🎉 Respair is proud to announce Help This Garden Grow, a new podcast docuseries about the life and legacies of Hazel Johnson!
Hazel was a visionary of the Environmental Justice movement and a resident of the Altgeld Gardens community on the far South Side of Chicago who is considered by many to be the Mother of the Environmental Justice movement. She founded People for Community Recovery, a 40 year-old organization that fights to address the toxic industrial pollution that has been killing the members of her community. We have had the great privilege of learning her story with the help of her daughter Cheryl and an amazing ecosystem of contemporary EJ leaders, and we’re so excited to share it with you.
Subscribe to listen by searching Help This Garden Grow wherever you get your podcasts or via the link in our bio!
🗣️ BREAKING NEWS: Today People for Community Recovery has been granted ownership of Building C in Altgeld Gardens on the far South Side of Chicago. 🌿 This is a historic accomplishment as PCR has battled since 2021 to preserve and save the building from demolition, leading to its designation as a historic landmark worthy of a new life.
Now under PCR’s ownership, the C Building will be revitalized to a life which restores the Green Vision of Altgeld Gardens and transformed into a green community hub: Hazel M. Johnson Institute for Sustainability and Environmental Justice. 🌿⚡️
Named after PCR’s founder and resident of Altgeld Gardens, known internationally as the mother of the environmental justice movement, PCR plans to restore the building into a sustainable community center that will serve as a community resilience hub, remediation and renewable energy job training center, and host youth educational and afterschool programming, community events and more. 🌸⚡️
Building C is listed by Landmarks Illinois as one of the 2021 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois and worthy of saving.
Thank you to the CPS’ Board of Education who voted to approve the transfer ownership of Building C to People for Community Recovery. 👏
🗣️ Environmental justice groups across the city are demanding action and we need your support! The Hazel M. Johnson Cumulative Impacts Ordinance is here, let’s pass it.
🚨 Come to Chicago’s City Hall April 16 for a rally to support the Hazel M. Johnson Ordinance. 💚
📢 Take action today! Call your alderperson and tell them to pass the Hazel M. Johnson Cumulative Impacts Ordinance NOW. Our communities deserve clean air, safe water, and a just future! 🔗 in bio to find your alderman.
✍️ Learn about the Cumulative Impacts Assessment and the data collected by the City of Chicago with the help of local organizations used to build this ordinance by clicking the 🔗 in bio.
🌿 Let’s honor the mother of environmental justice and protect our Black and Brown communities, when it is more important now than ever.
#honorthymother #HazelMJohnson #motherofej #cumulativeimpacts #dontbetoxic
🗣️ We applaud @ilattygeneral for fighting back against @peoplesgaschi . With more than 140,000 Chicago households 30 or more days behind on their gas bill as of March, the utility wants to push through a $202 million rate hike—just two years after receiving approval for a record $306 million rate hike. To fight back, we need leaders who will hold utilities accountable and put consumers first. 👏
Read the article, 🔗 in bio under “News”
⚡️ This Wednesday join us at the second webinar in PCR’s Solar Webinar Series! ☀️ Have questions about the process of going solar in Chicago? Come to People for Community Recovery’s webinar and hear from PCR’s experts about Illinois Solar for All. Learn how you can sign up for solar energy too!
🔗 in bio to sign up
📣 Can’t make it this Wednesday? Check out our additional webinar dates!
🗣️ In response to the Chicago Suntimes article published on May 6, “New Zoning chair Villegas begins chipping away at backlog of stalled projects” please read the statement from Cheryl Johnson, Executive Director of People for Community Recovery and daughter of Hazel M. Johnson, the Mother of Environmental Justice
Join us tomorrow at City Hall at the first Zoning Committee Meeting to be held in months. The Hazel M Johnson Cumulative Impacts Ordinance is currently in this committee. It’s important that the committee hears from YOU to understand the deep importance of supporting the CIO as a step towards protecting our communities and health! #endsacrificezones
⚡️ This Wednesday join us at the first webinar in PCR’s Solar Webinar Series! ☀️ Have questions about the process of going solar in Chicago? Come to People for Community Recovery’s webinar and hear from PCR’s experts about Illinois Solar for All. Learn how you can sign up for solar energy too!
🔗 in bio to sign up
📣 Can’t make it this Wednesday? Check out our additional webinar dates!
⚡️ Tune in to PCR’s Solar Webinar Series! ☀️ Have questions about the process of going solar in Chicago? Come to People for Community Recovery’s webinar and hear from PCR’s experts about Illinois Solar for All. Learn how you can sign up for solar energy too!
🔗 in bio to sign up
Yesterday we celebrated our Green Schools win and work in Chicago with Mayor Brandon Johnson! Students at Carver Military Academy are helping bring solar energy to campus ☀️
‼️ We’re gearing up for May Day this May 1st!
📝 Sign up to join us at smvmt.us/may1
Today PCR and friends cleaned up the Hazel Johnson EJ Way in honor of Earth Day 2026 and PCR’s founder Hazel Johnson. 🌱🌍
Known as the “mother of the environmental justice movement,” Hazel Johnson worked to improve the living conditions in public housing, devoting her time, energy and services to her Chicago neighbors from the 1970s up until her death in 2011. In 2015, the Illinois General Assembly named 130th Street from the Bishop Ford Freeway (I-94) to State Street “Hazel Johnson EJ Way” to recognize her dedication. 💚
🌿 Join PCR this Earth Day, Tuesday, April 21st!
⏰ 9 am - 12 pm
📍13156 S. Rhodes Ave, Chicago, IL.
We are seeking volunteers to support community clean up efforts. Come out, connect with neighbors, and help make our community shine.
Supplies will be provided. Please wear comfortable clothes and close toed shoes.
For any questions, contact the PCR Office at: 📞 773-840-4618
