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CONTACT: Sally Lee
(212) 201-2289 or (212) 201-2230

NEW YORKERS TO SHARE $1 MILLION FOR GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY WORK
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In a ceremony on November 21st, the Union Square Awards will honor 39 New York City activists and their organizations.
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November 2003

In a ceremony on Friday, November 21st, the Union Square Awards program, a project of The Fund for the City of New York, will honor the work of 39 New Yorkers and award $1 million to the community organizations they have founded. Union Square Award recipients are leaders who have created projects and built organizations that improve the lives of people in communities throughout New York City. The Awards recognize innovative grassroots work that is making vital contributions to the educational, economic and cultural life of the City. Each award carries a $50,000 grant, and the $1 million awarded this year brings the total amount granted by the Union Square Awards program to $5.4 million.

The Union Square Awards were created to recognize and encourage individual initiative in serving New York City communities. They realize an anonymous donor’s dream to honor New Yorkers who show exceptional commitment to bettering lives and support individuals and organizations that have not received either substantial funding or public accolade. The 2003 Union Square Award winners come from neighborhoods across the City who are addressing a range of social justice issues including homelessness and hunger; HIV/AIDS prevention; women’s rights; worker and immigrant organizing; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights; prison reform; and community economic development.

The 2003 recipients will receive the Union Square Award in a ceremony at the Church of St. John the Divine, Synod Hall at 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. The award winners are:

BROOKLYN

• Peter Bray, Founder, New York City Financial Network Action Consortium (NYCfNAC), a nonprofit organization addressing the need for banking services in low-income communities. It works with community development credit unions to build capacity to provide financial services.
  
  
• Sherwood “Woody” Brown, Founder & Executive Director, Brooklyn Outreach Workers (BOW), a network of Brooklyn-based outreach workers that share resources and training in order to expand HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment strategies in communities of color.
  
  
• Abbas Razvi, Salamat Ali, Shafiq Hassan, Mohammad Razvi, Ahmad Razvi & Jaghajit Singh, Co-Founders, Council of Pakistan Organization (COPO), an informational and educational center for South Asians living in Brooklyn. COPO provides essential services aimed at “educating, empowering and building relationships among community members.”
  
  
• Fernando Soto, Co-Founder, The After Hours Project, a unique community-based HIV/AIDS prevention program in Bushwick, Brooklyn that provides services to injection drug users, sex workers and homeless people after the hours of 5 p.m.
  
  
• Linda Thurston, Kai Lumumba Barrow, Peter Chung & Amanda Devecka-Rinear, Co-Founders, Critical Resistance NYC, a local grassroots group part of a national effort seeking to unite advocacy, organizing and services related to prisoners and prison issues and raise awareness about the detrimental effects of the prison industrial complex.

BRONX

• Astin Jacobo, Posthumous, Co-Founder, Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center dedicated to improving the lives of families and youth in the Crotona section of the Bronx through programs that expand opportunities, develop leadership and build community.
  
  
• Nurah Jeter Ammat’ullah, Founder, Muslim Women’s Institute for Research & Development (MWRID), runs a food distribution program for African and Latino/a immigrants, provides referrals to social service and works with Muslim women to develop leadership.
  
  
• Yomara Velez, Founder, Sistas on the Rise, a youth-led collective of young women of color ages 13 to 25, many who are or were teen mothers. Based in the Hunts Point Section of the Bronx, the group promotes self-esteem, raises political awareness and encourages community activism.

MANHATTAN

• Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith, Judy Rogers, Hawthorne Smith & Wilma Jones, Co-Founders, Nah We Yone, a support network for Africans in New York City who have been displaced by war, in particular those from Sierra Leone. The organization provides services and referrals to deal with psychological scars of war and social and economic needs.
  
  
• Jerry Dominguez, Founder, Mexican American Workers’ Association (AMAT), a grassroots group dedicated to organizing undocumented workers in New York City. Working in coalition with labor organizations and others, AMAT has waged successful campaigns for improved living conditions.
  
  
• Eliana Godoy Laguna, Founder & President, Art for Change (AFC), an organization of artists and activists building cultural awareness and providing programs to empower artists and residents of low-income communities. AFC utilizes art as a conduit for social change.
  
  
• Saru Jayaraman, Fekkak Mamdouh & Shulaika La Cruz, Co-Founders, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), a membership-based center organizing for improved conditions for immigrant restaurant workers in New York.
  
  
• Susan Lob & Vickie Gomez, Lead Organizers, Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW), the first citywide membership group of domestic violence survivors whose mission is “to support organizing efforts of battered women to change the systems that directly impact their lives.”
  
  
• Jacqueline “Nia” Mason, Executive Director, Action for Community Empowerment, dedicated to organizing Central Harlem residents to identify and combat social, economic and environmental injustice, particularly in respect to housing and jobs.
  
  
• Hector Rivera & Ray Ramirez, Co-Founders, Welfare Poets, a group of spoken word artists, musicians and activists who utilize a mix of indigenous forms of expression as a way to to inform and inspire” audiences to address critical social justice concerns.
  
  
• Carl Siciliano, Founder, Ali Forney Center, an emergency shelter providing services to homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning (LGBT&Q) youth.
  
  
• Terrence W. Stevens, Founder, In Arms Reach (IAR), a program that serves the needs of children whose parents are or were incarcerated. IAR provides recreational activities, academic assistance and visits to parents in prison.

QUEENS

• Sudha Acharya, Co-Founder and Executive Director, South Asian Council for Social Services, dedicated to serving the needs of a growing South Asian community. Its focus is on planning a continuum of social services, building capacity of existing organizations and implementing community initiatives.
  
  
• Sunita Mehta, Masada Sultan, Esther Hyneman & Manizha Naderi, Lead Organizers, Women for Afghan Women, dedicated to organizing Afghan women in New York and to advocating for the rights of women in Afghanistan.
  
  
• Robert Roy & Julia Camagong, Co-Executive Directors, Philippine Forum, is a multi-issue organization based in New York City that organizes and mobilizes Filipinos for economic, social and racial equality and seeks to deepen understanding of the Filipino Diaspora and the Philippines.

The Union Square Awards were named after the park on 14th street, a historic gathering place where since the 19th century New Yorkers have organized and spoken out about the major social issues of the day. Known as a forum for the poor and disenfranchised, Union Square is identified with strong commitments and highlights the essential qualities embodied in the Award. Another series of Union Square Awards will be given next year. Anyone may submit a nomination to The Union Square Awards Program, c/o Marks, Paneth & Shron, 622 Third Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10017.