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The Beyond Ground Zero Network (BGZ) is a group of community-based organizations that came together shortly after September 11, 2001 to address the severe health and economic impact of the World Trade Center’s collapse on Lower Manhattan’s low-income communities, especially among immigrants in Chinatown and the Lower East Side. BGZ saw that despite the enormous attention given to the post-9/11 recovery effort, the impact on the poorest residents and workers of Chinatown and the Lower East Side remains largely ignored.
By conducting wide-scale surveys of low-income residents and workers in these neighborhoods from 2002 to the present, BGZ discovered that thousands of people are still coping with severe 9/11-related illnesses without access to health care or assistance of any kind. Using a grassroots community-based outreach and educational model to connect underserved communities, BGZ has developed and coordinated strategies to ensure critical and immediate assistance for all low-income individuals affected by 9-11.
BGZ’s member organizations are:
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
Commission on the Public’s Health System
National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center
