Emerald View Park Trail Entrance Before Melanie implemented her project, the entrance to Emerald View Park in Mount Washington was unsightly and uninteresting. The site has been beautified with perennial plantings, signage and benches – creating a more welcoming entrance to a great Hilltop park.Read More
Patti’s Point Patti’s Point, located at the intersection of Mountain Avenue and Parkwood Road, is one of three gateways pointing to the Hilltop. Perennials were planted to reduce erosion and beautify the intersection.Read More
Mt. Oliver Community Garden Gathering Space Mitra and Chitra are a father and son duo that moved to the Mt. Oliver Borough in 2012 by way of Nepal and Bhutan. Because of the high population of Bhutanese refugees living in the Mt. Oliver area, they created a community space that pays homage to their homeland. In partnership with Grow Pittsburgh and the Mt. Oliver Borough, Chitra and Mitra Gurung built out a community space within the new Mt. Oliver Community Garden. The space has a place for…Read More
ReClaim the Route: Junk Collage GTECH partnered with the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon and Operation Better Block to green-up a vacant lot around the route. On the day of the Marathon, GTECH, Operation Better Block’s Junior Green Corps and the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse will set up a space adjacent to Homewood’s water station at North Lang Avenue and Frankstown Road. With help, we collected “junk” to be incorporated into a work of art throughout the day. Like a paint-by-number project, the pieces…Read More
Pittsburgh LocalData Collaborative In 2013, GTECH began testing new technologies as a way to streamline and standardize place-based data collection. We soon found that we weren’t alone on the hunt for open, standardized, up-to-date data. This led us to connect with other community development and environmental organizations, as well as academic and governmental institutions to form the Pittsburgh LocalData Collaborative (PLDC). The PLDC is a collaborative effort dedicated to making real-time decisions that improve our communities based on accurate and timely data that…Read More
GTECH on the Go The concept of GO! began as a an innovative idea to deliver pop-up programing in an engaging and friendly way. The idea was formed in September of 2012 and has since been applied in many unique ways. Our goal is to serve as a literal and symbolic vehicle of innovation and change brought to neighborhoods. We use these tools and methodologies to reach new audiences, invite them to participate in community-centric activities and learn what they know and love best.Read More
Healthy Homes Incentive Program (HHIP) Health problems created by poor indoor air quality can be mitigated by a well performing, energy efficient home. Let us help make energy efficiency improvements easier and less expensive for you to take advantage of in Allegheny County. Benefits Navigating the energy efficiency market isn’t easy. Let us use our expertise to connect you to trustworthy contractors and financing options available near you. Free expert advice navigating the home energy efficiency marketplace For home energy efficiency investments of $5,000 or…Read More
ReClaim McKeesport Ambassadors ’15 ReClaim McKeesport was a year-long education program that assists community members in implementing change on vacant land. In McKeesport alone, there are over 2500 vacant lots. Program participants serve in the role of Ambassador to implement a green project on a vacant property of their choosing. Throughout 2014 - 2015, the cohort of community Ambassadors attended educational sessions and workshops, learning about the ways that vacant lots impact the community and thinking about ways to transform these vacant properties in…Read More
ReClaim Northside Ambassadors ’15 GTECH initiated the ReClaim Northside program after working with Northside residents to survey each and every one of the Northside’s 5405 vacant lots. This survey helped us to understand the state of blight in the Northside and to learn what work is already being done. You can check out the data by clicking this link. Ultimately, GTECH learned that Northside residents have a need for more outdoor community spaces and have thousands of vacant lots in need of some love.…Read More
ReEnergize Program The goal of ReEnergize Pittsburgh was to increase the demand for energy efficiency services in Allegheny County. Starting in 2011, the ReEnergize Pgh program consisted of both a Coalition of service and utility providers and government agencies addressing policy issues and programming directly in communities. 2014-2015 Energy Efficiency Outreach Ambassador Program The 2014-2015 ReEnergize Pgh Ambassador Program took place in four communities, Hazelwood, Homewood, Millvale and Uptown. With a team of three ambassadors in each community serving as outreach coordinators, educators, and…Read More
Junior Ambassador Curriculum We created a Junior Ambassador curriculum to give youth in Pittsburgh the opportunity to transform vacant lots in their neighborhoods into well-loved spaces. The curriculum contains three modules, each suitable for a year-long program. What’s the context? In 2014, GTECH published a report called Youth in Green detailing the geographic gaps in environmental programming for youth in Pittsburgh. One finding of this report was that places with more vacant lots have less environmental programs for kids, and less youth programs in…Read More
Youth in Green Heinz Endowments Children Youth and Family staff posed the question of how to expand environmental awareness and skills available to youth services throughout Pittsburgh to GTECH staff. Simultaneously GTECH had been exploring how to increase collaboration and implementation of environmental programming in line with community based organizations and youth services with particular focus on addressing blight and vacancy in distressed communities. What resulted was the following report entitled Youth in Green. The primary objectives of this analysis were to: 1.…Read More