Grantee: Kite's Nest
In 2018, North Star Fund extended and deepened our commitment to activism in the Hudson Valley. We’re supporting grassroots power in the Hudson Valley for neighborhood and community-based organizations where local residents take the lead in designing strategy and fighting for solutions to our biggest social problems. At North Star Fund, our model is unique: volunteer leaders from directly impacted communities in the Hudson Valley selected these grantees.
We’re excited to support the vibrant power of the region’s residents taking on issues ranging from housing and displacement to immigration and food security. Here are our 18 latest Hudson Valley grants, totaling $250,000.
#100Sistas – $15,000
A collective of women of color fighting food scarcity in low-income communities through political education, direct action and community service in southwest Yonkers.
ADELANTE Student Voices – $15,000
A network of professionals and undocumented high school students in upstate New York that prepares youth for college and places undocumented youth into social justice internships across the Hudson Valley.
Black Lives Matter Hudson Valley – $15,000
High-visibility local affiliate organizing for affordable housing, environmental justice, food access, integrity in education, and gender justice with a focus on Black transgender women.
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement – $15,000
An immigrant rights and deportation defense movement in the city of Hudson that provides leadership opportunities and political education for local residents.
Community Governance and Development Council – $15,000
A Black and Latinx-led organization fighting gentrification in Southwest Yonkers with an incubator space for local entrepreneurs and social justice startups that hosts #100Sistas and Yonkers Sanctuary Movement.
Don Bosco Workers – $10,000
Port Chester’s leading worker center organizing low-wage immigrant workers against wage theft through their countywide No Pay No Way campaign.
Evergreen Garden – $15,000
A youth-of-color led gardening project to address food sustainability and food sovereignty in a low-income community in Sullivan County.
Freedom Food Alliance – $15,000
A Black-led network of organizers and farmers whose Victory Bus and community supported agriculture (CSA) project connect Harlem families with food sovereignty work in the rural communities where their loved ones are incarcerated.
Grace Latino Outreach – $15,000
The leading resource for Latinx immigrants in Dutchess County, empowering the community through Know Your Rights and deportation-preparedness workshops.
In Our Own Voices – $15,000
Albany’s people-of-color-led LGBTQ+ service and advocacy center, organizing community members for the removal of policy, practices and norms that criminalize and oppress LGBTQ+ people.
Kite’s Nest – $10,000
The city of Hudson’s youth leadership and political education center offering everyday education that weaves in opportunities for local engagement on social justice and environmental stewardship.
Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center – $15,000
A people-of-color led community hub for LGBTQ+ organizing, education and advocacy that’s currently fighting a recently-passed law that punishes low-income tenants for landlord negligence.
Rise Up Kingston – $15,000
A Black-led base-building organization in Kingston mobilizing local residents to address inequities in housing and education by taking on local political decision-making to make it more responsive to community needs.
Schaghticoke First Nations – $10,000
A grassroots organization of Schaghticoke leaders, convening families that have been displaced from their ancestral land to reclaim their cultural and spiritual practices and to secure land for their future.
Staley B. Keith Social Justice Center – $15,000
An intergenerational Black-led community resource organizing for social and racial justice through their court advocacy program and grassroots civic engagement in the city of Hudson.
VOCAL – NY – $10,000
A statewide grassroots membership organization building power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration and homelessness through leadership development and direct action.
Workers Justice Center of New York – $15,000
The premier legal services and grassroots advocacy organization for farmworkers and other low-wage workers in upstate New York.
Yonkers Sanctuary Movement – $15,000
A vibrant local community that educates and mobilizes immigrants and allies in Yonkers to keep immigrant families safe from detention and deportation.