• The Brooklyn Children's Museum closed for annual renovations between September 1-12. 

• The Brooklyn Community Foundation has relocated to Crown Heights. Their new address is 1000 Dean Street, Suite 307 Brooklyn, NY.

• JASA's Institute for Senior Action (IFSA) is now accepting applications for the Fall 2014 semester. IFSA offers an exciting opportunity to engage people from across metropolitan New York in skill enhancement and leadership development, and serves as a vehicle to introduce recent retirees to the world of senior advocacy.
  Join JASA's Institute for Senior Action for 10 weeks of hands on training in advocacy and social action. Learn from highly acclaimed government, non-profit, and community leaders.
  
  *Engage in Citywide Issues
  *Learn Community Organizing Skills
  *Take Action in Your Community
  *Understand the Legislative Process in NYC, NY State, and DC
  *Presentations by: AARP, Alzheimer's Association, Elected Officials, Independent Budget Office, League of Women Voters NYC, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicaid, NYC Department for the Aging, Volunteers of Legal Services, and more
  
  The 10 week IFSA course is held once per week on Tuesdays, September 9th - November 25th, from 10am-2:00pm at JASA, 247 West 37th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues). There is no class October 14th or November 4th. We encourage and welcome older adults from all backgrounds, boroughs and ethnicities to join us in learning about, and advocating for senior rights. Classes are taught in English. The total cost for the 10 weeks is $100. For more information or for additional copies of the flyer or application, please feel free to contact me at 212-273-5260 or [email protected].

• Police are warning residents about the "one-ring phone scam," which uses auto-dialers to target cell phone numbers across the country. The danger to consumers is not in receiving the call, but in calling back. Scammers let the phone ring once and then hang up, prompting a missed call notification on phones. When an intended victim returns the call, police say they hear a message like "You've reached the operator, please hold," while being slammed by a heft per-minute charge on top of an international rate. Police say the calls come from phone numbers with three-digit area codes that look like they are from within the U.S., but are actually associated with international phone numbers.
  
  The area codes used by scammers include 268, 284, 473, 664, 649, 767, 809, 829, 849 and 876.
  
  To protect themselves, police advise cell phone owners to ignore a call like this should they receive one. If you're tempted to call back for whatever reason, check the number on online directories or search engines first so you can confirm where the phone is registered or see if it's listed as a scam phone number.
  
  If you have been the victim of the scam, police say to try to resolve the charges with your cell phone carrier and, if that doesn't work, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications commission.
   

• Mayor de Blasio has directed Small Business Services and Operations to develop recommendations to achieve these goals by working with City agencies and soliciting feedback from the public. Share your ideas to make the City's regulatory environment better for small businesses by using this form. The deadline is Friday, September 26.

• The Museum of the City of New York is offering free history and art activities - with snacks - in September. Drop by Saturdays, September 6, 13, 20 and 27, any time between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm; no reservations are required. Programs are geared to families with children ages 6-12 years old. Visit the website, www.mcny.org or email [email protected] for more information.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers Discoveries: Workshops for Visitors with Developmental and Learning Disabilities and Those on the Autism Spectrum. Discoveries workshops take place one Sunday a month and last for 90 minutes. Each one focuses on a theme and includes a gallery tour followed by a related art activity in the studio. The program is free, but reservations are necessary. Receive a schedule and/or make a reservation at (212) 650- 2010 or [email protected].

• Hunter College offers a free Saturday ESL program for the parents of NYC public schoolchildren. The SPELL Program (Saturday Program for English Language Literacy) resumes in September and runs for 14 Saturdays through December 13. Placement testing is on August 30th and the first class is September 6. The program encompasses all levels from beginner to advanced. The program also runs every spring from early February to mid-May. Applications can also be downloaded from: http://hunteresl.pbworks.com New students simply need to follow the instructions on the applications. 

 Brooklyn Community Board No. 8