Mayor's Office of Community Safety

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**  

September 22, 2026  

Thirteen community-led initiatives will advance arts, interfaith connection, youth leadership, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, disability awareness, immigrant storytelling, conflict resolution, and public education

NEW YORK— The New York City Office of Community Safety’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC), in partnership with the NYC Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), today announced $120,000 in Fiscal Year 2027 Community Project Grants for 13 community-based organizations and leaders working to prevent hate, bias, and discrimination across all five boroughs.

The FY27 Community Project Grant cycle reflects the City’s continued investment in community-led strategies to prevent and address hate, bias, and discrimination. Through this funding, OPHC, in partnership with CCHR, will support a diverse range of community-driven projects across New York City, investing directly in local organizations and leaders who understand the needs of their communities.

The 13 grantees represent a broad cross-section of New York City communities and approaches to hate prevention. Their work will engage LGBTQIA+ communities, immigrant communities, people with disabilities, justice-impacted youth, and Black, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, and other communities. The portfolio includes Jewish, Muslim, Christian, interfaith, and religiously unaffiliated perspectives, with programming reaching New Yorkers across a range of languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Urdu, Korean, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, and Turkish.

“New York City’s diversity is one of our greatest strengths, and it is incumbent on all of us to protect it,” said Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Renita Francois. “These investments recognize that the most lasting solutions to hate are built in communities—by neighbors, advocates, young people, artists, and faith leaders working together. These grantees will help strengthen relationships, elevate understanding, and ensure more New Yorkers feel safe, seen, and included.”

“Preventing hate requires more than responding after harm occurs—it requires creating the conditions for understanding, connection, and shared responsibility before bias can take root,” said Dr. Ayesha Delany-Brumsey, Commissioner of the NYC Office of Community Safety. “This year’s grantees reflect the creativity, resilience, and leadership found in every corner of our city. From youth-led arts programs and disability-inclusion initiatives to interfaith dialogue and immigrant storytelling, these projects will help New Yorkers recognize bias, address conflict, and build the relationships that make communities safer.”

“Community-led anti-hate programming is one of the best ways we can invest in our city,” said Vijah Ramjattan, Executive Director of the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. “These grants protect the vulnerable, build community, and empower New Yorkers to stand together against bias and discrimination.”

“The impact of discrimination is real, and government can’t address it alone,” said Christine Clarke, Commissioner and Chair of the NYC Commission on Human Rights. “Some of the most powerful work happens within communities, led by people who know their neighbors and understand what they need. These grants allow us to support New Yorkers who are finding creative ways to bring people together, challenge bias, and make their communities safer and more welcoming for everyone.”

FY27 Community Project Grant Awardees

Pride Center of Staten Island — Out In Color 
Staten Island
The Pride Center of Staten Island will use community-based art exhibitions and workshops to amplify LGBTQIA+ and other underrepresented voices. *Out In Color* creates affirming spaces for creative expression and storytelling while using art to challenge stereotypes, build empathy, and strengthen connection and belonging across Staten Island communities. Programming will be offered in English and Spanish.

Equity Project LLC / The St. Jean Studio — Migration & Memory: Stories That Build Belonging
Brooklyn
The St. Jean Studio will bring New Yorkers together through personal storytelling and structured cross-cultural dialogue focused on migration, identity, stereotypes, and belonging. Participants will examine how media and narratives shape bias and develop practical commitments to interrupt discrimination within their schools, workplaces, families, and neighborhoods. The organization works with Black, African American, and Caribbean communities and provides programming capacity in English, French, and Haitian Creole.

Neighbors Together / Western Queens Faith Coalition — Neighbors Together
Queens
Neighbors Together will strengthen relationships among Western Queens’ diverse religious communities through shared meals, religious celebrations, dialogue, and hospitality. The coalition brings together Jewish, Muslim, and Christian institutions while creating opportunities for engagement with Hindu and Sikh communities. Its participating communities reflect Asian/Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Latino, and White backgrounds, with English, Arabic, Korean, and Spanish represented.

Alice Austen House — Staten Island GSA Pride Day
Staten Island
Alice Austen House will convene Gender and Sexuality Alliance clubs from middle and high schools across Staten Island for a borough-wide celebration of LGBTQ+ history, creativity, and belonging. Through youth-led zines, photography, museum experiences, and community-building activities, the project will connect LGBTQ+ young people across schools while reducing isolation and strengthening peer relationships.

ZMI Foundation — Bridges Not Walls: A Bias Prevention & Conflict Resolution Initiative  
Queens
ZMI Foundation will engage Southeast Queens teens in bias awareness, conflict resolution, anger management, and de-escalation using an innovative martial-arts-informed approach. The initiative also includes recurring support circles for parents and caregivers and a culminating Unity Day cultural celebration, connecting individual youth development with broader community resilience.

Music on the Inside, Inc. — Bars Beyond Bars
Manhattan
Music on the Inside will engage justice-impacted young New Yorkers through songwriting and music-production workshops led by professional musicians. Participants will use music as a shared language to explore identity, stereotypes, belonging, and respect while building relationships across differences and developing skills to recognize and interrupt prejudice and conflict. The organization reports English and Spanish language capacity.

Brooklyn FAM: Festival of Arts and Music Inc. — Shared Roots 
Brooklyn
Brooklyn FAM will produce an intergenerational arts series bringing diverse Brooklyn communities together through public art, music, dance, cultural traditions, food, and storytelling. Events in Brownsville, Flatbush Junction, and Bay Ridge will intentionally connect Black, Latino, Caribbean, West African, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Asian, immigrant, and other communities around shared identity, culture, and belonging.

T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights — Understanding Antisemitism: A Training for All
Manhattan
T’ruah will expand its public-education initiative addressing antisemitism through an accessible training designed for Jewish and non-Jewish New Yorkers. The program will build a shared vocabulary, examine antisemitism in relation to other forms of bigotry and discrimination, and provide participants with practical educational resources for continuing conversations within their own communities.

Central Queens Against Hate — Bridges of Belonging: An Interfaith Exploration of Queens
Queens
Central Queens Against Hate will bring residents into houses of worship for interfaith tours, shared meals, dialogue, and conversations with diverse religious leaders. The project responds to religiously motivated hate by helping New Yorkers better understand their Muslim, Jewish, and other faith neighbors, while incorporating photography and video storytelling to extend the dialogue beyond the events themselves.

NYC Action Group of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom — Jewish and Muslim Women Building Bridges Amid Conflict
Manhattan
The Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom will bring Muslim and Jewish women together to counter antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate through solidarity vigils, facilitated dialogue, workshops, and public engagement. The project intentionally builds relationships across religious, racial, and generational differences while modeling how communities can remain connected amid conflict and polarization. Participants reflect Black, Middle Eastern, White, and other backgrounds, with English, Bengali, Urdu, and Turkish represented.

Madison Langford — Shining a Light on Disabilities: Different Learners, Stronger Communities  
Bronx
Madison Langford will lead a school-based disability-awareness and inclusion initiative in Bronx District 11 K–8 schools. Through student, family, and educator engagement, the project will increase understanding of disabilities and different learning needs, address stigma and bullying, and equip young people to become advocates for accessibility, inclusion, and belonging.

Kingsbridge Heights Community Center — KHCCaring Community (KHCC-3)  
Bronx
Kingsbridge Heights Community Center will elevate LGBTQ+ Bronx youth as leaders and advocates across its three youth-serving sites. The initiative combines youth leadership, mentoring, restorative practices, peer education, awareness campaigns, and LGBTQ+-centered community events to create safer and more affirming environments for LGBTQ+ youth and their allies. KHCC serves highly diverse Black, African, Caribbean, Asian/Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Latino communities and offers programming in English and Spanish.

Kayhan Irani — There Is A Portal
Manhattan
Kayhan Irani will expand “There Is A Portal”, an arts-based storytelling and healing initiative for immigrant English-language learners. Through digital storytelling, creative reflection, and an adaptable ESOL curriculum, participants will explore experiences of anti-immigrant bias, challenge internalized stereotypes, build solidarity across immigrant communities, and gain information about responding to and reporting bias. The project engages immigrants from a wide range of countries and is designed for future adaptation by ESOL educators across New York City.

 A Citywide Investment in Belonging

Together, these 13 FY27 grantees demonstrate there is no single approach to preventing hate. The portfolio combines arts and culture, interfaith relationship-building, youth development, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, disability awareness, immigrant storytelling, justice-impacted youth engagement, conflict resolution, public education, digital resources, and community-led dialogue.

The geographic, cultural, linguistic, and faith diversity of the FY27 cohort enables City investments to reach communities with different experiences of hate, bias, and discrimination while building stronger relationships across those differences.

OPHC and CCHR invite all New Yorkers to engage with the awardees’ initiatives and participate in ongoing conversations about tolerance, respect, belonging, and harmony in neighborhoods across New York City.

About the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes
The NYC Office of Community Safety’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes works to strengthen prevention, education, coordination, and community-engagement efforts that address hate crimes and bias incidents. OPHC partners with City agencies, community-based organizations, faith leaders, advocates, and residents to promote safety, inclusion, and belonging across New York City.

About the NYC Commission on Human Rights
The NYC Commission on Human Rights works to eliminate and prevent discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations through law enforcement, education, policy, and community engagement. The Commission advances the City’s commitment to protecting the civil rights and dignity of every New Yorker.

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