What does race have to do with climate change? Which neighborhoods in Lawrence and Haverhill are most at risk from extreme heat and flooding? What can residents and local government do to make sure their neighborhoods are safe and resilient to climate change?

As part of Groundwork USA’s Climate Safe Neighborhoods (CSN) partnership with Groundwork Trust organizations across the country, Groundwork Lawrence is working with area residents and stakeholders to understand the relationship between Haverhill and Lawrence’s history of race-based housing segregation and the current and predicted impacts of climate change.

Groundwork Lawrence has spent the last twenty years working with Lawrence residents to create more climate resilient neighborhoods through a person-centered approach, committed to the ideal that change should come from resident identified needs and priorities. Building upon our shared success achieved by organizing with residents and partnering with the City of Lawrence, nonprofits, businesses, and other stakeholders on projects like the Spicket River Greenway, Costello Urban Farm, and community gardens, Groundwork Lawrence has expanded regionally, as our rivers, neighborhoods and trails do not end at municipal borders.

 

As part of this expansion, Groundwork Lawrence has been partnering with the City of Haverhill and Massachusetts’ Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Greening the Gateway Cities program to plant trees in Haverhill’s most climate-vulnerable neighborhoods through its Green Streets program.
 

 

The Green Streets program works to increase the urban tree canopy in Lawrence by providing free trees to city residents and businesses. In 2008, we received funding from the Commonwealth’s Environmental Justice Program to pilot an urban forestry program, planting 18 trees that year. Since then, Green Streets has grown to a year-round project where, with funding from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental and Energy Affairs (EEA) under their Greening the Gateway Cities (GGC), we have the ambitious goal of planting 400 trees per season. GGC works to plant trees in environmental justice neighborhoods in Massachusetts’ 26 gateway communities with the goal of mitigating climate change impacts at the neighborhood level and combating urban heat island effects, decreasing flooding through stormwater management, and improving air quality.

 

Job opportunities!

 

Pa'Lante Resident Task Force (Contractor Position)

GWL is seeking someone that would like to make a difference in their community by joining Pa'Lante, a Resilient Corridors Resident Task Force. You will work collaboratively with Pa'Lante members and project staff to support community engagement, Resilient Corridor planning, and the implementation of an air quality monitoring program. The project will implement three community meetings, several in-place neighborhood-based engagement projects, and a pilot Resilient Corridor project that is created from the resident engagement activities. Pa'Lante member description here