WHAT WE DO
Throughout its sixty-year history, Morningside Area Alliance has focused its efforts in Morningside Heights and its surrounding areas. Early efforts focused on affordable housing and neighborhood stabilization in Morningside Heights. The Alliance has continued to be both a catalyst and direct service organization in areas of youth services and education, affordable housing, parks and environment, workforce development, and community public safety. For many years the MAA Claremont Youth Center provided after school and summer camp to community youth and Job Connection provided links between the community residents and employment in the MAA institutions. In 2002, MAA took a different approach to its mission, moving from a direct service organization serving a limited youth population to a new, more effective role as catalyst building broader, more sustainable partnerships to impact the community.
As a catalyst, Morningside Area Alliance acts to develop broad-based partnerships that address community issues. Based on earlier conversations between Morningside Heights and Harlem leaders in the 1990's, a number of shared concerns in areas of education, Morningside Park and the environment, economic development, health and community revitalization are being addressed today.
Parks and Environment
Morningside Park Revitalization
In 1996, the Alliance initiated a collaborative effort of institutions, churches, block associations and residents to revitalize Morningside Park. With foundation funds, a community visioning project using Project for Public Spaces produced a land use plan for the future for the park. A final twenty-year plan was developed combining the land use visioning with a full landscape that will serve for future planning. From this process, the Friends of Morningside Park [link to Friends www.morningsidepark.org] was re-established and is the major force behind the continued revitalization of the park today.
Education
The Bridge to Excellence Partnership
The Alliance works with public schools, member institutions and organizational partners to build a broad dialogue, connect and develop resources that strengthen academic performance in the local public schools with a goal of long term sustainability.
In 2004, the Morningside Area Alliance began working in collaboration with area public schools to strengthen the academic performance of its students at all levels. The purpose of building school partnerships is to address educational inequities and improve education by leveraging a diversity of educational resources that will enhance the educational success of the schools. By developing partnerships with member institutions as well as other community resources, MAA provides a sustainable future of support for the schools. From this initial effort, the Bridge to Excellence Partnership has grown from one school to a newly formed consortium of pre K-12 local public schools focusing on strengthening science, technology, engineering and math skills. Click here for more information on what we're currently doing. [link to STEM Schools Consortium blurb below on a different page].
The STEM Schools Consortium
In MAA's new role in partnership building, MAA is working with the Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) to develop a comprehensive feeder system of public schools in the surrounding neighborhoods that will ensure strong STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) resources for learning are made available. In its initial year, SEAS Doctoral Fellows work with science, technology and math teachers in pre K thorough 12th grade area public schools to build upon curriculum and projects in STEM subjects. Several middle and high schools will be working on lego robotics competitions as well as on student-designed service learning projects in STEM that address needs in their community.
A major goal in the growth of this partnership is to identify with individual schools their strengths in STEM and build capacity for sustained growth. Over time, the objective is to build bridges between the schools, creating a Pre K-12 feeder system that has the capacity to fully prepare students to pursue college studies in STEM. Morningside Area Alliance has helped to build the new consortium in response to the growth of specialized STEM programs in New York City public high schools and the need to prepare elementary and middle school students in these subject areas.
Public Safety
Public safety has been a core service of Morningside Area Alliance since the inception of the organization. Highly visible mobile patrols drive daily throughout the Morningside Heights area. Already one of the safest neighborhoods in New York City, Morningside Heights benefits from the collective security forces of the MAA institutions.
Over the years, the safety patrols and stationary posts in the neighborhood provided an increased sense of public safety to the community. For over forty years, MAA's safety patrols in combination with thriving youth programming provided important support for the renewal of Morningside Heights.
Community Revitalization
In response to concerns raised by member institutions, MAA is exploring different strategies to ameliorate the impact of the rapidly changing surrounding neighborhoods. A major focus is the issue of affordable housing. Efforts are underway for a forum that would provide a number of different ways in which churches, non profits, institutions and residents of the surrounding communities to partner in the housing development.