Gavin Gets Repotted

GTECH people are good dirt (and I mean that as the highest of compliments). As Plato put it: “People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.” If people are like dirt, then GTECH people are rich, organic soil. Without artificial ingredients, and no matter the precise composition, they manage to offer just the right balance of nutrients, moisture and support throughout…

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Investing in People

Engaging community members in our programs is essential to Grounded Strategies.  Doing so gives residents of communities across Allegheny County an active hand in addressing vacant land challenges and improving their neighborhood. Grounded provides training, equips residents, and gives them tools to transform community greenspace into thriving spaces for everyone to enjoy. This improves the residents' sense of pride in their communities and in the work that they have accomplished. It would be simple for nonprofit organizations to recruit volunteers from…

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Introducing Land Lab!

Spinning off from the successful city-wide Blight Bootcamp Conferences of the last two years in partnership with the Blight Working Group, GTECH is launching a series of Land Labs that will target the specific vacant land issues of a particular neighborhood. The first of the series will be hosted in Larimer! The first Land Lab is taking place on Saturday, November 4, in Larimer at St. James AME Church. The neighborhood is seeing significant development but is still dealing with high numbers of…

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Say Hello to the CommunityCare Stewards!

Meet the residents stewarding community greenspace through GTECH's new pilot program, CommunityCare. Our CommunityCare Pilot Program started in September and is now in full swing! GTECH is working closely with 11 CommunityCare Stewards that are maintaining and improving vacant land in the Homewood community. Our stewards are proud Homewood residents and passionate community members! They will dedicate 3 to 10 hours per month from now until May 2018 maintaining green and open spaces. In return, the stewards receive incentives of their…

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Welcome Miranda!

Hello! My name is Miranda Micire. I am thrilled to start my internship here with GTECH through the University of Pittsburgh’s Master’s of Social Work program. I am starting my first year in the Community Organizing and Social Action (COSA) program and will also be pursuing a joint degree in Public Administration through GSPIA. I am a Pittsburgh native that moved to Dayton, Ohio to attend the University of Dayton for my undergraduate degree. During my time in Dayton, I…

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Goodbye Summer Interns!

This summer we were lucky enough to have 2 summer interns. When most people think of internships, they think about runnings errands and other small tasks around the office. While we did have the interns work through some office tasks, the majority of their work had them onsite transforming vacant lots, creating art boards, and helping start new programs. We feel it is instrumental to have youth onboard, especially working with our Green Playces Initiative. Our internal research and experience…

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So Long For Now

Over the past five years, I have walked through the door here at GTECH approximately 1,300 times. This Friday will be the last time I do so. I am leaving the organization to become the Manager of Corporate Relations at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, an opportunity with a long-standing partner of GTECH that I couldn't pass up. While I am so excited about this next chapter, I will miss everything and everyone here at GTECH. There wasn't a day that…

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Meet Tom, GTECH Intern

We are excited to welcome Tom to our team this summer as a GTECH Intern. Tom will be a junior at Winchester Thurston in the fall. He loves hands-on projects and will be assisting during work days this summer. Learn more about Tom below: My name is Sifan Tao, and people usually call me Tom. I am really excited to start my summer internship at GTECH. When I was in elementary and middle school, I loved labor skills classes. In those class,…

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Get to Know Lilli

My name is Lilli Kashef Hamadani, and I am excited to begin my summer internship here at GTECH. I am most recently from Southern California but describe myself as being from nowhere due to constant moving. Throughout my life, I always had a strong pull towards the outdoors and all the creatures that came with it (this ranged from horses to dolphins to snails). This interest has driven me throughout my undergraduate degree at San Francisco State, where I majored…

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PGH Mobile Toolbox Summer Update

The PGH Mobile Toolbox is 2 months old! We are so pleased with how well the resource has been rolling. To date, the trailer has accompanied 14 workdays, servicing over 120 volunteers, in 11 different communities. To celebrate this accomplishment, I have gathered a few of my favorite images from some of the workdays to highlight the great work being done in Pittsburgh and it's surrounding communities. Brookline Community Garden                 Forest Hills…

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Back at it again with GTECH, by Bree

GTECH is excited to welcome back Bree Prioleau! Bree interned with GTECH last summer and just finished her freshman year of college at Slippery Rock Univesity. She'll be joining the Green Playces team again this summer as well as helping with some environmental education initiatives and social media. Bree is the talented artist behind our new Super "G" children's t-shirts. Learn more about Bree below: Last summer was my first summer with GTECH! At the time I worked with two…

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Yes, I’m a Bit Nostalgic

It’s hard to believe, but my time at GTECH is coming to an end. In some ways it’s been a really long 18+ months; in other ways it’s been very short. It seems like yesterday I was at Heinz College orientation in August 2015, hearing about GTECH’s origins as a systems synthesis capstone project. I remember being intrigued—something I could do in school might be relevant to real life? I’d have to investigate this. So, after starting my public policy…

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