The
Red Hook StarªRevue
FEBRUARY 2016
SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FREE
EMPOWERMENT THROUGH BASKETBALL by Nathan Weiser
I
f you are between the ages of 17 and 24 and want to change your job prospects while improving your life and like basketball then the Rebound program at the Miccio Center is one worth pursuing. The program’s official schedule is from Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. From 10:30 until noon participants will be able to go through valuable workshops where they learn about work readiness, financial literacy, conflict resolution and life skills. From noon until 1:30 p.m., the young adults receive basketball instruction with life lessons incorporated. “Anybody can join,” program director Mark McCaskill said. “As long as they are trying to do something positive with themselves. We feel that if they want to do something with themselves we can really help them. I know we can help them.” People who are trying to find work or are trying to get into or finish school are encouraged to join this program. It could be college, it could be high school equivalency or it could also be
a trade school.
ALSO INSIDE
The Rebound program initially began in East New York and it has moved onto Red Hook based on the success it saw during its first year in East New York. According to Tricia Blanchard, who is the assistant director of external relations of Good Shepherd, who oversees the program, they had an opportunity to expand so they expanded to the Miccio Center. In December, the Rebound program finished its second cohort in East New York and first in Red Hook. Rebound saw its participants go onto have success in various fields after finishing its first cohort in East New York. According to McCaskill, participants worked in Sanitation, at BET, at Starbucks, while some went onto SUNY schools upstate and some have gone to trade schools. During Rebound’s first session in East New York they contracted with 76 people and had an 80 percent placement rate. In the fall, in their first group at the Miccio Center, which was eight weeks from October to Decem-
Mark McKaskill of the Rebound program.
ber, they worked with 20 participants. In the fall session in Red Hook, they had 25-30 came through this door and about 20 continued for the duration of the program. Some were from the immediate area of Red Hook, some from Sunset Park, some from Crown Heights and some were from Fort Greene.
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by George Fiala
permanently disbanded. He said that Councilman Carlos Menchaca had generously added $ 1 million to the existing million that the previous councilwoman had allocated for library renovations, enabling them to proceed with the planned upgrade of the library’s air condition system. In addition, there will be a redesign, in large part based upon the community suggestions.
The Red Hook community came out in force on that steamy evening to tell CB6 and the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) that instead of losing part of their library to a dance studio, they wanted a better library. Faced with such a vehement protest, BPL was forced back to the drawing board, and in April of this year, they partnered with an organization called NYcPublic.org to conduct a charrette at PS 15 to find out what exactly the community wanted for its library.
Red Hook Star-Revue
Red Hook loves Valentines Day! - pages 8,9
The new design will be carried out by architects from the NYC Economic Development, who had already starting working with the library on the Spacework plan. It was revealed that $192,000 has already been spent on design, meaning that the conversion to a dance studio was in fact closer than most realized. That plan will now be updated using the same EDC design team.
On Wednesday, October 6, BPL came back to the Red Hook branch with an update. David Waloch, BPL Executive Vice President, who presided over the August 2014 meeting, returned to say that the Spacework plan has been
- page 14
They actively recruit through the Mic-
Red Hook Library to be renovated using community ideas n the summer of 2014, Community Board 6 (CB6), held a meeting at the Red Hook library to discuss an experiment called Spaceworks that was in planning for the branch. This was a Bloomberg-era idea in which underutilized space in city owned properties would be repurposed.
Raga at Pioneer Works
Among the considerations will be what NYCPublic identified as the most popular ideas coming out of the charrette: Carlos Menchaca embraces Head Librarian Sandra Sutton after the meeting.
1 – A flexible community space
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Red Hook holds another Summit - page 7
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February 2016, Page 1