Roosevelt Island non profit organizations that applied for Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Purpose Funds were notified by the NY Community Trust yesterday whether they were approved for grants and the amounts.
Yesterday, I asked RIOC Assistant Vice President of Communications and Government Affairs Bryant Daniels:
I understand public purpose funds announcement went out today. Can I get info the groups receiving funding, amount awarded and any groups that applied but did not receive any funds. Also, names of the judges?
The NY Community Trust announced today:
Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) was created in 1984 by the State of New York to plan, design, develop, and maintain Roosevelt Island. RIOC asked The Trust to administer its public purpose grants and created the Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Fund at The Trust in 2022.
The Trust appointed an independent, five-person advisory committee of members of the Roosevelt Island community to review applications and make grant recommendations. Committee members live or work on the island and reflect a range of professional and community perspectives. Members remained anonymous during the review period to keep the process fair and confidential.
Advisory committee:
- Penny Gold, Roosevelt Island resident
- Deolinda Leitao-Greene, Roosevelt Island resident
- Frank Raffaele, co-owner of The Sanctuary
- Anna Scaglione, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell Tech
- James Shafer, director of international student recruitment and enrollment at Touro University, Roosevelt Island resident
The awards program, which began in 1989, supports projects to make life on Roosevelt Island more enjoyable and equitable for all. Grants from this round will support education and youth development, services for older adults, environmental programming, arts and culture, and more for the Roosevelt Island community.
“Each year, the Public Purpose Fund helps strengthen the organizations that make Roosevelt Island such a unique and vibrant community,” said RIOC President and CEO B.J. Jones. “This year’s allocations reflect the incredible diversity of nonprofits serving our Island, with funds awarded for the arts, youth programming, environmental education, athletics, senior services, accessibility initiatives, and more. We are proud to support this outstanding group of community organizations and are grateful for the work they do every day to improve quality of life for Roosevelt Islanders. Our thanks to The New York Community Trust and this year’s advisory committee for their thoughtful work.”
The grant recipients are:
iDig2Learn: $10,000 for a series of environmental and nature-based workshops on Roosevelt Island.
Island Kids: $12,500 to provide summer camp scholarships.
Life Frames: $10,000 to build a native pollinator garden and host a community workshop series on Roosevelt Island.
Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance: $20,000 to install an ADA-compliant looping system and energy-efficient lighting, and support work-study, internship, and scholarship programs.
Open Doors: $15,000 for Open Doors’ “Food Stories” program.
PIAZZOLLA100: $15,000 for a concert series and dance workshops on Roosevelt Island.
PTA PS/IS 217: $15,000 to provide dance arts education to PS/IS 217 students.
Roosevelt Island CERT: $10,000 to develop a Community Emergency Response Team on Roosevelt Island.
Roosevelt Island Chamber Music Society: $10,000 for a series of public concerts and educational outreach on Roosevelt Island.
Roosevelt Island Concerts: $15,000 for seven community concerts on Roosevelt Island.
Roosevelt Island Day Nursery: $10,000 to develop and teach new science curriculum.
Roosevelt Island Disabled Association: $25,000 to provide food, inclusive cultural and social programs, and accessible transportation to disabled and older adult communities on Roosevelt Island.
Roosevelt Island Historical Society: $15,000 for a lecture series, events celebrating Roosevelt Island landmarks, and ongoing visitor kiosk operations.
Roosevelt Island Senior Association: $20,000 to provide community events and weekend and evening classes for older adults.
Roosevelt Island Sports: $15,000 to establish a co-ed youth soccer league on Roosevelt Island.
Roosevelt Island Swimming: $10,000 to provide free summer and fall programming through the Learn to Swim program.
Roosevelt Island Visual Art Association: $20,000 for a yearlong series of exhibitions, community programs, and artist-led workshops on Roosevelt Island.
The Carter Burden Network: $12,500 to provide culturally responsive case management to Roosevelt Island older adults.
As in previous years that Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds were administrated by the NY Community Trust, no information has been provided about the reason organizations were selected for Public Purpose grants and the amount of those grants or what, if any, organizations applied for and were denied funding.
There have been concerns raised by some Roosevelt Island organizations over the years about a lack of transparency by NY Community Trust in not publicly reporting the reasons for their decisions. Why do some groups receive Public Purpose funds and others do not? Why do some groups receive greater and others receive lesser amounts of Public Purpose Funds? In prior years, when the Roosevelt Island Residents Association made Public Purpose Funds recommendations to RIOC, they provided a public, detailed, written explanation for their recommendations.
Why can’t the Trust be just as transparent with their decisions as RIRA was? Why can’t RIOC insist they do so?
Nothing appears to have changed this year regarding the lack of transparency by the NY Community Trust in allocating Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds.
Last year a spokesperson for NY Community Trust said:
… It’s not our policy to publicize those details….
I will ask the NY Community Trust again this year for info about making public the reasons for their decision making.
The Trust was set up as a front for RIOC and a way to keep residents out of the process. Because it was transparent when RIRA played a prominent role, it was always messy but community-oriented.
Now, the community has been kicked out and the bias and input of just six people, some with little or no community involvement, put in place. Of course, RIOC, which is normally as transparent as a brick wall, and the Trust, with its own axes to grind, want to keep everyone in the dark. That’s just how things are done here. BJ Jones’s word salad is routine mumbo jumbo without transparency.
PS: Living or working on the Island doesn’t automatically qualify anyone as having insight about community needs or values. Not only does RIOC refuse to disclose information about grants, they also refuse to say how the committee was chosen. “Old RIOC at its worst…”