Service Corps Journey

“Harvest the crops, we won’t stop, 21 at the top, show ‘em what we got!”

-From Cohort 21’s Chant

Green City Force leverages national service to train young New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents for careers in sustainability and the clean energy economy while serving to make public housing communities more sustainable. Over the past 11 years, GCF has continuously innovated and iterated towards expanding equity and inclusion in the green economy.

Cohort 21 began their journey as AmeriCorps members in service to the community amidst overlapping and inextricably linked national crises - the Coronavirus pandemic and renewed calls for racial justice and equity. With low-income communities of color hit hardest by the pandemic, their service was both more important than ever and more challenging than ever. Cohort 21 provided fresh produce and outdoor activities to the community, worked towards an equitable and sustainable economy, and engaged in productive work as a team amidst widespread unemployment and isolation, all with the added work of ensuring the health and safety of themselves and the community.

Service

Cohort 21’s service was framed not only by the pandemic but also the launch of the Eco-Hub model at our Farms at NYCHA sites. Together, this coalesced into a term focused on hyper-local service and community resilience.

The Eco-Hubs model is the coming together of GCF’s flagship initiatives Love Where You Live and Farms at NYCHA in a new vision to be launched and implemented from 2020-2022. Eco-Hubs are a reframing of the GCF farms to affirm the vocation of these spaces as closed-loop systems supporting sustainability and health in NYCHA developments. Over the three years of this plan, GCF staff and members will co-design elements of the hubs with resident and partner input, build out features at the farms to support, and implement deep education and engagement with residents through the Love Where You live methodology. Eco-Hubs align local green service for food, water, waste, and energy behavior change and neighborhood transformation strategically with local, city, state, national and global goals for climate and equity. Eco-Hubs powered by GCF affirms the “people power” often left out of visions of sustainability and systems change in cities.

This past year was both the most challenging and the most timely moment to launch the Eco-Hub model. Members demonstrated their grit and dedication to serving the community to overcome barriers to resident engagement and programming. Local partners and resident leaders activated to meet emergent food insecurity needs and worked in parallel and in partnership with members to distribute produce. The collective people power on-site at each Eco-Hub was the lynchpin to supporting community health and wellbeing.

tRAINING

Service Corps Members start their training on Day 1 of their term at orientation, a critical 7-day period that lays the foundation for the term. Cohort 21 had an orientation unlike any other in GCF history - outdoors under a tent. Throughout this unprecedented orientation format, members engaged with each other, began to step outside their comfort zones, and built relationships that would not have been possible virtually. They got quick lessons in adaptability, flexibility, problem-solving, and practices to reduce the spread of the virus.

Throughout their term, members receive a diverse array of trainings to prepare them for careers in the green economy and beyond. This year, many trainings were adapted to an online format. Members received OSHA 10 training early in their term to prepare them with safety protocols in the field. In December, members took a deeper dive into green building operations practices through Green Professional Building Skills (GPRO) Operations and Maintenance Training, with 79% of members achieving certification.

What would normally be taught in a classroom-style setting with the entire cohort at our weekly Green City Academy training days was also adapted to an online format. Over Zoom, members participated in weekly sessions on personal development, professional development, and eco-literacy led by GCF staff Aram Marcelle, Felicia Prince, and Florace Alleyne.

Members received ongoing field-based and hands-on training in person by our in-house trainers throughout the service term. Farming expert John Cannizzo led urban agriculture lessons, teaching members how to grow, care for, and maintain crops from seed to harvest. Compost expert and GCF alum Domingo Morales led members in understanding the science, value and best practices of composting while revamping our compost systems. Community Chef Sarah Kabalkin taught members how to lead cooking demonstrations and community engagement activities at Mariners Harbor Houses and Service Coordinators and Eco-Hub Fellows lended their expertise to reinforce these trainings on a daily basis.

Select members also took part in specialized trainings catered to specific interests and career tracks. Four members got the opportunity to receive a full-day training and certification in skid steer operation through our partners at Snug Harbor. Members who had their driver’s permit were able to receive additional training in preparation for getting their license, and a group of members were able to receive GCF’s Food Advocacy training delivered virtually by Chef Sarah, which featured cooking and nutrition basics, exploration of food justice and health issues facing their communities, hands-on cooking at home to master techniques and recipes, and the Department of Health’s Food Protection Certification.