PCR Accomplishments

PCR is honored by the Clinton Administration at the White House.

May 2001: Collaborated with Northwestern University to produce a video documentary on the lawsuit residents filed against the Chicago Housing Authority regarding the PCBs and PAHs contamination in Altgeld Gardens.  The film was entitled The Poison Promise of Altgeld Gardens.”

March 2001: Organized a Community forum with public officials to discuss tenant rights issues, police brutality, urban progress concerns and accountability of public officials to its constituents.

June 1999: PCR worked extensively to monitor the cleanup process of a storage shed in Altgeld Gardens that was contaminated with PCBs oil.

July 1998: Trained twenty workers in Altgeld Gardens on environmental lead dust reduction in the renovation of apartments.

September 1998: Hosted a meeting with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region V to prove that the soil contamination of PAHs are excessively high which can cause skin cancer and skin rash to individuals who come in contact with the soil.  PCR teamed up with Northwestern University’s Civil Engineering Department and the Chicago Legal Clinic to present the analysis to the US EPA.

August 1997: Organized 1800 residents to attend a community meeting on the sodium trioxide spill in the community caused by the PMC Specialty Group.  The residents expressed serious concerns about the health implications that were caused by the spill.

November 1997: Implemented the tenant-to-tenant lead education entitled “Resident Education About Lead Project.”  The goal of this project was to educate the residents about potential environmental lead exposures in their homes and how to prevent their children from being lead poisoned.

June 1997: PCR was honored as one of the country’s top 100 environmental organizations by former President Bill Clinton.

May 1994: PCR sponsored a Midwest Great Lakes Environmental Justice Summit

July 1994: Completed 200 community health surveys documenting diseases and illnesses that maybe environmentally related.

May 1994: Completed 722 surveys in Altgeld on lead poisoning potential risks in homes.

September 1993: Hazel Johnson, Chief Executive of PCR, was the 1993 recipient of the Tampax Women of Action Environmental Award.

December 1992: The recipient of the President’s Environmental and Conservation Challenge Award presented by the former President George Bush, Sr., PCR was the only African American grassroots community based organization in the country to receive the nation’s highest environmental award.

August 1992: Hazel Johnson was one of 13 African Americans who attended the United Nation Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 

-Helped form Citizens United to Reclaim the Environment (CURE) which represented eight communities on the southeast side of Chicago.

-Organized its first demonstration against Waste Management, Inc.  The residents of Chicago’s southeast side and suburban Calumet City, along with representatives of Green Peace participated in this demonstration.  During the five and a half hours of protesting, demonstrators were able to prevent 57 dump trucks from entering Waste Management’s CID landfill.  17 protestors were arrested, including Hazel Johnson.

-Stopped the creation of a landfill at the O’Brien Locks and Dams by the city of Chicago and Waste Management, Inc.

People for Community Recovery has emerged as a voice for African Americans and other people of color.  PCR has taken on the task of educating communities of color about the consequences of environmental degradation and prevalence of injustice.  PCR is a non-sectarian, non-ideological organization dedicated to finding solutions to environmental and economic inequities.