COMMUNITY
We work in beloved community. Artists and neighbors have space to form projects, together and apart, knowing that folks have their backs as much as they can. We are artists, writers, activists, producers, designers, and more. Street Works uses MJN’s venture studio framework for defining roles, which rejects frozen hierarchy while still honoring unique contributions and hard work.
Ernest Verrett is co-founder of Street Works and co-founder of Dabima, a tech platform making it more affordable for kids to get advice and project management tools to apply to college.
Anjali is an MJN co-founder and Street Works co-founder, artist, game designer, and writer dedicated to creating for, with, and in community in public spaces.
Mary-Elaine Bullitt is a multidisciplinary creative executive and master strategist in event production and media direction. She served as Tour Coordinator for the iconic R&B group Kool & The Gang, and went on to work with other legendary public figures including Iman, Geoffrey Beene, Oscar de la Renta, Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali, Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, The Temptations, and Color Me Badd.
Founders & Current Architects
Producers & organizers
Advisors
KALEIDOSPACE is a Queens-based collective focused on the intersection of art, activism, and community: Sunny Roberts, Manuela Agudelo, Kacia Flórez, Kelly Arango, Mark Saldana.
Contributors
2025 Street Works Earth Co-Designers
WE ACT’s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices.
ALIGN is a longstanding alliance of labor and community organizations united for a just and sustainable New York.
At the New York City level, ALIGN leads Climate Works for All, a coalition of labor, community, faith, environmental justice, and climate organizations fighting climate change and inequality in NYC by demanding a Just Transition for workers and Environmental Justice communities. Our mission is to decarbonize and make resilient NYC’s building sector while centering workers and environmental justice communities to improve people’s quality of life, health, our environment, and climate
Central to this work is our Green, Healthy Schools campaign. NYC 3K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school staff deserve safe and healthy workplaces.
QMA is an arts-centered network, holding space for civic education, mental wellness, community actions rooted in mutual aid, and climate justice.
Make Justice Normal (MJN), a collective founded in 2021 to develop and implement justice-centered organizing models—like equitable budgeting, democratic decision-making, and circular leadership structures.
El Puente is a youth-centered human rights organization, focusing on education, the arts, environmental justice and wellness to inspire leadership for social justice. Its mission is to inspire and nurture leadership for peace and justice, working as a human rights institution in NYC and Puerto Rico with national and international impact.
The Frontline Resource Institute supports frontline communities working to advance environmental justice and climate justice by providing the resources and technical assistance to build a world where all can achieve healthy, safe, and sustainable environments.
KALEIDOSPACE is a Queens-based collective focused on the intersection of art, activism, and community: Sunny Roberts, Manuela Agudelo, Kacia Flórez, Kelly Arango, Mark Saldana.
Veggie Nuggets is a Queens youth climate action group. They have worked on multiple projects, including helping to stop the NRG Astoria power plant and creating a public garden for Queens’s diverse communities to enjoy.
Street Works is a community of artists and neighbors building relationships and civic action with art. We create opportunities in public spaces for people to collaborate in making beautiful work that introduces community issues in unusual ways.
2025 Street Works Earth Community
We are a community-based safety group committed to protecting our neighbors and ensuring that everyone’s rights are respected.
We believe safety means dignity, accountability, and the freedom to live without fear of harassment and discrimination by people in power.
NY Renews is a coalition of nearly 400 climate, labor, youth, and community groups, and the force behind the nation’s most progressive climate law. We fight for clean energy, good jobs, and a healthier, more affordable New York. Following the leadership of Nations in the territory of NYS, the NY Renews Indigenous Solidarity Committee works to ensure that our fight for a Just Transition is aligned with Indigenous environmental justice, land justice, and sovereignty.
2025 Street Works Participating Committee Members: Allies of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, Sunrise Movement NYC, Central x South East Brooklyn CDC
Team AOC represents New York’s 14th District: 700,000 people across parts of the Bronx and Queens, including:
Astoria, College Point, North Corona, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and parts of Corona in Queens
Pelham Gardens, City Island, Country Club, Van Nest, Parkchester, Pelham Bay, Schuylerville, Hunts Point, Throggs Neck, Soundview, Castle Hill, Mott Haven, Port Morris, and parts Morris Park, Middletown, Longwood and Foxhurst in the Bronx
APA VOICE, (Asian Pacific Americans Voting and Organizing to increase Civic Engagement), increases civic participation and expands voting access for Asian American New Yorkers.
Convened by the MinKwon Center in 2014, APA VOICE emerged as the first pan-Asian coalition in NYC to increase civic participation rates among Asian Americans, which historically ranked lowest in the City.
The MinKwon Center for Community Action was founded in 1984 (formerly called YKASEC) in Jackson Heights, Queens as an open space for Korean Americans to devote themselves to service, youth education, and cultural activities for the community.
Connected Chef is an organization of cooks and restaurant workers on a mission to build a community-controlled food system that ensures every Queens’ household has consistent access to local, nutritious food; healthy eating education; and pathways to financial agency.
RETI Center is a model for how coastal cities can combine environmental justice, social responsibility, and innovative design to adapt to a changing climate.
Our Local Power training program uses hands-on learning and skill building in solar panel installation, workplace safety, career readiness, social entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Upon graduating from four weeks of intensive study, trainees choose from a wide range of sustainable businesses and organizations to start new careers.
Soulful Synergy is a minority-owned workforce development agency dedicated to creating equitable and sustainable communities. Since 2013, Soulful Synergy has successfully run tailored recruitment and training programs that tap into the soul of communities and upskill local workforces for clean energy and other high-demand jobs in green construction.
Western Queens Community Land Trust (WQCLT) is a nonprofit made up of activists, small business owners, professors, artists, students, and community members who fight for democratic and equitable land use in Western Queens.
We’re working on establishing a multi-site, multi-focus community land trust (CLT) to slow gentrification and act as a stabilizing force across Western Queens, from Hunters Point to Flushing.
ICI is an Intergenerational Critical Youth Participatory Action Research (ICYPAR) initiative that uses research to illuminate the issues, solutions, and contributions of NYC youth from their perspectives.
We activate our research findings to foster youth and community engagement; ignite coalition-building; and advocate for intergenerational municipal policy-making.
Tri-State Transportation Campaign is dedicated to promoting sustainable transportation, equitable planning policies and practices, and strong communities in the New York City metro area.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories focused on climate, justice, and solutions.
BronxWorks helps individuals and families in Bronx, NYC improve their economic and social well-being. From toddlers to seniors, we feed, shelter, teach, and support our neighbors to build a stronger Bronx community.
The Southeast Queens Residents Environmental Justice Coalition (SQREJC) promotes civic pride in maintaining a stable, beautiful, and desirable Southeast Queens Community through direct liaison with community residents, city agencies, and community-based organizations to ensure a clean, safe, and environmentally healthy residential community.
NYC Votes is an initiative of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, the independent city agency that ensures local elections are fair, inclusive, and open.
Dabima helps students looking to apply to college and the community surrounding them get through the application process together. They are counselors, project managers, and technology experts working together to bring down the costs of getting help.
Urban Health Plan is one of the largest federally qualified health center systems in New York State proudly serving communities in the Bronx, Corona, Queens, and Central Harlem.
NYPA's mission is to lead the transition to a carbon-free, economically vibrant New York through customer partnerships, energy solutions, and the responsible supply of affordable, clean, and reliable electricity.
Queens Climate Project is a group of Queens neighbors and residents advocating for equitable clean energy policies and developing initiatives that increase clean energy, with a focus on Queens and achieving climate justice.
Chhaya was founded to address the housing and economic needs for low-income South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers.
Environmental Defense Fund's mission is to build a vital Earth. For everyone. By leveraging our deep expertise in science and economics, EDF delivers bold, game-changing solutions to address the biggest challenge of our time — climate change.
TuTu’s Green World is a green lifestyle & education company for all ages. Reimagine a clean environment where children save our planet! That’s what we do here at TuTu’s Green World.
Founded in 2010, the Worker’s Justice Project (WJP) is a New York City worker center that educates, organizes, and fights for better work conditions and social justice in the workplace.
With a base of more than 12,000 members, WJP organizes low-wage, immigrant workers who are fighting to raise workplace standards in the construction, house cleaning, and app-based delivery industries.
We’re Girl + Environment (and yes, the "+" is for PLUS) —the national community and 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2019. We’re all about getting Black and Brown Millennial and Gen Z girlies all fired up about climate and environmental justice!
NYS DOL’s mission is to provide outstanding services to our customers - the workers and businesses that call New York home. As New York State transitions to a clean energy economy, the Office of Just Energy Transition (OJET) will connect workers to opportunities for quality jobs, upskilling, and training with a focus on serving those who are traditionally underrepresented, especially within disadvantaged communities and incumbent fossil fuel workers.
United Way of New York City partners with community organizations, government agencies, and corporate partners to support parents as their child’s first teacher, engage students through culturally relevant curriculum, and increase teachers’ capacity to learn and grow.
Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts (FCCA) presents multi-disciplinary global arts that engage and educate the global communities of Queens, New York and New York City, New York, in order to foster mutual appreciation.
As advocates of arts equity since 1979, we support local, immigrant, national, and international artists, developing partnerships and collaborations that enhance our efforts.
Latin Academy is a program educating younger generations of Latino heritage about the complex beauty of our origins. Our goal is to give them a strong sense of belonging, which will in turn create opportunities that can help foster a society of diversity and inclusion.
Queens Climate Project is a group of Queens neighbors and residents advocating for equitable clean energy policies and developing initiatives that increase clean energy, with a focus on Queens and achieving climate justice.
Mazorca Colectiva fosters alternative intergenerational spaces of care, mutual aid, collective storytelling, and cultural revival. Through community workshops and a community garden located in East Elmhurst, Queens, Mazorca Collectiva centers ancestral practices and nourishing traditions for Indigenous children, Elders, community teachers, and immigrant community that are often overworked and highly exploited by racial capitalism.
Artists
Ernest Verrett is co-founder of Street Works and co-founder of Dabima, a tech platform making it more affordable for kids to get advice and project management tools to apply to college.
Anjali is an MJN co-founder and Street Works co-founder, artist, game designer, and writer dedicated to creating for, with, and in community in public spaces.
Mary-Elaine Bullitt is a multidisciplinary creative executive and master strategist in event production and media direction. She served as Tour Coordinator for the iconic R&B group Kool & The Gang, and went on to work with other legendary public figures including Iman, Geoffrey Beene, Oscar de la Renta, Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali, Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, The Temptations, and Color Me Badd.
Memo Salazar is a Mexican-born filmmaker, writer, and activist… and a longtime resident of Queens, New York.
Kaimera [kai-mee-rah] provides platforms for audiences to come together in dialogue and examine some of the hardest questions our global society faces.
Bayeté Ross Smith is an artist, visual journalist, filmmaker and education worker, working at the intersection of photography, film & video, visual journalism, 3D objects and new media.
Purvi Shah seeds healing and transformation through anti-violence advocacy and creating art.
34th Avenue Open Street Coalition is a community of volunteers and local residents dedicated to developing community programming on 34th Avenue’s 26-block open street in Jackson Heights. Activities occur nearly seven days a week and include arts and cultural programming for people of all ages, immigration clinics, ESL classes, gardening classes, and more.