Citizens Committee for New York City

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Yesterday, CitizensNYC and Goldman Sachs basked in the warmth at Harlem’s Electric Ladybug Garden. Building planters, re...
06/04/2026

Yesterday, CitizensNYC and Goldman Sachs basked in the warmth at Harlem’s Electric Ladybug Garden. Building planters, rescuing strawberries, and painting garden signs, we played a small part in maintaining the community-grown and harvested green space. In the heart of Central Harlem, just a block from Central Park, the Electric Ladybug Garden is fully operated by a dedicated group of neighborhood volunteers.

What was once an overgrown abandoned lot has transformed into a thriving community garden, populated with individual grow beds, a beautiful pagoda, a performance stage, and an open space for neighborhood gatherings. Hosting gardening events, educational programming, a jazz series, and even an annual kid’s Halloween party, the Electric Ladybug Garden brings fresh produce, laughter, and sweetness into Central Harlem.

CitizensNYC is proud to support the Electric Ladybug Garden in cultivating a neighborhood space where residents can learn, celebrate, and connect with each other. We want to extend our gratitude to the Goldman Sachs team that came out yesterday. Together, we demonstrate that the harvest expands far beyond what is planted in the soil.

Last night, we celebrated our annual New Yorkers for New York Gala and saw the New York we believe in.Thanks to the gene...
06/02/2026

Last night, we celebrated our annual New Yorkers for New York Gala and saw the New York we believe in.

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, supporters, and friends, we raised more than $1.5 million to support grassroots leaders across all five boroughs.

And CEO Julie L. Shapiro announced that CitizensNYC will distribute $2 million in grants in the coming year, the most we’ve ever given out by a wide margin.

This is what community-led change looks like: investing in neighbors, volunteers, small business owners, parent organizers, artists, block captains, and local leaders building solutions right where they live.

We were proud to honor five New Yorkers whose leadership reflects that belief:

🗽 Madeline Bender
🗽 Steven Caldwell
🗽 Peter Cannava
🗽 Emilie Rodriguez
🗽 Chris Ruggeri

Thank you to our honorees, Board of Directors, sponsors, event leadership, guests, donors, partners, and friends who made the evening possible.

Most of all, thank you for believing in the people closest to the solutions.

On Staten Island, the Port Richmond North Shore Alliance (PR-NSA) emphasizes the power of consistent and collective stew...
05/26/2026

On Staten Island, the Port Richmond North Shore Alliance (PR-NSA) emphasizes the power of consistent and collective stewardship in building a healthier, more sustainable community. Recognizing that climate change is driven in part by the cumulative impact of harmful everyday behaviors, they apply the same principle to respond: mobilizing consistent, collective efforts to create a positive impact.

Founded by neighborhood residents and local business owners, PR-NSA is dedicated to improving the quality of life across some of Staten Island’s most diverse communities. Along the North Shore, environmental conditions are heavily shaped by its industrial past with decades of manufacturing along the waterfront bringing sheetrock, linseed oil, and lead into Port Richmond. The Alliance responds through consistent, community-led actions. With support from CitizensNYC, PR-NSA organizes weekly cleanups, maintains public green spaces, restores overgrown environments, and manages waste along commercial corridors. Community members come together to reshape their neighborhood’s environmental landscape: planting flowers and trees, reducing street-level pollution, and cultivating a shared responsibility over the land.

CitizensNYC stands alongside organizations like Port Richmond North Shore Alliance in advancing environmental solutions at the local level. A small act like picking up a plastic bag may not seem like much, but it is a community in motion that can create a powerful current for change.

Read more here: https://www.citizensnyc.org/grantee-partner-spotlight-port-richmond-north-shore-alliance/

New Yorkers feel the impact of the urban heat island effect, where cities experience higher air temperatures than surrou...
05/21/2026

New Yorkers feel the impact of the urban heat island effect, where cities experience higher air temperatures than surrounding regions. The combination of heat-retaining surfaces like asphalt and concrete with limited tree coverage drives temperatures up, and in a vicious cycle, communities straining to keep cool consume more energy and deepen the heat island effect.

But communities are not standing still. Reimagining our relationship with the environment, iDig2Learn has found a way to absorb carbon emissions and cool New York City down. Founder Christina Delfico and iDig2Learn brought together over 400 volunteers to plant New York City’s very first Miyawaki-method pocket forest on Roosevelt Island with support from CitizensNYC and other funders. With forests serving as long-term carbon sinks, their trees absorb greenhouse gases, provide necessary shade, and cool the surrounding air through transpiration. The Manhattan Healing Forest, particularly suited to urban landscapes, reduces heat, restores biodiversity, and anchors New York City in long-term climate resilience.

CitizensNYC and iDig2Learn have witnessed something deeper taking root. With time spent in nature lowering blood pressure and reducing cortisol levels, our environmental interventions emerge as investments in not only the land but the people inhabiting it.

Read more here: https://www.citizensnyc.org/corporate-spotlight-con-edison/

With the impact of climate change accelerating, climate resilience strategies absorb the impact of long-standing greenho...
05/21/2026

With the impact of climate change accelerating, climate resilience strategies absorb the impact of long-standing greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that future generations can thrive on this planet.

CitizensNYC is proud to stand behind Cambria Heights Community Garden as they build that future at the neighborhood level. Intended to transform underdeveloped farmland into a green, third space for vegetation and intergenerational bonds to flourish, the Cambria Heights Community Garden serves as a site for stable environmental engagement and education. Structured around sustainability, horticulture, and community engagement, the garden approaches climate resilience as an intentional, ongoing practice.

With raised beds, the community grows vegetables, herbs, and native plantings to strengthen biodiversity and attract pollinators. A composting system turns organic waste into nutrient-rich soil and returns resources to the land. And a hive apiary will be introduced as an environmental steward, supporting pollination and ecological balance.

In the face of our changing climate, the future depends on what we build today. CitizensNYC and Cambria Heights Community Garden plant our resilience, tend to it, and carry it forward.

Read more here: https://www.citizensnyc.org/corporate-spotlight-con-edison/

As temperatures rise in New York City, residents, wildlife, urban infrastructure, food systems, and natural habitats all...
05/14/2026

As temperatures rise in New York City, residents, wildlife, urban infrastructure, food systems, and natural habitats all face the heat. But heat risk varies by neighborhood. Socioeconomic disparities and many years of disinvestment leave communities in Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx among those at higher risk of heat-exacerbated deaths.

Uptown & Boogie Healthy Project (UBHP), a nonprofit based in Harlem and the Bronx, grows resilience through the St. Nicholas Miracle Garden. Despite being surrounded by buildings, constrained by limited sunlight, and exposed to heavy wings, this garden flourishes against all odds. Employing a multifaceted approach to mitigating the urban heat island effect, this garden utilizes solar panels, rainwater filtration systems, and drainage structures to lower surface temperatures. Here, resilience is built through steady, sustainable steps. Native plants attract repeat pollinators, drainage and filtration systems support regeneration, and cooling strategies offer viability for any germination. In transforming environmental concepts into tangible, integrated pieces, climate resilience becomes a practice that can be seen, learned, and lived.

Though changes may have started at the scale of a simple garden, CitizensNYC recognizes that they point toward broader possibilities for New York to adapt its existing infrastructure to meet climate challenges.

Read more here: https://www.citizensnyc.org/corporate-spotlight-con-edison/

Within the overworked and understaffed health system, care can oftentimes feel conditional. Patients may be met with a o...
04/07/2026

Within the overworked and understaffed health system, care can oftentimes feel conditional. Patients may be met with a one-size-fits-all treatment plan that overlooks culture, language, and lived experience.

This is why CitizensNYC is proud to support Rocking the Road for a Cure Inc., a nonprofit organization committed to walking alongside individuals through every stage of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. RTRFAC provides free educational and homebound wellness programs, case management, counseling, and recreational therapy (like live music gatherings, motorcycle runs, and community-driven events) for all individuals facing breast cancer. Rocking the Road launches a program specifically tailored to breast cancer patients within the Latino community, delivering Spanish informational brochures, instituting diagnosis-phase peer support groups, and providing individualized case management. These services include Spanish-language survivor-led navigation, education on early detection and mammography, and linkage to culturally appropriate food donations. RTRFAC prioritizes the restoration of the strength, confidence, and livelihood of this community.

CitizensNYC and Rocking the Road for a Cute Inc. understand that care is rooted in culture, connection, and compassion. It goes deeper than service, and it is a reflection of how we want to show up for one another.

In environmental psychology, research on blue spaces (oceans, lakes, rivers, beaches) has proven to significantly promot...
04/02/2026

In environmental psychology, research on blue spaces (oceans, lakes, rivers, beaches) has proven to significantly promote mental health wellness. Spending time in blue spaces has been proven to lower cortisol levels and increase serotonin and oxytocin production in the brain. Yet in New York City, opportunities to directly experience blue spaces can be surprisingly limited.

CitizensNYC supports organizations like the Manhattan Community Boathouse (MCBG), working to expand access to open water for New Yorkers. Since 2013, MCBG has provided free kayaking services to over 100,000 paddlers at Pier 96 in Hudson River Park. Run entirely by volunteers, the program offers a safe, engaging, and enriching experience that supports both physical and mental well-being. Participants gain confidence in their paddling abilities, deepen their connection to the Hudson River, and often return as volunteers themselves.

Through an activity as unassuming as kayaking, CitizensNYC and the Manhattan Community Boathouse work to expand access to water and wellness alike.

Even in a city full of energy and movement, affordable spaces for fitness and physical activity can be hard to come by. ...
04/01/2026

Even in a city full of energy and movement, affordable spaces for fitness and physical activity can be hard to come by. Recreational classes can range anywhere from costly gym memberships to expensive private training sessions, placing them out of reach for many New Yorkers.

This is why CitizensNYC is proud to support Hudson Boxing Gym in launching “Gloves Up: A Youth Empowerment & Wellness Expansion Project.” This initiative expands access to free youth boxing and wellness programming, community health workshops, and professional training opportunities in fitness instruction for youth and low-income families. By removing barriers to affordable fitness, mental health education, and positive after-school programming, “Gloves Up” creates pathways to healthier, more resilient communities. And this work goes beyond just boxing. Hudson Boxing Gym also hosts regular community wellness events, including self-defense classes, group fitness sessions, and open family nights.

Together, CitizensNYC and Hudson Boxing Gym work to create a healthier, stronger, more connected New York City, in and out of the ring.

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