Bridgeport, CT– Groundwork Bridgeport, a member of the
national network of Groundwork Trusts, is greatly honored that
Groundwork has been chosen for the Department of Interior’s 2013 Partners in Conservation award,
which recognizes Groundwork USA’s outstanding contribution to
conservation nationwide through community engagement and cooperation
with local, state and federal partners.
“We are truly honored to have been selected by the National Park
Service for the work we have done over the last decade to transform the
lives of young people in their own communities and on public lands,”
said Rick Magder, Executive Director of Groundwork USA, who accepted the
award from the Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on behalf of the
19 Groundwork Trusts in the network earlier today in Washington. “We are
incredibly proud of our staff at Groundwork Trusts across the country,
the partners we have in the National Park Service and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, and the young people we reach and
mentor to become the conservation leaders of tomorrow.”
Groundwork believes that providing young people with compelling
points of entry into the conservation arena is key to ensuring their
lasting engagement with the environment, whether as a practitioner or an
engaged citizen. Groundwork Trusts engage young people in
age-appropriate, hands-on work to transform the built environment,
expose them to our public lands and national parks, raise awareness
about the critical environmental, economic, and social issues our
communities face, nurture civic engagement, and improve quality of life
in some of our country’s most challenged neighborhoods.
“Groundwork has helped me take my ideas on how to help my community and bring them to life”,
says 17-year old Nautika Drummond, a member of Groundwork Bridgeport’s
GroundCorps youth group, “I have gotten to see a big change in the place
that I grew up, and enjoyed many new opportunities. Some of the biggest
and most important parts of my life are thanks to Groundwork”. Her
GroundCorps colleague, 17-year old Mellissa Edwards agreed, “Groundwork
has opened my eyes to see the great in the world, it inspired me to do
what I love with no regrets. It gave me the most amazing opportunity to
work at Yellowstone National Park which has changed my life forever, and
because of Groundwork I will always try to help my community.”
In 2012 alone, the Groundwork Trusts in our network worked with
12,694 young people (98% of whom are of minority descent) to restore
environmental conditions in 19 low-income and under-served communities.
That same year, our Trusts trained and provided paid conservation jobs
to over 300 youth from these communities, and established and carried
out job training partnerships with National Park units including the
Appalachian Trail, Shenandoah National Park, Rocky Mountain National
Park, Minute Man National Park, and National Capital Parks, among
others.
Building on the success of those partnerships, a special ongoing
youth conservation partnership was established between the Groundwork
Trusts and Yellowstone National Park in 2012 (so successful that it was
expanded and carried out again in 2013), and Groundwork Bridgeport was
honored to have Bridgeport students chosen both years to participate in
this innovative youth programming in Yellowstone.
“Congratulations to Groundwork Bridgeport on receiving this honor from the Department of the Interior”, said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch,
“Groundwork Bridgeport has been an outstanding partner organization to
the City’s BGreen2020 sustainability initiative to create jobs, save
taxpayers money and fight climate change. I’m proud to work with Jack
Dillon and the young people of Groundwork Bridgeport on our mission to
make Bridgeport the cleanest, greenest city in the region.”
Groundwork Bridgeport is one of the three (3) original Groundwork Trusts, and will soon be celebrating its 15th
year of service to Bridgeport and its citizens – creating new gardens,
organizing community projects, and providing youth development
opportunities. Over the past two years alone, Groundwork projects have
included:
- Planting over 1,000 trees and seedlings along with
hundreds of shrubs and thousands of flowering bulbs across city parks
and neighborhoods
- Organizing National Public Lands Day events, engaging
hundreds of volunteers, to clean parks, plant gardens and repair
Hurricane Sandy damage
- Holding twice yearly (spring and fall) Park City Sweep
“clean-ups” which bring together 250-300 volunteers at each event to
maintain parks, perform school beautification projects, plant shrubs and
bulbs, and conduct targeted neighborhood clean-ups and more
- Creating, in partnership with the Mayor’s Conservation
Corps and the Workplace, a new youth “green job” internship program
which provides them with skills and training in horticulture and
landscaping, along with resume writing and job search skills, and which
completed over 1600 man hours of parks projects for the City
- Oversaw hundreds of student and volunteer “man hours” of
labor, along with tools and equipment, to aid in the construction of a
new bioretention system to mitigate stormwater flooding at historic
Seaside Village – a project featured in the Nov.’13 edition of LAM, the
magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architecture
- Provided up to 24 student summer internships, and
- Groundwork Bridgeport was recently honored by the CT
Urban Forestry Council with an award for its “Outstanding” urban
forestry program.
“A tremendous amount of our success”, said Jack Dillon, Executive
Director of Groundwork Bridgeport, “is due to the amazing partnerships
we have been able to form across the community, especially with the City
of Bridgeport and its Parks Department. Mayor Finch and his
administration have been invaluable allies and supporters of our
program. They believe, as Groundwork’s motto states, that by “Changing
Places” we can “Change Lives, and improve and “green” our community to
everyone’s benefit”.
Collectively, the Groundwork network leverages its federal investment
by 11:1, engages thousands of community volunteers of all ages,
conserves miles of water bodies, creates and improves acres of parks and
green spaces, transforms brownfields and vacant lots, and produces and
distributes tons of healthy foods in communities across the country
For more information call 203-335-6126 or contact: Jack Dillon, jdillon@groundworkbridgeport.org
Groundwork Trusts in the Groundwork USA network:
GW Anacostia DC (www.groundworkdc.org)
GW Bridgeport CT (www.groundworkbridgeport.org)
GW Buffalo NY (www.groundworkbuffalo.org)
GW Cincinnati OH (www.groundworkcincinnati.org)
GW Dallas TX (www.groundworkdallas.org)
GW Denver CO (www.groundworkdenver.org)
GW Doña Ana County NM (www.groundworkda.org)
GW Elizabeth NJ (www.groundworkelizabeth.com)
GW Hudson Valley NY (www.groundworkhv.org)
GW Lawrence MA (www.groundworklawrence.org)
GW Milwaukee WI (www.groundworkmke.org)
GW New Orleans LA (www.groundworkNOLA.org)
GW Portland OR (www.groundworkportland.org)
GW Providence RI (www.groundworkprovidence.org)
GW Richmond CA (www.groundworkrichmond.org)
GW Richmond VA (www.groundworkRVA.org)
GW San Diego CA (www.groundworksandiego.org)
GW Somerville MA (www.groundworksomerville.org)
GW Guyandotte SWV (www.groundworkwc.org)
GW Atlanta Steering Committee GA (new)
GW Indianapolis Steering Committee IN (new)
GW Jacksonville Steering Committee FL (new)