Hello Friend of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition:

On Saturday May 31st, the rain held off until St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church was packed with 800 community leaders from dozens of congregations, schools, neighborhood associations, community centers, unions, and tenant groups.  Teresa Andersen, the President of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition was joined as a co-chair by Jatnna Ramirez, a senior at Bronx International High School and a leader on school construction and education reform issues.  As a member of the Campaign for Community Values at the Center for Community Change, Teresa talked about why NWBCCC believes that we are all in this together, tenants and home owners, immigrants and citizens, youth and adults.  She describe how we share community values that compel us to act on issues of injustice.

Teresa and Jatnna welcomed more than twenty-five youth and adult leaders to the stage, including several powerful youth leaders from the NWBCCC's youth affiliate Sistas and Brothas United, and eight elected officials, including Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer, Congressman Jose E. Serrano, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, State Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, and City Council Members G. Oliver Koppell, Joel Rivera, and Helen Diane Foster.  Representatives from unions such as the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, United Federation of Teachers, SEIU 1199 and others were also present and active in the program.

Senator Schumer biked from Brooklyn to the Bronx for this meeting, arriving just as Heidi Hynes (Director of the Mary Mitchell Center and a NWBCCC Board Member) spoke about the rising tide of home foreclosures in the Bronx and her early May meeting (through NWBCCC's affiliation with the National Training and Information Center) with Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve.  As the Senator approached the stage, she pounded her fist on the podium and said, "In the 1970s the Bronx was burning, and we WILL NOT let the Bronx burn again!"  Heidi was referring to three foreclosed homes that recently burned down in the Crotona community where Mary Mitchell Center is located, and her fear that more will follow unless the companies that caused this mess and the government join together for bold action that keeps homeowners in their homes.

Senator Schumer followed with a powerful speech about the foreclosure crisis and what it is doing to communities across the country.  He reiterated that we all in this together, and then he led the crowd in the chant "the people united will never be defeated"......in both English and Spanish!

Community leaders challenged the elected officials present to stand up for community values and make commitments on a number of issues: transforming the old Fordham Library from a brownfield to a green youth and community center; supporting a Community Benefits Agreement, Labor Peace Agreement and Project Labor Agreement at the Kingsbridge Armory; preserving affordable housing through a repeal of vacancy decontrol in the State Senate; supporting the workers from SEIU 1199 who are on strike at the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation and Care Center; building enough schools so that we can raise the graduation rate and end overcrowding; saving Individual Pathways, a second-chance high school, from closing in June; improving school safety with the Student Safety Act; supporting just and humane comprehensive immigration reform and signing the FIRM Pledge; preserving city funds for immigrant services in the Immigrant Opportunities Initiative; and more.  Each speaker made it clear that they are not just about single issues -- they are about building power and recognizing their interdependence. 

Thank you for your support of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition.  For thirty-four years we have developed powerful community leaders and community organizers who build power and take action on critical social justice issues.  We are a school for community organizing and movement building, with leaders and staff that get training in the Northwest Bronx becoming leaders in community organizations, networks, and unions across the country.  Our work is located at the intersection of people and policy, with innovative organizing campaigns and victories that can be replicated across the city, state and country. 

Please check out the press here on our website for news pieces that describe the action in more detail.

James Mumm