To mark its tenth
anniversary, the Union Square Awards has announced awards to eight emerging
community organizations in New York
City as well as Special Achievement Awards to four
notable past recipient organizations.

Each of the emerging
organizations will receive a $50,000 cash prize in recognition of their work
dealing with critical issues that would otherwise be overlooked, neglected, or
inadequately addressed. The awardees — grassroots activists working on a range
of social justice concerns from Brooklyn’s Sunset Park to the South Bronx — are
the Arab American Association of New York, Grassroots Artist Movement
(G.A.M.E.), In the Spirit of the Children, the Interfaith Coalition of
Advocates for Reentry and Employment (ICARE), La Unión de la Comunidad Latina,
Mentoring in Medicine, Queens Congregations United for Action, and the Red Hook
Initiative. In addition, Special Achievement grants of $100,000 for general
operating purposes will be awarded to the Harlem-based Brotherhood/Sister Sol;
Hour Children in Queens; Brooklyn-based Make the
Road New York; and
Bronx-based Community Development Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice for
building leadership.

"We wanted to make
this, our tenth year, a particularly unique and uplifting one," said Union
Square Awards executive director Iris Morales. "So we decided to add the
Special Achievement award for past Union Square Award recipients. Their work is
recognized nationally and internationally for revitalizing local neighborhoods
and making significant and lasting contributions to the people of our
city."