NYC Civic Corps (Office of the Mayor)
As part of NYC Service, the Mayor’s initiative to promote volunteerism in New York City, NYC Civic Corps was launched on April 20, 2009. A partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service and its AmeriCorps VISTA program, NYC Civic Corps will match individuals with local public and nonprofit organizations to help build sustainable-impact volunteer programs. NYC Civic Corps will help drive volunteer activity to the issues where the City's needs are greatest: strengthening neighborhoods and helping neighbors in need, education, health, emergency preparedness and the environment. NYC Civic Corps members will receive a monthly living allowance, health insurance, educational awards, and other benefits. For more information go to www.nycservice.org.

Greater NY
Launched by private sector business leaders in response to the current economic crisis, Greater NY is a strategic partnership program that pairs business executives with nonprofit executive directors in an effort to build stronger and more effective nonprofits. Through two-year one-on-one partnerships, leaders work together to develop and implement innovative solutions to nonprofit business challenges using best practices from both the private and nonprofit sectors.

Greater NY is one of a series of initiatives announced by the Mayor on April 6 to help nonprofit organizations survive the economic downturn.These initiatives aim to reduce nonprofit organizations’ fixed costs, expand loan programs, enhance the responsiveness and efficiency of City contracting procedures to speed payments, and build new partnerships, such as Greater NY, to help foster stronger nonprofits. To learn more, go to www.nyc.gov/nonprofit.

Multi-Service Center (Mayor's Office of Veterans' Affairs)
The mission of the Mayor's Office of Veterans' Affairs (MOVA) has traditionally been one of sharing information, advocating, making referrals, supporting veteran and military initiatives and coordinating commemorative events. While MOVA has provided invaluable services to thousands of veterans and active service members over the years, and will continue to provide these core services, Mayor Bloomberg recognizes the changing needs of our new returning veterans and has charged the Office with developing comprehensive human service plans to coordinate and deliver the services they need.

MOVA is currently working to create a new Multi-Service Center at New York City's Veterans Memorial Hall in Lower Manhattan, providing comprehensive services to returning veterans and their families. The Center will maximize City, State, Federal, and not-for-profit resources that are currently under-utilized and fill the gaps where services are not available. The Center will provide assistance in an interactive manner in which veterans can easily interface with the many service providers situated under one roof at the Center. The Mayor's Fund is currently seeking donations to make the Multi-Service Center a reality.
Financial Empowerment Center (Department of Consumer Affairs)
The Financial Empowerment Center Initiative provides one-on-one free, confidential, and individualized financial counseling and coaching in English and Spanish. Administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) and the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO), the first Financial Empowerment Center, in the Melrose section of the Bronx, was opened by Mayor Bloomberg on June 19, 2008. Center staff provide direct assistance to people in crisis, help families stabilize their finances and plan for their future, and provide strategic referrals to other public and private resources. Financial counseling services are targeted to money management, budgeting, selecting safe and affordable financial products, evaluating credit decisions, credit and debt assistance, negotiating with creditors, managing debt, and understanding (and exercising) their consumer rights and responsibilities in the financial services marketplace. On May 11, 2009 the Mayor opened three new Centers in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Two more Financial Empowerment Centers are set to open by the end of 2009.

$aveNYC (Department of Consumer Affairs)
In an effort to explore strategies to help low-income families build savings for asset development and emergency needs, the Office of Financial Empowerment piloted a matched savings incentive during the 2008 tax season. The initiative, $aveNYC, was targeted towards Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients who committed to holding savings in an account for at least one year. Research of the first year cohort resulted in improved participation rates and more expansive implementation of the program in 2009. In 2009, the $aveNYC program was expanded to all people filing at participating Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites, with implementation partners opening 1,058 accounts in the first half of the tax season. Program participants leveraged over $575,000 in savings with total contributions of over $388,000 and an anticipated match amount of over $188,000.

Opportunity NYC (Center for Economic Opportunity)
The nation's first conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, Opportunity NYC, is an evidence-based strategy for reducing poverty in New York City. Officially launched by Mayor Bloomberg in September 2007, the initiative provides financial incentives to low-income families to improve education, health and workforce outcomes and consists of three separate pilot programs for children, adults, and families.

Implemented by the City of New York, in collaboration with non-profit partners MDRC and Seedco, the Opportunity NYC Family Rewards program includes a sample of approximately 5,000 families in Central and East Harlem in Manhattan, Brownsville and East New York in Brooklyn, and Morris Heights/Mount Hope and East Tremont/Belmont in the Bronx. Two other pilots, the adult-focused Work Rewards program and the child-focused SPARK program, are being implemented in many neighborhoods across the City. Unlike conventional approaches to poverty reduction which focus on social services to create a safety net for those in need, incentive-based strategies increase participation in targeted activities and programs that decrease factors contributing to poverty and long-term dependency. Monetary incentives are being awarded when households meet specific targets.

Opportunity NYC represents a ground-breaking and inventive approach to poverty reduction and a national model for anti-poverty policy. The initiative will be rigorously evaluated to determine the impact of incentive-based strategies on child, youth, and family outcomes as well as on overall poverty reduction. Evaluation results will help determine whether these strategies are a cost-effective approach to reducing poverty in NYC, and will serve to inform future policy decisions. Over $50 million is being raised entirely through private donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals.
Read the Executive Summary of the CEO Strategy & Implementation Report, released December 27, 2007 (in PDF)

Graffiti-Free NYC Program (NYC Economic Development Corporation/Mayor's Community Affairs Unit)
Graffiti-Free NYC was created to address the overwhelming number of properties vandalized by graffiti. The program is a street-by-street graffiti removal service offered free to businesses and residents in all five boroughs providing a renewed sense of public safety, higher property values, a stronger municipal tax base, and increased civic pride. Vehicles are equipped with unique equipment which enables operators to remove graffiti by painting and/or power-washing over 20,000 square feet of graffiti surface area, per day, per vehicle. All vehicle operators are hired from non-profit programs such as The Doe Fund and Project Renewal that create jobs for low to moderate income residents.

In response to the high volume of graffiti removal requests received through the City's 311 hotline, the program was expanded in 2005 with support from the Mayor's Fund to provide nighttime services. Over a ten month period, the two nights per week services cleared more than 10 million square feet of surface area. In January 2006, ten new customized vehicles were added equipped with upgraded technology that allows them to access locations unable to be reached before.  The nighttime program increased from 2 to 4 nights per week in the fall of 2006, and within ten months more than 6 million square feet of surface area was cleaned. To date, from April 2007, more than 6,300,000 square feet of graffiti has been removed from 3,272 locations.

The Mayor's Paint Program is a critical part of the Mayor's citywide anti-graffiti efforts. The program allows community and volunteer groups to plan and execute their own cleanup projects with supplies and paint provided through the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit (CAU). For its approved graffiti-removal project, organizations are given up to 26 gallons of paint, 26 roller sleeves and 12 roller frames. During the 2007 season CAU distributed 436 roller sleeves, 243 roller frames, 256 brushes, 238 paint trays, 165 poles and 180 drop cloths to civic groups. The Mayor's Fund coordinates in-kind donations of paint to support this important beautification program.

Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign (Department of Consumer Affairs)
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has been called the most successful anti-poverty program in the country, returning government dollars to working families and individuals through either a credit on taxes or as cash refunds.  Under the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City's EITC Coalition has built the most comprehensive campaign in the country urging qualifying residents to claim the EITC. The City relies on non-profit and private partners to reach out to as many New Yorkers as possible through distribution of educational materials and the media. Since 2002, the Coalition has helped over 160,000 New Yorkers claim EITC refunds through free tax preparation and has produced more than 9 million materials in eleven different languages. In tax year 2006, the Federal, State and City EITC returned over $2.1 billion to more than 800,000 New Yorkers, the majority of whom had annual incomes less than $15,000. With the estimated average refund of $2,620 for EITC filers (including Federal, State and City EITC), this money can go a long way in helping New York City’s working families to make ends meet.
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