The Brooklyn Community Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $1.9 million to youth-serving nonprofit organizations in the borough, boosting the foundation's funding for youth-serving nonprofits to $2.3 million in 2016.

The foundation's Invest in Youth initiative supports community-based nonprofits working to transform the lives of young people and improve social and economic opportunities and outcomes for 16- to 24-year-olds, particularly young people of color. This year, forty-three nonprofits were awarded renewed funding through the program, while seventeen organizations received first-time grants ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 deployed in one of three strategic investment areas: Youth Leadership, Youth Justice, and Immigrant Youth.

In the area of Youth Leadership, BCF awarded a total of $960,000 to thirty-two community-based organizations working to position youth as long-term leaders in their communities. Recipients include the Red Hook Initiative, Green City Force, Groundswell, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, and Girls for Gender Equity. In the Youth Justice area, the foundation awarded grants totaling $595,000 to eighteen advocacy and direct-service organizations working to address the far-reaching effects of young people’s encounters with the criminal justice system, including the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, the Center for Community Alternatives, and Teachers Unite.

The foundation also awarded grants totaling $360,000 to ten nonprofit organizations that help immigrant youth in Brooklyn develop their leadership skills so that they can advocate for themselves and organize for change in their communities. Recipients include Atlas:DIY, the Arab American Association of New York, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.

For a complete list of the 2016 Invest in Youth grant recipients, see the BCF website.