philanthropy New York. www.philanthropynewyork.org