These past few weeks have been tough for communities, neighborhoods and cities across the country and around the world. Now more than ever, we are witnessing how important it is to rise to the occasion, to come together in the face of crisis, to pool our collective wisdom, resources, heart and ingenuity in the name of connection and collective action.
Hester Street is committed to providing ongoing support to our community-based partners on the front lines of this crisis – who continue to serve low-income workers, public housing residents, homeless populations, the elderly, immigrant families, and so many more. These organizations are essential urban infrastructure and lifelines for our cities. Please join us in supporting them however you can.
We know that this is a moment for innovation – our chance to get out in front of what will be deeply damaging impacts on low-income communities and communities of color now and far into the future. And we know that it must be the people most impacted by this crisis who drive the solutions.
At Hester Street we specialize in working with communities to develop creative approaches to persistent inequities, forever seeking new and transformative ways to people-power plans, policies and projects. Whether it is climate justice in Puerto Rico, code enforcement in upstate New York or fair housing in NYC, we know that our neighborhoods must be shaped BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE in order to ensure a deeply democratic present and a just and equitable future.
One way you can do your part to ensure that future – support the 2020 Census! As you may know, Census outreach has been flipped on its head by the current crisis, but there are still many ways you can help:
• Share and remind your networks that they can complete their Census online at my2020census.gov – it only takes 10 minutes!
• Get inspired by the NYC 2020 Census Campaign Plan, produced by Hester Street and our Complete Count partners.
• Geek out on Hester Street’s Interactive Census Map – designed to leverage the abundance of existing community assets and critical social networks in hard-to-count communities for maximum impact and long-lasting partnerships.
We hope that you and your loved ones stay safe and healthy and that you support those most at-risk and in-need in these uncertain times. If you have any ideas about how Hester Street can support your favorite organizations, let us know at info@hesterstreet.org.
