It Takes a Village to Save the Neighborhood

NYCHA Supports Resident- and Community-Led Sustainability Initiatives

The Ideas Marketplace is an online platform that connects resident- and community-led sustainability programs and projects to donations, to volunteers, and to each other. It was launched in the fall of 2017 by the Fund for Public Housing (Fund) in partnership with NYCHA’s Office of Sustainability Programs and ioby “in our back yards,” a non-profit crowd-resourcing web platform.

The platform is designed to share ideas and generate funding for projects that reduce waste, increase recycling and composting, green NYCHA communities, or educate residents about climate change and ways to minimize negative impacts on the planet.

The first initiative to be funded was “Ocean Bay Community Gardens,” two community gardens in the Ocean Bay NYCHA development in Far Rockaway, Queens, a neighborhood that experienced widespread damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Rockaway Youth Task Force and RDC Development raised more than $28,000 for this project on Ideas Marketplace, and the ribbon cutting for the gardens occurred in October 2017, on the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy in New York.

“Watershed Red Hook,” a large-scale public art project that has moved around the world, was displayed in front of the Red Hook Public Library for four days in late October 2017 to commemorate the anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. Its projection of colored fish generated a community-wide conversation and a roundtable discussion with Red Hook local community and political leaders on sustainable waterfront development and how to protect the neighborhood from future destructive events.

This year, the Fund and NYCHA’s Office of Sustainability will host a series of public forums to showcase examples of projects completed by residents and community-based organizations in NYCHA and surrounding communities. The goal is to connect residents who are interested in working on sustainability projects with community-based organizations. The first forum will be held on March 22, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

If you have project ideas you’d like to discuss before the forum, contact NYCHA Sustainability Program Associate Lisa Maller at 212-306-4127.

Have an awesome idea of your own? Start a project here: https://www.ioby.org/nycha.