NYCHA Resident’s Organization Wins Large Grant
The Inner City Green Team (ICGT), an organization founded by a NYCHA resident to help NYCHA residents recycle through outreach, education, and door-to-door recycling pickup, won a $240,000 grant from the Claneil Foundation.
ICGT is a nonprofit organization founded by Brigitte Vicenty and John Johnson that aims to protect the environment and help transform the lives of NYCHA residents through recycling outreach and education, job training, and paid opportunities that can lead to a lifetime of employment and civic engagement.
Ms. Vicenty is a longtime Mott Haven Houses resident with a passion for the environment who has been an advocate and leader in recycling at NYCHA for more than a decade. Mr. Johnson is an environmentalist who has worked at GrowNYC as a recycling coordinator for over a decade to improve recycling rates in NYC. They were both 2020 Echoing Green Fellows, a fellowship that connects leaders with the resources they need to make their ideas a reality.
The Claneil Foundation – which supports nonprofit organizations working in health and human services, education, food and nutrition, and the environment – chose ICGT from more than 120 nominated organizations. As a grantee, ICGT will receive $240,000 in general operating funds over four years, and have access to $10,000 for professional development.
“The Claneil Foundation was so impressed with Inner City Green Team’s commitment to implementing replicable and sustainable recycling and composting systems in public housing that create jobs and build community,” Mailee Walker, Executive Director of the Claneil Foundation, said. “Brigitte and John are tremendous leaders. They have an impressive track record of success worthy of recognition and investment.”
Ms. Vicenty is excited for the opportunity to build ICGT: “This grant will help give us a kickstart. Aside from the $20,000 we received for doing the project in Brownsville and some fundraising, we basically have no funds for the organization itself. This will help us with operations.”
In 2018, thanks to winning $20,000 through the NYCx Co-Lab Challenge: Zero Waste in Shared Space, ICGT successfully tested a “Right to Recycle Collection” six-month pilot at Brownsville Houses. The challenge called for the best ideas to reduce litter and incorrect garbage disposal, increase resident participation in recycling, and promote waste-free common spaces at Brownsville Houses. During the pilot, residents left their recyclables in color-coded bags outside their doors ahead of collection day. Corps Members from Green City Force (GCF), a training and education program for young NYCHA residents, collected and weighed recyclables from each participating apartment, providing residents with an easy way to recycle.
Mr. Johnson said, “We’re looking at the next-level approach to what we’ve established at Brownsville Houses, and this grant will help us move to the next step.”
Green City Force Corps Members collecting recyclables from residents at Brownsville Houses. 
Green City Force Corps Members collecting recyclables from residents.
The next step is bringing their recycling know-how to NYCHA’s Wagner Houses in Harlem. NYCHA contracted with GCF and ICGT for the next two years, starting this summer, to replicate and expand their recycling collection program to include a drop-off program for food scraps. In addition to knowing they are helping to take care of the environment, each time they recycle residents will receive incentives in the form of eco-points they can redeem for various goods and services.
“We’re collaborating with GCF on their Eco Hubs, so there will be these well-rounded systems throughout each campus, where there’s recycling, food scraps collection, compost, textile and electronics collection, all wrapped up in a bow with education and outreach,” Ms. Vicenty said. “We are grateful to GCF for their partnership. This will ensure that residents are engaged in the ministry of the Inner City Green Team.”
Ultimately, Ms. Vicenty and Mr. Johnson hope the grant helps them expand their organization to provide hundreds of sustainable green-collar jobs for NYCHA residents; they also hope that the City adopts their program to replicate throughout the five boroughs.
Mr. Johnson said: “We want NYCHA residents to know their actions matter. We can empower the community and show them what kind of impact they can have. As a collective, the actions NYCHA residents take can have an effect on not only the city, but also the planet, and that’s enormous.”
To learn more about the Inner City Green Team, visit Recycling | Inner City Green Team, Inc.