It was a momentous 20th anniversary year for DYCD as we realized two major goals: expanded Beacon funding for the first time in the program’s 25-year history, and baseline funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). To achieve a third goal of a more holistic approach to serving communities, DYCD continues modernizing our systems, building capacity and strengthening communication. With the commitment of Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration, as well as elected officials and community-based organizations, DYCD was able to realize these and other far-reaching accomplishments in 2016. A look back at DYCD’s accomplishments and events during our 20th anniversary year can be found in the 2016 Annual Report, which is now available for viewing, downloading and printing.

Starting in the 1950s and ending in the 2000s, the 2016 DYCD Performance Festival exhibited an incredibly diverse lineup of youth dancers, singers, poets and musicians and artists from 25 selected DYCD-funded COMPASS/SONYC/Beacon/Cornerstone afterschool programs as they perform some of music’s biggest hits. To view images from this event, please visit the DYCD Youth Connect Facebook page.

Ongoing
United Nations
First Avenue at 46th Street, Manhattan, NY 10017
Free for all ages
The UN has debuted a permanent memorial to honor the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. The sculpture is by Haitian-American architect Rodney Leon (also the designer of the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan). The marble artwork has three distinct features: a map that illustrates the scale of the slave trade; a full-size human figure lying supine in a cramped space, giving viewers a visceral idea of the conditions on slave ships; and a triangular reflecting pool that affords an opportunity for quiet contemplation. For more information about this memorial, please visit un.org.

Saturday, January 21, 2017 – Sunday, January 22, 2017, 11:00am – 5:00pm
PS 32/MS 442
317 Hoyt Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Free admission
This year’s two-day annual Inventgenuity Festival will feature hands-on learning, technology-integrated crafts, and a site specific, community built, collaborative project. Also, the first ever Beam Team Brooklyn project will be on display for all to see. Free admission to the event; pre-registration is strongly suggested. Workshops require registration and have a small materials fee associated. For more information and registration details, visit beamcenter.org.

Saturday, January 28, 2017, 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Queens Museum
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY 11368
Pull your Halloween outfits out of the closet for the Queens Museum’s annual fundraiser. The Museum’s second floor galleries will be transformed into a supernatural New York cityscape featuring the Staten Island Ghost Ferry, Menacing Manhattan Skyscraper Tightrope, Bronx Zoo Freaky Feather Balancing, Quaking Queens Photo Booth, Bewitched Brooklyn Ball Toss, Ghosts and Godzillas Scavenger Hunt, and much more. Of course, spine chilling spirits for parents and shocking snacks for kids are always on the menu. A family pack of tickets comes with a free family membership to the museum. For more information about the 2017 Spooktacular, visit the Queen’s Museum website.

Saturday, January 21, 2017 – Sunday, June 4, 2017, 10:00am – 5:00pm
Free with museum admission
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
145 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11213
The Brooklyn Children’s Museum wants families to explore the great outdoors with the exhibit, Wilderness Camp. The interactive display developed in partnership with local, contemporary artist Tattfoo Tan, whose passions include ecology, sustainability, and healthy living, gives kids a taste of camping in the dead of winter. Kids don backpacks stocked with survival tools, including a compass, canteen, mess kit, magnifying glass, net, and blanket. They then peruse a map of hiking trails and head into the faux wilderness to discover how to build a shelter, transform natural materials into necessary items, and tell tales around the campfire. The museum will also host “Survival Skills Workshops” for little ones. Wilderness Camp is included in museum admission. For more information, visit brooklynkids.org.

Saturday, January 28, 2017 – Sunday, January 29, 2017
BAM - Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Brooklyn’s favorite children’s film festival returns for its 19th year, presenting the best shorts and features from around the world — representing 27 countries in total. This year’s fun-filled program showcases curated selections from the top children’s festivals in North America. Highlights include children’s-book-adaptation Stick Man, voiced by Martin Freeman and Hugh Bonneville. Also on tap: the Swedish documentary Martha & Niki, about a champion pair of hip-hop dancers. For details, visit bam.org.

New Year’s Day Firecracker Ceremony & Cultural Festival
Saturday, January 28, 2017
11:00am – 3:30pm; Firecracker kick-off at 12:00pm.

18th Annual New York City Lunar New Year Parade & Festival
Sunday, February 5, 2017
12:00pm – 4:30pm; Parade kick-off at 1:00pm.

Sara D. Roosevelt Park
East Houston Street to Canal Street
(Grand Street between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets), Manhattan, NY 10002
Check out Chinatown’s annual Lunar New Year celebration for stunning visuals, tantalizing treats and impressive performances. This street party features all sorts of vendors, food and festivities for all ages to welcome the Year of the Rooster. The parade makes its way through the main streets of Little Italy and Chinatown, and festivities start at 1:00pm. A related celebration, the Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival, takes place on January 28, the first day of the Lunar New Year — things get going at 11am, with the fireworks scheduled for noon. Also note that similarly exuberant Lunar New Year events take place in the City’s other Chinatowns: Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Flushing, Queens and in various NYC Parks. For more information about both the Manhattan parade and firecracker ceremony, visit betterchinatown.com.

The Awesome Foundation is a global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time. Each fully autonomous chapter supports awesome projects through micro-grants, usually given out monthly. These micro-grants come out of pockets of the chapter’s “trustees” and are given on a no-strings-attached basis to people and groups working on awesome projects. Every chapter interprets “awesome” for itself. As such, awesome projects include initiatives in a wide range of areas including arts, technology, community development, and more. Many awesome projects are novel or experimental, and evoke surprise and delight. Awesome sometimes challenges and often inspires. Anyone is eligible for a grant — individuals, groups, and organizations alike. If you can fill out the application form, you can apply. Try to apply to a chapter near you, in a location where you have roots, or that you think would have a particular interest your idea. If this isn’t possible, you can select “Any” on the application form, or apply to one of a handful of thematic chapters. For more information, visit awesomefoundation.org.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) will make available $3,078,000 for Environmental Justice Community Impact Grants to community-based organizations for projects that address exposure of communities to multiple environmental harms and risks (“projects”). Eligible applicants are community-based organizations having Not-For-Profit Corporation’s (NFP) 501(c)(3) status, or a community-based organization may partner with a NFP that will serve as their fiscal sponsor. Grant applications must be developed and electronically submitted in the NYS Grants Gateway no later than 3:00 pm on January 31, 2017. The minimum and maximum amount an applicant may request ranges between $2,500 to $50,000. Matching funds are not a requirement under this grant opportunity. Application Questions and Answers Please email all Community Impact Grant questions to the Office of Environmental Justice at: justice@dec.ny.gov. Questions regarding this grant opportunity will be accepted by DEC until C.O.B. on January 20, 2017. All questions and answers will be uploaded in the Grants Gateway for all applicants to view. Visit, ny.gov to apply for the grant.

The Partnerships for Parks Capacity Fund Grant program, presented by TD Bank, provides small grants of up to $5,000 to strengthen the outreach, membership, and program-planning capacity of community groups who care for their neighborhood parks in all five boroughs of New York City. This grant is intended to be a first proposal for volunteer-run groups working with Partnerships for Parks who do not have existing staff, are new to the grant application process, have limited budgets, or do not have an established track record in fundraising. The project application covers tools and supplies for hands-on service projects or programming that cultivate long-term stewardship of green spaces, general outreach and promotional materials for groups and their activities, and infrastructure-related costs such as 501(c)(3) filing fees for groups who demonstrate more advanced fundraising capability. The application deadline is Wednesday, February 1, 2017. For more information, visit the grant website.

Financial Service Centers of New York (FSCNY) in conjunction with MoneyGram International is pleased to announce its 2017 Scholarship Program: “Rewarding Young Leaders in Our Community”. Since 1996, the Program has awarded nearly $700,000 in scholarships to 300 students. In 2017, we will again be awarding cash grants to outstanding public high school seniors from New York City’s five boroughs and the surrounding New York counties. Students must demonstrate leadership in their school and involvement in their community, as well as contribute at least 50 valuable hours of volunteer service each year of high school. The application deadline is March 6, 2017. For details, please visit the FSCNY website.

Ascend Educational Fund awards scholarships ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 to immigrant students and children of immigrants who are graduating from a New York City high school to attend public or private colleges and universities, regardless of ethnicity, national origin, or immigration status. Scholarship recipients will be selected based on qualities traditionally valued and demonstrated by the immigrant community: hard work, resourcefulness, perseverance in the face of adversity, academic achievement, leadership, and commitment to one’s community. Applicants must be born outside the United States or have two parents born outside the United States, must be a graduating senior at a high school in the five boroughs, and must enroll full-time at an accredited public or private college in 2017-2018. Applications must be submitted by the Thursday, February 2, 2017 11:59 PM EST deadline. For more information, please visit ascendfundny.org.

New York Women in Communications’ Carlozzi Family Scholarship is created to provide financial assistance to women who want to pursue an advanced degree in a communications-related field at an accredited college/university in the U.S. Communications-related fields and demonstrated a talent for writing. Scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence, need and a demonstrated commitment to the field of communications. Applicant must be an undergraduate who has demonstrated accomplishment as a writer, and who is pursuing a career in Communications or Communications-related field including Advertising, Broadcasting, Communications, English, Film, Journalism, Marketing, Digital Media, or Public Relations in the US. GPA of 3.2 or better, US citizen, permanent residence in NY, NJ, CT, PA or be a college student enrolled in school located within the 5 boroughs of New York City. As long as they fulfill the permanent home residency requirements, applicants are eligible even if they attend or plan to attend an accredited U.S. college/university located outside of NY, NJ, CT, or PA. This includes participation in a communications-related semester or quarter abroad if still registered at an accredited college/university in the U.S. Chosen students will be awarded $2,500 annually. For more information, please visit the scholarship website.

Looking for an afterschool program in your neighborhood? Need information on improving reading skills or finding the nearest community center? The web application discoverDYCD allows you to search in multiple languages for DYCD-funded programs. You can search by borough, neighborhood or zip code, and discoverDYCD provides contact information, activities offered, and a mapping feature with navigation.
Categories of services include: Afterschool Programs, Family Support, Literacy Services, Youth Services and so much more! We hope you find discoverDYCD useful as you take advantage of the diverse resources and opportunities that New York City has to offer.