CommunityCare Wilkinsburg

CommunityCare is an incentive-based stewardship program that works with residents to beautify their neighborhoods. We provide the tools, resources, and support for stewards to participate in greenspace maintenance work.

Join Wilkinsburg’s CommunityCare Program!

Do you want to…

• Beautify Your Neighborhood

  • Maintain and steward greenspace (vacant lots, community spaces, streetscapes, etc.) on your block in Wilkinsburg.

• Earn Incentives

  • Earn credits towards utility payments, bus passes, or groceries for each hour that you work.

• Build Community

  • Civically is recruiting CommunityCare stewards to build a strong and resilient community.

Grounded is partnering with Civically, a Wilkinsburg-based nonprofit that builds civic and social literacy, to bring CommunityCare to Wilkinsburg. CommunityCare is an incentive-based stewardship program that works with residents to beautify their neighborhoods. We provide resources, tools, and hands-on support. In the winter months, we will meet on a monthly basis to learn more about the history of urban vacant land and how to respond to environmental challenges.

Contact masoud@groundedpgh.org to learn more!

Why Wilkinsburg?

Wilkinsburg is a tight-knit community of creative, resilient, and passionate residents, who care deeply about their neighborhood. However, walking through Wilkinsburg, it is impossible to ignore the physical manifestations of the region’s staggering population loss firsthand: vacant and neglected lots, abandoned storefronts, and litter that tends to collect in overlooked spaces. As litter begets more litter, this is a cycle of systematized disinvestment negatively impacts the social, environmental, and economic health of the borough. These visual cues signal to visitors and residents alike a borough in distress, but this image of Wilkinsburg does not reflect the people who comprise it.

Building off of the efforts in the borough to address vacant property, such as Wilkinsburg quarterly community cleanups and the Borough’s Blight Committee, we will implement a model for resident-led neighborhood beautification efforts. The project, CommunityCare, will begin a new cycle of stewardship to counteract the cycle of hypervacancy.