Citizens Committe for New York City

At the meeting with the Citizens Committee for New York City the functions of the committee, a citizen’s role in a community, and process of community organizing was discussed. The Citizens Committee for New York City is a non-profit organization that funds and organizes projects in particular neighborhoods in New York City that improves  conditions. In addition, they also help established groups within communities plan and support their mission.

As a group we developed a list of things we love and hate about our own personal neighborhoods. This led to an exercise where our class split up into groups of four and created our ideal community. We found that all groups established a central area and put importance on having a park/public greens, local businesses, and public transportation. 

We ended our meeting by discussing community organizing. The speaker stated that quote said by the Chestier Cat in Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which way you go.” He repeated this quote to the class to highlight that community organizing has to have intention. One has to know what he or she wants to accomplish in order to bring people together. Together, the people involved have to identify an issue to improve that they all agree upon. After establishing the issue a group wants to address, the group has to develop their mission or the end result of the overall work. Along with this, goals need to be identified to describe specific results that a group is aiming for. There are external goals which are the public’s goals and internal goals are the organizational and base building objectives. Actions towards achieving these goals should be strategized and finding people that have influence over the issue you are addressing for support. 

Funding for CCFNYC comes from various donations. If the funder put money in for a specific issue, then the committee puts that money towards projects that entail that specific issue. The demands of the funder have to be met. 

Community boards based on district exist throughout NYC. They have control over how the land is used. The speaker used NYU as an example. NYU wanted to construct buildings on existing community gardens but the community board had the power to stop the expansion from happening. Another example mentioned was the neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn. It is one of the lowest income communities in Brooklyn. In order to improve this issue, a group established a project that built local/community gardens to grow food to sell at a lower price than grocery stores. To expand that farming areas, the group is working with community boards and representatives to gain permission from HUD to build on their lot.

Lastly, the speaker gave us tips when engaging with communities. He said that one should not enter a community and ask themselves “What does this community lack?” Doing this will put a negative look on the area. Instead one should find the assets and resources within the community.