With more than 300 languages and dialects spoken in the borough’s homes, streets, and storefronts, the genius of Queens is its ability to provide a pathway to the middle class for so many people—across cultures and decades.
Home to Louis Armstrong, Run DMC, Tony Bennett, Cyndi Lauper, the Amazin’ Mets, and two World’s Fairs, the borough has the largest working farm in the city, a major movie studio, and two of the world’s busiest airports.
Over the years, The Trust’s grantmakers have used their expertise and insights into neighborhoods to make game-changing grants for the entire borough and for particular communities, such as “Little India,” “Little Colombia,” “Little Manila,” and the multicultural area dubbed “Flushing’s Chinatown.”
Whether quickly sending aid to emigres fleeing war or patiently pushing for changes in African American enclaves of southeastern Queens, The Trust works to create a more vital, more equitable borough for all.
Meeting immigrants’ needs
Nearly half of Queens residents were born outside the United States. They come seeking safety or economic opportunity; many burrow into the support and familiarity of established ethnic communities. One of the latest waves of new arrivals came after the U.S. withdrew troops from Afghanistan in 2021. To help resettle refugees, Women for Afghan Women has used Trust support to increase staffing for their social services and legal assistance.
“People had to run for their life,” said Naheed Samadi Bahram, U.S. country director of the Queens-based group. “They literally locked their door and ran to the airport to get out. Many had just a small backpack and a lot lost those backpacks on their way here, so they literally had nothing. And many people came with a lot of trauma.”
The small nonprofit began getting 300 calls a day for assistance. The group helps women learn English, manage finances, train for jobs, address legal needs, and cope with trauma.
“Definitely everybody came together to try to help,” Samadi Bahram said, adding that the local Afghan community organized clothing drives, raised funds, and hosted refugees.
“People who came two years ago are going to college now,” she said, while also noting that there is still a long way to go for many. “There are people who have gotten jobs, secured housing, enrolled their kids in school, become independent, and are supporting their families. The past two years were difficult, but now we see the fruits of our work.”
Another important Trust grant targeted the needs of Asian American adults with developmental disabilities, who have the lowest employment rate among all ethnic groups and are least likely to be connected to available services. The Community Inclusion & Development Alliance is expanding a workforce development program that focuses on the individual needs of each participant, offers workshops to parents, and identifies potential jobs and paid internships.
Communities build from within
The Trust supports a range of civic associations working to improve their neighborhoods. For example, we’ve helped the Eastern Queens Alliance address a host of environmental challenges, from Kennedy Airport’s noise and air pollution to increased flooding resulting from climate change. The Trust’s support let the Alliance develop local leaders to advocate for more protections for the area, including Idlewild Park Preserve, a part of the nearby Jamaica Bay wetlands system.
“We’ve been speaking to more people and raising consciousness about the environmental harms and risks that impact us,” said Barbara Brown, chairperson of the Alliance.
Brown said that when state officials created maps to address environmental threats, they did not take the impact of the airport into account. “They said there was not enough data,” she noted, adding that the city may base its funding on the state maps, “which means the problem gets compounded. We’re making people aware that the airport is not just an annoyance–it has real health impacts.”
The Trust also has assisted residents of the Pomonok public housing development in Flushing, which opened in 1951 and is geographically isolated from many social services. A series of grants to Queens Community House expanded its work in Pomonok after an assessment revealed the need for more community-strengthening programs for employment, childcare, food assistance, and wellness. During the pandemic, it transitioned to virtual community events and boosted its food pantry from serving 100 to 800 families.
Jobs and the local economy
To raise the quality of life of residents in Queens, The Trust supports efforts to help jobseekers obtain good-paying positions and build their financial wellbeing.
For example, the Andromeda Community Initiative in Long Island City fills the need for building-repair workers by training adults who are referred by social service agencies and face employment barriers, such as the formerly incarcerated. Andromeda has helped hundreds with few career prospects get skilled, high-wage jobs.
Because 30 percent of Queens households do not have broadband access, many are effectively shut out from vital services such as remote learning and applying for government benefits. To bridge that digital divide, the Queens Public Library Foundation is making broadband signals available to more residents. It used a federal grant to secure hardware that will send Wi-Fi signals from its branches to adjacent parks and streets. A Trust grant will help the library set up, promote, and teach residents about how to access free Wi-Fi in areas surrounding the participating branches, including several near public housing developments.
“This is a perfect example of how charities build communities,” said Dennis Walcott, the library’s president and CEO, “by not just being a charity that looks at macro issues, but really getting into the micro issues that impact neighborhoods.”
Developing local arts groups
The Trust continues to bolster arts and culture in the borough, boosting community-based groups and ensuring that historically underresourced artists and culture bearers get support.
The Trust helped Calpulli Mexican Dance Company—which presents original works that incorporate folkloric dance, music, and stories—create a transition plan to install a new artistic director as its former leader resigns, and to expand the group’s arts education offerings. This will help Calpulli meet the increasing demand for its in-school programs and generate more earned revenue to sustain itself.
Another Trust grant supported the Queens Museum in co-creating a new Indigenous Practice Studio to support the cultural, community-organizing, and land-stewardship practices of Native Americans and other Indigenous populations residing in the area. The ideas generated will result in new collaborative programs and influence the museum’s operations.
“The museum is thinking about equity and about righting some of history’s wrongs,” said Tecumseh Ceaser, who is leading the project. Ceaser also cited the museum’s recent work to improve accessibility and even open a food pantry during the pandemic. “There’s a consciousness of the museum’s ability to always be thinking about how they can improve and not be stagnant–rethinking what a museum can be,” he said.
Donors pay it forward
The work of The Trust is made possible by New Yorkers who provide legacy gifts that carry on their altruism for decades. Our grants to help Pomonok Houses, for example, were funded by the Adel and Leffler Families’ Fund for Queens, which was created by Ruth Leffler. Born in 1908, Leffler was the daughter of a state judge and became a lawyer herself and a champion golfer. In the years before her death in 1993 at 85, she worked with Trust staff to create a legacy fund that would specifically help the residents of her home borough.
Similarly, the William H. and George R. Brunjes Memorial Fund was created by cousins of Leffler, two brothers who turned their Ridgewood-based family seed business into a national enterprise. Their beautifully illustrated catalogs have become collectors’ items and are preserved at the Smithsonian Institution. The cousins created a fund with the purpose of helping the children of Queens. It has enabled, among other things, the Queens Botanical Garden to train young people to advocate for increased access to healthy food in their communities.
An ongoing commitment
As the region’s largest and oldest community foundation, The New York Community Trust will continue to respond to the needs of “The World’s Borough” as its diverse communities evolve.
Ways you can support your neighbors in Queens:
- Donate directly or through your donor-advised fund to any of the nonprofits found in this story, or others like them.
- Give to our Community Needs Fund and we’ll find charities to meet the needs of the moment in Queens and the rest of the city.
- Leave a legacy by establishing a permanent fund. Contact giving@nyct-cfi.org.