Protecting and improving the community for the people who live and work here

Organizer and Leader Debra Jeffreys-Glass created this event and has put it on for many many years now.

This was the best yet!

The Honoree of the day Robert Humber. “Bob” Park guardian who watches over the plants and people – especially the most vulnerable among us – there is no one else quite like him.

M’Finda Kalunga Garden Thanks you.

NYC Parks Thanks you.

Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition Thanks you.

Our Local Elected Representatives Thank you.

BRC Senior Center Thanks you.

Our Community Thanks you.

Thank you for the Proclamation Congressman Dan Goldman!

Our new NYC Parks Man Borough Commissioner Tricia Shimamura Thanks you!

Our CM Chris Marte Thanks you!

AM Grace Lee represented by Fannie Ip Thanks you!

Great to see our new NYC Parks Man Borough Commissioner here Tricia Shimamura. Welcome! And our Council Member Marte. FABnyc’s Ryan Gilliam with ‘Halo’ artist Immanuel Oni! All who spoke beautifully!!!

Our long time Sara Roosevelt Park former Managers (now) Dep. Chief of Operations Jamil Phillips and (now) Regional Manager Teresa Flores, and all our NYC Park workers here!

Forsyth Satellite Students and teacher Paula Walters Parker & their gorgeous artwork!

Bobby Bryan’s R&B band!

Tenement Museum long-time guardian of the past, New Museum ensuring all artists are known & seen.

Healing Drum Circle

Eddie Jeffreys-Glass historian and reader.

And of course the hardest working crew ever: Fran Brown, Bud Shalala, and Carina Liu!

Irit Houvas, Jim Cusick, Carlo, Ted, K, and many others who pitched in!

And here are a few bonus photos taken by Carol Prud’homme Davis who leads the Inside Change from Within organization working with artists, some without homes.

From Canal to Houston.

Thank you Herman for the suggestions about parking along Forsyth Street!

and our intrepid SRPCC Gardener: The Lorax

Broken fence to the Hua Mei Garden

Thanks to the all the workers involved and the MTA’s  Katerina Patouri and EECruz’s Michael Quasarano we have a finished Plaza. And a diligent neighborhood.

It was a long wait and it looks great!

And we can fix it!!  See Mayor Adam’s and NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue Commitment and Make Space for Girls Studies (below)

Just today:  a brand-new CityParks Soccer program this summer for girls ages 13-16. The program will take place in all nine of our usual soccer locations, with female coaches offering a supportive environment for girls of all skill levels to make friends, build self esteem, and discover a new sport for life! This program is made possible thanks to support from Nike.

Sharing works better for everyone!!

What’s wrong with this picture?

Girls try to play volleyball in a corner of the play area available. Without a volleyball net.

Boys take over most of the play spaces

and

Girls:

but finally ‘encroach’ on the “boys space”!

Parks and women and girls in NYC

Mayor Adams Unveils $43 Million Plan to Lead on Gender Equity, Lays Ambitious Goal to Make NYC Most Women-Forward City in U.S.

January 25, 2024

https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/069-24/mayor-adams-43-million-plan-lead-gender-equity-lays-ambitious-goal-make-nyc-most#/0

“With this plan, Mayor Adams is building on the administration’s commitment to addressing gender disparities and supporting women in New York City,” said New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) Commissioner Sue Donoghue. “Advancing gender equity means setting an example for a fair future and creating resources that improve equity and access in the workforce. This action plan will make New York City a beacon for women’s advancement and will further our work at NYC Parks in providing an inclusive and supportive environment for women in our parks system.”

Canal to Hester

Large oval turf field used for soccer and play and picnics with running track. Gathering place for elders in the neighborhood.

Plantings under seasoned local gardener Pam Ito working with The Hort.

RestoreNYC and bKind and the Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition volunteers!

“Sisterhood of the Unstoppable”

Partners: NYC Parks Department‘s Jamil Phillips, Ju-Wan Winslow, Partnership for Parks  Ashley Kuenneke, PEP J.P.Kane Lee, and the NYC Park workers clean up crew and Larissa of the Greenbelt Native Plants Nursery,  SRPCC Gardeners, Sally Han and volunteers of Restore NYC volunteers, Lisa Mehos of bKind (trauma yoga healing work and more). Kate Fitzgerald SRPCC advisor and M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden , Kim Fong’s BRC for bleach and bathroom access.

Freedom Garden for Survivors of Human Trafficking.

The Project: Building a Freedom Garden for survivors of human trafficking..
-Volunteers (not survivors) will plant a flower for each victim of trafficking (statistics below).
-Some volunteers would work on nearby tree beds to remove Belgian blocks where they are strangling those trees and use those blocks to delineate flower beds (these help both Park workers to know where those are and has helped visitors not walk into beds).

Date: Friday June 7th. (Thursday June 6th- cancelled due to thunderstorm)

Total 2 days: Total Crew: 22

Times: Hours per day: 9am-12pm Crew of 11 and 1pm-4pm Crew of 11

Who:
Volunteers from RestoreNYC and SRPCC volunteers and bKind

Where:

The former Audubon NY plot in front of the BRC -Chrystie side.
(After we, the experienced gardeners, weed the area and sweep for needles, trash, etc.).

Before

During: These two crews did the work that would have taken us months to finish!

Collected a LOT of trash!

and this Catbird who eagerly investigated all our work!

After:

Tools (trowels/pointed shovels/gloves/ grabbers/garbage bags, etc). Partnerships for Parks

Soil, Flowers, Mulch – Bronx Greenbelt Nursery, Partnerships forParks delivered by Jamil Phillips Park Manager, and some purchased and transported from Union Square with funds from RestoreNYC.

Mulch – Jamil Phillips
Small indigenous flowers – K

Backstory:
Sara Roosevelt Park, on Forsyth Street here in the late 70’s until 1990 was lined with young women who were addicted/forced into the sex industry.

We could never offer much to these women – it was too dangerous for them (and us).
Now we think we can do something to acknowledge their existence as a community.

We are also home to homeless women and men, we have two migrant shelters alongside this park and one a block away, Chinatown has a large immigrant population – all populations vulnerable to coercion into human trafficking.
Statistics:
“New York City is a gateway and one of the largest destinations for trafficked women in the country. Right now in every borough, women are being forced into prostitution.”

Statistics:
94% of sex trafficking victims are women
64% of sex trafficked victims are Black or Latina women
60% of sex trafficked youth have been in foster care at some point in their lives
42% of Restore sex trafficked victims named “immigration status” as the reason they feel unsafe in the U.S.
64% of sex trafficked victims are experiencing homelessness when they were recruited into a trafficking situation

Future:

We will ask survivors to bring their own messages written on small stones (a project run by bKind) to ‘plant’ them in this area. They would create the stone messages in a safe space. It would be ’their garden’.

Coming Up:

We heard from a committed group of those who are working with our neighbors to Bridge the Needs of the Homeless and Those Facing Housing Instability

The Stanton CSA is in full swing as Farmer Ted arrives at the gates of the M’Finda Garden!

Sign up next year!

Bringing Chickens (as Bob inspects)!

Somewhere in Sara Roosevelt Park

Tony and the Hua Mei Bird Sanctuary (his Hibiscus survived winter!)

de Britto:

M’Finda Kalunga Garden

Earth Day

Our newest – it will take a while to see what happens here!