Van Cortlandt Park Alliance and other Bronx orgs face federal funding freeze

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump made significant federal funding cuts in education, health, foreign aid and most recently, federal funding grants for local organizations.

With the withdrawal of $12 billion in federal funding grants by the administration, several Bronx organizations who were expecting almost $2.3 million – including Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, Bronx River Alliance, Bronx Is Blooming and Nos Quedamos – are affected as a result.

The four Bronx-based nonprofits were expected to receive nearly $2.3 million in total, but agreements for the funds were revoked on March 24.

In response to the federal administration’s funding freeze, the Bronx River Alliance joined nonprofit organizations from 22 other states in filing a federal lawsuit on April 1 “to ensure these programs and their funds have served their purpose, have strengthened communities and protected the environment.”

The alliance works to restore the 24-mile Bronx River corridor which runs throughout the center of the borough and ends in northern Westchester County. Bronx River Alliance was awarded nearly $1 million in the form of a Community Change Grant – those funds have been frozen.

Christina Taylor, deputy director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, said the funding in past years has allowed them to run youth internships, which put money in the pockets of young individuals from the Bronx while they learned about their local environment.

The Van Cortlandt Park Alliance operates out of 80 Van Cortlandt Park South and was formed through a merger of two smaller organizations -- the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park and the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy. 

The organization, founded in 2019, aims to preserves and promotes the ecology, recreation, cultural arts and history of the city’s fourth largest park.

Fortunately for the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, they already received $75,000 in grant funding earlier this year to help with their Garden 2 Market paid internship which provides high school students with education on horticulture and culinary arts.

They offer their Green Scholars internship which teaches participants how to build shelters along with other outdoor and camping recreation activities. They also offer the Urban Ecology Teens internship to educate high school students preparing for college degrees and careers in environmental fields.

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Van Cortlandt Park Alliance is not a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit. Despite receiving their $75,000 grant this year, there organization still has concerns.

“We already got our funding for this year and every year the amount of funding is different, but of course it’s still something we’re worried about,” Taylor added. “We don’t know how much funding we are set to receive in the future. We are equally disgusted that the short-sighted actions of this administration will force organizations to cut their programming so they cannot hire deserving young people as planned.”

Taylor added the administration’s burn-it-all-down method of eliminating federal grants for small organizations does not make a better or more efficient government.

“It makes a mess — and, as always, the ones who suffer are the good people of the Bronx and their families,” she said. 

In his March 28 press conference highlighting Trump’s assault on the health and well-being of the Bronx, Torres added the federal funding freeze is an assault on the safety and future of all communities who depend on these organizations.

“The denial of critical investments in clean water and community resilience is indefensible,” Torres added. “I stand with these groups in demanding that these essential funds be restored immediately so that the people of the Bronx are not left behind.”

Despite judge John J. McConnell stating trumps freeze “fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,” a timeline on when the funds will be unfrozen remains uncertain.