Q&A
Overview of Avenue NYC and Neighborhood 360 programs
0:47:00
·
164 sec
Council Member Feliz inquires about the history and funding of Avenue NYC and Neighborhood 360 programs. Calvin Brown from SBS provides a detailed explanation of both programs, their evolution, and their purposes.
- Avenue NYC is SBS's longest-running grant program, evolving from a $20,000 small impact grant to a $100,000 per fiscal year grant
- Neighborhood 360 was created to support small businesses in areas undergoing rezoning, including non-LMI neighborhoods
- Both programs aim to build capacity in local organizations and help them address challenges in their commercial corridors
- The grants connect organizations to various SBS resources, including workforce development and direct small business support
Oswald Feliz
0:47:00
So I wanna ask some questions about some additional initiatives and programs, including avenue NYC and neighborhood 360, which is a program that especially helps low income communities organize with projects related to revitalizing different communities.
0:47:16
So, I guess, for these questions, we could focus on avenue NYC and neighborhood 360, and we could cover other programs later.
0:47:22
How long and, again, avenue NYC neighborhood 360, how long have these programs been in place for how much funding has they received over the past years?
Calvin Brown
0:47:33
So Avenue YC is the the longest grant program that SBS had between the grant programs that you just mentioned.
0:47:41
It was the longest.
0:47:42
And it started out as being a $20,000 grant.
0:47:47
It was like a small impact grant.
0:47:49
But over time, we realized that to have a greater impact and to really help build the capacity of the organizations that we were working with, that we needed to increase the funding to up to a 100,000 for per fiscal year.
0:48:01
So it went from a $20,000 small impact grant to a larger grant.
0:48:07
It because it's federally funded under CDBG, most of the projects well, all of the projects have to be in LMI neighborhoods.
0:48:16
So this is where neighborhood 360 has come in.
0:48:19
And during the the Blasio administration, when we're doing a lot of rezonins, SBS sorta need to really support the small businesses in the commercial corridors that were being that were going undergoing resonance and to make sure that we can support those small businesses in those commercial corridors.
0:48:36
So the neighborhood 360 Grant was created to make sure that we can reach those neighborhoods that may not be LMI, but are still undergoing neighborhood changes and could still use some of the interventions that we were deploying in Avenue NYC.
0:48:51
So those are the 2 Grant programs that we work with to, 1, do a an assessment.
0:48:57
So we're helping to build the capacity of these groups so that they understand how to recognize some of the challenges that they're experiencing along their commercial corridors.
0:49:06
And then to further come up with a plan of action to address some of those with interventions that can support their businesses.
0:49:15
All of our grantees are exposed to the myriad of resources that we have at SBS.
0:49:21
My division is just one division.
0:49:22
Right?
0:49:23
And we focus on helping to build those thriving neighborhoods, but part of that is making sure that we're thinking about the workforce.
0:49:29
Right?
0:49:29
Thinking about this direct resources that small businesses can receive throughout the the other divisions at SBS.
0:49:36
So we connect those organizations to those other divisions so we can have a direct impact on those small businesses as well as the collective, which is a commercial quarter.
