Groundwork Lawrence

Creating the Capstone on the Spicket River Greenway

For the last 15 years, Groundwork Lawrence (GWL) has worked with the City of Lawrence, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and community partners to establish a park at the Ferrous Site in the heart of Lawrence’s Mill District. Located at the confluence of the Spicket and Merrimack Rivers on the Spicket River Greenway, this $2.75 million project and the park will be used for passive recreation, educational/interpretive programs, and events. Increasing the quality of the riverfront habitat and using landform as art are priorities for this project, which will also be a model for urban ecological restoration.

As with other GWL park projects in Lawrence, the Ferrous site uses parkdevelopment to spur economic development by resolving brownfield constraints. The Ferrous site was substantially completed in the summer of 2015, and will formally open in the spring of 2016.

Increasing Access to Healthy Food

Groundwork Lawrence operates several, inter-connected community food programs that combine fresh food access with education in an effort to reduce the city’s disproportionately high rates of obesity and diet-related disease and develop a local culture of health. in addition to GWL’s citywide network of community, backyard, and schoolyard gardens and urban farms that are cultivated and maintained by local resident gardeners and youth, GWL plans and manages Lawrence’s farmers markets and offers a Share-A-Share program to expand access to community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares and farmers market produce. GWL also offers healthy living programs that include cooking classes focused on integrating healthy foods into culturally appropriate meals.

Developing a Green Workforce

Groundwork Lawrence, in partnership with the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board, has turned Lawrence’s environmental challenges into opportunities for career and skill building. The Environmental Technical Training Program provides critical skills, awareness, and certifications necessary for participants to gain employment in Brownfields Remediation and Hazardous Materials Handling, Storm Water Management, and Recycling and Solid Waste Management fields.