Brownsville is on the move. A new cinema. A new college partnership to foster entrepreneurship in the community. Hundreds of students preparing for careers in the future. Millions of dollars in new funding. It’s a story every neighborhood in NYC can learn from, and today, JobsFirstNYC tells that story in our latest publication from our Innovations in the Field series Innovations in the Field: Brownsville Hub Cooperative.

Launched in 2021, the Brownsville Hub Cooperative (BHC) develops community-led solutions to spark economic growth in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The BHC uses a people-centered, equity-based approach to create a self-sufficient community that builds individual and community wealth through education, ownership, business, and workforce development. The BHC is made up of four lead partners: Community Board 16, Youth Design Center, the Brownsville Community Justice Center, and the Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (CBEDC). Since early 2019, JobsFirstNYC has worked closely with the lead organizations to secure investments and build out the infrastructure for a sustainable partnership.

Download the Executive Summary

“By centering the voices and experiences of Brownsville residents, we have created a people-centered, equity-based approach to economic development that is comprehensive and inclusive. Our work is not just about addressing immediate needs but about creating long-term pathways to economic mobility and self-determination.”
– Lori Boozer, Managing Director, Robin Hood Foundation and proud Brownsville resident

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In September 2019, Robin Hood Mobility Learning and Action Bets (Mobility LABs) awarded the BHC a planning grant to develop solutions that were both data driven and heart led, with JobsFirstNYC as the anchor partner. The planning process was expected to yield plans for pilot approaches to address gaps in mobility from poverty. The BHC then received implementation funding to test and implement the pilot approach over a 3-year period beginning in late 2020. Robin Hood awarded this implementation funding—$1.58 million—to the BHC. This Innovations in the Field paper is a documentation of the strategies and learnings of this pilot initiative, and seeks to uplift the journey of BHC as a powerful model for communities nationwide who are seeking to build similar infrastructure for economic growth.

Why is the BHC such a transformational model?

Brownsville residents are the experts in what the Brownsville community needs in order to thrive. The BHC model leverages the long-standing relationships and community programs that have already been strengthening the community for many years. The BHC is unique in that it is made up of community members and works to make sure that the money that is given to help the community turns into projects that directly benefit residents.

How is the BHC helping the community thrive?

1. The BHC offers grants and continuous support for local nonprofits, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, as well as conducting needs assessments to guide their efforts.
2. Many Brownsville entrepreneurs operate informally and need better connections to the formal economy. The BHC helps bridge this gap by providing resources and support to formalize and grow these businesses. It also enhances residents’ readiness for home ownership through financial education and access to capital.
3. The BHC connects young people (ages 14–26) to skills training, education, wealth-building opportunities, and wraparound support through programs such as apprenticeship training and a Street Team Fellowship Program.
4. The BHC aims to integrate the underground job market into the formal economy, providing necessary resources for small businesses to thrive. This includes a cooperative accelerator program which supports local co-op models with seed funding.
5. The success of the BHC relies on a strong communication and marketing plan that connects residents with the partnership and with one another. The BHC holds regular community meetings to highlight local voices and stories and act on community needs.

Bright Spots

Since launching in 2021, the BHC has been an effective approach to community-driven economic development. There have been many bright spots, among them:

1. The BHC established the Brownsville Business Corridor Revitalization Project to create economic opportunity for local entrepreneurs and incubate Black-owned businesses. As part of this initiative, the BHC is partnering with ten local businesses to expand their footprint in the Brownsville community. Two of these businesses, Cornbread and Stuart Cinemas have already found locations and Stuart Cinemas is on schedule to open in Spring of 2025.
2. The College Partnership for Entrepreneurship Initiative, made up of four colleges and a legal services institution, partnered to train community members with a newly developed entrepreneurship curriculum. The New York State Education Department approved the resulting Community Entrepreneurship Certificate, ensuring that participants receive college credit for completing the course.
3. The BHC launched a construction and trades initiative that provided 125 graduates with OSHA certificates through their Brownsville Workforce Alliance. This alliance continues to simplify and streamline the processes for residents to access training opportunities and employment.
4. The BHC’s investment in the Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (CBEDC) expanded its capacity by transitioning the executive director to full time and adding three new staff members. This strengthened team has been key in developing the BHC subcommittees and implementing an effective community engagement strategy. This investment has solidified the CBEDC’s role as the partnership’s backbone and ensures that the impactful work can continue sustainably.
5. The BHC served as inspiration for New York City’s proposed economic mobility HUBs. As a result, BHC was cited by City Hall as the partnership model for its community development strategy.

What Has Been Learned Through the Project?

In addition to being recognized as an exciting model for community-led economic development in New York City, the work of the BHC has also been recognized nationally. In fact, the Urban Institute highlighted the BHC’s framework as a “promising” innovation that can “help serve as the sort of local platform to build locally designed equitable development efforts in the next decade.”

The BHC’s journey offers the following key lessons for government, philanthropy and community leaders seeking to build similar infrastructure within their communities.

1. Build on Existing Plans: Rather than starting fresh with a brand new plan, the Brownsville Hub Cooperative recognizes the importance and value of work that has already been done within the community and ensures that money and other resources support and expand that work.
2. Center Humanity and Lived Experience: Much of the work of the BHC is about creating spaces for community members that address community trauma and distrust of systems that have historically not delivered the promised help to community members. The BHC works to make sure that the programs that are offered to residents are helpful and meaningful to them.
3. Keep Wealth in the Community: The BHC works to make sure that the money earned by Brownsville community members stays in Brownsville and serves the greater purpose of making Brownsville a more desirable place to live. The BHC aims to help residents be able to buy their own homes and start their own businesses, rather than relying on outside support.
4. Uplift Resident Leaders: There are many incredible leaders in Brownsville who make the community what it is. This project has shown just how important it is to support those leaders in driving change in the community.
5. Develop Partnerships: There are a lot of programs and services in Brownsville that residents might not know about. Sometimes, the people who carry out the programs and community services aren’t aware of the other resources themselves. The BHC works to connect all the resources in the community and bring them together in one place.
6. Resilience in Crisis: The project has shown to the entire country the incredible strength of the Brownsville community as they have come together during crises like COVID-19 and the fight for racial justice.

Call to Action

The Brownsville Hub Cooperative is transforming community-led economic development. By focusing on local voices and cross-sector collaboration, the partnership has already begun and will continue to create lasting economic growth and self-sufficiency in Brownsville. The BHC’s early development provides a model for how funders, government, workforce intermediaries, and other key stakeholders can work together to not only build individual and community wealth, but also to challenge and disrupt entrenched systems that have long hindered economic progress for young adults and their communities.

For more about the BHC, read the full report here or contact Roman Jackson, Vice President, Community Solutions at JobsFirstNYC via email at rjackson@jobsfirstnyc.org.

We also invite you to:

1. Support city and state policies that focus on place-based solutions to drive economic mobility.
2. Invest in initiatives that center the pre-existing work and well-thought out plans of resident leaders in the communities we serve.
3. Reach out to us to share your feedback and learnings from this report.
4. Amplify the impact of our work by sharing this report within your organizations and broader networks.

About Innovations in the Field
Innovations in the Field is a series showcasing JobsFirstNYC’s pioneering projects and partnerships that drive economic mobility for young adults and the communities they call home. Through this series, we spotlight dynamic cross-sector collaborations for increasing economic opportunity. These initiatives highlight groundbreaking approaches for scaling effective solutions.