Green Playces Curriculum Posted on April 22, 2016 by Grounded Strategies The Green Playces team has been working with our fantastic partners at Allegheny Partners for Out of School Time (APOST) to design a series of lesson plans that can be used at any of our Green Playces sites throughout Allegheny County. Covering topics from Native Plants to Repurposed Spaces to Stormwater, these lesson plans are custom-designed by a local teacher for our sites. Each lesson is designed to take place over an hour, and is ideal for middle-school aged kids.…Read More
Celebrating Homewood and the Pittsburgh Marathon Posted on April 19, 2016 by wpengine Last Thursday marked the kick off to the series of events in Homewood that celebrate the community and the Pittsburgh Marathon! Over 100 community members attended the Fuel Up community dinner. They enjoyed delicious food, fun games, and live music, making the event a great success! Residents and volunteers enjoying the Fuel Up Photo Booth! The room was filled with residents for the Fuel Up Dinner! We are now looking forward to the Redd Up community clean up event taking…Read More
Green Schools and Beyond Posted on April 15, 2016 by wpengine GTECH was able to attend the Green Schools Conference and Expo at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center from March 31 through April 1. Some would ask, why is GTECH at a Green Schools Conference and how does it apply to their work to date? While we don't work in a school setting, our Green Playces Initiative hopes to work with educators and students to help explore our natural settings and think about local environmental issues. Eco-literacy and environmental justice are issues…Read More
Urban trails around the country inform Northside trail planning Posted on April 13, 2016 by Grounded Strategies Here at GTECH, we spend a lot of time thinking about how people relate to the places they live. That's why we're so excited to be working with One Northside to plan for a trail system that would connect all 18 neighborhoods in Pittsburgh's Northside. This project stemmed out of our work last year mapping and cataloguing over 1800 assets in the Northside and responds directly to One Northside's goal of improving the quality of spaces and places in the Northside.…Read More
Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy You Posted on April 7, 2016 by Grounded Strategies "America is built on the notion that we are our brothers' and our sisters' keepers, and that we all have certain obligations to one another. Never is that idea truer than when ensuring the health of the world our children will live in long after we are gone. This week, let us treat every child as if they are our own by accepting our responsibilities to leave them with a healthier, cleaner planet than we have, and let us continue…Read More
Community Benefit in Vacant Lot Maintenance Posted on April 4, 2016 by wpengine RSVP here! GTECH is partnering with UrbanKind Institute (Dr. Jamil Bey), Fourth Economy Consulting, Pitt’s University Center on Social Urban Research (UCSUR), A. Phillip Randolph Institute, City Source Associaties, KRJ Contracting, Landforce, the Hilltop Men’s Group, and YouthPlaces to help redesign the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) vacant land maintenance process. While the URA only owns less than 10% of the publicly owned vacant land in Pittsburgh, we want your input to help ensure more awareness, transparency, and ultimately community benefit. To begin…Read More
Gearing Up For Spring: An Interview with Ambassador Linda Piso Posted on April 1, 2016 by wpengine Next month, 7 projects in Hilltop neighborhoods will begin to see new life through ReClaim South: Sustaining Momentum. Enhancements planned over the next few months at Ambassadors' sites range from new gardening beds to community celebrations. Before things get too crazy, we had a chance to sit down with Ambassador Linda Piso and talk about her plans for the 30/32 Grape Street Garden. GTECH: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what motivates you to make a…Read More
Junior Green Corps’ Spring Training with GTECH Posted on March 29, 2016 by wpengine Operation Better Block's Junior Green Corps and GTECH are working together this Spring! This spring, we are kicking off a 4 part training program for the Junior Green Corps of Homewood. The goal of these training sessions is to help the Junior Green Corps students understand the process of vacant land reclamation so they can share and practice such skills outside of the program. The bi-monthly educational sessions will extend from March through April and culminate in a final project on a vacant…Read More
5 Reasons to partner with ioby Posted on March 23, 2016 by wpengine Remember the acronym “NIMBY”? That’s how sociologists and cartoonists often characterize the visceral reaction that a proposed new development (airport, power plant, strip mall, etc.) will elicit among the residents of the surrounding community: “Not in my back yard!” ioby, which stands for "in our back yard", is all about empowering local projects that bring positive change to our communities (our collective “backyard”). Here are 5 reasons to why it made so much sense for GTECH and The Sprout Fund to partner…Read More
Lots to Love (About Neighborhoods) Posted on March 18, 2016 by wpengine Pittsburgh is a city of neighborhoods. There are 90 of them, after all. Each one has its own charms, and problems, and groups of people working to solve them. But, like individuals, these neighborhoods often focus on their own challenges, and sometimes forget that other neighborhoods are working on very similar problems. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At GTECH we champion these neighborhood heroes. We call them Ambassadors. They are Ambassadors to their community, and they work hard to…Read More
Building Blocks for Green Infrastructure Posted on March 16, 2016 by wpengine On March 7, 2016, over 60 people attended our Livability Solutions Green Infrastructure Workshop, co-hosted with One Northside. Attendees spanned a variety of sectors, including representatives of non-profits and public agencies, academics, citizens and more. Workshop topics included some of the Center for Neighborhood Technology's green infrastructure tools, including: Green Valuation Guide: a tool to help quantify the co-benefits of green infrastructure, including improved air quality, reduced cost of water treatment, reduced energy use and more. Green Portfolio Standard: a planning tool to…Read More
GTECH’s Policy Framework Posted on March 11, 2016 by wpengine GTECH is at a pivotal point in our young history, this April, GTECH will celebrate our 9th Birthday. We can no longer claim we are a young, scrappy startup organization and need to think about how and what contributions GTECH will make 5, 10, or 20 years from now to the Pittsburgh Region. Later this month, GTECH will officially roll out our Policy Framework document which will be used to to clarify our strategic relationship to key regional policy issues.…Read More