NYC H2O
Dear NYC H2O Community,
We write to you with profound sorrow and pain over the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless more. In working to create a collaborative team response, we have used this time to listen and reflect on the dialogue going on around us. We want our community of students, teachers, and environmental advocates to know that we stand in solidarity with the fight against systemic racism, white supremacy and the historic oppression of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
The murders of unarmed Black citizens continue to expose the systemic brutalization of Black communities. These horrific events are not isolated -- they are emblematic of the pervasive violence and oppression wrought by a system that targets and exploits BIPOC communities. These injustices have sparked momentous protests across New York City, the United States, and the world.
As an organization that focuses on environmental education, we recognize that our most vulnerable communities are often overlooked or left out of the conversation. We appreciate the significance of the ways we influence how students understand NYC’s water ecology and park spaces. We have the ability and responsibility to approach the historical narrative of NYC’s water system with a critical lens and create nuanced discussions that promote understanding between communities.
We are committed to furthering this statement through the following actions:
As we continue to educate ourselves to create a deeper, more inclusive perspective on our work, we plan to add concrete steps to this list. We welcome and invite you to join us as NYC H2O embraces further steps to honor these principles in our commitments and programs.
In solidarity,
The NYC H2O Team
We write to you with profound sorrow and pain over the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless more. In working to create a collaborative team response, we have used this time to listen and reflect on the dialogue going on around us. We want our community of students, teachers, and environmental advocates to know that we stand in solidarity with the fight against systemic racism, white supremacy and the historic oppression of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
The murders of unarmed Black citizens continue to expose the systemic brutalization of Black communities. These horrific events are not isolated -- they are emblematic of the pervasive violence and oppression wrought by a system that targets and exploits BIPOC communities. These injustices have sparked momentous protests across New York City, the United States, and the world.
As an organization that focuses on environmental education, we recognize that our most vulnerable communities are often overlooked or left out of the conversation. We appreciate the significance of the ways we influence how students understand NYC’s water ecology and park spaces. We have the ability and responsibility to approach the historical narrative of NYC’s water system with a critical lens and create nuanced discussions that promote understanding between communities.
We are committed to furthering this statement through the following actions:
- Create an urban environmental justice module in our Virtual Hub;
- Present a more inclusive history of NYC, its water system and its connection to equitable access to public health;
- Deepen our commitment to working with schools in under-served neighborhoods across the city; and
- Amplify the BIPOC voices within the field of Earth Sciences and environmental education in our programming and events.
As we continue to educate ourselves to create a deeper, more inclusive perspective on our work, we plan to add concrete steps to this list. We welcome and invite you to join us as NYC H2O embraces further steps to honor these principles in our commitments and programs.
In solidarity,
The NYC H2O Team
MissionNYC H2O’s mission is to inspire and educate New Yorkers of all ages to learn about, enjoy and protect their city’s local water ecology. Through providing public and school programs at historic reservoirs, parklands, watersheds, bays, rivers and wetlands, we encourage diverse citizens to advocate for responsible public policy. Our activities promote science-based knowledge of New York’s local ecosystems and of what is needed for urban water resilience in a time of escalating climate change impacts.
Although NYC H2O received its 501(c)(3) designation in May, 2012, it began offering education programs in 2009 to adults and school groups. Over the last seven years we have offered 120 educational programs focused on NYC’s water system and ecology to a combined audience of 4,000 people. This audience has included dozens of engineers, city planners, and professors, attesting to the quality and informational rigor of the programs. Events have included bike, walking and reservoir tours in NYC, hikes upstate, paddling in the Catskill watershed, public lectures on infrastructure and water conservation, sewage plant tours, and beach cleanups. During paddles and hikes, NYC residents get to see and touch one of the actual sources of their water. We began offering the Water Ecology & Engineering STEM Field Trips Program in 2014 for students from second grade to high school. In 2014, the first year of reservoir trips, we gave 50 tours reaching 1,200 students. In 2017, we gave 173 field trips reaching 4,780 students, 90% of whom were from Title I Schools. We have found that adults and children alike are deeply touched by participating in our activities; resulting teacher interest and word of mouth have rapidly expanded the demand for our school tours. Our goal in 2018 is to offer 180 tours reaching 5,000 students. NYC H2O has an extensive network of experts in the field of engineering, history, geography and city planning with whom we work. Our partnerships connect us to a vast base of knowledge about the water system and the latest developments to the city’s infrastructure, keeping our programs up-to-date. Furthermore, many of the people who attend NYC H2O programs are engineers and city planners which allows us to further extend our network. NYC H2O also has a network of NYC 2,000 teachers, enabling us to effectively promote field trips to schools. |
About Us
Matthew Malina founded NYC H2O in 2009. As Executive Director of NYC H2O, he initiated its tour, lecture, field trip and beach cleanup programs. Malina is a native New Yorker and studied engineering at the University of Virginia, graduating with a bachelors and masters in Applied Math. He was a public school math teacher and since 2006, a math tutor. Malina is a founding member of InTandem, a tandem cycling program that enables blind athletes to ride by pairing them with sighted athletes. He served as its Operations Manager for 3 years. Malina is currently leading NYC H2O in its most ambitious project, the protection and preservation of the Ridgewood Reservoir. H2O wrote the successful Historic Register Nomination for the Reservoir, and the site was officially listed on Dec 7, 2017. We also advocated for its designation as a Class I freshwater wetland on Oct 24, 2018. We have also organized community listening meetings and are engaging with city agencies to increase access to the site. Malina’s keen interest in water partly derives from his past school career as a competitive swimmer and triathlete.
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