Long-time environmental justice advocacy organization UPROSE will celebrate its 50th anniversary at a gala in Fort Greene this evening.
UPROSE, which is based in Sunset Park, on 22nd Street, describes itself as an “intergenerational, multi-racial, nationally-recognized community organization that promotes sustainability and resiliency…in Brooklyn.”
UPROSE says that it tackles these objectives through a variety of means — community organizing, education, leadership development and cultural/artistic expression.
The group has worked on a multitude of local and regional environmental justice and sustainability issues in its long history — including fighting to protect the Sunset Park waterfront’s industrial character, helping to plan the Bush Terminal Piers Park, facilitating the design of a community “Greenway-Blueway” for Sunset Park, and advocating for climate resiliency planning across New York City that is focused on the needs of local communities.
After Superstorm Sandy, UPROSE launched the Sunset Park Climate Justice and Community Resiliency Center, which they describe as NYC’s “first grassroots-led, bottom-up, climate adaptation and community resiliency planning project.”