Grounded in Pitcairn

The Borough of Pitcairn applied to Grounded’s Resilience Generation program with interest in using vacant lots as a way to connect children from their community to safe play spaces. We were excited to forge a new relationship with Pitcairn, an evolving community with a thriving history and engaged residents, but with a large amount of vacant land due to loss of industry. This made them a great candidate to partner with Grounded Strategies, where we see vacant land as an underutilized resource that can serve a greater good.

As is the way we start most new community relationships, we wanted to spend time investigating, being present to answer questions like: How do residents of Pitcairn view their community? What makes Pitcairn a special place to live? What do residents of Pitcairn want to see change? What is the state of the built and natural environment? How could vacant lot projects celebrate Pitcairn and address community need?

One way Grounded likes to investigate is to collect data about greenspace, vacant land, and community culture.  With Pitcairn resident data collectors working with Grounded staff to survey the state of every vacant parcel in the borough, Grounded will create a land use plan, resource guide, and series of clean-up days and events drawing from the data we collect.

Grounded Strategies is working with the Borough of Pitcairn in 2018 on this investigatory project, as well as hosting a Summer Community Day as part of our Land Lab workshop series. We are hopeful that the data we collect and relationships we form from this project will inform the implementation of many more projects in the future.

Are you a resident of Pitcairn? Interested in getting involved?  Take our survey!