More than 2,000 attend meeting with de Blasio at Brooklyn Bridge Marriott
More than 2,000 faith and community leaders working with the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation filled ballrooms at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday for an assembly to accelerate efforts to improve the standard of living for their fellow New Yorkers. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is familiar with the work of Metro IAF, kept his commitment to attend and respond to the needs addressed at the assembly.
Metro IAF is the nation’s first and largest coalition of multi-faith organizations, with seven decades of experience winning tough battles across the nation, according to literature distributed at Sunday’s assembly. Among the 55 organizations that are part of Metro IAF is East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC) which brought 1,300 leaders to the assembly, reported Pastor Tyrone Stevenson of Hope Christian Center and EBC. East Brooklyn Congregations also has member churches from western Brooklyn, including Grace Church-Brooklyn Heights, which brought 13 members to the assembly.
The meeting updated members on IAF’s aims, which include ongoing efforts to make sure affordable housing is built, to improve conditions in the New York City Housing Authority buildings, to create new communities of diverse schools with the idea that there is room for them all, to reduce the threat of gun violence, and to announce new initiatives in senior housing and creating safe playgrounds for the city’s youth.