Brownfields 2011 Highlights!
Between April 3-5, representatives from GWUSA and 8 Groundwork trusts — Anacostia (DC), Bridgeport (CT), Buffalo (NY), HudsonValley (NY), Lawrence (MA), Providence (RI), Somerville (MA), and Wyoming County (WV) — attended the Brownfields 2011 conference at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Highlights for the GWUSA network included:
* Groundwork Somerville’s interactive, standing-room-only session titled “Community Corridor Planning: Engaging the Community in Participatory Land-Use Planning” eloquently delivered by staff and youth Green Team members
* a ceremony to honor Groundwork Lawrence, recipient of the 2010 Brownfield Renewal Award for Social Impact on behalf of Manchester Street Park, a 7-year, $1.3 million brownfield-to-park transformation project the trust led from 2002 to 2009
* participation by several trusts in the Brownfields 2011 Equitable Development Institute, as well as the Economic Redevelopment Forum.
In addition to these highlights, Groundwork USA hosted a booth in the Exhibit Hall, at which staff and board members from the national office and representing trusts took questions and shared information with conference-goers from dozens of distressed American communities about the Groundwork model, as well as the process by which communities apply to become a Groundwork trust.
For more information on Groundwork’s brownfield transformation projects, please click here. For more information on how to become a Groundwork trust, please click here.