The Renaissance Project: Building ‘Black jobs’ and Black businesses for NYCHA residents

New York City’s post-pandemic economy saw a boom of Black-owned businesses that organizations like Progress Playbook wanted to channel as a means for community development and public safety within New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) communities. Two years later, the Renaissance Project is succeeding.

For all the progress the city’s economy has made in the wake of the pandemic, residents living in NYCHA housing were still trailing behind when it came to employment. 

Black and Latino residents, particularly men, living in NYCHA developments were more likely to be missing from the city’s workforce altogether in 2023, reported the Community Service Society of New York (CSS). “Too many young Black and Latino men are currently caught between a lopsided post-pandemic recovery and a regime of over policing,” said CSS Senior Policy Analyst Iziah Thompson in a statement. 

Beyond just giving people jobs, said Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) Director Ranti Ogunleye, the city envisioned a way to motivate NYCHA residents to take the reins and build businesses that reflect the needs of their communities. 

ONS partnered with Progress Playbook in 2022 to create the Renaissance Project.

“There is income that people need to make and sustain themselves,” Progress Playbook founder and CEO Lloyd J. Cambridge said, “but we need to be in a position to thrive. And to thrive from an economic standpoint, it goes back to ownership. It’s not just these cute small ideas, it’s about how do we scale these ideas into bigger organizations and ensure they have the capacity to grow responsibly, sustainably, and also profitably so they can then hire in their communities.” 

A native Brooklynite, Cambridge said he was inspired to start a small business training and economic development consultancy about eight years ago. The organization currently has three community-based incubators: Empire Project, Blueprint Project, and the Renaissance Project.

Originally called NYC Safe, the Renaissance Project works with individuals to identify solutions for issues in the community ranging from education to LGBTQ safety, said Cambridge. Ten entrepreneurs living in NYCHA developments across the city are chosen for the program. Over the course of 12 weeks, they are given business training, mentorship, $4,000 in stipend payments to support their business, and an opportunity to win up to $10,000 in additional funding at Progress Playbook’s Pitch Competition. 

This past weekend, the program showcased their second cohort’s business ideas at a festive inaugural summit in Brooklyn held June 29. The event featured a variety of entrepreneurs, speakers, music, food, demonstrations, and networking sessions.

Stanley Johnson, a tenant association president for Metro North Plaza Houses in East Harlem, wants to install sensory equipment in all of NYCHA’s playgrounds for families with autistic children. His fledgling company is called Metro Sensory Project. 

Johnson currently works at Bellevue Hospital as a community health advisor and never saw himself as an entrepreneur. “This was not on my vision board. This was not something that I thought I would be doing, but it’s so fulfilling,” he said.

Lashante Briscoe who started the nonprofit, Be The Light, was excited about her entrepreneurial journey. Her nonprofit focuses on aiding single mothers transitioning from the shelter system. Briscoe is a special education teacher studying for her doctorate and a single mother who lived in the shelter system herself. She offers her clients networking opportunities, resources, mindfulness and wellness classes, and financial literacy courses. 

“A lot of my counterparts who were given vouchers and apartments lost those apartments within two years because the city will pay your rent, but if you’re not solidifying your financial path and managing your finances when it comes time for you to be independent– you can’t,” Briscoe said at the summit. “I said, ‘what if I can create something where I can provide this for other women?’”

This year the city’s employment rates among Black residents slightly improved compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) April 2024 economic snapshot. But there remains a significant disparity between the unemployment rates of Black (7.9%), Latino (6.7%), and white New Yorkers (3.3%). 

In an attempt to close the jobs gap, Mayor Eric Adams announced $1.2 billion in city contracts for security guard services and fire safety personnel with a concentration on community hiring this June. The city’s goal is for 40% of the labor hours to be performed by individuals who live in NYCHA housing or reside in a ZIP code where at least 15% of the population lives below the federal poverty threshold.

It’s important to note the city’s public workforce is comprised of mostly women and people of color, yet continues to shoehorn women of color into civil service job titles with lesser pay— earning them $0.84 for every $1 paid to white city employees, per city pay parity reports. Higher paying jobs are dominated by white and male employees.