Local Issues & Insights From Our 2026 Listening Tour - Brooklyn Org

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Local Issues & Insights From Our 2026 Listening Tour

A diverse group of women sit around wooden tables in a cafe, with one woman speaking and gesturing to the group.
Listening Tour 2026, Bay Ridge

Brooklyn Org’s support and grantmaking for Brooklyn nonprofits is informed by our commitment to listening to and engaging with communities at every level of our work. Since 2022, our annual Listening Tours have helped us build relationships with neighborhood leaders and grassroots organizations, and stay informed on challenges and opportunities for investment across our borough.

After completing our first three-year cycle of Listening Tours in 2024 and launching The People’s Pulse survey in 2025, our neighborhood conversations returned this year. We made stops in central and south Brooklyn and held a dedicated session with Brooklyn youth.

A group of people seated at small tables in a cafe during a meeting, with one man gesturing while speaking.
Listening Tour 2026, Flatbush and Midwood
A woman stands next to a whiteboard listing words describing a community, with attendees listening in the foreground.
Listening Tour 2026, Bay Ridge

2026 Listening Tour Findings

In September, we hosted a webinar to share what we learned. The conversation covered what community members in each neighborhood identified as opportunities for Brooklyn Org to meet their greatest needs with resources.

You can stream it here:

Text reading “Local Issues & Insights From Our 2026 Neighborhood Listening Tour, September 2026, BROOKLYN ORG.” Video

Download The Slides

Local Issues, Big Impact

The 2026 Listening Tour covered the following neighborhoods:

  • Bay Ridge / Dyker Heights
  • Bedford-Stuyvesant / Bushwick
  • Canarsie
  • Crown Heights
  • Flatbush / Midwood
  • Marine Park / Bergen Beach / Mill Basin
  • Brooklyn Youth (targeted session)

Though the needs of these neighborhoods are as diverse as the people who call them home, we found that there are a number of issues impacting Brooklynites boroughwide.

Top 3 Trends Across Sessions:

  1. Youth
  2. Environmental Justice
  3. Civic Engagement

Emerging Trends, New Since 2025:

  1. Jobs & Economic Opportunity
  2. Communication
  3. Environmental Justice

What’s Ahead

To ensure that we take our Listening Tour participants’ feedback to heart, we’re moving forward with the following next steps:

Reaching Every Part of Brooklyn: Our 2027 Listening Tour will partner with local groups in harder-to-reach neighborhoods and convene smaller sessions, to ensure that we hear from all of Brooklyn.

Investing in Community Priorities: What we heard will help inform our grantmaking. Brooklyn nonprofits can apply for our General Fund grants, Microgrants, and Neighborhood Collective Impact Project grants. Learn how to apply.

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