Without a doubt, Brooklyn is the most exciting place in the world right now to be in the business of culture. From St. Ann’s Warehouse to the Brooklyn Museum, the Regina Opera in Bensonhurst to the Music Hall of Williamsburg, our borders are home to the most innovative artists, authors, performers, and producers anywhere.

We’re proud to say that Brooklyn is New York City’s community gardening capital—over 50% of the City’s gardeners plant their seeds here, and there are 46 gardens in Bed-Stuy alone. Yet of the five boroughs, Brooklyn has the second least amount of parkland per person, so it’s no wonder that resourceful Brooklynites have taken on greening public spaces themselves to provide more places to grow, learn, and enjoy in our neighborhoods.

Like tax preparation, childbirth, and cooking Thanksgiving dinner, the college application process is a pain quickly forgotten once it’s over: the payoff is worth the pursuit. Still, years later, words like “FAFSA” and “personal statement” continue to invoke shudders among most of us who’ve gone through the process of applying to college, even if we had the help of parents and guidance counselors.

Two Brooklyn Neighborhoods Lead a National Movement toward Building Stronger Foundations for Children by Weaving Services and Systems Together

It’s a big week for Brooklyn students. Youngsters’ parents submitted their applications for kindergarten assignments; eighth graders found out which high school they’ll be attending next year; and high school seniors started to get those much-anticipated college letters. At the Brooklyn Community Foundation, we’re also feeling the excitement—and a twinge of sadness—as we near the close of our first year with the Peter Jay Sharp Youth Arts Fellows.

 In the midst of an unprecedented period of growth and development, we’re feeling like a “city” again. And we are creating new ways to bring our 2.5 million residents the private and public resources that our “sister city” across the bridge already has. Chief among these is local information: the tool for engaging and inspiring our communities to take on challenges and trigger progress.

Two years ago, the New York Transit Museum—the city’s institute for all things public transportation, in Downtown Brooklyn—came to us with an exciting new idea: an afterschool program using the museum’s collection to teach social skills to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) youth.

We hope you were part of the packed house for last Sunday’s WNYC MLK Day Celebration at the Brooklyn Museum. The annual event, for which we’re a proud community supporter, took on the very timely issue of education and equality, through passionate discussion and performances.

 The Brooklyn Community Foundation is your “personal trainer” when it comes to resolving to do good in your community. We like to think of ourselves as a force for good—pushing you and your fellow Brooklynites to become more connected to your community and the issues affecting its growth and prosperity, so that you can become an agent of positive change in Brooklyn in 2012.