Alliance for Coney Island Update: Two Years Since Sandy
On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, and members of Alliance for Coney Island, and in commemoration of the 2nd anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, I write to gratefully acknowledge and reflect on the assistance that Coney Island continues to receive.
With contributions and grants this past year, we continued to help the Coney Island community get back on its feet and saw several monumental steps of progress in 2014. In January, we began our third round of regrants to the community. We awarded nine faith based organizations with regrants for a variety of programs including after-school programming, baseball equipment for a little league team, senior events, football equipment and summer camp scholarships. In the spring, we commenced our final round of regrants awarding three mental health organizations funds for mental health services which has resulted in over 1,000 hours of mental health counseling for over 200 clients. Additionally, this past winter we held our 4th annual Workforce Recruitment event connecting local residents to job opportunities in the Amusement District. This year, these events saw over 2,000 individuals screened for over 800 jobs. City-wide, we have seen various efforts to provide for a more resilient city. In particular, the announcement earlier this fall with Senator Schumer and Mayor de Blasio announcing over $100 million in federal funds to repair New York City Housing Authority developments including Coney Island Houses will greatly assist some of Coney Island's residents. Additionally, public meetings are beginning for a Coney Island Creek Study to understand how to create a more protected and resilient peninsula. Most recently, the Alliance and other community organizations assisted New York City Small Business Services on their outreach for the Storefront Improvement Program. SBS has invested funds in over a dozen businesses on Mermaid to renovate and improve their storefronts, strengthening Coney Island's business corridor. Coney Island Hospital has secured a site for their health clinic and has begun work to open a location on West 17th Street in 2015. This morning, the Mayor visited a house on Neptune Avenue that Habitat for Humanity is rebuilding for a long-time Coney Island resident. These accomplishments are just some of the many that Coney Island has seen over the past year and are signals of continued progress to come. The Alliance is proud to continue to serve as a convening organization, bringing together service providers with monthly service coordination meetings. This past month at our office, SBS began holding office hours weekly providing assistance to local small businesses for their Hurricane Sandy Grant & Loan Program. Much of this work could not have been accomplished without countless volunteers, the #ConeyRecovers Steering Committee and our local elected officials. The Alliance looks forward to participating in future efforts toward resiliency for the residents, businesses and community organizations in the months ahead. For more information about the programs and services we provide, please visit our website at www.AllianceForConeyIsland.org. Sincerely, Johanna Zaki, Executive Director