Spotlight | Uprose in Brooklyn

Welcome to Broadway Stages’ Spotlight, where we feature local shops, restaurants, organizations, individuals, and venues that provide goods and services to our community. This week, as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we sing the praises of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization!

Broadway Stages works hard to ensure environmental progress, and we are also proud to be a woman-led organization and certified NYC M/WBE company. So, it is natural that we would have an affinity for an organization like UPROSE that is a women of color, intergenerational, multi-racial, nationally-recognized community organization founded in 1966.

UPROSE’s efforts occur at the intersection of social, racial, economic, environmental, and climate justice. It does so through community organizing, education, leadership development, and cultural/artistic expression. Primarily, UPROSE promotes climate justice and a just transition in the Sunset Park community in Brooklyn.

But the scope of their efforts is vast, from environmental justice and public health initiatives to the development of the waterfront and local brownfields. It also includes transportation, open space and air quality needs, and educational and youth empowerment campaigns.

With so many areas of focus, it is imperative that their different campaigns and initiatives naturally feed into, complement, and support one another. To guarantee this, they have adopted a set of six guiding principles.

The first principle is to be inclusive. This means ensuring everyone involved in decision-making has an equitable share of this world’s wealth and work. The second principle is putting an emphasis on bottom-up organizing. They do this by reaching out to new constituencies, all levels of leadership, and the organization’s membership base. Thirdly, they let the people speak for themselves. All relevant voices of people directly affected are heard.

The fourth principal is working together in solidarity and mutuality by consciously supporting each other’s work. Fifth is building relationships among themselves. This means treating each other with justice and respect, both on an individual and an organizational level, in this country and across borders. Finally, they have made a commitment to self-transformation. With this, they focus on changing from operating with individualism to community-centeredness.

UPROSE has achieved groundbreaking accomplishments in community-based planning, energy democracy, and just development. Their impressive achievements have included:

•          Organizing the largest gathering of young people of color on climate justice

•          Stopping the siting of power plants

•          Doubling the amount of open space in Sunset Park

•          Leading a successful urban forestry campaign

•          Sending Youth Leaders to 1st tier Colleges

•          Bringing back the B37 bus line

•          Sending youth leaders on scientific expeditions to Antarctica and the North Pole

With such a diverse and demanding agenda, it can be hard to keep track of all that is happening. So, Broadway Stages suggests you follow them on their Facebook and Instagram pages. They are informative and inspiring.

Broadway Stages is dedicated to a more equitable and flourishing New York City. And it gives us confidence that this is achievable step-by-step with allies like UPROSE. You can support them and their endeavors by volunteering, becoming a Block Captain, giving financial support, or attending their events.