We Are New York Values

Environment

ENVIRONMENT

Mission: 350Brooklyn is an affiliate of 350.org that works locally to solve the climate crisis through education, organization, and direct action. We sponsor community panels, film-screenings, book groups, protests and rallies, letter-writing campaigns, lobby days, parties and even parades.

Website: http://350brooklyn.org/
Phone: n/a
Email: 350brooklyn@gmail.com

What volunteers do:

  • attend bi-weekly meetings broken into committees (art, energy infrastructure, events, legislation, media, outreach, partnerships)

  • additional activities listed on action calendar on website

Borough: Brooklyn


Mission: 350NYC is the the local affiliate of 350.org, a grassroots network of volunteer-run campaigns in over 188 countries working to prevent climate chaos. Here in New York, we are working locally for a cleaner, greener, better New York City for everyone.

Website: https://350nyc.org/
Phone: n/a
Email: 350nyc@gmail.com

What volunteers do:

  • attend monthly meetings of one of three working groups (fossil fuel divestment; local sustainability solutions; climate education)

  • daily actions on website calendar

Borough: Manhattan meetings


Mission: NYC’s construction and demolition industry throws away nearly 7,000,000 tons of building materials annually. These materials clog our landfills, release carbon into the atmosphere, and create an artificial need for more materials to be manufactured. By salvaging usable items from demolition and remodel projects and reintroducing them to the market, we take a small step toward eliminating these significant environmental costs. Our goal is to demonstrate another option for materials diversion and hopefully inspire the city to require recycling and reuse for construction and demolition waste. Substituting salvage for demolition allows us to generate green, living wage jobs and job training. The NYC Compost Project, hosted by Big Reuse, is part of a community-scale composting network that works to rebuild our soils by providing New Yorkers with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to produce and use compost locally.

Website: https://www.bigreuse.org/service/volunteer/
Volunteer form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScWgZxNE4uBRcPbxqd57-WaZK4ZvU-07m1JnUaqLQbUR21ONA/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&_ga=2.196228780.1817692846.1581920757-1914461130.1581741424
Phone: 718-725-8925 x2
Email: volunteer@bigreuse.org

What volunteers do:

  • organize books, clothes, housewares, and other donated items at Big Reuse warehouse

  • neighborhood compost education

  • street-tree care

  • work at compost site

  • apply compost

  • door-to-door outreach

Borough: Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx (Big Reuse warehouse only in Brooklyn)


Mission: BCS works in neighborhoods impacted by systemic poverty. We strengthen communities by fostering the educational success of children, the leadership development of youth, the employment and housing stability of adults, the advancement of individuals living with disabilities, and the empowerment of seniors and families.

Website: https://wearebcs.org/take-action/volunteer/
Volunteer form: https://a107257.socialsolutionsportal.com/apricot-intake/5fe86615-be67-49eb-91e4-e527f28931fa
Email: info@wearebcs.org
Phone: 718-310-5600

What volunteers do:

  • mentor and tutor youth

  • maintain community garden

  • staff events and workshops

  • provide resume help and financial literacy support

  • support the operation of mobile shower buses by distributing soap, shampoo, towels (warmer months) and PPE (year-round)

  • clean the shower bus between clients

 Borough: Brooklyn


Mission: The Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC) is a membership-led, direct-action, community organizing body based in Central Brooklyn (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and the surrounding area). We bring together residents to develop local leadership, identify important issues in their lives, win concrete improvements in the community, and build power. We establish relationships with a growing base of local people and mobilize them to: identify social and economic issues of critical importance to them; acquire the information and leadership skills necessary to transform our community; change local conditions and win concrete improvement in their lives; join broad coalitions and build alliances with other communities; create long-term, structural change through the reform of city, state, and national policies. 

Website: http://brooklynmovementcenter.org/get-involved/
Phone: 718-771-7000
Email: n/a

What volunteers do:

  • join Black-led, member-led committees on food justice, environmental justice, street harassment, District 16 schools, police accountability

  • work on mobilizations, legislative campaigns, political training

FYI:

  • all welcome, but (non-Black) solidarity members may not take leadership roles

Borough: Brooklyn


Mission: Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization empowering people to experience breakthroughs exercising their personal and political power. Our chapter is just one of hundreds of chapters across the world working to create the political will for a livable world. We are laser focused on a specific piece of legislation and a proven strategy to gain its passage. We are working for the passage of Carbon Fee and Dividend, the climate change solution economists and climate scientists alike say is the “best first-step” to preventing the worst impacts of a warming world. Our market-based Carbon Fee and Dividend policy will drastically reduce emissions, create jobs, and support small businesses and families — all without growing government.

Website: http://citizensclimatelobby.org/chapters/NY_NYC/
Phone: n/a
Email: newyorkcity@citizensclimatelobby.org

What volunteers do:

  • begin with introductory national call, extensive follow-up training through monthly meetings, calls, and webinars

  • participate in intensive legislative advocacy and communications outreach for specific carbon fee & dividend legislation


Mission: City Growers empowers young people to envision a greener and healthier future. We aim to close a fundamental gap in the experience of urban children by creating opportunities for them to meaningfully interact with the natural world and reconnect with food’s origin from the earth. We want to see more green roofs, more community gardens, more urban farms, equal access to healthy food, cleaner air and waterways, and more innovative urban spaces to grow and learn. It is our duty and honor to provide today’s children the tools and inspiration they need to change the world tomorrow. We see the children and teens that participate in our programs as the leaders, policymakers, engineers, teachers, farmers, and activists of tomorrow. Giving young people a new perspective on our urban environment activates imaginations and provides a new lens through which to view the potential of our city and world. Each day, City Growers is cultivating healthy, informed, dynamic change makers who understand the importance of real food, grown well.

Website: https://citygrowers.org/volunteer/
Email: info@citygrowers.org
Phone: 917-426-4420

What volunteers do:

  • assist at annual education conference (registration, technical support, oversee tabling sessions, assist workshop presenters)

  • assist at Family Farm Days

  • build bee hives for Honeybee Education program

  • pack and stamp student-designed seed packets

  • write personal thank-you notes to donors

  • photography

  • web design

Borough: Brooklyn, Queens


Mission: We provide youth with outdoor experiences to build soft and hard leadership skills so that they can transform public spaces into safer spaces where they teach the community soft and hard skills and become greater assets to their community and beyond.

Website: https://concretesafaris.org/individual-volunteers/
Garden volunteer calendar: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/volunteer-at-bkrot-big-moves-tickets-63332953569
Email: info@concretesafaris.org
Phone: 646-869-1503

What volunteers do:

  • assist children with homework, cycling, gardening, architecture and design, or field trips

  • seasonal garden maintenance

  • rake leaves

  • create paths

  • plant trees, shrubs, seeds, and vegetable, herb, and fruit transplants

  • wheelbarrow and shovel topsoil, wood chips, and compost

  • pick up trash

  • build garden beds

FYI:

  • weekly school-year commitment for afterschool program

  • prior experience volunteering or working with children required for afterschool program

  • background check required for afterschool program

  • no minimum commitment to work in educational garden

Borough: Manhattan


Mission: DataRefuge is an initiative committed to identifying, assessing, prioritizing, securing, and distributing reliable copies of endangered federal climate and environmental data so that it remains available to researchers. In conversation with many partners, such as you, we can build refuge for federal climate and environmental data vulnerable under an administration that denies the fact of ongoing climate change. We are committed to fact-based arguments, and #DataRefuge works to preserve the facts we all need. Data collected as part of the #DataRefuge initiative will be stored in multiple, trusted locations to help ensure continued accessibility. DataRefuge acknowledges--and in fact draws attention to--the fact that there are no guarantees of perfectly safe information. But there are ways that we can create safe and trustworthy copies. DataRescue events create trustworthy copies of federal climate and environmental data and DataRefuge develops the best methods, practices, and protocols to archive them.

Website: http://www.ppehlab.org/datarefugegetinvolved
Email: datarefuge@ppehlab.org
Phone: n/a

What volunteers do:

  • organize and participate in day-long DataRescue hackathons

  • Identify endangered programs and data

  • identify and map the location of inaccessible environmental databases

  • hack scripts to make hard-to-reach databases accessible

  • harvest hard-to-get datasets

  • build toolkits for future events

  • writing/social media for the project

  • check harvested data for completeness and accuracy

  • add metadata to datasets

FYI:

  • useful skills include familiarity with government websites and information; library and archive skills; database navigation; organization and communication

  • in-person hackathons are scheduled for NYC but some work can be done remotely

  • non-tech volunteers can participate as researchers


Mission: Food & Water Watch champions healthy food and clean water for all. We stand up to corporations that put profits before people, and advocate for a democracy that improves people’s lives and protects our environment. We are working to create a healthy future for our families and for generations to come—a world where all people have the resources they need, including wholesome food, clean water and sustainable energy. Making this happen requires organizing people from all over the country to build a large movement with the political power to make our democratic process work. Large numbers of people are a countervailing force to corporations “buying” public policy. 

Website: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/state/new-york
Volunteer signup: http://tinyurl.com/jdkkaqb
Phone: 347-778-2743
Email: n/a

What volunteers do:

  • meet with legislators

  • organize neighbors

  • build media attention

Borough: Manhattan office


Mission: Gowanus Canal Conservancy is dedicated to facilitating the development of a resilient, vibrant, open space network centered on the Gowanus Canal through activating and empowering community stewardship of the Gowanus Watershed. Since 2006, we have served as the environmental steward for the neighborhood through leading grassroots volunteer projects; educating students on environmental issues; and working with agencies, elected officials, and the community to advocate for, build, and maintain innovative green infrastructure around the Gowanus Canal.

Website: https://gowanuscanalconservancy.org/volunteer/
Email: volunteer@gowanuscanalconservancy.org
Phone: 718-541-4378

What volunteers do:

  • install gardens

  • take care of street trees and bioswales

  • paint murals

  • propagate native plants

  • construct floating gardens

FYI: volunteer hours are on weekends, from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Borough: Brooklyn


Mission: Green City Force’s (GCF) mission is to break the cycle of poverty, preparing urban young adults to succeed in their chosen careers by engaging them in service, training, academics and work experiences related to the clean energy economy. In doing so, GCF encourages them to lead socially and environmentally responsible lives. We are working towards a “green city” built on principles of sustainability, social, economic and environmental justice. As an AmeriCorps program, Green City Force works towards this vision through our model citywide Clean Energy Corps in New York City. Through national service, our program engages young people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, inspires passion for sustainability and service, stimulates the demand for green services, and creates ladders to careers in the green economy for young people living in poverty.

Website: http://www.greencityforce.org/learn-more/volunteer/
Phone: 646-681-4700
Email: info@greencityforce.org

What volunteers do:

  • assist Urban Farm Corps at their four NYCHA farms with planting, weeding, soil cultivation, watering, harvesting


Mission: Our mission is to improve New York City's quality of life through environmental programs that transform communities block by block and empower all New Yorkers to secure a clean and healthy environment for future generations. Our network of Greenmarket farmers markets, Youthmarkets, fresh food box pick-ups and Greenmarket Co. ensures that all New Yorkers have access to the freshest, healthiest local food. We blanket the five boroughs with resources like textile and food scrap collection, Stop 'N' Swaps, and free training to make waste reduction easy for all.

Website: https://www.grownyc.org/individual-volunteering
Email: https://www.grownyc.org/about/contact
Phone: 212-788-7900

What volunteers do:

  • help with cooking demonstrations, farmer support, and community outreach at Greenmarkets

  • distribute Fresh Food Boxes

  • help with compost events to keep food waste out of landfills

  • facilitate community reuse events

  • conduct interactive recycling demonstrations

FYI:

  • separate orientation session required for Greenmarket and Zero Waste programs

  • volunteers must be 18 or older

Borough: All


Mission: Harlem Grown's mission is to inspire youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through mentorship and hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. Founded in 2011, we operate local urban farms, increase access to and knowledge of healthy food for Harlem residents, and provide garden-based development programs to Harlem youth. Healthy habits start young, which is why our programs target elementary-aged students. Because food justice is more than just providing and distributing food, our model seeks to positively impact the entire community through mentorship, job training, and partnerships to create sustainable change. One of the many ways we fulfill our mission is by raising support for the physical renovation of abandoned lots in Harlem, transforming them into thriving urban farms. Currently, we have 10 urban agriculture facilities ranging from soil-based farms, hydroponic greenhouses and school gardens.

Websitehttp://www.harlemgrown.org/volunteer/
Email: info@harlemgrown.org or to offer specialized skills, contact COO, Whitney Files, wfiles@harlemgrown.org
Phone: 212-870-0113

What volunteers do:

  • weed

  • water

  • compost

  • clean

  • build

  • paint

  • harvest

  • plant

FYI:

  • drop-in farm program runs Saturdays from mid-April to mid-November, 11 a.m – 3 p.m.

  • signed waiver required

  • wear clothes that can get dirty

  • bring gardening gear if you have it

  • minimum age of volunteers is seven, and all minors must be with an adult

  • special project needs (e.g, graphic design) listed on website

Borough: Manhattan


Mission: The Ecology Center works toward a more sustainable New York City by providing community-based recycling and composting programs, developing local stewardship of green space, and increasing community awareness, involvement and youth development through environmental education programs. The Ecology Center offers services and education for a range of environmental subjects: organics collection/composting, electronic waste recycling, and stewardship of public green spaces. The Gowanus E-Waste warehouse is the largest non-municipal provider of e-waste recycling services in New York City. The warehouse accepts all varieties of consumer electronics, and reuses/recycles them in an environmentally and socially responsible way. 

Website: http://www.lesecologycenter.org/volunteer/
Phone: 212-477-4022 or 718-858-8777 (for warehouse)
Email: info@lesecologycenter.org or reuse@lesecologycenter.org (for warehouse)

What volunteers do:

  • green stewardship at East River Park

  • assist with all the operations that allow the organization to provide e-waste services to New Yorkers (at Gowanus recycling center)

Borough: Manhattan, Brooklyn



Mission: Moms Clean Air Force is a community of 950,000 moms and dads united against air pollution – including the urgent crisis of our changing climate – to protect our children’s health. We arm members with reliable information and solutions through online resources, articles, action tools, and on-the-ground events. We work across the US on national and local policy issues, through a vibrant network of 18 state-based field teams. Our moms meet with lawmakers at every level of government to build support for commonsense solutions to pollution. Moms have passion and power – an unbeatable combination. We are harnessing the strength of mother love to fight back against polluters.

Website: http://www.momscleanairforce.org/state-of-new-york/
Phone: 856-796-0300
Email: Trisha Sheehan tsheehan@momscleanairforce.org

What volunteers do:

  • write 'Naptime Notecards' to senators and other elected officials about pressing environmental concerns

  • table at a local event

  • write letters to the editor to local media outlets

  • meet with elected officials


Mission: New York Restoration Project (NYRP) isdriven by the conviction that all New Yorkers deserve beautiful, high-quality public space within ready walking distance of their homes. Since our founding in 1995 by Bette Midler, NYRP has planted trees, renovated gardens, restored parks, and transformed open space for communities throughout New York City’s five boroughs. As New York’s only citywide conservancy, we bring private resources to spaces that lack adequate municipal support, fortifying the City’s aging infrastructure and creating a healthier environment for those who live in the most densely populated and least green neighborhoods. As the steward of Sherman Creek Park and Highbridge Park in Northern Manhattan, the owner of 52 community gardens across the five boroughs, and the lead private partner of the City of New York in MillionTreesNYC, we focus our efforts in communities where safe, beautiful green space is needed most.

Website: https://www.nyrp.org/support/volunteer/sign-up-to-volunteer/
Email: volunteer@nyrp.org
Phone: (212) 333-2552

What volunteers do:

  • Forest Crew volunteers participate in community building events, weekly crews, workshops, and hands-on education at Highbridge Park

  • Neighborhood Greening volunteers help beautify and improve community and school gardens around the city

FYI:

  • Forest Crew works only at Highbridge Park

  • Forest Crew volunteers can work weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly; preference given to repeat volunteers

  • Neighborhood Greening shifts generally two hous

  • calendar on site lists all upcoming volunteer opportunities

  • all tools including work gloves are provided

  • wear clothes you can work outdoors in; closed-toed shoesrequired

Borough: Manhattan (Forest Crew); all (Neighborhood Greening)


Mission: Recycle-A-Bicycle (RAB) is a community-based bike shop and non-profit organization that facilitates job training and environmental education. Through innovative programs such as Earn-A-Bike, Green Jobs Training Programs, High School Internships, Recycled Arts Workshops, Summer Youth Employment Program, and Kids Ride Club, RAB is dedicated to the health, development, stewardship, and empowerment of NYC youth. On average, RAB salvages 1,800 bicycles each year from the waste stream, diverting a total of 45,000 pounds of waste from NYC's landfills. Every purchase from our storefronts directly supports our youth programs and environmental initiatives.

Website: http://www.recycleabicycle.org/volunteer
Email: http://www.recycleabicycle.org/contact
Phone: 718-858-2972

What volunteers do:

  • refurbish bikes for kids’ bike swaps or disassemble bikes for recycling (Wednesdays at DUMBO location 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.; Thursdays, LIC workshop, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.)

FYI:

  • no mechanical experience necessary

Borough: Brooklyn and Queens


Mission: The Riders Alliance fights for reliable, affordable, world-class public transit in order to build a more just and sustainable New York. We organize subway and bus riders to develop grassroots power across racial, economic and neighborhood lines. Together, we hold our elected officials accountable, engage the public, and take direct action to guarantee that riders have a powerful voice in the decisions that affect us. In the last four years, we’ve won legislation that will help an additional 450,000 New Yorkers save money with pre-tax transit benefits; new Bus Rapid Transit routes that will serve tens of thousands of riders; modern investments like bus stop countdown clocks, and a commitment from the Governor and Mayor to invest billions of dollars to upgrade MTA infrastructure. We are working to make transit more affordable by fighting for strong public funding and for #FairFares for low-income New Yorkers.  We are fighting for reliable bus service so that people can live in any neighborhood in the city and know they can get to work on time.  And we are pushing to make public transit a priority for our elected officials. The Riders Alliance is working to turn riders into activists–into grassroots leaders who are informed, united and able to demand change from the elected officials who work for us.

Website: http://www.ridersny.org/volunteer-opportunities/
Email: Sonia@ridersny.org
Phone: 212-590 9427

What volunteers do:

  • outreach to subway and bus riders to get signatures on issue petitions and distribute information about current campaigns

  • put on special events

  • support work in the office

  • participate in rallies

  • host informational/fundraising house parties


Mission: We oppose the development, transport and export of fracked shale gas (“natural gas”). We support a rapid switch to renewable energy and the goal of zero fossil fuel dependence by 2030. Sane Energy Project is a grassroots group, formed in 2011 to oppose the Spectra pipeline. We have enlarged that mission to include shale gas infrastructure statewide and regionally. We stand in solidarity with activists fighting all forms of extreme extraction and nuclear energy.

Website: https://saneenergyproject.org/take-action/attend-a-meeting/
Phone: n/a
Email: kim@saneenergyproject.org

What volunteers do:

  • attend bi-weekly meetings

  • advocacy against fracking and for 100% clean, renewable energy in NYC and NYS

  • leaflet, gather petition signatures, meet with community groups and elected officials

  • lobby individual buildings to switch to renewables

Borough: Manhattan-based meetings


Mission: The New York City Group of the Sierra Club is part of the country’s largest and oldest grass-roots environmental organization. Founded in California in 1892 by naturalist and explorer John Muir, its mission is to “explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the earth.” In New York City, we’ve been active on a wide range of issues, most famously as the successful lead plaintiff in the fight against Westway, the State’s plan to build an underground highway on landfill in the Hudson River that would have threatened “a highly significant and productive habitat for stripped bass.” The New York City Groupworks on a variety of issues – from local ones like the rehabilitation of the Gowanus Canal to state issues like the fight against fracking to national issues like ending the use of coal. Also, our members work to  preserve our unique and precious natural wildlife habitats in New York, such as Jamaica Bay, where thousands of birds stop on their migration routes to rest and feed.  And, consistent with John Muir’s philosophy, we support activities to deepen the public’s appreciation for our natural surroundings.  Examples include lectures, walks, and an active nature photography club.

Website: http://nyc.sierraclub.org/
Email: http://nyc.sierraclub.org/contact-us/
Phone: n/a

What volunteers do:

  • join committee (current committees include biosolids, community gardens, Gowanus canal, Hudson River estuary, Million Trees, sustainable energy for NYC, white roofs, and watershed)

  • paint white roofs on specific dates May through November and help identify candidate buildings roofs to reduce electric energy usage and lower greenhouse gas emissions

  • participate in Gowanus Community Advisory group working with EPA

  • participate in tree-planting days to add trees that filter pollution and help reduce the effects of the city heat island


Mission: SWC started as a redemption center working to foster social inclusion of canners. Our goals include creating an atmosphere of trust, respect and participation in the community; recycling valuable materials while educating about the importance of recycling; and dignifying the work while creating opportunities for those in the community. At SWC, people from all walks of life are welcome under the principle that everyone has something valuable to contribute. Our vision is to continue being a recycling center, supporting and promoting a circular economy, where discards are transformed into valuable resources and returned to the productive cycle, and opposing a linear economy with a 'take, make, dispose' model of production. We aim to grow as a community space where canners, youth, students and neighbors come together, understanding the value of discarded materials through recycling, composting, arts & crafts and other initiatives. We envision our center as a Sustainability Hub, where social, environmental and economic sustainability is practiced and implemented every day. 

Website: http://www.surewecan.org/supportus/
Email: info@surewecan.org
Phone: 347-463-9257

What volunteers do:

  • maintain community space

  • help with composting

  • help in garden

  • organize schools, restaurants, buildings, offices to collect cans

Borough: Brooklyn


Mission: Swale is a floating food forest built atop a barge that travels to piers in New York City, offering educational programming and welcoming visitors to harvest herbs, fruits, and vegetables for free. Swale strives to strengthen stewardship of public waterways and land, while working to shift policies that will increase the presence of edible perennial landscapes. We hope to encourage New Yorkers to care for our common home and to address food as a commons in public space. Following the insights of Elinor Ostrom, Swale relies on the principle that commons can be sustainably managed where people know each other, trust each other, and work together in caring for a place. Swale is organized with the help of individuals, community groups, as well as city organizations in order to reinforce food and water as essential elements of a cooperatively stewarded commons. Swale calls attention to the collective use of New York City’s land and waterways through public tours, workshops, and events.

Website: http://www.swaleny.org/volunteer/
Volunteer signup form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSerbnADKuFcwSjRGGp6kfWIUEKK51aDykHtW-LzJ5Hd6ZUOVA/viewform
Email: http://www.swaleny.org/contact/
Phone: n/a

What volunteers do:

  • garden/farm

  • fundraise

  • assist with marketing, social media, and events

  • photography/videography

  • assist with nonprofit management

  • accounting/finance

  • science-based research

FYI:

  • Swale is mobile; check website for current location; in 2017, Swale is docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 6

  • public hours are Thursday – Sunday, noon-6


Mission: TIME'S UP! is a grassroots environmental group that uses educational outreach and direct action to promote a more sustainable, less toxic city. For 25 years, TIME'S UP! has worked to educate people about the environmental impacts of everyday decisions, from the food we buy to the means of transportation we use.

Website: http://times-up.org/volunteer
Volunteer signup: http://times-up.org/volunteer-email-list-signup
Email: timesup.events@gmail.com
Phone: 212-802-8222

What volunteers do:

  • fundraise

  • press

  • video

  • mechanic/bike repair

  • garden

  • flyer/outreach/table

  • make copies

  • graphic design

  • update website

  • archive press/photos

  • clean/organize space

FYI:

  • calendar of current volunteer opportunities on site


Mission: Since our founding in 1973, Transportation Alternatives has paved the way for remarkable changes in New York City’s transportation infrastructure: the extraordinary growth of bicycling, the launch of Citi Bike and the introduction of innovations to city streets, like Complete Streets, parking-protected bike lanes, automated speed enforcement cameras, public plazas, Select Bus Service and Neighborhood Slow Zones, and much more. Transportation Alternatives activists are leading the fight to improve infrastructure for bicycling and walking on scores of local streets and to change traffic enforcement policy and practices citywide. The goal is to achieve Vision Zero — the elimination of traffic deaths and serious injuries on New York City’s streets.

Website: https://www.transalt.org/getinvolved/neighborhood
Email: info@transalt.org
Phone: 212-629-8080

What volunteers do:

  • attend monthly meetings of local activist committees (Bronx, South Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Upper Manhattan, Eastern Queens, Queens, or Staten Island); determine and carry out campaigns of local importance to their neighborhoods

FYI:

  • website lists citywide and neighborhood campaigns currently underway; volunteers can initiate new campaigns


Mission: Incorporated in 1966, UPROSE is Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization. Today, UPROSE is an intergenerational, multi-racial, community organization that promotes the sustainability and resiliency of the Sunset Park community in Brooklyn through community organizing, education, leadership development and cultural/artistic expression. UPROSE’s work encompasses a variety of environmental justice and public health initiatives, from the development of the waterfront and local brownfields, to transportation, open space and air quality needs, to educational and youth empowerment campaigns. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy in fall 2012, it intensified its focus on the adaptation of Sunset Park to the changing climate and to deepening its community resiliency. 

Website: www.uprose.org
Phone: 718-492-9307
Email: info@uprose.org

What volunteers do:

  • community outreach

  • social media

  • other activities based on skill set

Borough: Brooklyn


Mission: West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT for Environmental Justice) is a Northern Manhattan community-based organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. Areas of work include affordable and equitable transit, clean air, climate justice, food justice, open and green spaces, sustainable and equitable land use, toxic-free products, waste, pests and pesticide reduction, and healthy homes.

Website: http://www.weact.org/volunteer
Phone: 212-961-1000
Email: EVELYN@weact.org

What volunteers do:

  • data entry

  • assist with membership meetings

  • community outreach

  • flyering

  • phonebanking

  • environmental research

Borough: Manhattan