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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.
Going Bronx-wide
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.
merging with bcdi
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.
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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.
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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.
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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! Sign up for an interview to share stories about your experiences as a part of NWBCCC. These are our stories and this is Our Bronx!
We are proud to have honored six incredible leaders that began their careers at NWBCCC — and went on to make powerful contributions to our borough, city, and country.
Wanda Salaman
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Wanda Salaman became a member of the NWBCCC’s Crotona Community Coalition in 1984 and was hired as a community organizer in 1995. She helped found the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, and has directed Mothers on the Move since 2002. Rooted in decades of organizing low-income tenants, marginalized youth and immigrant women, Wanda aims to build worker-owned cooperative businesses that keep wealth in the Bronx.
Fran Fuselli
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Fran Fuselli became a youth member when NWBCCC was founded in 1974, and was hired as a community organizer to help form the Crotona Community Coalition. In 1983, Fran became the Director of our newly-founded Weatherization Assistance Program. Over four decades, Fran has grown our program to one of the largest in the state, weatherizing over 15,000 units in the Bronx.
Milly Silva
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Milly Silva’s first job as an organizer was at NWBCCC working with tenants in Mosholu-Woodlawn and West Burnside. She went on to transform 1199SEIU into the leading union for nursing home workers in the state, winning groundbreaking contracts that include living wages, high-quality health insurance for workers and their families, and the strongest nursing home safe staffing law in the nation.
Nick Iuviene
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Nick Iuviene joined NWBCCC in 2003 as the Kingsbridge Armory Organizer and helped design the first community benefits agreement for the Armory. He co-founded the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative, a borough-wide development effort rooted in economic democracy. He supports movement-building organizations with analysis, strategy, and learning through technology and planning.
Yorman Nuñez
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Yorman Nuñez is a visionary strategist and a key leader in advancing multiracial economic democracy. As a youth leader and organizer at Sistas and Brothers United and NWBCCC, Yorman helped launch the Urban Youth Collaborative and led the fight to defeat a poverty-wage mall proposed for the Kingsbridge Armory. He co-founded the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative to build a Bronx economy based on economic democracy. Today, he supports movement organizations with analysis, strategy, and learning through technology.
christine Marinoni
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Christine Marinoni fought to hold the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation accountable for irresponsible lending practices and foreclosures as a housing and neighborhood organizer with NWBCCC in the 90s. She later co-founded the statewide Alliance for Quality Education and led successful union drives. In the de Blasio administration, she helped implement major education initiatives and continues to support progressive electoral campaigns.
Help us reach our one million dollar anniversary goal!
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
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