Brooklyn Communities Collaborative

Formation of health enterprise advisory council: bcc formed the health enterprise advisory council in january 2023 in response to findings from recent participatory action research. Over the course of the year, the council gathered the acumen and knowledge of local organizations, leaders, and entrepreneurs, with core goals of implementing the recommendations from our research and to guide the work of the Brooklyn health enterprise hub beyond 2023. Key insights from the health enterprise advisory council include: informing the preparation of a series of guides to doing business with hospitals and anchor institutions; identifying local businesses ripe for contracting with hospitals; and providing ideas, suggestions and cautionary tales about the best ways to match local businesses with the hospital supply chain.

Strong Communities fund maternal health program award: in 2023, bcc applied and was selected for a grant from the robert wood johnson foundation through its building local alignment initiative to launch the maternal health program, facilitated through bcc's strong Communities fund. This community-driven re-granting program will provide community-based organizations in Brooklyn with seamless access to critically needed financial and technical resources, enabling them to support health and wellness, improve engagement and education of adolescents and young adults on pre and inter-conception care in the community, and better manage existing health conditions prior to pregnancy.

Workforce development initiatives: with support from affinity legacy, Inc. bcc spent much of 2023 planning for our latest workforce development pilot program to support re-entry and re-integration for justice-involved individuals from brownsville and east new york while strengthening the local healthcare workforce. Bcc partnered with kingsborough community college to provide community health worker training to 20 individuals and with strive to offer environmental service technician training to another 20 individuals. Community health worker training began in october of 2023, and the team spent significant time in 2023 planning for the environmental service technician training, which began in may 2024.