Church Green Team Development
Church Green Team Development will be a capacity building effort focused on three congregations in L.A. County who serve marginalized populations. Our paid “Community Ambassador” will work at the grassroots level, officially connected to congregations, and will build a model structure for church green teams that can be replicated nationally.
Our aim is to collaborate on growing a green team service-learning opportunity in churches and develop them into hubs of people- and planet-based missions, and to launch this from the position of a one-year funded residential fellowship at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino, CA which is property of the Sisters of Social Service.
Our work will provide the tools, programs, and support needed for hyper-local green teams at local marginalized churches. Green team activity would include but not be limited to religious property infrastructure. To encourage the growth of green teams, we hope to have gatherings and workshops for our church green teams in the area, hosted at the sisters’ retreat center.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
The problem that I am addressing is the issue of the Black Church’s seeming absence from the climate and environmental movement in the U.S. and abroad. Because the Black Church/Faith Community is still a factor as one the oldest gatekeepers of the Black community, it is important that the church/community leads as the Black community continues to take responsibility for both people and planet. The ravages of climate change are a threat to humanity and all other sentient beings upon this crusted earth.
Black and Brown communities are being hit first and worst by the ravages of climate change and we must become resilient by leaning in on sustainability in all aspects of our community. We must work together on things such as: air pollution, building efficiency, renewable energy, food sovereignty, all aspects of public health, getting back to nature and so much more.
Impact
Our Big vision is to have a national AmeriCorps relationship that will allow capacity building in inner city and rural congregations across the nation to set up Green Teams that will be self-actualizing and ongoing. We believe that a national network of Interdenominational churches who have green teams will help to boost the conversation and will give the black community strength even as a political voice on issues of climate change and environmental justice.
After hiring a clergy person in the Bay Area where our operations reside, we selected three congregations and got to work.
We were able to barter a deal that allowed Tesla Motor Company to purchase a new roof on the family life center of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland and give the church Solar. The entire project came in at One Million Dollars.
The next church Magee Ave is also getting a Solar Array through a company called Revolv Solar and we were able to hold a Community Climate Healing program at that church in Berkeley.
The third congregation is Glad Tidings Church of God in Christ in Hayward CA, and we are working on a two million Dollar Project with Solar, Batteries and EV Charging. The congregation will be able to receive over Two Hundred Thousand Dollars a year. This project is with Gemini Energy Solutions.
We are also working in the CA and Five other states to repeat these projects due to the Inflation Reduction Act with many partners.
