Green City Force Graduates Its 20th Class

On February 7 at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Green City Force marked 10 years of existence by graduating its largest cohort ever. Fifty NYCHA residents were celebrated for their efforts in maintaining NYCHA’s six farms and their work to make New York greener and more sustainable.

Green City Force (GCF) is an AmeriCorps program that provides NYCHA residents ages 18 to 24 with full-time service projects, training and education on sustainability and green technologies, a stipend, free transportation, and assistance with job and college placement. Nearly 550 NYCHA residents in total have graduated from GCF, many of whom are using their knowledge and skills to help the environment and improve public health.

One graduate, Taylor Mosely, 22, from Sedgwick Houses in the Bronx, addressed attendees of the recent graduation celebration, explaining how GCF helped her “connect to a bigger network, deepen my learning on how to activate the community – alongside young leaders of color – and of course offer my skills to the cause.” She also said that being a Corps Member motivated her to learn new skills related to caring for the environment. “I learned a new language, learned about residents and the surrounding community. It was an awareness of neighborhoods, people, and land that has changed me forever.”

Cohort 20 accomplished a lot during their six- and eight-month terms of service with GCF. The Corps Members were a full-time presence at NYCHA’s six farms, and they conducted resident outreach daily and held two farm stands and fresh food tastings a week. From June 2019 to February 2020, they performed over 51,000 hours of service, distributed 37,592 pounds of organic produce to NYCHA residents, collected 5,700 pounds of compostable waste from NYCHA residents, made 6,785 visits to Farms at NYCHA. Their efforts served to double the number of resident-focused workshops, food produced, and resident volunteers in one season.

Joining GCF and the graduates’ families and friends were GCF partners, funders, and elected officials, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Chief Service Officer for the City of New York Anushka Venkataraman.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams told the graduates how he turned his type 2 diabetes around by eating the kinds of food grown on NYCHA’s farms and how he was proud of their commitment to their communities and the environment.

“You’re going to be the force of nature to turn around our communities,” the Borough President said. “There’s something exciting in this room that can actually make an impact on a place the entire country has written off. When people hear ‘NYCHA,’ they hear impossibility – and what you are saying is that you are possible, and it is possible.”

Are you a NYCHA resident 18-24 years old? Green City Force is currently recruiting. Register for an upcoming info session.

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