At a Glance
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4
Municipalities
- Location
- Chicago, Blue Island, and Midlothian, Illinois; Gary, Indiana
- Offices
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- Location
- Chicago, Blue Island, and Midlothian, Illinois; Gary, Indiana
- Offices
Share
One of the biggest challenges for maintaining green infrastructure across municipalities is budget. Often, an experienced contractor is required to help maintain these areas annually, pricing these projects out of some communities’ budgets. We wanted to change that.
Partnering with Opportunity Advancement Innovation, a nonprofit workforce development organization in Illinois, we developed a cost share program for four communities in Illinois and Indiana. This program would pool their resources and fund a contractor to perform needed maintenance services across the participating municipalities at a fraction of the cost each would pay independently.
Along with providing planning services, we are collaborating with the Calumet Stormwater Collaborative to provide green infrastructure training for job seekers and current municipal workers in these underserved communities. To date, we have provided training on maintenance visit activities, safety, green infrastructure across different sectors, and plant identification. We have also sponsored hands-on training days and have developed specific training videos for virtual use.
" }At a Glance
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4
Municipalities
- Location
- Chicago, Blue Island, and Midlothian, Illinois; Gary, Indiana
- Offices
-
- Location
- Chicago, Blue Island, and Midlothian, Illinois; Gary, Indiana
- Offices