Hello neighbors and friends –
Welcome to our May newsletter! 🌸 As the blossoms bloom and the days grow longer, our outreach teams are hitting the pavement for New Yorkers. It’s one thing for a government to provide resources to its constituents. It’s another thing to ensure they can access them. That’s what we’re doing. From community events and festivals to sending calls and texts, we're linking people to essential resources like health care, job connections, affordable housing resources, and more. Read on to learn more about resources for residents in NYC.
In a New York state of mind 🗽,
The Public Engagement Unit
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Top 4️⃣ Resources We're Sharing this Month |
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Interested in leasing your vacant apartment through the Home Support Unit? You can give us a call on our new hotline number at 212-331-6240 from Tuesday to Thursday, 9am-5pm to learn more and speak with our team. We're here to help! |
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We offer free, one-on-one assistance to help older New Yorkers and those with disabilities enroll in rent freeze programs to stop their rent from rising. Our team relaunched our weekly canvassing outreach campaign this month. Learn more about Rent Freeze. |
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Jobs NYC is a new multi-pronged citywide effort to reduce barriers to economic opportunities and deliver workforce development services directly to communities across the five boroughs that are experiencing high unemployment. We’re proud to partner with this initiative by promoting hiring halls in all five boroughs, and we have already sent out over 225,000 text messages to reach out to people about job opportunities. To learn more, visit jobs.nyc.gov.
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Program Spotlight: Access Benefits with PEU |
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There are over 70 government programs and services available in NYC. Unfortunately, knowing which benefits exist and how to qualify for them is more than half the battle for many New Yorkers to get what they need. To address benefit barriers, we added a dedicated field team to our unit last year that focuses on raising awareness around critical, often underutilized, city resources. The original members of this new outreach initiative just celebrated their one-year anniversary!
With last year’s addition, we also expanded our scope of work to provide New Yorkers with comprehensive benefits eligibility screenings and assistance navigating the application process. Our Special Projects Team (SPT) conducts benefits screenings using NYC Opportunity’s ACCESS NYC screener to help New Yorkers learn what public resources are available to them. We conduct these screenings at community events and canvasses, and over the phone.
After survey recipients answer a series of questions, the tool provides individuals with a personalized collection of resources they may qualify for, and our team advises them on how and where to apply. The resources included in the screener are available for countless New Yorkers, regardless of immigration or employment status and even if they’re already receiving benefits.
SPT uses grassroots campaign tactics to bring NYC benefits and services to the people who need them most. In addition to targeted outreach about resources like Fair Fares, job opportunities, and free tax prep, the team has reached out to tens of thousands of New Yorkers to promote benefits screenings and attended nearly 90 events just this year. This month, we’re also launching a LinkNYC campaign to encourage New Yorkers to screen themselves for benefits. Visually enticing ads will appear in neighborhoods with high rates of residents and commuters who are more likely to qualify for benefits.
Want to help us promote benefits access? Take a look at our new social media toolkit here and spread the word. |
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PEU - WHO ⭐ Staff Spotlight
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Meet Melvin Evans, a Specialist on our GetCoveredNYC team. Learn more about GetCoveredNYC here What motivates you in your work?
I understand how detrimental lacking coverage can be for both an individual’s wellbeing and their family. Health challenges can disrupt someone’s life, and not having insurance only compounds these challenges. It’s rewarding to know that I’m helping to bridge the gap for the uninsured through education and application. |
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Are there any cases you’ve worked on recently that have stuck with you?
During my weekly office hours at a Bronx library, I met a Canadian mother who had just arrived in New York with her uninsured toddler. She understood the importance of having coverage for her son and worried because she was confused about the process. Like many people we meet at office hours and events, she came to the library for unrelated reasons, not planning to discuss health insurance, but ended up having a lot of questions that I could answer. We spoke for a bit, and I learned about her story and her concerns for her son. In the end, I connected her with NYC Care. And, a couple weeks later, she returned to the library to thank me for my assistance.
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The NYC Public Engagement Unit (PEU) uses community organizing principles to re-envision how the city provides services to its most vulnerable communities. Rather than expecting constituents to navigate a complex city bureaucracy to get the help they need, PEU adopts grassroots tactics to meet residents where they are — at their doors and on their phones, in their social media feeds, and in their communities. PEU combines this proactive outreach with comprehensive case management, and in doing so, builds long-term relationships between New Yorkers and their government.
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