Congratulations to Our 2024 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Finalists!

We are thrilled to announce the 2024 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Finalists, a group of 20 nonprofits championing racial justice in our borough.

Earlier this month, this year’s Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Committee—made up of Brooklyn leaders, nonprofit workers, and community members—gathered to review applications and select this exemplary cohort to continue on in consideration to be one of five winners of the $100,000 prize.

As finalists for the 2024 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize, these 20 organizations will  also receive up to $5,000 in matching funds through our Brooklyn Gives on GivingTuesday campaign—celebrated annually the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

The five 2024 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize winners will be announced in January, and celebrated at the Spark Breakfast on March 5, 2024.

Learn more about the finalists below:

• The Alex House Project supports young parents with peer-led classes, job training, and emergency supplies in order to give young mothers the skills they need to defy expectations.
• The Billie Holiday Theatre is a theater and creative arts campus that provides audiences with complete and authentic portrayals of people of African descent through visual arts, dance, film, music, readings, and special events.
• Bridge Street Development Corporation provides civic and economic opportunities in Central Brooklyn by partnering with residents, business owners, and government to offer workshops on financial literacy, support for small businesses, and referrals to social services.
• Center for Justice Innovation’s Neighbors in Action supports safe and thriving communities in Central Brooklyn through their public safety, violence intervention, youth development, and workforce programming.
• Code Nation equips students in under-resourced high schools with the skills and experiences, and connections to break cycles of poverty by accessing high-paying careers in technology.
• Drive Change supports formerly incarcerated young people by creating quality career pathways in the culinary arts, and advocates to transform the culture of the food service industry to create more supportive workplaces.
• Emma’s Torch trains refugees and survivors of human trafficking to build life skills and careers in the culinary industry by providing training and hands-on experience working in their cafe and catering enterprises.
• Extreme Kids & Crew fosters community for neuro-divergent youth and their families through their after-school and weekend programming, which create a space for children to meet socially  in a judgment-free space, and for parents and caregivers to connect and support one another.
• IMPACCT Brooklyn preserves affordable housing and supports small businesses by assisting residents in becoming homeowners, helping renters organize, and providing training, coaching, and financial services to  BIPOC and women-owned businesses.
• Neighbors Helping Neighbors empowers low- and moderate-income New Yorkers to fight for, secure, and maintain quality housing and build financial assets by providing housing counseling, know-your-rights workshops, and first-time homebuyer education and assistance.
• New York State Youth Leadership Council is an undocumented youth-led organization that empowers immigrant youth through leadership development, grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and support in navigating the unique challenges of being undocumented.
• Opening Act provides free, full-year after-school theater programming in order to develop young people’s skills in leadership and collaboration while engaging in social justice topics to inspire civic engagement.
• Power of Two is reversing intergenerational trauma and adverse childhood experiences by providing in-home parent coaching, support, and tools for families to nurture children’s developing brains during the first 1,000 days of life.
• Raising Health empowers immigrants, their families, and communities to improve their health through linguistically and culturally-competent health care and educational programming.
• READ 718 provides individualized, evidence-based, one-to-one literacy instruction to low income students in first through eighth grade in order to close the literacy gap in Brooklyn.
• Red Hook Art Project provides arts education and creative spaces to all young people in their community, including opportunities in music production, digital design, and ceramics in addition to general homework help and support.
• Street Vendor Project is a membership-driven organization that champions and protects the rights of street vendors in New York City through direct legal representation, business training, advocacy, and leadership development.
• Sure We Can operates the only non-profit community-based bottle and can redemption center in New York City, which provides a safe space and supportive community hub for  individuals who collect and redeem cans for deposit.
• Theatre of the Oppressed NYC uses theater to inspire transformative action by partnering with communities confronting oppression to create powerful original theater pieces for audiences of advocates, policy-makers, community members, and stakeholders.
• Youth Design Center provides training, immersion, and mentorship in technology and design for young people through their Creative Apprenticeships Program, which builds participants skills as well as professional portfolios.

Congratulations again to this year’s finalists! We’re so grateful to be able to support these organizations’ innovative and system-changing work in Brooklyn and beyond.