What Starts As A Spark Can Light A Path For Our Future

In the early morning light streaming through the windows of the Barclays Center atrium yesterday, nearly 400 New Yorkers showed what it looks like when Brooklyn Backs Brooklyn, joining us to celebrate our outstanding community partners at the 2026 Brooklyn Org Spark Breakfast presented by NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

We hope you left excited and energized to do even more good for Brooklyn, and as we look forward to the 10th year of the Brooklyn Org Spark Prize (applications are now open!), your support matters more than ever before.

“These are challenging days,” said Dr. Jocelynne Rainey, President and CEO of Brooklyn Org. “And yet, I have found solace in this work. I find hope in listening to our community. I find strength in supporting the nonprofits that show up every day to provide stability, care, and opportunity across Brooklyn. This is a celebration of the nonprofits that hold our communities together and help our borough thrive. To our 2026 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize winners, we are so proud to stand with you, to invest in you, and to elevate your leadership. Brooklyn is stronger because of you.”

Together, we honored the five winners of the $100,000 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize, organizations that were founded in Brooklyn, are deeply committed to equity, and have a clear vision for the future:

• Asiyah Women’s Center
• Black Trans Femmes in the Arts
• Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.)
• The BRO Experience Foundation
• YVote

We heard stories directly from Brooklynites served by the winning organizations, who shared just how each has transformed their lives and the lives of countless community members—while lighting a path for futures they couldn’t have imagined possible. The crowd jumped to their feet in a standing ovation, many moved to tears by their testimonies of this urgent work to meet the challenges facing our neighbors.

We hope you will take their stories to heart and come away with a renewed commitment to Brooklyn. Please consider an additional gift to support this critical grantmaking program; your gift enables us to invest $600,000 each year to ignite the work of our winners and finalists:

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Our partners who lent their voices to the program included Juan Mejia, President of NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital; Anne Sperling, Senior Vice President For Government & Community Affairs at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and her fellow Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Committee Members Tamika Matheson, Salvador Muñoz, Sophie Lippincott Ferrer, and Lindsay Pizzi; Alexis Aquino from 2025 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize winner Brownsville Community Culinary Center, and Brooklyn Org Board Vice Chair Hilary Ley Jager.

This vital work is driven by the dedication of community members from across the borough, including our Board of Directors who work tirelessly to bring us closer every day to our vision for a more fair and just Brooklyn, and our Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Committee who selected our winners:

Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Committee: Meet The Decisionmakers

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Thank you to our generous sponsors, attendees and supporters who made the morning possible, including NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Debevoise & Plimpton, Peter Furci and Suzanne Elio, Michael Gillespie and Lauren Glant, Hilary and Edwin Jager, Diane and Joseph Steinberg, The Scout Fund, and Brooklyn Roasting Company.

From addressing the needs of survivors of domestic violence, to celebrating the artistry of Black trans creatives, uplifting the socioemotional care of young men of color, combating pervasive surveillance that violates our civil liberties, and developing the civic engagement of youth, Brooklyn Org’s partners are rising to meet challenges that are felt deeply here at home in our borough and on the national stage. Learn more about their work in the videos below:

Asiyah Women’s Center

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“When we started Asiyah Women’s Center seven years ago, we used our savings to rent a single apartment to give women survivors of domestic violence a safe space. Today we serve more than 35 women and their children at four locations, providing legal support, counseling, and economic empowerment,” said Dania Darwish, founder and executive director of Asiyah Women’s Center. “The Brooklyn Org Spark Prize will help us start to build more housing and a permanent wellness center for women in Brooklyn.”

Accepting the award was Soraya, Former Asiyah Resident, who shared about her journey with Asiyah Women’s Center as a survivor of domestic violence, and how they showed her love, helped her regain her sense of self-worth, and even move into the first home of her own:

“My family had left me… They chose silence. They chose comfort. They chose to look the other way while I was drowning. And when you have been abandoned by your own blood, something inside of you breaks in a way that is very hard to explain…Asiyah Women’s Center gave me dignity. They gave me patience. They sat with me in my pain without rushing me out of it. They spoke to me like I was a whole person when I had forgotten I was one. Do you know what it feels like to be loved by people who have no obligation to love you? It breaks you open. In the best way. It cracks through everything you built around your heart to protect yourself and it forces you to believe again, in people, in God, in yourself.”

Black Trans Femmes in the Arts

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“We are building infrastructure where Black trans femme artists own the means of production and care. With Brooklyn Org’s support, we will grow BTFA Studios into a full‑scale production hub and strengthen our residency so our artists can make work, make history and make a living,” said Jordyn Jay, founder, Black Trans Femmes in the Arts.

Accepting the award was N’yomi Allure Stewart, BTFA’s 2024-25 Artist in Residence and 2024 Rising Star Award Winner, who is currently making her Broadway debut as Associate Director of CATS: The Jellicle Ball, opening this spring at the Broadhurst Theatre. She shared:

“I discovered that being an artist and being trans was not a dead end. Black Trans Femmes in the Arts — BTFA — became not just a lifesaver, but an artistic incubator for women like me who desire sisterhood and mentorship alongside creation…BTFA saw that royalty in me before the stage did. Before I won an OBIE. Before I understood that all it takes is one person to say yes. And with that yes came support — an action that granted me permission to be here today…I am a proud recipient of support from BTFA and a proud Black trans woman working at the intersections of community organizing, theatre-making as an actress and writer, and directing.”

The B.R.O. Experience Foundation

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“Our Boys deserve safe wellness spaces where they foster authenticity, bravery, and connection. At the B.R.O. Experience we help young men of color learn how to emotionally regulate so they live healthy lives,” said Barry Cooper, founder, The B.R.O. Experience Foundation. “The Brooklyn Org Spark Prize will help us reach more than 2,000 young men each year, expand our BRO Space Wellness Center, and launch our digital bewellbro.org, bringing mentors to young men of color in communities across the borough.”

James Jefferson, Program Participant, accepted the award, sharing:

“Society will look at us and decide who we are in five seconds—before we even get a chance to figure it out ourselves. And once they’ve made up their minds? They stop investing. They stop believing. They even stop seeing our potential. The B.R.O. Experience changed that for me. They gave me something most people wouldn’t: and that’s time. The B.R.O Space showed me that growth doesn’t happen on everyone else’s schedule. It happens when you’re given space, when you’re given love, when you’re given people who actually care enough to stick around through the messy parts. I’m standing here today because the B.R.O. Experience Foundation believed that my spark wasn’t something to extinguish—it was something to nurture.”

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.)

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“Privacy is a fundamental right for people living in every neighborhood in Brooklyn, but our communities of color bear the overwhelming brunt of discriminatory surveillance,” said Michelle Dahl, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.). “The funding provided by the Brooklyn Org Spark Prize will allow S.T.O.P. to scale up our community trainings and strategic litigation to help Brooklyn communities protect privacy, increase government transparency, and limit the NYPD’s use of invasive technology.”

Marwa Sayed, Legal Fellow and Former Legal Intern, accepted the award, sharing:

“As new methods of surveillance and their flimsy justifications arise, S.T.O.P. stands alongside our community, ready to disseminate public education, advocate against their implementation, and litigate when our rights are violated. We are excited to be in this fight with you and while times are grim, they highlight even more the strength in our communities and the belief we share that a safer, surveillance-free world is possible.”

YVote

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“YVote was founded by young people who were frustrated and decided to do something about it by creating an organization that meets their needs politically, socially, and civically,” said Randy Frazer, Executive Director of YVote. “YVote helps young people move from learning to leading, so The Brooklyn Org Spark Prize will help us expand civic clubs in schools and launch new internships so Brooklyn teens can shape policy, run campaigns and vote with power.”

Accepting the award was Ariel Segura, YVote Participant and Youth Leader, who shared:

“I first got to flesh out my knowledge about civic society in YVote Programming…I am learning the importance of encouraging others to be civically engaged, especially now. As I watch the rise in undemocratic actions, I know it is important that we hold our elected officials accountable. We must learn about their actions, interact with them—and most importantly—vote. To maintain a functioning democracy, it is crucial that we all participate: youth included.

As only one of the many student-leaders raised by YVote, I cannot wait for their amazing work to bring more students into democracy. Thank you to YVote for teaching me so much, and the Brooklyn Org Spark Prize for making this possible for so many more students like me.”

Event Highlights

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Special Thanks To The Scout Fund For Underwriting the Brooklyn Roasting Company Brooklyn Backs Brooklyn Blend 12oz Tin For Every Guest!