My, my, my, what a journey 2019 has been! It was the year of transformation. As we begin 2020, the year of “no time” symbolically it feels like anything is possible. 2020 is for flying and being present in all that we have manifested up until this point. It feels like our organization has come such a long way in such a short amount of time. We will be approaching our 5th birthday! We are so grateful to you all and the community we have built around our important community development work. We can only hope to keep growing and nourishing our community together, day by day, moment by moment. We would like to share some news with you on how our year went in 2019! 

Coming Soon 2020 !!!

So the cat is out of the bag! We have closed on The Carver Community Center in December of 2019! Yay!! We finally did it and we could not have done it without all of your support and the help of MANY! We would like to give a special thank you to The Albany Law Community Development Clinic & Bluelight Development Group for supporting this important cause! We are soliciting for bids to begin renovations at the site in the Spring of 2020. If you know a MWB/E who might be interested in putting in a bid, please reach out directly to Travon Jackson at tjackson@bluelightdevelopment.org You can find the bid solicitation in the Gazette Newspaper, on our website, and on our Facebook Page!

2019 Recap – Come Unity Basketball League

We continued our programming for The Come Unity Basketball League in Jerry Burrell Park along with Yoga in the Park. We provided programming for over 200 individuals and families in Schenectady this year. Our summer league was successful and as always, affirming that we are holding a safe space for our community. We collaborated with Project LIT which is a school based program from Schenectady City School District that provides students with resources to aid them in enhancing their literacy. In addition to the abundant amount of collaboration among community organizations, the league coaches acted as mentors to their players on the team. Miracle on Craig St. Board Member Raeshelle Frasier states “Often times we tend to let our ‘titles’ define and dictate relationships with others. The basketball league was able to provide a safe space for equality and voluntary co-existence between school officials, teachers, principal’s from Schenectady City School District, police officers, community leaders, City Council representatives, community members and students. Thank you to The Times Union Hope Fund and Pioneer Savings Bank for supporting the program this year!

2019 Recap – Project Backyard

2019 was our second year offering Project Backyard, a program aimed to help first time and returning gardeners to grow their own food in their backyard. The amount of ease and joy people have being able to have access to their own raised bed in their backyard is priceless. We worked with five families this year to help reconnect them with their roots and getting back to the land and ancestral wisdom we all carry. There is so much magic in this work especially and the reciprocal relationship between living earth and living human. We are humbled to be able to hold the intention to create access and share/exchange knowledge about ritual, history, and sustenance as it pertains to soil, food, plants, health and environment. We wish to introduce our programming to additional community organizations and schools this year!

Fundraising Recap 2019

The only way to approach fundraising is with the significance of your soul purpose work in mind! Fundraising can be a beautiful thing because you get to meet beautiful people, who are generous, kind, and giving. You get to see people’s hearts, you get to bear witness to a type of hope and belief in the collective that unfortunately we don’t get to witness enough. The challenging parts of fundraising metaphorically are the same challenges with life–time is precious and has to honored as such, some structures need fixing and some people who are well deserving have to go without. We have done our best this year to balance fundraising tasks with our presence in our community building work. This year alone we have raised $50K for our organization and Capital Campaign!! We’re excited and optimistic about what this year holds for us on the fundraising scene, as we dive into renovations at the Carver Community Center. We are also intently looking forward to building our sustainability resilience by finalizing our partnerships and tenants at our new but familiar home. 

Grant Writing Seminar – 7 Spots left!!!

In the spirit of fundraising, grant writing and making miracles happen, we are offering a Grant Writing Seminar on January 18th from 9am-1pm with Rosa Rivera. This seminar will cover how to get started writing your grant for your program, basic budgeting for your program, resources and grant opportunities, and best practices in grant writing. We believe that sharing and the exchange of knowledge is instrumental in our success. If we are not creating and supporting leadership in community learning (especially by and for marginalized groups) we are not evolving and we are not building capacity. There is a $90 fee for the seminar. The contributions for the seminar support, sustain and facilitate collective learning and sharing in our local community. You can register or sponsor a ticket for the seminar HERE. 

New Year Giving – Make a Contribution!

You have all of the time in 2020 to support Miracle on Craig Street and our journey home to The Carver Community Center. You and/or your organization can become a Pave The Way Sponsor and receive a brick with your name on it that will be laid in a path to the Community Center. If you are interested in becoming a Pave The Way Sponsor, check out our donor site HERE. If you would like to mail us a New Year donation you can do so through our website or send a present to PO BOX 357 Schenectady NY 12301. Your donation is tax deductible and we appreciate your light!

As always, I am blessed to serve in this role and take the time to be still and grateful for all the good things 2019 has showered upon us. 2020 is here and we are excited about all that it has in store! Thank you for all that you do to support us and the community at large!

In Gratitude, 

Rosa Rivera