Gavin Gets Repotted Posted on February 28, 2018 by wpengine 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…Read More
Grab a seat at the roundtable. Posted on February 23, 2018 by Ariam Ford What are the building blocks of community change? Peter Block argues that the answer is small-scale, informal, and personal resident engagement: the roundtable. The Grounded Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Liaisons have been putting this idea to the test while reading Block's work Community: The Structure of Belonging. Each month, we meet to discuss project activities as well as to take part in a group discussion about the best ways to increase resident involvement and buy-in, essential ingredients for community health and sustainability. Last month,…Read More
Black History. American History. History. Posted on February 13, 2018 by Grounded Strategies Grounder Rebecca Mizikar recently sat down with three former residents of Lincoln Way in Clairton to understand the vibrant black community that thrived there. Before the bulldozers demolished the last of the vacant houses along the dead-end street, before the city and developers started to talk about new visions for this blank slate of land at the edge of the town, before the Bigfoot and alien legends came to explain the decline and vacancy of an entire street, Lincoln Way…Read More
Investing in People Posted on January 9, 2018 by wpengine 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…Read More
Featured Partner: Pitt Engineers without Borders Posted on November 27, 2017 by wpengine For this month’s Featured Partner, we are highlighting a new and exciting partnership with the University of Pittsburgh’s Engineers Without Borders chapter. We could not be more excited to work with them as they contribute their engineering skills toward our fight to transform vacant and under-loved land throughout Allegheny County. For our first project together, we challenged them to design and build a water collection cistern as part of our Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GTECH GSI) project in Observatory Hill. Tucked…Read More
We’re Back! ReClaim Clairton 2.0 is Almost Here! Posted on November 17, 2017 by wpengine Gearing up for ReClaim Clairton 2.0 It is hard to believe that the first year of our ReClaim Clairton Ambassador program has come to a close. We are so excited and proud of the accomplishments that our Ambassadors have achieved over the past 12 months. ReClaim Clairton 2016 - 2017 The ReClaim Ambassador model builds the knowledge and capacity of residents to design, organize and lead vacant lot revitalization efforts. The 2016-2017 Clairton ReClaim Ambassador Program has engaged, equipped, and…Read More
Returning to Sustainable Return on Investment Posted on November 15, 2017 by Grounded Strategies This blog post was authored by GTECH's Research & Policy Intern, Lilli Kashef Hamadani. Email Lilli at l.kashef@gtechstrategies.org. Returning to Sustainable Return on Investment Measuring the Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts of the URA LandCare Program GTECH has been working on evaluating its programs through a Sustainable Return on Investment (SuROI) methodology. You might remember when our intern, Kate, wrote about SuROI lingo and shared the results of GTECH's first SuROI analysis, which measured the social and ecological value of…Read More
Take a Survey! – Stormwater in the East End Posted on November 1, 2017 by Ariam Ford Do you live in East Hills, East Liberty, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar, or Homewood? If so, you can take our survey to help shape stormwater infrastructure efforts in your neighborhood. Click the button below to take the survey, or read on to learn more about the project first. Please take the 10 minute survey by clicking the button below. If you'd rather take a survey on paper, please contact us. Read More
ReClaim Central Graduation Posted on October 30, 2017 by Tom Mulholland Last week the GTECH team gathered at the Hill House Blakey Program Center to celebrate the completion of the 2017 ReClaim Central Ambassador projects. The gathering served as a time to reflect on the accomplishments of the projects and to recognize the hard work of the 11 civically-minded Hill District residents who dedicated their time as ReClaim Central Ambassadors. Beginning last winter, the Ambassadors attended a series of six workshops and educational sessions. During these sessions, the Ambassadors completed designs for…Read More
Introducing Land Lab! Posted on October 27, 2017 by wpengine 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…Read More
Say Hello to the CommunityCare Stewards! Posted on October 20, 2017 by wpengine 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…Read More
Welcome Miranda! Posted on August 31, 2017 by wpengine 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…Read More