Discover Bed-Stuy 2011

Discover Your Neighborhood Resource and Safety Expo will be holding its fifth annual gathering next week on June 9th at Boys and Girls High School.

The event, which runs from 5pm to 8:30pm, will feature a variety of exhibits and workshops catering to the needs of the Bed-Stuy community, with reps from over 50 municipal and community service groups participating.

Also known as “Discover Bed-Stuy 2011”, the expo is being co-sponsored by the Bedford Stuyvesant Youth Education and Safety Task Force along with Community Board 3. Other partners include the Bridge Street Development Corporation, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Inc.

A food court, special workshop raffles, Kids’ Corner and a shopping bazaar will round out the festivities.

According to Michael Bailey, this year’s Discover chairperson, “This is one-stop shopping in a fun and exciting setting.  People will be able to meet and talk with representatives from municipal agencies as well as local groups of all kinds.”

Each year, the event has grown in popularity with over 600 people attending in 2010. Admission is free.

While the expo will feature a variety of workshops and entertainment designed for folks of all ages, for event organizers the main goals are to provide information to improve the quality-of-life in the neighborhood, raise community awareness and promote ideas that residents can invest in to better safeguard their homes and businesses.   

“The idea is to provide access to people who may not know that there are services available to them,” said co-chair Brenda Fryson.

As crime has increased in certain pockets of Bed-Stuy, one particular aim for Discover Bed-Stuy organizers is to inspire Bed-Stuy residents to start more block and tenant associations. The “A Safer Bed-Stuy” workshop will allow for visitors to meet with representatives from the NYPD and talk about engaging in collaborative efforts to better police-community relations.

“Retrofit Bed-Stuy Block-By-Block” is another workshop geared towards homeowners, with an emphasis on making them aware of resources available to them as well as ways to make their homes more energy efficient.

For the first time this year the expo will conduct a workshop on tenants rights, aimed at not only homeowners, but apartment dwellers and other renters.

Other workshops will focus on family resources for those in need, how homeowners can make their homes more affordable, job skills, tax exemptions for seniors, starting your business in Bed-Stuy and efforts to reduce unwarranted stop-and-frisks.

For Ms. Fryson, a longtime Bed-Stuy resident herself, the importance of Discover Bed-Stuy is to not only get more people to be aware of the resources available right under their nose, but to get more locals involved in their community.

“Bedford-Stuyvesant is my heart and I don’t think there’s any community like it,” she said. “In terms of the level of participation, whether it’s volunteer community groups, civic associations or boy scouts and girls scouts, the infrastructure makes it one of the most forward thinking neighborhoods around and we have to do more work to keep that going.”