At our 50th Anniversary, NWBCCC announced that we are going BRONX-WIDE — and merging with the Bronx Cooperative Development Intiative!

This is a watershed moment for our organization and Our Bronx.

As gentrification and climate change threaten to displace working families and communities of color who built the Bronx, we stand at a crossroads. With unprecedented government investment in sustainability and development, strong collaboration and shared vision between grassroots, faith, and labor groups, we see both urgency and opportunity.

This is an opportunity to develop strategies and solutions with national impact.

Home to 1.5 million people, the Bronx operates on a scale similar to entire cities or states. Bronx county is also key to the metropolitan area, the largest in the country by size and economic output, with vital assets like the Hunts Point Terminal Market that serve the larger region.

Our Members decided we must take a borough-wide approach to create a sustainable and equitable Bronx economy.

In 2023, we began a strategic planning process, engaging with members, partners, and allies in hundreds of interviews and group strategy sessions to define a vision for our organization. For over a decade, we have been working with individuals and institutions from the East and South Bronx who have sought support to organize around issues from health, to education, and the environment. Our collaborative work with the Bronx-wide Coalition has affirmed the power we can unlock through interdependence and unity across the borough. Creating high-road jobs, building permanently affordable housing, and ensuring community ownership and collective governance over our assets requires a multi-sector, community-led strategy for the whole Bronx.

Together, we are Birthing a bronx-wide force for Planning community Organizing, and Economic Development.

In the decade since NWBCCC co-founded the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative (BCDI), we have supported one another to envision and build economic democracy and racial justice. Our collaboration influenced NWBCCC to shift its mission to center economic democracy, yielding efforts like the Bronx-wide Plan, the Bronx Healthy Buildings Project, and the Bronx Community Land Trust. We will integrate our capacities in organizing, planning and development—grounded in the history, culture, analysis, and relationships that are unique to our Bronx context. We will deepen existing partnerships and invest in organizing and planning capacities where they are needed most. We are merging because we are stronger together and will create a powerful model of economic transformation better equipped to serve the entire borough and beyond

We are building power through community ownership of assets, collective governance of institutions, and transforming systems that impact our lives.

Collective ownership of land, homes, and workplaces allows us to shape our future and benefit from what we own and build. It ensures stability, as we control how assets are run, maintained and improved. Through shared decision-making, we can share in the rewards and support one another through challenges.
Institutions are the vehicles for owning assets and changing systems. Shared governance ensures our values drive decision-making and allows those most directly impacted to lead.
In order to get at the root causes of the inequities we face, we need to transform systems. By addressing structural issues, we can create practices and policies that operate at scale, subvert the status quo, and fundamentally change the conditions we face in our neighborhoods.

We made this big announcement at our 50th Anniversary: Building Our Bronx Future to a sold-out crowd!

We are deeply moved at the outpouring of support from our donors, members, alumni, staff and board who made this celebration a success. We know this has only been possible through the many leaders and partners that have poured their vision, resources, and heart into our shared work. We are reshaping our democracy and our economy to support our communities to thrive. And we are creating blueprints that will inspire others for generations to come.

As we look to the future, we remember the incredible legacy of Building Bronx Power that got us here.

Fifty years is an incredible milestone for a community organization to reach. We are proud of our rich history and know that we stand on the shoulders of those that came before us. Explore our digital exhibit of NWBCCC history below. Help us share that history, told by the people who have lived it! These are our stories and this is Our Bronx!

Help us power our movement!

This work is possible because of dedicated members, alumni, and supporters like you. No matter your relationship to NWBCCC, you have a crucial role in this journey. Your support is more valuable than ever, as it fuels our ability to expand, merge capacities, and deepen our impact across the Bronx. The momentum we build together will help us achieve economic democracy and racial justice in the Bronx