BloomAgainBklyn's mission is to reduce social isolation and loneliness among vulnerable populations by creating connections and building community through repurposed flowers. We are a volunteer organization that takes a wasted asset and turns it into an impactful instrument of giving and hope. Founder Caroline Anderson’s vision is that flowers can be a powerful vehicle to foster and facilitate dialogue and interaction among generations—young, old and in-between— and to forge meaningful bonds while building community and giving back to those at-risk.

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We were incorporated in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. BloomAgainBklyn began with one donation of flowers from Trader Joe’s, twelve volunteers wanting to give back, and one local nursing home in Brooklyn. Eight years later, we have expanded our circle of “people helping people” working side-by-side with more than 80 community organizations and 2,500 volunteers, and we are still growing.

 

BloomAgainBklyn currently offers five different programs that reach a broad spectrum of people in NYC.

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Our weekly Flower Upcycling Programs, in which 25-35 volunteers take yesterday’s flowers and create more than 1,250 floral arrangements every month for distribution to vulnerable populations.

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We facilitate Floral Wellness Workshops for and with community partners throughout Brooklyn. These workshops offer community residents opportunities to learn how to make beautiful arrangements from donated flowers; learn about upcycling and sustainability; enjoy working with others and team building; and giving back to the community.   

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Our Agents of Change Programs, for NYC public and private schoolchildren, provides hands-on instruction on upcycling and arranging flowers as a social and emotional learning experience. Students are taught about sustainability, team building, and community engagement. Our volunteer instructors, who range in age from 21 to 88, tell the students about the older adults who will be receiving their arrangements. This is all part of our mission to promote intergenerational understanding.

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Our Corporate Social Responsibility Workshops for company employees who want to give back to the community are excellent teambuilding experiences that facilitate corporate interaction with at-risk populations.

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Our Wedding and Event Flower Breakdowns program offers an opportunity for brides, companies, and venues to donate flowers from weddings and corporate events, which are then upcycled by our volunteers and distributed to residents of healthcare and senior centers, and other community partners.

 

The gift of flowers is an emotional and healing experience connecting our volunteers with recipients letting them know that someone cares.  We’ve has been bringing joy and hope through the healing power of repurposed flowers to over 70,000 New Yorkers in need since 2014.  We have diverted more than 1.8 million flowers from the solid waste stream, creating 140,000+ floral arrangements for recipients. And we are giving people a chance to do the environmentally right thing.