Skip to content

2025 fund cycle

Projects and People

We welcomed 140 beautiful letters of intent, 107 full applications supported by 23 mentors and reviewed by 34 readers. The Decision Circle considered 25 finalist projects and awarded $150,000 in funding to 11 community projects. Huge thanks to everyone involved in our pilot funding cycle, and congratulations to everyone! 

Who were the applicants? 

  • 44% identify as Lower and/or Working class
  • 44% identify as a person of color
  • 37% identify as LGBTQAI+
  • 23% speak a primary language other than English at home
  • 24% do not have a bachelor, masters, or doctorate degree
  • 17% have multigenerational teams

In total, applicants requested $3,370,400 in funds this year.

Funded Projects
Finalist Projects
Readers, Mentors
Decision Circle

Funded
Projects

Funded
Projects

Finalist Projects

Finalist Projects

Readers,
Mentors

Readers,
Mentors

Decision
Circle

Decision
Circle

Imagine if nobody went to sleep hungry, was fully clothed and safe, and every child had the supplies they needed to attend school in peace in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if the next generation of artists could rise right from the heart of Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if everyone in Kingston had access to safe public spaces to create and connect. ~ * ~ Imagine if nobody went to sleep hungry, was fully clothed and safe, and every child had the supplies they needed to attend school in peace in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if the next generation of artists could rise right from the heart of Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if everyone in Kingston had access to safe public spaces to create and connect. ~ * ~

Funded Projects

TST Therapeutic Safe Transit

Project Lead: Chukie Agbogun

Therapeutic Safe Transit, a social business operated by ONE STRIKE and fiscally sponsored by THRIVE ON! Network, provides therapeutic, safe transport for young people in Kingston who face barriers to participation in programs. TST pairs transportation with trained youth-centered care to support those living in hotels, shelters, or high-poverty areas, promoting safety, trust, and engagement.

GRANT AMOUNT: $12,500

Language Justice Collective: Threading a Community Together

Community Initiative, Represented by: Franci Jimenez

Although Kingston is not a monolingual city, many community members either do not know about or do not have access to the resources they need due to the dominance of English-speaking organizations. The Language Justice Collective strives to maintain its ability to assist community members establish multilingual spaces where we demystify our identities and forge lasting connections.

GRANT AMOUNT: $25,000.00

Murray Street Parklet

Community Initiative, Represented by: Thomas O'Dowd

Members of the Kingston community, especially residents of Rondout Gardens and Spring Brook Village public housing, will design, establish, and steward a public edible garden and pocket park on underutilized land in a food desert to support their own connection to fresh food, the land, and the strengthened community bonds that comes from a collective land-based project.

GRANT AMOUNT: $14,000.00

Hudson Valley Tenants Union

Project Lead: June Nemon

The Hudson Valley Tenants Union is a coalition of organizers and tenants working to build tenant associations across Kingston and throughout the Hudson Valley. While our region has been an epicenter of the housing crisis, our community has also led the fight for tenant protections which give organized tenants the power to materially change their lives for the better.

GRANT AMOUNT: $20,000.00

The IMI Program

Project Lead: Calief Housen

Career InTouch’s I.M.I. Program supports Kingston students in grades 8–12 with peer mentorship, academic support, and leadership development at Bailey, Miller, and Kingston High School. Led by trained alumni and BIPOC educators, the program builds confidence and connection while preparing young people to thrive in high school and beyond.

GRANT AMOUNT: $32,000.00

Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative

Project Lead: Devon Wood, Troy Ellen Dixon

KEFC provides direct service to food insecure people in and around Kingston. We also work toward advocacy and work with other groups/orgs to help fight food, transportation, and housing insecurity.

GRANT AMOUNT: $7,500.00

Beauty for Ashes

Project Lead: Ravin Williams

This project aims to support families facing homelessness by offering a two-day motivational workshop series and an empowerment brunch, providing essential resources to foster personal growth and resilience.

GRANT AMOUNT: $10,000.00

E.A.S.Y. Program

Project Lead: Rachel Orourke

Through the E.A.S.Y. Program, we’re nurturing local talent, empowering businesses, and keeping the benefits of growth rooted in our community. We envision a Kingston where education is a shared right, not a privilege, and every young person can pursue their dreams free from financial barriers.

GRANT AMOUNT: $5,000.00

Mujeres Artesanas de Kingston

Community Initiative, Represented by: Gabriela Portas

Mujeres Artesanas de Kingston group seeks to provide psychosocial support and creative outlets to women in the Spanish-speaking immigrant community in Kingston.

GRANT AMOUNT: $7,000.00

Clinton Community Kids

Project Lead: EmmaJean Taylor-Wade

Clinton Community Kids is a free program supporting families by providing safe, fun, and engaging activities for children on school holidays when parents still need to work.

GRANT AMOUNT: $9,000.00

Polyrhythms - Gatherings for Healing Culture

Community Initiative, Represented by: Adriana Pericchi

Polyrhythms is a Collective of Kingston-based artists, organizers, and community leaders joining forces to organize cultural gatherings that celebrate queerness and migrant / diasporic identities through art, dance, somatic practices, and music rooted in folkloric polyrhythms.

GRANT AMOUNT: $8,000.00

Imagine if childcare were accessible for all in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if voices long unheard could rise in print—affordable, local, and made with care in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if Kingston could be a place that emphasizes collaboration rather than individualism. ~ * ~ Imagine if childcare were accessible for all in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if voices long unheard could rise in print—affordable, local, and made with care in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if Kingston could be a place that emphasizes collaboration rather than individualism. ~ * ~

Finalist Projects

Community Initiative, Represented by: Diana Lopez Martinez

La Academia de Mujeres Inmigrantes es una red de mujeres marginalizadas de Centro y Sudamérica. Este proyecto busca empoderarlas, promover la solidaridad, y proveer educación e integración entre ellas y la sociedad.
Buscamos fondos para expandir nuestros servicios a la comunidad, dar empleo, y dar una oportunidad de crecmiento personal en el ejercicio de nuestras habilidades.

Project Lead: Jules Farr

Developing the Farmer Housing Working Group’s first affordable eco-housing unit for area farmers and farmworkers to live in Kingston.

Project Lead: Shaniqua Bowden

This initiative will pilot a paid fellowship program bringing together adult learners to actively participate in community-building through food sovereignty, land stewardship, and intergenerational learning. The goal is to create a mutual aid model where participants are compensated for their time while developing essential skills in permaculture, food forestry, and collective resource management.

Project Lead: Creek Iverson

Healthy & fun “full-cycle” community farm meal nights open to all will be led by the paid tri-lingual immigrant teen CITs of Seed Song’s summer youth camp, the culmination of their newly expanded Work Skills Development Program. Featured at the meals will be produce and eggs from the Community Farm Plots they’ve kept up, which are available to families for free to grow their own food.

Community Initiative, Represented by: Nicholas Abramson

Ulster Rapid Response (URR) seeks funding to build and operate a local hotline for reporting ICE incursions in the Kingston immigrant community; verifying reports; and responding to ICE with community volunteers. URR performs Know Your Rights outreach, community meetings, and trainings, and promotes URR and ICE presence awareness via Kingston Radio and social media.

Project Lead: Melissa Hewitt

Artesanía is a program by Circle Creative Collective that empowers Latina immigrant women in Kingston, NY. Through Artesanía, women develop their creative skills, achieve economic prosperity, and connect with their cultural heritage by producing handmade crafts.

Project Lead: Elvira Rodriguez

Proyecto de limpieza generador de empleos que busca generar conciencia sobre los beneficios de la limpieza en espacios y la relación de la salud fisica y mental usando productos para el cuidado de nuestro medio ambiente. Realizando actividades de “outreach” y estudiano con personas mayores para comprender sus necesidades y darles voz para un mejor desarrollo de nuestros programas de limpieza.

Community Initiative, Represented by: Dara Lurie

The People’s Wellness Initiative (PWI) will host a pilot event for a community conversation on unmet health needs for members of Black, Brown, and other historically under-resourced communities, offering a short presentation on cultivating emotional resilience that will highlight some of the specific challenges facing our targeted communities. We are partnering with existing wellness practices.

Community Initiative, Represented by: Kate Weiner

CREATIVE CLIMATE COMMUNICATIONS is a month-long community incubator hosted at Chicory Naturalist (25 Broadway) in collaboration with Hudson Valley-based publisher Loam, designed to engage residents of all backgrounds in environmental storytelling.

Project Lead: Kristina Lincoln

With support from Kingston Common Futures funding, we hope to offer free ceramics classes to the Kingston community. Grant funding would be used to pay teaching artists, cover materials such as clay and glazes, offset electricity costs for kiln firings, and ensure that all classes remain free of charge for the people of Kingston.

Project Lead: Joanna Bliss

MADE IN KINGSTON is a one-day celebration of Kingston’s Artist and Maker communities, featuring more than 70 local artists, businesses, and organizations, food and beverages from Kingston eateries, plus live acoustic music by local musicians, and visited by hundreds of local community members.

Community Initiative, Represented by: Nancy Graham

Pink Pony Project (PPP) is a website created by an intergenerational LGBTQ+/allies collective, connecting LGBTQ+ Kingstonites to services and community spaces. PPP seeks funding to 1) secure our website for confidential/private use by LGBTQ+ people; 2) hire a Spanish-language translator; 3) survey LGBTQ+ Kingston-area needs in fall 2025; and 4) promote LGBTQ+ visibility via a Pride Flags Project.

Project Lead: Tina Dierna

Rooted and Rising (R+R) is a community-centered initiative led by The COOP Concept to build a public outdoor educational space that reimagines where and how learning happens.

Project Lead: Lisa Kelley

This project aims to support students in our Youth Workforce Training Program by engaging them as key contributors—serving as producers, visionaries, and makers—in the planning and production to present the 5th annual DRAW-A-Thon, a free community event and celebration of the arts in Kingston.

Imagine if every family can grow their own food at home in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if we could bring neighbors together and regenerate midtown streets with natural beauty - block by block. ~ * ~ Imagine if everyone who experiences a mental health challenge or crisis would receive the support that they need in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if every family can grow their own food at home in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if we could bring neighbors together and regenerate midtown streets with natural beauty - block by block. ~ * ~ Imagine if everyone who experiences a mental health challenge or crisis would receive the support that they need in Kingston. ~ * ~

Mentors

Emily Flynn, Chris Woehrle, David Cagan, Dan Kass, Mary Sherman, Michael Marks, David Todd, Christina Pickard, Dennis Redmond, Amy Lenard, Lauree Ostrofsky, David Brownstein, Christina Kelly, KayCee Wimbish, Hayley Downs, Kate Walters, Kai Lord-Farmer, Lora Seery, Mia Shelton, Elizabeth Guthrie, Helena Wippick, Barbara Joy Beatus-Vegh, Lexa Walsh

Readers

Adolfo Bejar Lara, Aja Schmeltz, Alessandra Gonzalez, Amanda Cassiday, Amy Lenard, Amy Poux, Andrea Lubrano, Angélica Medaglia, Anonymous, Bailey Burke, Carol Cramer, Celia Neustadt, Chris O’Neal, Chris Woehrle, Clay Moodey, Diana Méndez, Eliacin Rosario-Cruz, Emiliano Malizia, Emily Ricci, Fiona Otway, Hélène Lesterlin, Jayme Klein, Laura Kandel, Lauren Matthis, Lisa Lerner, Marika Azoff, Micah, Minerva Solla, Molly Sterrs, Nina Scibelli, Nina Stender, Robert King, Ted Burt

Imagine if every unheard voice found harmony in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if in Kingston, belonging was something we did—not something we inherited. ~ * ~ Imagine if your beautiful song, practiced and preserved, could get you a loaf of bread in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if every unheard voice found harmony in Kingston. ~ * ~ Imagine if in Kingston, belonging was something we did—not something we inherited. ~ * ~ Imagine if your beautiful song, practiced and preserved, could get you a loaf of bread in Kingston. ~ * ~

Decision Circle

Esmeralda Lee, Damon Ely, Renee Boyd, Ana Leyva, Bridget Badore, Jenny Bates, Kathia Kilcrease, Sianna Van Dyke
*Kathia is not pictured in the group photo

Readers, Mentors

Reader, Mentor names

Be a Part of Kingston Common Futures