2019 CIIP Program Book CIIP Booklet 2019 | Page 27

Community Partner: Greater Baybrook Alliance
Peer Mentor: Bentley Addison
Site Supervisor: Maria Isabel Garcia Diaz
What is the Greater Baybrook Alliance?
Our mission is to act as a catalyst and conduit for equitable development and
reinvestment in the Brooklyn, Brooklyn Park, and Curtis Bay neighborhoods and
empower our residents to strengthen our neighborhoods.
• Compiled a comprehensive
guide for community members
and organizations to follow
when greening vacant lots
• Developed and executed a
community outreach strategy for
a forthcoming mural showcasing
Brooklyn’s identity
• Developed frameworks for an
asset map of the Greater Bay-
brook area and a database of
Greater Baybrook Alliance proj-
ects
• Edited and wrote grant applica-
tions to local, state, federal, and
private agencies and founda-
tions
The first day of my internship, I arrived a bit early, so I took a bit of a walk around the neighborhood.
I climbed a steep hill covered in grass, stepped on a pristine walking path, and looked out over the
harbor. My phone told me I was in Garrett Park. Two days passed before I learned that the walking
path had been installed only several weeks before, and that before this project, the hill had looked
like the rest of the park- unkempt and cluttered with trash. I also learned that it was my new organiza-
tion that implemented these improvements to the park- that enabled the dozens of people relaxing
out there.
I soon started spending a lot of time in Garrett Park, holding stacks of surveys and launching into ex-
planations of the mural we’re attempting to erect and our desires to make it reflect community vision.
I didn’t know much about the community before my internship began, but through this process I got
to know so much about the community and the people living within it.
That’s been the best part of this summer- the conversations. Whether it’s chatting about each and ev-
ery chicken, duck, and goose (all lovingly named) after a workday at Filbert Street Garden, or talking
to a Brooklyn resident about her desire to start a Latinx homeowners’ curriculum, or hearing the local
library’s branch manager talk about her efforts to provide services to Latinx families in the area.
While I’m ecstatic at how my main project, the Community Lot Project Guide, has turned out, I know
that it would never have come to fruition if I hadn’t put it on the backburner for a few weeks. Taking
some time to learn about the community around me, to speak to people, to ask them what made
Brooklyn Brooklyn, was the best thing I could have done this summer.
The summer’s been completely and utterly different than I expected, but it was more incredible than
I ever could have imagined. Going to work each day, knowing that I would continue to learn from the
community, and work on a resource to improve equity in community revitalization projects, always
made it worth the long commute.
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