Take a look at what your past support for GCF has helped us to achieve in 2021:
We’ve been busy! Looking Back on 2021, we graduated our 21st Cohort, launched our 22nd Cohort, fed NYCHA residents, hired over 20 graduates in our social enterprise with support from the NYC Clean Up Corps and Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice/PAL investments, as well as ramped up our NYCHA partnership with new areas of career expansion addressing climate solutions hiring our graduates in solar, urban forestry, and composting.
Also, like many other communities, we lossed loved ones due to the pandemic and other means, as we also brought new Corps Members, staff, and board leadership into the GCF community. We received invitations to share our work and movement on the national and global stage via testimony to congress about the Civilian Climate Corps, panel discussions at The UN Climate Summit UK 2021 as well as the WRLDCITY global forum for urban innovation with Sander Dolder of NYCEDC.
Here are links to some of our 2021 accomplishments to give you a sense of how we’ve been spending our time and how our members and graduates have been shining:
We’ve also been busy building community through our annual Youth Summit, our annual GCF Eco-Hub Bike Tour, as well as our annual gathering for Environmental Advocates New York ‘s (EANY) Gala with alumni, members, partners, board members, and family.
(Above: Third Annual GCF Eco-Hubs Powered by GCF Bike Tour – Howard Houses November 2021)
(Above: Environmental Advocates of New York Gala – November 2021)
Looking ahead to 2022, we are excited to graduate our current corps and start a new Cohort in Winter 2022. We are also thrilled about building a new Eco-Hub site in Queens in 2022, increasing the number of members we serve, continuing to source strong employer relationships for our graduates, and to increase our partnerships across the city via the Green Economy Network as well as our work to expand the Civilian Climate Corps model across the country. We can’t achieve all of these goals without your support. Any individual contribution you can make towards our end of year target of $30,000 in individual gifts would go a long way to setting us up for success in the year ahead as we welcome the incoming administration, potential Build Back Better national investment in our work, and establishment of a multi-year growth plan for expansion of Eco-Hubs Powered by GCF across all of NYCHA. Thank you for your belief in our mission to train young leaders to power a green and inclusive city through service. You are critical to our success in building the #futuregreencity!
In service and solidarity,
Tonya Gayle