ioby blog

For many city dwellers, the concept of urban farming seems contradictory.  For others, it provides a way to grow fresh food in their corner lots, backyards, and windowsills. But for the people living at four supportive housing residences in Brooklyn, NY, urban farming has come to represent a new lease on life.

Ahmed Tigani, a sound and light designer/technician, full time urban studies graduate student, and Vice President of the Manhattan Young Democrats, talks about the arts as a common denominator for organizing, the importance of persistence, and learning to live without all the answers.

Last Spring, the Red Hook Youth Baseball League celebrated its 14th birthday, which officially makes the initiative older than most of its players!  The league was established by a partnership between the Red Hook Community Justice Center and their neighbors in response to concerns over a lack of extra curricular athletic programs for the local youth. The league has also doubled as a meeting ground for families (the players and their parents) and local law enforcement, who often act as volunteer coaches, which has strengthened community relations from a grassroots, interpersonal level.

The next in the series from ExchangeMyPhone, our friendly reusing guest bloggers dig into the Bushwick Co-op and the many ways it differs from other co-ops, like Park Slope's, for instance.

With February 14th in mind, ExchangeMyPhone has written this Valentine series for ioby highlighting a handful of people and organizations that perform labors of love for the borough’s wellbeing.

In 2008, ioby co-founders new they had a great idea, but didn't know what the organizational structure should be to support it. Here's how we decided to become a nonprofit.

A thirty-minute subway ride from downtown Manhattan, at the very northern end of the island in Washington Heights, is Highbridge Park. Like most New York City neighborhoods, Washington Heights has its fair share of bodegas, barbershops, and restaurants. But Highbridge Park’s crowning glory, Ft. George Hill, makes this neighborhood different. 

David Bragdon, Director of Long Term Planning and Sustainability for the City of New York, talks about the importance of big visions and small actors in his native NYC, and moving beyond regulatory convention to promote the common good.

A New Farm in Cypress Hills/East New York and Gowanus Green Wayfinding Project
Take the Lead in Initiating Crowd-Funding Match 

Do you want to join that cool club of people who give a dollar a day to make NYC neighborhoods stronger and more sustainable? It's not too late! Join by Jan 18 and you'll be invited to our kickoff party.

Not everyone is fun to buy gifts for. There's always that one person who has everything. And then there's that other person who never seems to want anything. 

For these difficult loved ones, why not give the gift of stronger and more sustainable neighborhoods?

Now on ioby, you have two gift options for these special someones.

We had a great workshop session on Saturday to get feedback on our Recipes for Change toolkit.  Thanks to those who came, we had a range of participants: young and old, local residents and visitors from abroad, project leaders and people with just great ideas for projects in their neighborhoods.  That diversity of participation led to insightful feedback on aspects to make us better from an array of perspectives. 

Funderpants is the word on everyone's lips. Funderpants is the hot new philanthropic style everybody who's anybody is talking about. Funderpants is for donors.

During an era of especially small budgets and limited resources, we at ioby have been very impressed with the efforts of very innovative environmental organizations to work together. We believe that we as a community of environmental activists have a lot of work ahead of us and that we have to work together to achieve real results. Fully acknowledging that collaboration is difficult, we are filled with admiration of the following groups for their collaborative efforts.